From Our Archives: September 1964

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Letters to the Editor
Sir:
On page 30 under “Cows and Kilowatts” (Down East, July 1964 ), the picture of a cowhand being kicked by a cow kicking backward is not right. Cows kick forward only, as I remember, but an ox will kick backward, as I have been kicked by one.
Dr. F.F. Bates
Allston, Massachusetts


A Breath of Maine: Robert Peter Tristram Coffin
Everything about him was big, even his name, Robert Peter Tristram Coffin. And he loved to boast that he came from Maine. “If a giant steamroller pressed my state of Maine out flat,” he said, “it would cover the New England states like a pancake.” Maine may have produced more illustrious sons and daughters, but none of them could have loved her more than this eminent poet and author.


It Happened Down East: Reader submitted anecdotes
When automobiles first appeared on Water Street in Augusta, George Wadleigh sold his driving horse and rig to his business partner Harry Lee, warning him, “The horse cribs a little, but it don’t amount to anything.” George then used the money to buy a seven-seater Packard car, and drove it into the city. When coming out of their store, George found a gaping hole in the top of his car, through which Harry’s horse was gnawing hungrily at the varnished oak struts. Harry said comfortingly, “Aw, George, you told me yourself he just cribs a little and it don’t amount to anything!”
Marjorie L. Sewell
Liberty, Maine


North by East
New Maine Wildlife
A truck carrying two elephants tipped over in Jefferson only for another truck in the same circus caravan to topple over between Rockland and Ellsworth the very next night. The elephants, two tigers, an ape, and two monkeys stayed inside and were unharmed. However, an ocelot — a four-foot leopard cat capable of traveling up to speeds of eighty miles an hour — loped off towards Camden Hills.

Underwater Strategy
Retired navy captain, and nominee for state representative George W. Kittredge, owns a midget submarine he built himself that he hauls behind his car. A former submarine commander, Kittredge built a nine-foot-long and three-foot-wide sub powered by two golf cart batteries and an old automobile starter to withstand depths of up to 250 feet in Penobscot Bay.

“Hernandos’ Hideaway”
Earl B. Harris, director of production for Paramount Picture Pay-Television, purchased 18,000 of the 22,080 total acres in Township 24 on Route 9 near Machias to create a hideaway resort for Hollywood stars. He plans to build a cocktail lounge, airstrip for private planes, general store for hunters and fishermen, a gas station, and shopping center. John Wayne is already a member.