100 years ago: 1925

Under the headline “Woman and Sissy Men Oppose Death Penalty,” the newspaper reported that two clergymen were the only persons who favored a restoration of capital punishment for the crime of murder before a legislative hearing. They were Rev. Andrew T. McWhorter of the South Paris church and Rev. John Balch Branch of Portland, who is a Universalist but has no pastorate at this time. … Rev. Branch said that the only ones who opposed the death penalty were women and sissy men, and he also said that women’s sympathy perverted their better judgment. He thought it better to put a criminal to death than to incarcerate him in a living hell for 30 or 40 years.

50 years ago: 1975

A young man on leave from the Air Force was injured this morning as he tried to escape his burning home on Main Street [in Sabattus]. Sabattus Police rushed Ricky Barrieault, 18, to the Central Maine General Hospital, Lewiston, moments after a neighbor spotted him hanging out of a second-story window at the Linwood Barrieault residence at 28 Main St. Two units of the Sabattus Fire Department and one truck from Lewiston converged on the scene to fight the stubborn, smoky blaze which completely destroyed the second-floor living quarters.

25 years ago: 1975

Legislators pushing for price controls on prescription drugs got an earful Saturday during a forum at the Multipurpose Center. But it wasn’t personal woes stemming from high-priced medicine they heard. Instead, the few residents who spoke focused on feelings of futility in taking on the drug lobby and other powerbrokers in government. …. Eleanor Coupe of Lewiston said, “All you get back are these asinine letters that amount to zero.”

The quoted material used in Looking Back is produced exactly as it originally appeared although misspellings and errors may be corrected.