Army will place Dry Mills recruit in chains today!
Meanie McGee, Genuine Maine Bruin, Camp Edwarde Mascot
DRY MILLS, March 8-AP. “Meanie MeGee” is going to join the army tomorrow and the army is going to get one of the toughest little hombres that ever came out of the Maine woods. His father was a sheep killer and robber. “Meanie” himself has been guilty of some pretty lowdown stuff, such as maltreating his sister and making things generally uncomfortable for MeNeil Brown, superintendent State Inland Fisheries and farm here, since he was captured in a tree in the northern Maine wilderness last Spring.
“Meanie” is a 175-pound bruin being dispatched to the Camp Edwards, Mass., Army camp at the request of Corporal David A. Lambert who asked for a Maine bear to become the camp mascot.
“By all means let’s have him as we want the very meanest, touchest critter there is,” Lambert wrote when Maine game wardens, answering his original request for the animal, advised him they had “Meanie” to fill the role.
So, boys at Camp Edwards know what they’re in for, at least.
The mother of “Meanie” and his sister was slain for breaking into a fisherman’s cabin and killing a valuable dog. Their father now is “wanted” for sheep killing, robbery and other bad behavior.
“Meanie”, who is 10 months old, will be sent to Camp Edwards in a specially built cage. With the animal will go a set of instructions from Brown on how to handle him.
Brown says “Meanie” and his sister were lovable creatures on their arrival at the game camp here but that they developed some pretty mean dispositions in captivity. At one time, Brown considered doing away with “Meanie” because of his antics.
Camp Edwards plans a rousing welcome for the bruin. But wisely, soldiers have a new steel collar and some big, heavy chains waiting to greet their new recruit who might get it in his mind to do a little conscientious objecting to military duty.
The Lewiston Daily Sun, March 10, 1941, Page 6. via Newspapers.com
Clipping on file with the Gray Historical Society
