The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-10-30
QUEER MAINE COMMUNITY.
Prosperous Without schools, Law
Theology, Medicine or Taxes.

N0rcrosS, Me-, Letter IN the sun.
Residents of Maine who look to the
New York and Boston papers for ac-
counts of queer people and strange
forms of government in different parts
of the world could learn facts worth
studying by coming here. The settle
ments of Eskimos on the coast of
Greenland have their old men. the
tribes of Africa have their chiefs. and
even penal colonies recognize the au-
thority of firearms and the lash. Here
the law-abiding people feel but one
power-the hurrying, unsympathetic
cars, which brings everything that
comes TO their homes and takes away
everything that goes out.
The distance from Milnocket bridge,
which crosses the West Branch east of
here, to Perkins Siding, which is three
miles west, is five miles as the railroad
runs or the crow flies. AT and be-
tween these two points are five settle
ments of new log and board structures,
comprising about forty buildings in all.
Of these one is 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 bedding.
One-half of the male inhabitants are
either guides or lumbermen, partly
both, one-quarter are mill hands who
saw spool bars and dowles at Perkins
Siding, and the remainder are section
hands and other employees who work
for the Bangor and Aroostook railroad.
Though no census was ever taken OF
the place ther are about 200 people who
live here the year round. Among them
are some twenty-five women and near
ly 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 800. and
after open season for big game begins
it often reaches 1000 souls, besides In
dians.
Having grown without government
restraint from one log camp to its pres
ent proportions inside of three years.
Norcross has made itself the most ano-
malous community on earth. 1t Is not
a town. 1t is not even a plantation
On the old survey maps it is named
Indian township. No. 3, so-called by the
surveyors to distinguish it from Indian
township Nos. l and 2. The name of
Norcross signifies nothing. 1t was So
called in order to locate a station for n
railroad and a postofiice for the hunt
crS.
Though property that cost $500,0OO is
here and visible. the assessors and tax
collectors never visit the place. The
children are born and grow up with
out seeing the inside or outsise of a
school house. There are not two rods
of bicycle and nee twenty rods of cart
roads in the whole township. AS the
nearest clergyman, 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
hunting up a minister and coming
home again. If a person Is sick he is
sent out to doctor, because no phySl-
clan can be coaXed to come and see
him; and, in case he dies, the body
must be transported more than thirty
miles before it 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. If two or more men have
IL dispute which leads to n free fight
the non-combatants stand by and see
fair play, without attempting to inter-
fere. In case the defeated party feels
himself 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 u magistrate. Even the
tdliit W u'IlS WI lltSl IlitH lOi MIL
ing deer spend more money in taking
their prisoners to court than the fines
amount to when n conviction is Sc
cured. Once in its history when mur-
der was committed near here, II sheriff
from Dover spent Il week in searching
here and getting back home. The
chances are it would take something
bigger than a murder TO bring him here
again.
The person who reads this description
If NorcrOss and thinks the inhabitants
are degraded or immoral will make u
great mistake. A mail four times a.
day brings letters and papers from
everywhere. An enterprising and con-
siderate railroad carries away all the
people have to sell, and brings i'm all
they buy. Divine Providence does the
rest. The men are industrious and
moral. The women are model wives
and excellent cooks. The children are
bright and well dressed. If Norcross
were formed into a plantation or in
corporated as Il 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 a Nihilist 1t has no
counterpart on earth.