100 Years Ago: 1924

To attract attention to the Bible and the work of the Bible Society of Maine, an attempt was made to secure a hand-written copy of the Scriptures, that should not only be the largest Bible in the world, but the one into the making of which a greater number of hands had entered. Paper 22 by 28 inches was ruled 55 lines to the page, so that copyists would have little trouble in making line for line transcription, there being just 55 lines to the page of the Bible dissected for copy.

No person was to be asked to copy more than one page, thus anticipating the cooperation of somewhat more than 1,300 people.

50 Years Ago: 1974

Auburn police early this morning surprised a would-be-thief who dropped his goods of liquor and lobsters and fled the Holiday Inn.

About 2:15 a.m., Donald Hebert, a night clerk at the Holiday Inn on Washington Street notified police that someone was in the building who shouldn’t be there. Patrolmen Ronald Morin and Thomas McFadden were dispatched. As Officer Morin walked into a dining area he spotted a male subject near a rear booth. The officer ordered the man to stay put but he fled out a back door and into a field and couldn’t be located.

While checking the premises, police discovered that a panel which separates the bar was ajar and doors to the liquor cabinets were open. A vent in a kitchen area which leads to the roof was also broken, authorities said.

While searching an area near the rear door, police found boxes containing 15 bottles of liquor, five six-packs of beer, and four lobsters, and goods worth $90 apparently left behind by the subject who fled the scene.

25 Years Ago: 1999

It just didn’t work.

Years of effort, thousands of dollars and lots of labor just weren’t enough for a nonprofit group to turn the former Stephens High School into a community center in Rumford.

Now the group is looking for someone or some organization to take the three-story brick building on York Street free of charge.

The material used in Looking Back is produced exactly as it originally appeared although misspellings and errors may be corrected.