The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1871-11-06
The Double q uicsde at Lewiston.
From the Lewiston Journal. Nov, Al

. About 1870 o'clock P. NJ. to-day, Mr.. Cyrus
Cobb who lives on Court street, just at the
Auburn end of the bridge, looking from the
rear windows of his store and house. saw two
females, apparently young ladies' sitting on
the Auburn shore of the river, on the very
verge of West Pitch. Mr.. Cobb's daughter
also noticed the girls and thought it very
strange that they should be sitting SO near a
very dangerous place. fhe more noticeable
became the fact when she saw them jump up
and trip lightly and carelessly down the pre-
cipitous, rocky and slippery bank, where they
removed their outer garments. Miss Cobb
then said to her father that she believed they
meditated drowning themselves, and so pos
sessed with this idea was she that she resolved
to still watch them and see what they We're
proposing to do. After removing their outer
garments, including their hats, she saw the
girls return to the spot where they had b cen
sitting and resume their seats. t5ii
In few moments, not far from l o'clock,
the train from Bangor came laundering by,
the track being but two or three hundred feet
from where they sat. Miss Cobb says that
while the train was passing that point, she
saw the girls rise, each throw her arm around
the others waist, and in this embrace, they
with apparently one consent, leaped from the
shore into the falls, Miss Cobb turned to her
father: "Father-they have jumped together
into the falls" Mr.. Cobb, who a moment be-
| fore had seen them sitting on the shore, looked
atoonce out of the window, commanding q
full view of the scene. No girls were to be
| seen--nothing but the garments they had left
| on the shore.
The facts speedily became known and
crowds gathered in the vicinity of the scene
of the terrible tragedy, but nothing could be
discovered but the garments, bearing silent
ID of fIae cod of 4lo
edy. The clothing was distinctly visible to
crowds who gathered on the new bridge
Policeman Washburne of Auburn was the
first to reach the scene of the melancholy
event. He found the clothing on spur of the
LEDGE about opposite the main plunge Of west
pitch. 1t was not rolled up carefully but
seemed to have been laid down, each article as
| it had been removed from the person. The
| clothing which consisted of their hats, wa
/ terproof cloak, shawl and black over skirt,
with mass of false hair, was of rather indif-
ferent quality, yet apparently tidy. =. 1t was
taken in charge by officer Washburne, and
| left at Mayor Littlefelds Office for identified
ton. Pinned into the water proof was {
brooch of some black stone, with medallion
face in white in the center of the stone-tht
whole set in gold. Pinned to the ribbon O.
| the hat were two ten-cent bills.
An examination of the premises by Mr.
Cobb, who saw the movements of the girls,
| and by one or two gentlemen, who noticed
where they sat, but didnot happen to see them
when they took the false leap, established that
| the two suicides-as they seem to have leaped
'front.' point where they first sat down
threw themselves from the fiat rock which
forms level platform close to the waters
edge, near the foot of the first descent of West
Pitch, which, as everybody hereabouts knows,
consists of two falls. The first is a slight
plunge upon table rock; then light fall for
| q hundred feet, more or less /; then great cat
| aract, with, at present, fearful fall of water
rolling down into chasm, many feet from the
base of the first fall. Here, just beyond the
base of the first fall, they seem to have thrown
themselves into the river. 1t must have beer
a headlong leap with the current. Miss Cobt
saw them no more. They fell and were
| plunged into the torrent and out of the world
in a moment.
Since writing the above Miss Starbird Of
| Auburn and others, identify the clothing as
belonging to Ada Brown of Buckfeld, and
Anna Wood of Hartford, young girls 16 and
| IA years of age. Miss Starbird says that both
girls were at her home on Hampshire street.
| Auburn, Thursday evening and appeared in
excellent spirits. Arna Wood left No. Bates
| Block on Thursday, where she had been since
| Saturday. When she left she said she was
going to work in a gentleman's family in this
| city. The landlady paid her SO cents, her due,
| when she left. Ada Brown has worked in the
Androscoggin Mill and has been of late at No.
Bates corporation. While Miss Wood was
at No. 4, Ada Brown called frequently and
Miss Brown and herself went out together
several evenings. Miss Brown came here
three weeks since. Her father, John Brown,
is a farmer residing inaBuckfeld.
Her landlady says that Miss Wood appear
ed cheerful when she left her house, though
she had complained of sickness caused by
eating lobster. 1t is not yet certain where the
girls spent the night They were seen pass
ing up Court street, Auburn, at PM. A
young man recognized the pin as one he gave
one of the girls. Ira Foster says he saw both
on the street at 8 o'clock this morning.
Miss Browns older sister has been at work in
the city, and is frantic with grief at the sad
tragedy. She left this afternoon to carry
the sad news to her parents.
Miss Woods father is dead. Her mother is
now in Massachusetts. Both girls had an ap-
pointment to meet this older Miss Brown this
morning, but their failure to meet it caused
her to go out to look after them.
party of lumbermen have been out in a
boat this afternoon dragging the river for
the bodies at the foot of the falls, but at 5
T. M. they had discovered no traces of them
More than likely they may yet remain in the
undertow of West Pitch. We remember
several years since that the body of a boy
drowned in the same locality, was not dis
covered till several months after the event,
but possibly the eddies and currents may
throw out the bodies of the victims in this
sad event. .IIri ..