The Portland daily press., 1869-04-26
DAILY PRESS
PORTLAND
Monday Morning. Auril 26, 1869.
Letter from Lewiston.

LEWISTON, April %, 1909.
10 the Editor of the Press:
The yellow Androscoggin is making its an
nual demonstration, A few days since, the ice
| departed quietly, and the river is now full to
the tops of its banks. 1t seldom goes higher
than to-day.
THE BRIDGE
Many would be glad to see the old wooden
bridge at this point move oceanward, but it
still stands as it has stood so long With all
the service it performs, it is nevertheless
nuisance, which there begins to be some talk
Of abating, now that Auburn has a city gov
iston. Before long there win be fine new
bridge built upon the site OF the present one
In the end we shall probably have two more
bridges, one above the falls and another below
the mouth of the Little Androscoggin,
ROADS.
am glad to observe that the Press has a
word to say about road-building and the keep
ing OF roads in repair, o, the abominabe
roads! Our management of them is sadly in
need of accommodating more so. There are
not five miles of decent road in this State; and
NN~Ns a shcAo "AO ANO lu6u III tu6 . LdLe, nav
ing charge of roads, who have made any spe-
cial preparation for the discharge of their i'm
portant duties. To reduce the cost of locomo-
ton is to increase the wealth of all
Our expenditure upon roads is now quite
enough to give us twice as good ones as we
get; but we shall never obtain our money 8
worth until portion of our expenditure is
made in the way of permanent improvements
by . wellqualified county engineer, acting un-
der the general direction of the county com
missioners. Nothing less than a town should
have anything to do with roads, and only
PARTON of the work should, for very obvious
reasons, be done by the town officers.
Good drainage is the fundamental principle
of road-building. AfteS the roads are built,
the next thing is to keep them up" instead
of waiting for them to be seriously damaged
and then resorting to repairs.
NEW PRINTING ESTABLISHMENT.
Mr.. George A. Callahan is opening a new
printing office on Lisbon street, in this city.
New type, new presses, new everything
throughout
Sd COURT.
The Supreme Judicial Court is in session in
Auburn, Walton presiding. Very little bust
ness will be done this term. Yesterday the
case of Coombs the horse-thief, came up. A
term or two ago Coombs was convicted, but
was let out on bail, awaiting judgment which
was to be rendered next January, Mean
while he was to behave himself like an honest
man and good citizen, and thus perhaps avoid
going to Thomast0n. But he couldn't keep
10 a. l..
hands of the law for another and similar of
fence. Judge Walton, in commenting upon
the turn which affairs had taken, said be
thought it was wrong thus to suspend iudg-
mont, with the hope that the culprit would re-
form. His observation was decidedly against
such procedure, which should be resorted
to only in extraordinary cases. 1t was, in one
sense, an assumption of the pardoning power
on the part of the judge. While he did not
that the penalty should speedily follow con-
viction.
THE SHOE BUSINESS.
Last year the shoe business ultimately prov
ed better than the early promise. Buyers
were slow to purchase, and so were obliged to
replenish their stocks all through the year.
This season they began by purchasing largely,
but do not appear to have sold as well as they
anticipated. Hence the prospect is that the
manufacturers will have less to do the remain
der of the present season than they had last
This is the way our Auburn manufacturers
look at it. If this is the correct view, then
the business of the whole season will not prob
ably exceed, to any great extent, that of last
year.
SALES OF MANUFACTURED GOODS.
The returns at the Internal Revenue De-
partmsnt show that the sales of shoes in this
district, for January, February and March,
amounted to $S44,758 These returns are not
quite full, but show sales which, think, are
considerably in excess of any previous quarter.
of course the business was almost wholly
done in Auburn. The largest sales were
made by the following Auburn parties:--
Asa Cushman 8 Co., $54. .232; j. F. Cobb s
Co, $25,900; Keith, Berry & Co., SIS, 900; Mil.
Ter, Randall 8 Co., $22, ,99s; j. Munro & Co.
S55151; E. F. Packard & Co., S57, ,694; j. HI.
Roak & Co., $13,246. The sales of White &
Chandler, Lewiston, were $21,76
For the same three months. the sales of cot
ton goods amounted to 81, ,160,S94 Sales of
woolen goods $100, ,sSS; about one third not re-
turned. BARLOW,
Easter Sunday i'm Rome.