The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1896-11-19
QUEER PEOPLE IN MAINE.
Community That Has No Law, SchPols,
Doctors or Preachers.

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 goins to Norcross. The
settlements of Eskimos on the qast
IF Greenland have their old menj the
tribes of Africa have their chiefs, land
even penal colonies recognize thd au-
thority of firearms and the lash. Here
the law-abiding people feel but one
power-the hurrying, unsympathetic
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
IF there, to Perkins Siding, which is
.hree miles west, is five miles asNhe
railroad runs or the crow flies. Vat
md between these two points are i've
settlements of new log and board
structures, comprising about 40 build
ngs i'll all. OF these one is a railr1ad
station, one is a small store, two tre
good-sized sporting camps, eight are
frame houses with shingles and clap
boards on them, and the rest are prim-
tive log cabins with splits for roofing,
spotted poles for floors and boughs for
bedding. One-half of the male inhab-
tants are either guides or lumbermep,
partly both, One-quarter are mill handN;
who saw spool bars and bowels at PERI
kin's Siding, and the remainder are Sec
ton hands and other employees who
work for the Bangor & Aroostook rail-
road. Though no census was ever
taken of the place there are about
zoo people who live there the year
round. Among them are some 25 wom-
IN and nearly 40 children. This is
when the population is at low ebb. In
July when the West Branch drive
romes down the population swells to
400 or 500, and after open season for
big game begins it often reaches 1000
souls, besides Indians.
Having grown without governmental
restraint from one log camp to its
resent proportions inside of three
years. NorCross has made itself the
most anomalous community on earth.
1t is not town. 1t is not even planta-
ton. On the old survey maps it is
named Indian township, No. 3, so
called by the surveyors to distinguish
it from Indian townships Nos. 1 and
g. The name of Norcross signifies moth
ing. Il was so called in order to locate
a station for a railroad and post Office
for the hunters.
Though property that cost 100000 is
here and visible, the assessor and tax
collector never visit the place. The
children are born and grow up without
seeing the inside or the outside of a
schoolhOuse. There are not two rods
of bicycle and not 20 rods of cart roads
in the whole township. As the nearest
clergyman, lawyer and doctor are from
SO TIC 80 miles away the people get along
very we'll without them. When a
couple want to get married they take
their bridal tour in hunting up a min
lister and coming home again. If a
person is sick he is sent out to q doc
tor. because no physician can be coaXed
to come and see him; and, in case he
dies, the body must be transported
more than 80 miles before il can rest
in Christian burying ground. There
is no drug store, no dance hall, and no
barroom or other place where liquor
is sold in the township If two or more
men have a dispute which leads to a
free fight, the non-Combatants stand
oy to see fair play, without attempting
to interfere. In case the defeated par
ty feels himself wronged and wants to
take the matter into court, he cannot
afford to do so, because he would have
70 travel nearly all day by rail before
he could find Il magistrate. Even the
game wardcns who arrest men for kill
ing deer spend more money in taking
their prisoners to court than the fines
amount to when a conviction is Sc
cured. Once in it's history, when a
murder was committed near here, a
sheriff from Dover spent a week reach
ing here and getting back home. The
chances are it would take something
DISStT ludll Il IlluTCleT 10 take MIN tneTe
again.
The person who reads this descrip-
ton of Norcross and thinks the inhab-
itants are degraded or immoral will
| make a great mistake. A mail four
times day brings letters and papers
from everywhere. An enterprising 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 children are
bright and well dressed. If Norcross
were formed into a plantation or in
Corporated 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 coun-
terpart on earth.-N. Y. Sun.
x An Extraordinary Light.
{ What is believed to have been an