100 Years Ago Today - May 2021

Look at these statements from headline articles in the La Porte Argus in May 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. 

 

May 1-8 

The last minute rush for paying taxes has begun, but there is indication that the list of delinquents will be larger than ever. Property owners are unable to raise money to pay the taxes. 

 

The La Porte city council is favorable to the plan for the establishment of playgrounds in every section of the city. 
 

Running like a race horse out to break the world’s track record, Emmet Scott, former democrat, wins an easy victory in the republican primaries. 
 

A Jackson street man receives a penal farm sentence and fine for drinking moonshine. In the course of driving his horse and buggy, he drank so much liquor that he couldn’t control the horse. 
 

An unknown individual wearing a uniform resembling the attire of the Salvation Army makes rounds soliciting money. He makes out of La Porte with a tidy sum in his jeans. 
 

Brawny oarsmen at Princeton, Harvard and the Navy will vie for honors on Lake Carnegie. They are certain to encounter currents and in this kind of water Navy is admittedly superior. 
 

Valparaiso university issues a statement denying charges that “bolshevism, communism, and other cults” exist at the institution. 
 

May 10-15 

President Harding wants to change the method of appointing postmasters. Now it is done by civil service examination and the one ranking highest is procured the appointment. 
 

“Get acquainted with the hospital without getting sick” might well be the slogan for the “morrow” because it’s visiting day at Holy Family hospital. 
 

Twelve prison guards go on stroke at the Lincoln, Neb. state prison following the murder of a prison guard by a convict. They refuse to work a 12-hour day and say they lack protection. 
 

Premier Lloyd George declares that “the government is carefully watching developments in the revolutionary government in Great Britain. 
 

A front window is shattered into countless pieces at the Selby & Wade Red Cross drug store in La Porte when a man loses control of his Ford and drives over the curb and into the window. 
 

Washington Representative Volstead declares that many so-called “medicines” are simply “disguised booze” and attempts to stop the use of wine and alcohol in proprietary medicines. 

May 17-22 

The ambulance owned by the Charity Circle is not fit for use. La Porte is too large to be without one, but there are plenty of public spirited people who should be willing to start a campaign. 
 

La Porte keeps on growing. There are 3645 people between the ages of 6 and 21. Last year there were 3502. This will keep the schools crowded next year. 
 

American money continues to pour into France for the purchase of necessities and toys for the war orphans. 
 

Freight and passenger trains rumble down the tracks across the nation after the end of a two-day strike that shut down the rail system from coast to coast. 
 

Two teen boys riding on the top of a large truck without the driver’s knowledge are picked up by an officer when the truck stopped. They said they were tired of going to school. 

 
With the same lack of ostentation that marked his long and useful life, Edward Douglas White, ninth chief justice of the United States supreme court, is laid to his last rest. 
 

Serious rioting has broken out at Alexandria, Egypt, and British troops are reported to have occupied the city. The riots followed a report that a Greek had killed a native. 
 

May 24-31 

The removal of a bullet in the brain of a Sing Sing convict has restored his sanity. A Brooklyn surgeon, although he is partially paralyzed, performed the remarkable operation. 
 

Two boys go to Chicago with a man who happened in La Porte and promises he can get them jobs in Chicago. They take their Sunday suits and money. The man gets away with their money. 
 

Nearly 100 chamber of commerce members have a fish dinner at Rising’s Bluffside resort at Pine lake. This was to be the last luncheon of the season, but they voted on a similar affair next week. 
 

Georgia Tilton Hines is the most brilliant student in the largest class ever graduated from any college in the world. She is from the University of California which has 1,651 students. 
 

The body of Private John Eugene Hawn arrives in La Porte. He died in a French hospital on November 22, 1918 following wounds received. 
 

Practically all of La Porte, an estimate of 10,000 persons, turned out to pay tribute to the nation’s soldier dead on Memorial Day. 
 

Mrs. M. B. Hartweel sells her business at 717 Michigan avenue, known as the La Porte Book and Stationary company, to Smith’s Book and Supply company, a newly organized corporation.