Culled by Judy Garrison With commentary by Jim Andrews
From April 1921 issues of The Andes Recorder
100 Years Ago
WEEK IN AND ABOUT ANDES
Events of a week as chronicled by
the Man on the Street
James J. Welch of Margaretville, and A. M. Moreland of Pittsburgh, Pa., have been appointed Receivers of the Delaware & Northern Railroad. Forty per cent of the railroads in the United States are operating at a loss. The D. & N. is one of them and the above step was taken to protect the property against somebody who might bring suit and secure a judgment. _______________________________________
John Burroughs, the naturalist of world renown, died suddenly March 29, on a train near Kingsville, Ohio, as he was on his way from California, where he had spent the winter, to his home by the banks of the majestic Hudson river at West Park.
He was born at Roxbury in 1837, where he learned to love nature when he drove the cows to pasture at his birthplace farm. In 1878, after working as a U. S. treasury clerk and bank examiner had netted him some saving he brought a few acres of land on the Hudson and had since lived there the greater part of the time. [Ed.: when not staying at Woodchuck Lodge in Roxbury, down the road from his birthplace farm.]
….John Burroughs was the venerable dream of nature-writers in the United States. Through a score of books he shared with countless readers a life-long intimacy with birds, bees, flowers and the whole out-of-doors. His highly developed powers of observation and the charm of his interpretations were the marvel of his critics….He is survived by a son and three grand daughters. Burial will be at Roxbury on Sabbath.
His flowering white beard, his kindly mien, his whole habit of life, and his literary style were rather reminiscent of that famous New England school of essayists a generation of two before him. _______________________________________
Local druggists have been ordered by the United States department of health to destroy all shaving brushes of horse hair construction. This is to prevent further outbreaks of anthrax. Druggists are also warned that they shall not display infant nipples, teething beads, pacifiers, celluloid rattlers, rubber toys and like articles in the open, on the ground that they carry disease germs. [Jim Andrews: Sounds a bit like today.] _______________________________________
Mrs. John Connor has purchased of Fred Youmans the mortgage which he held against the Connor lot in this village on which the three houses were burned a little over a year ago. It is stated that the old rubbish will soon be cleaned up. [JA: Apparently, unlike today, the remains of those three buildings in the center of town were allowed to just sit there for over a year. What a safety hazard! John Connor had doused the buildings with kerosene and then set fire to them. He was arrested on the charges of arson and committed suicide in the Delaware County Jail shortly afterwards.] ________________________________________
Much of the ice cream on the market has no right to the name and is as big a fraud as Oleo. It is time that the fraud was well aired. It is an outrage on the good old cow—the only producer of cream—to sell cocoanut oil and cornstarch as “ice cream.”
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Electric current will be on every Tuesday and Friday from 7 a.m. to 12 m [Ed.: midnight?] for the purpose of cleaning or ironing. Using electricity for any purpose other than lights is strictly forbidden at other times. W.T. Hyzer [JA: This would be noon, which gave local housewives ample time to do their ironing since the electric irons put such a drain on the Delco batteries that they couldn’t provide lighting at the same time. Of course, in 1921, people didn’t leave their lights burning all day. The batteries could be charged during the downtime between noon and evening. This was common practice in other communities as well. My father grew up in South Kortright and said that his mother could only iron in the mornings on certain days of the week since that Delco plant also powered the local creamery.] _____________________________________________
The post office at Arena was visited by yeggs [Ed.: Yessgs or yegg-man, 1901, a word popular in the first decade of the 20th century and meaning vaguely “hobo burglar; safe-breaker; criminal beggar.” from www.etymonline.com. www.grammarphobia.com offers a much more detailed background of the word and its usage.] sometime during last Wednesday night, and the total loot secured is said to have been about $800 in stamps and cash. The post office is located in the rear of the store of Harry Gregory who is postmaster. Thursday morning when Mr. Gregory entered the store he found that burglars had blown the safe during the night. The intruders used nitro glycerine to blow off the door and in order to muffle the explosion had used horse blankets, obtained from a nearby barn. Persons living near the scene heard unusual sounds but no one caught sight of the robbers. The day before the Postmaster had sent a considerable sum of post office funds to headquarters or the loss would have been much greater. _________________________________________
Three strange men, who apparently had no particular business, had been about the village for a few days, but have now left town. The postal authorities and sheriff are working on the case.~