We hope you enjoy the short excerpts that appeared in the July 4, 1895, edition of the RANGELEY LAKES newspaper. 

Happy Independence Day!

(Contemporary commentary shared in italics).

TWIXT YOU AND ME

July came in as icily cool as a maiden from Boston. Miss July will probably make up for this cool weather later on. Phillips plans on setting off a firecracker today, Farmington will light several, and Lewiston will touch off a whole bunch of cannon crackers. 

(Hard to believe. No fireworks in Rangeley?)

Tis’ the Season

The rush of travel on the railroad trains nowadays is something immense. It looks like a great and glorious season for the summer hotel landlords, as well as for the owners of the summer cottages. (The two railroads that once served Rangeley are long gone, but the rest remains true to this very day).

He Can See for Miles

The latest story of the average English man’s limited notion of the size of our country comes from a visiting Briton who mounted the observatory on the grounds of his host and surveyed the landscape o’er. The White Mountains were pointed out to him in the dim distance, and then he asked, “And which way from here are the Rocky Mountains?”

Will Be a Hot One

A telegram from Phillips announces that the Free-for-all Pace, for the Fourth, has been filled and is to be a hot one.

(A “Free for All Pace” is a horse race featuring trotting horses pulling a sulky which is a lightweight bicycle-wheeled cart with a driver. In the age before automobiles, there was great demand for a good a pacer or trotter that could travel many miles quickly. The free for all races determined who had the fastest horse and attracted great public interest. They were, in many ways, like today’s stock car races. 

New Road to Dead River

Rangeley is already reaping her reward for the money put into the Dead River Road. On Monday two parties drove to town, one to get his horses shod, the other bought a load of furniture off our dealer, Mr. Herrick. The road is turnpiked the entire distance, but gravel has only been put on a part of it. Work is now suspended till after haying. 

Making Hay

The recent rain was worth many dollars. Alec Mathews says at least $5,000 to North Franklin. (That is $191,000 in today dollars).

The Quimby Pond Hearing Brings Out the Stories Respecting Former Times. 

Here is one from Charles F. Quimby: “Thirty years ago a party of four or five from Lewiston, one named Hicks, a restaurant keeper, stayed with my father. They went to the pond and fished nearly all day, returning with the fish strung on strings and the strings on a pole which was carried on the shoulders of two men and was as much as they could carry.” 

Lucky Man

Eben Rowe caused a bit of excitement among those who witnessed it on Wednesday. He was hauling logs from the lake across to Haley Pond. His team was loaded and when he reached to pick up the reins, the horses started this throwing him into the water under the logs. The largest log of the load rolled him over and over in the mud and water before it left him. He got up and went home, apparently uninjured, and was working as usual the next day.

To-Day

This is the day that surpasses all the rest on a score of noise, but it’s a good thing to let it out once in a while. An old-fashioned celebration does more to let the small boy know what a glorious country he is growing up in than in fifteen volumes of history. After the youth grows older, he may not care for the racket, in fact, he may say things which he shouldn’t when the midnight church bell wakes him up and keeps him awake till daylight. Still, for all this, he doesn’t consider the firecracker money he gives his son wasted, even if it does all go up in smoke. Therefore, let the rising generation have its fill of noise on the Fourth of July. There’s a good deal of patriotism instilled into the youth by the ‘gunpowder method.’ And, after all, the loss of six hours’ sleep out of the year is a small enough price to pay for a generation of patriotic youngsters. 

(We should never cease in taking immense pride in this great country. It is without equal in the history of the world. Celebrate our nation proudly as you venture forth to create a bit of great Rangeley history of your own).