Omaha daily bee., 1896-10-24
SIX Thirty l.. NJ. Train.
OF the
CHICAGO
MILWAUKEE,
& ST. PAUL RY.
Best service,
ELECTRIC LIGHTS.
Dining car.
City ofiice. 1904 Faranm.
QUEER MAINE COMMUNITY.

Thrivcs without Schools, Law, The
oIoRy, Medicine or Taxes.
Residents of Maine who look to tho New
York and Boston papers for accounts OF queer
people and strange forms OF government In
different parts OF the world, says the New
York Sun, could learn facts worth studying
by going to No:cross. The settlement OF
Eskimos, on the coast of Greenland have
their old men, the tribes Of Africa have
their chiefs and even penal colonies
recognize the authority of firearms and the
lash. At Norcross the law-abiding people
feel but one power-the hurrying, un.
sympathetic cars, which bring everything
that comes to their homes and take away
everything that goes out.
The distance from Milnocket bridge, which
crosses the west branch east of Norcross,
10 Perkins Siding, which is three miles west,
is five miles as the railroad runs or the crow
fles. At and between these two points are
five settlements of new log and board
structures, comprising about forty buildings
in all. or these one Is a railroad station.
one is a small store, two are small hotels,
one is a sawmill, six are good sized sporting
camps, eight are frame houses with shingles
and clapboards on them and the rest are
primitive log cabins with splits for roofing.
spotted poles for floors, and boughs for bed
ding. One-half of the male Inhabitants are
either guides or lumbermen, partly both.
one-quarter are mill hands. who saw spool
bars and dowels at Perkins Siding, and the
remainder are section hands and other EN-.
ployes, who work for the Bangor G. Aroos-
took railroad. Though no census was ever
taken OF the place there are about 200 people
who live there the year round. Among them
are some twenty-five women and nearly forty
children. This Is when the population is at
low ebb. In July, when the West Branch
drive comes down, the population swells to
400 or 500. and after open season for big
game begins 1t often reaches 900 souls be-
sides Indians.
Having grown without governmental re-
straint from one log camp to its present
proportions inside of three years, Norcross
has made itself the most anomalous COM
munity on earth. 1t Is not town. 1t is
not even a plantation. On the old survey
maps 1t Is named Indian township, No 3,
so called by the surveyors to distinguish 1t
from Indian township Nos. l and 2. The
namo of Norcross signifies nothing 1t was
SO called in order to locate a station for a
railroad and a postofflce for the hunters.
Though property that cost s500.0 is there
and visible the assessor and tax collector
never visit the place. The children are born
and grow up without seeing the inside of u
school house. There are not two rods of
bicycle and not twenty rods OF cart road in
the whole township. AS the nearest clergy
man, lawyer and doctor are from thirty to
fifty miles away the people get along very
well without them. When a couple want
to get married they take their bridal tour in
hunting up a minister and coming home
again. II person Is sick he is sent out to
a doctor, because no physician can be coaxed
to come and see him, and, in case he dies,
the body must be transported more than
thirty miles before 1t can rest In Christian
burying ground. There is no drug store. no
dance hall and no bar room or other place
where liquor Is sold in the township. II two
or more men have a dispute which leads to
free fight the non -combatants stand by
to see fair play, without attempting to inter-
fere. In case the defeated party feels him
self wronged and wants to take the matter
into court he cannot afford to do SO, because
he would have to travel nearly all day by
rail before he could find magistrate.
Even the game wardens who arrest men for
killing deer spend more money In taking
their prisoners to court than the fines
amount to when q conviction is secured.
Once in its history. when murder was com
mitted near there, sheriff from Dover
spent q week In reaching there and getting
back home. The chances are 1t would take
something bigger than murder to bring
him there again.
The person who reads this description of
Norcross and thinks the inhabitants are de-
graded or immoral will make a great mis-
take. A mail four times day brings let
ters and papers from everywhere. An en-
terprising and considerate railroad carries
away all the people have to sell, and brings
In all they buy. Divine Providence does
the rest The men are industrious and
moral. The women are model wives and
excellent cooks The echildren are bright
and well dressed. II Norcross were formed
into a plantation or Incorporated as a town,
the residents would have to pay municipal
county and state taxes. Now they pay no
taxes they do not vote. and every man is
as good as his neighbor. The place Is
fairer than Utopia. and sweeter than the
dream OF nihilist. 1t has no counterpart
on earth.
letter, eczema and all similar skin
troubles are cured by the use OF DeWitt's
Witch Hazel Salve. II soothes at once. and
restores the tissues to their natural con-