100 Years Ago Today - April 2021

Look at these statements from headline articles in the La Porte Argus in April 1921. Terminology, capitalization, and what makes headline news can be different. Yet accidents, business, crime, and war still make headlines. Want to read the whole article? It’s on microfilm in the Indiana Room at the Main Library. Staff will be glad to help you access it. 

 

April 1-10 

Upon demand of the contractors of Michigan City for a reduction in the wage scale of carpenters from 90 cents per hour to 80 cents, almost 150 carpenters of the harbor town went out on strike. 
 

The Ku Klux Klan held midnight court again in the south last night. A man in the lonely hills of Dallas county was found guilty of intimacy with a white woman. K.K.K. was branded on him. 
 

H. Kaplan, one of La Porte’s prosperous merchants, opens a more modern and commodious department store at 514 Lincolnway. It contains furnishings and read-to-wear for everyone. 

 
The Pine Lake Inn will open on May 1. Thirty-eight of the 40 cottages have already been rented out to Chicago people. 
 

La Porte will have still another theatre, larger than any heretofore, on Lincolnway at Jackson and Detroit streets. There will be 1,700 seats, 60 guest rooms, and 20 kitchenette apartments. 
 

Emperor Carl will leave Switzerland long enough to arrange asylum elsewhere. It is believed he will go to Spain. 
 

Tucked away amid the Pittsburgh steel mills is a laboratory that turns out seven-twelfths of the world’s supply of radium. Medical men buy most of it and some is used for luminous articles. 
 

Mexicans are being mistreated in Texas. An assault, kidnapping, and peonage conditions have been reported. Another report said 76 Mexicans had not been paid for their work done on roads. 
 

A gang of bandits successfully worked the boldest holdup ever in Baltimore. At 2 a.m. seven men entered the Citizens’ Democratic club and robbed 16 men of $7000 in jewlery and money. 

  

April 12-17 

Over 150 representatives of the Northern Indiana Telephone association attend the hello banquet at the Masonic temple. The morning session was devoted to the operators’ school. 
 

La Porte Kiwanians, 50 strong, will go to charter night for Valparaiso Kiwanians. La Porte Kiwanians expect to go to Michigan City a week later for a similar event. 
 

A Chicago business man gives the luncheon address on his theme, “Advertising Direct by Mail” to members of the La Porte Chamber of Commerce today. 
 

A Galena township woman escapes death when a cow following a newborn calf attacks and tramples her. Her husband drives the enraged animal away with a pitchfork. 
 

La Porte coal dealers say, “Buy your coal now. Don’t wait for reduced prices later in the season.” They say the price of coal is going up, not down. 
 

The continued cold weather of the past few days has proved disastrous to practically all of the fruit in the county with the exception of apples. 

  

April 19-24 

Augusta Victoria is laid to rest in the Antiken Temple built by Frederick, the Great. The funeral was the most imposing event seen in the former German empire since the Hohenzollern reign. 
 

Limited mail service between the United States and Russia resumes after four years of suspension. 
 

One of the historic structures of the county, Floral hall on the grounds of the fair, will soon be a memory. A new steel art building will be erected. 
 

A father threatens to bring suit against the principal of the Union Mills school for whipping his son. After learning the townspeople back the principal, the father drops his complaint. 
 

Oscar Tschirky of New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel signs a ten year contract at $50,000 a year to continue as maitre d’. That makes him the highest paid culinary supervisor in the world. 
 

Babe Ruth hits his fifth home run of the season in the game with the Washington Senators. No one was on the bases when the Bambino hit his four base clout. 

  

April 26-30 

Gasoline and kerosene take a price drop. Gasoline goes from 25.2 to 22.2 and kerosene from 14.6 to 11.6. 
 

Starting Monday the printers employed in the plants of La Porte’s two newspapers will work 44 hours a week instead of 48 hours as at present. 
 

The management of the news and cigar stand and the billiard room of the Rumely hotel will change hands on May 1. 
 

After months of illness, famous tenor Enrico Caruso takes a short stroll on Fifth avaenue in New York with his wife and nurse. 
 

An air mail pilot who flew over La Porte yesterday falls to his death on railroad tracks rather than to attempt a landing in downtown Cleveland and endanger many lives.