Time Machine Trip to October 1884

 

Kaukauna Times

By Lyle Hansen

October 3, 1884

The Kermis or better known as "harvest festival," commences at Little Chute on Monday morning next, and will continue for several days. This custom prevails principally among the Holland people who, after the gathering of the crops, celebrate the event.

 

The bridge committee has finally obtained permission to place the bridge at the foot of Wisconsin Avenue, which is not the most convenient location but still the most desirable. The bridge will have a center swing and span seventy feet in length, instead of sixty feet, as originally planned. The work of building stone piers will begin immediately.

 

A Pittsburg court has just decided that the directors of the collapsed Penn Bank, in that city, are individually liable for the amounts deposited with that bank. A few more such decisions would lead to a more thorough inspection of the affairs of banking houses.

 

Floods in China have resulted in the deaths of 70,000 people in a population of 44,000,000 in an area of the country.  In the face of such a disaster the recent floods in Ohio and Mississippi seem insignificant.

 

Little Freddie was talking to his grandma. “Grandma, Do you belong to the Presbyterian Church? “No”

“To the Baptist?” “No.” “To any church?” “No.” “Well grandma, don’t you think it is about time to get in something?”

 

October 10, 1884

Now is the time to lay in a stock of fuel for winter. Nicholas Gerend, the Ledyard coal merchant will sell coal from now until October 15, for $7.50 per ton, delivered in the bin.

 

Owing to the expiration of his partnership with E.C. Bidwell, through limitation, John D. Lawe will no longer be connected with THE TIMES as an editor and publisher.

 

North Carolina – Senator Zeb Vance tells how he captured the vote of a backwoods settlement. He hadn’t been to the place and didn’t know the boys. He came to the place on horseback and came upon a cross-roads grocery with about sixty sovereigns. He cracked a few jokes and seemed to be getting along pretty well with them. Then he noticed an old man with shaggy eyebrows and big brass spectacles. The old man didn’t much pay attention to him, and he figured he must be the head of this clan. “This is Mr. Vance, I believe, and you have come here to see my boys about their votes, I believe?”  “Yes, that is true” he answered. “What church might you belong to?”  Vance didn’t belong to any church and knew that religion and meeting was a big thing in the backwoods. Well, my grandpa came from Scotland and most everybody is Presbyterians over there. Not seeing any sign of sympathy for grandpa, but my grandmother came from England, and they are Episcopal there. He paused and the old man spit tobacco on the ground. My father was Methodist, still no sign of satisfaction from the old man.  My momma was a Baptist and it’s my opinion that every man must go under the water to get to heaven. The old man got up and took Vance’s hand. “Your, alright Mr. Vance then turned to the crowd and said, “You boys can vote for this man”. Then he handed Vance a flask from his coat pocket to seal his faith.

Evansville Argus – It was his first appearance, and the church was packed. Brother Harrison, the boy preacher came in and took a seat in the pulpit before the arrival of the other minister. A little old lady looking at him intently walked up to the pulpit and beckoning to him: “My boy, come down here and sit with me; that’s the place for the preacher.”

 

October 17, 1884

A beautiful electric light is to be seen every evening on the south side of the river, near the Lake Shore depot. It is stationed on a very high pole and furnishes a good light for a long distance to every direction.

 

The bodies of two horse thieves were discovered suspended from a tree on Poplar River, near Virginia City, Mont., on the 24^th. This makes thirty-seven thieves lynched by vigilantes this season.

 

The work of building a center pier for the new draw bridge commenced this week under the direct supervision of Bernard Corcoran. A cofferdam is being built for the purpose of shutting off the water. After completing this, the balance of the work will be completed very rapidly.

 

During the month of September there arrived at New York from Europe 26,872 immigrants. The arrivals at this port since January numbers 267,000.

 

Harper’s Ferry is to be sold. This is the building which John Brown made famous twenty-five years ago. It’s a pity it cannot be preserved as public property with the history connected to it. There is no fear that the grim and heroic old crusader who made his final struggle there will never be forgotten. His memory safely enshrined “and his soul goes marching on.”

 

There has been a remarkable increase in the number of small farms in the South since the war. In South Carolina there are now five small farmers where there was but one twenty years ago.

 

October 24, 1884

Many of the business blocks on our main streets have, this fall, been veneered with brick.  Not only gives them a solid appearance but furnishes visitors with a much better version of Ledyard as a business town. Let us have more brick blocks.

 

October 31, 1884

A Chinese pamphlet against Europeans has been published in Hong Kong. It asserts that Europeans are not human beings at all, but wild animals descended from monkeys. They do not honor their parents nor ancestors. They come into China pretending to preach a religion which they do not practice themselves and introduce vice and crime into that country.

 

The hum-tum thing among dudes is now to shake hands with the left hand. This enhances the general effect since the right hand is busy with the end of a mustache.

 

The first snow of the season came last week but has disappeared and now we may expect a fine Indian summer.

 

This issue of The Times will be the last before the great presidential election. So far as politics are concerned this paper has been neutral. In this issue we publish a republican and a democratic communication.

Jefferson Davis, in his flight after the collapse of the Confederacy abandoned his horse near Macon and took to the woods. On the horse was a silver mounted saddle. The saddle has been recovered after nineteen years and last week a Georgian sent it to Mr. Davis as a present. 

Boston Globe – “Are you going to make your husband a Christmas present this year” asked a friend. “I’m afraid not” “I had designed to and had saved the money for that purpose, but I saw a lovely bonnet that I could not resist.” “What present have you in mind for your husband?”  “Oh, I have a splendid present for him, and it will suit him exactly.” “I shall give him a box of those very expensive cigars.” “How have you managed to save up so much money?”  “Oh. I haven’t done it that way, when he leaves his box of cigars out, I take one each time and by Christmas I have enough to fill a box.”

 

No wise young woman will marry a man who treats either his mother or sisters with disrespect or neglect. Poverty is not a bar to marriage, but meanness or drunkenness should not be allowed.

 

A man named Bonnet is running for a political office in Minnesota. The ladies are for him first and last.