The Holbrook news., 1909-07-02
SIX TOES TO A FOOT.
Farming Community Remarkable for
 General Freak of Nature.


 General Freak of Nature.
 On the line between Lincoln and Sag adahoc counties is settlement of thrifty farming folks who have a pecu- liarity which is but little known out side, says a Bangor (Me.) correspond ent of the New York Herald. It is no1 visible and a stranger might go there year in and year out without ever dis covering that they were any different from ordinary persons in farming community. They are peculiar for the number of people in the settlement who bye six toes on each foot, one more than they really ought to have and one more on each foot than they are enti- tied to.
 The six-roe belt lies partly in the town of Dresden in Lincoln County and ty. Just how many people there are who have more than their share of toes in that vicinity would be hard to say, but there is quite number, and the way in which they came by them is a mystery in the first place, although there are a number of traditions as to how it happened.
 Like many country districts, the peo- pie have been born, brought up, set tied on farms in the vicinity and mar ried into each others families until time has produced a number of six-toed people in a comparatively small com munity.
 The settlement is an ordinary coun- try place, in which is a store or two, serves as a meeting place for all social occasions which are held in the homes of the people of the vicinity.
 Rather than being a benefit to them, the extra toe Is somewhat of an aff1ic ton in number of ways, especially in getting shoes to fit them, for no shoe maker has yet ventured to manufacture a special line of boots for six-toed per sons. So much of a bother has this been to some of the people that they have submitted to surgical treatment and had the offensive sixth member re moved, that they might wear shoes much the same as others.
 At a time, several years ago, when 1t was all the rage to wear the extreme pointed toed shoes these people were in a sorry plight. To crowd six toes into a shoe with a capacity for three, but in which vain man often crowded five, was too much for these people. They were fairly ostracized from being in the fashionable swim by the freak of na- ture which put them out of the run hing. Being possessed of sound sense they submitted to the inevitable and waited until their five-toed brethren had become crippled by the freak styles and then they were in the swim again with broad-toed shoes.
 How it happened that this colony of six-toed people settled in this place is hard to explain. Tradition has it that some man of several generations ago settled in that vicinity, and while at work in the woods split toe with an TX, and, instead of adhering, the two parts separated and in the course of time as the generations passed the sixth toe made its appearance in a more perfect form. This theory does not find many ready believers among the people here, who have given up accounting Or it.
 The sixth toe is an offshoot from the little toe of the ordinary foot. It is perfect in shape, although it is not al- ways in alignment with the other five oes of the foot. For this reason it is and becomes more 70 aa he people advance in years.