100 Years Ago Today - August 2020

Look at these statements from headline articles in the La Porte Argus in August 1920. 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. 

 

August 1-8 

A car with nine passengers turns turtle after it hits a rut near New Carlisle. Two men are bruised and cut and the others escape injury. 

  

Michigan City entertains over a hundred soldiers, their wives and sweethearts from Fort Sheridan, Ill. There is a huge picnic dinner, music, and donated cigarettes and chewing gum. 
 

Michigan City has a case of the “Population Blues.” Those who estimated a population of 25,000 are sadly disappointed. The census gives her a total of 19,475. 
 

There will be a demonstration of One-Minute Washing Machines. Be sure and see this at the Webber Hardware Co. 
 

Seven are dead, 65 injured, the foreign section of West Frankfort, Ill. is a mass of glowing embers and a mob of 5,000 controls the municipal government because two boys were murdered. 
 

An estate of $16,000 was left by J. Frank Hanly, former governor of Indiana who was killed in an automobile accident. He spent most of his earnings in prohibition work. 
 

The local butchers have worked up material for a ball team and say they can cleave their way through any barber’s team that ever cut hair or shaved a beard. 
 

Fire bombings are reported in the downtown area and northwest side of Michigan City for the third night in a row. 

  

August 10-15 

A bolt of lightning kills two ministers at the Free Methodist Camp Meeting tabernacle in the old Hayes Grove three-quarters of a mile north of Springville. Others were knocked down. 
 

When the Denver Tramway attempts to run cars during the car strike, a mob attacks the non-union motormen and conductors, drives them to cover, and turns four cars over. 
 

All children who will be five by October 1 may enter kindergarten. All children who will be five between October 1 and March 1 may enter kindergarten at the beginning of the second semester. 
 

Pope Benedict falls, slightly hurting his knee while in his library at the Vatican. 
 

There are 50,433 people in La Porte Co., an increase of 4,646, or 10.1 per cent. 
 

One hundred thousand Bolshevik troops are in the army which is assaulting Warsaw from three sides. 

Robert M. Morse is in his 25th year as fair secretary. The Caterpillar ride, a modified roller coaster with a “caterpillar” skin cover, has been reactivated. Wild Mouse and Scooter are new. 

  

August 17-22 

Miss Mary Blair, well-known La Porte school teacher, has been granted a life license by the state. Such a license is an honor that falls to few in the teaching profession. 
 

Women suffrage becomes a part of the law of the U.S. when the Tennessee legislature ratifies the Susan B. Anthony constitutional amendment. The 36th state makes it possible by a vote of 49-47. 
 

Commercial traffic through the Panama canal sets a new record for the fiscal year. There were 2,478 commercial craft. 
 

While bells tolled and businesses were suspended, Michigan City stood with bared heads in homage to the funeral procession carrying the first two boys from the field of honor in France. 
 

A small boy throwing stones hits a woman in a young folks’ bathing party, injuring her quite badly. Stone-throwing is wholly boy-like, but equally dangerous. 
 

A lad gets a pair of shoes from a porter to take home and try on. Because they were not returned, the porter chases the lad into the police station. The Chief orders him to shine the shoes first. 

  

August 24-31 

Women must register to vote on September 4. A second chance comes in October. 
 

Hizoner, the Mayor, quits the city for two weeks. Herman W. Sallwasser will vacation with his wife and two sons on a trip through the east by automobile. 
 

Taxi rides to the fair won’t be plentiful. The high license rate and bad roads have their effects. 
 

Instead of jitneys that were the noisy solicitors of patronage, take a vehicle or Shank’s Mare. 
 

Three boys are arrested for planning a robbery at the box office of the Chicago White Sox when Babe Ruth was drawing thousands to the park. 
 

The penny postcard is having a fight for its life because of the high price of paper. The penny newspaper has succumbed and is selling at two cents and even three cents per copy. 
 

Space is added to the trunk department at Lows’ Clothing Store. New stock has arrived along with leather bags and suit cases for men and women. 
 

A five-year-old boy grabs a 2 ½ year old girl and thrusts her into an outdoor vault. When the mother comes, the girl is nearly dead from suffocation and bruised where the boy hit her.