100 years ago, 1914
If you were sealed in the quiet of your sanctum pouring over the latest lurid accounts of Mexican hostilities and your stove suddenly blew up with a bang, wouldn’t it get you excited? “I thought the whole Mexican army had dropped in on me,” remarked George F. McGibbon, a Lewiston shoe dealer, when relating his experience. But the joke ends right there. Whether the loaded piece of fire wood that made its way into the stove was meant as the means of perpetrating a joke on Mr. McGibbon or somebody else is unknown. McGibbon, about to enter his store at 282 Main street on Tuesday morning, noticed two pieces of wood lying in the gutter. He thought they would look better in the stove than in the gutter and that his picking it up would serve a double purpose. It was found that whoever had prepared the charge had done a very good job. They had bored a hole in the stick and inserted the powder and rags.

50 years ago, 1964
Four Lewiston firemen experienced a close call with disaster when they suddenly found themselves trapped on a fourth-floor porch while battling a three-alarm blaze in a large tenement house near the Lincoln St. fire station, early this morning. Saved by the efforts of their compatriots were Lt. Richard Cadwell Jr., and Pvts. Daniel Lalonde, Ronald Levesque and Paul Lebrun. The four men were trapped on the porch without a ladder to climb down to escape the perilous flames, and it was several frightening minutes before a ladder could be extended to their high perch. The four managed to climb down to the third-floor porch before the life-saving ladder was set up in place.

25 years ago, 1989
The Finance Committee on Monday approved a bid to have a walkway between Park and Lisbon streets rebuilt. The walkway, which can be entered near Victor News on Park Street and near Lita’s Oriental Expression restaurant on Lisbon Street, will be resurfaced. The erosion of the surface is due partly to salting during the winter a few years ago, said Public Works Director Christopher Branch. He said calcium chloride, a less-corrosive type of salt, is now used for icy areas.