| YEARS GONE BY ARCHIVES |
| FEBRUARY 1910 |
| Pottsville Republican of February 8, 1910 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING The Town Council held its regular monthly meeting on Monday evening with the following members present: Messrs. Kelly, Saul, Rooney, Meck, Umbenhower, Caffrey and McKeon. Secretary Runkle, Treasurer Keller, Solicitor Noecker, Supervisor Becker, Electrician Werner and Burgess Hartman were also in attendance. C. E. Berger, esquire, appeared before council in the interest of the Walkin Shoe Company and stated on November 6, 1893, that on motion of Mr. Wiltrout, seconded by Mr. Keever, members of the council at that time, that the vacant lot fifteen feet front on Columbia Street be sold to Gerber Brown Shoe Company for one dollar, to be used for factory buildings only. Mr. Berger stated that the deed had been lost and asks council to execute another deed for the property now of the Walkin Shoe Company. It was so ordered. A communication from Mrs. Jere Sterner enclosing a bill for two hundred dollars damages for breaking an axle of her wagon on one of the slippery streets was read and laid on the table. Frank Heim, representing the Schuylkill Hose Company, asked for a fire alarm system, also that his company be given charge of plugs to see that they are kept in repair. Council granted the request. The Light Committee was instructed to erect a whistle at the town plant and arrange a fire alarm system. Mr. Saul stated that Mr. Naffin, in building the skating rink, destroyed the bank along the river, leaving the water on the street during the heavy rains and made a motion that a committee be appointed to investigate the matter. Mr. Keller appointed the three South Ward councilmen as a committee. Burgess Hartman reported as follows: During the month of January, I served seven verbal notices on account of snow not being removed from the pavements. In this connection, again as I did several times before, call council's attention to the fact that our snow ordinance is defective and ask that same be corrected. I served a written notice on the Traction Company to remove the excess snow on Liberty Street. They complied with the request and removed it within twenty four hours. During the month there were eight arrests, five paying their fines amounting to fifteen dollars. One of the parties refused to pay his fine and was committed to jail according to borough ordinance and one James McKenna, who could not pay fine, was committed to jail for thirty days under an Act of assembly. One is in jail awaiting trial at the next term of court, he being arrested for indecent exposure on the street opposite Reed and Leininger's mill. Every day demonstrates more and more the necessity of a lockup and more than one policeman. McKenna, who was arrested on Saturday night, the twenty ninth, was in such a condition that it required two men besides myself to take him to the justice's office. There we had to keep him for more than an hour until Mr. Butz, who had gone to a neighboring town on legal business, returned and until McKenna got so that he could be taken on the cars to Pottsville. Had we a lockup, this man could have been placed there until such a time as he would have been fit to remove to the cars. While Butz was taking him to Pottsville and absent from town, a complaint came to me regarding a drunken woman who was making a disgraceful scene in the South Ward, but having no policeman and no place to lock her up, I let her go. I believe had she been locked up until the next morning the borough would have recovered a fine. Below the rolling mill on Sunday the thirtieth, three or four men were intoxicated, one of them helplessly drunk. On account of no lockup, they were let go. On Sunday night Mr. Butz arrested a young man for being a nuisance and exposing his person on the street in front of Reed and Leininger's mill. Butz had to take him to the Pottsville lockup, bring him back to Schuylkill Haven for a hearing on Monday morning and then take him back to Pottsville jail. Often some of our young boys and girls ought to be locked up at least over night on account of immoral actions on the streets and alleys at unreasonable hours of the night. This would at least open the eyes of the parents to the fact that they are not looking after the welfare of their children. I cannot understand how parents who themselves profess to be Christians and are constantly praying for the welfare of sinners like myself who happen to be in the liquor business can shut their eyes to the fact that children of tender years are roaming the streets and alleys up to one o'clock at night. The moral welfare of a community should be considered above all else. I would suggest that the Council and Fire Committee agree on a fire alarm system so that the companies could at once locate a fire. Recently there was a fire on Liberty Street in Smoketown. Mr. Rowland's whistle gave the alarm and naturally some of the companies thought it was his factory which was on fire and pulled the apparatus up the hill to his place in accordance with this idea. I spoke to some of the firemen who have sent a representative here to talk the matter over with you. When this fire took place, two of the plugs were frozen up in the vicinity of the fire and no water could be obtained. This also should be remedied and safeguarded against. Pottsville Republican of February 10, 1910 SCHOOL BOARD MEETING The school teachers had planned a sleighing party among themselves but the snow left a little too soon. They are waiting for the next snowstorm to come. The Executive Committee of the Alumni Association met at the home of Principal Heckert last evening. The committee decided to have a public lecture again to be given in some church in town on Wednesday evening of Commencement week. President Jones was authorized to secure the speaker and will begin negotiations at once. Mr. Dilham Gilham, Mr. Henry Snayberger and Mrs. P. T. Hoy were named a committee to secure a church and issue tickets for distribution. The banquet is to be held on Thursday evening, May 26th and Professor R. W. Ziegenfuse, Mrs. P. T. Hoy, Henry Snayberger, George Butz and Mrs. Cummings are the Banquet Committee and will soon begin work on preparations. President Jones read the conditions upon which government patent records may be had to be placed into a local library. As our library does not meet the requirements, the secretary was instructed to return the application blanks to Congressman Garner and thank him for the offer. The lock on the front door of the South ward building is to be fixed. The broken dictionary holder in Room 20 is to be repaired. The date for the High School Commencement was set for Friday, May 27th. The number of seats to be assigned to each graduate was also determined. The Supply Committee ordered new diplomas. Pottsville Republican of February 15, 1910 SCHUYLKILL HAVEN SHORTS Mrs. Samuel Blackburn is just recovering the use of her left arm which was fractured by a fall several weeks ago. She was on her way from her kitchen to her yard to feed the chickens when she slipped on the icy walk and fell. With rare grit, although suffering excruciating pain, Mrs. Blackburn put on her bonnet and shawl and went to Dr. Lenker's office and had the broken arm set. During the painful process her nerve did not forsake her as she went through the operation without taking any anesthetic. Samuel Blackburn resumed work this week after quite a siege of illness. Some weeks ago he was laid up with the grip and when he recovered the first day he resumed work, his eyes were both very badly injured so that he was compelled to quit work and was under the care of a specialist for several weeks. Pottsville Republican of February 19, 1910 WORKED ON THE P. & R. FOR FIFTY YEARS Charles J. Christian of Schuylkill Haven will the latter part of this month be placed on the retired list by the P. & R. Company having reached the age limit of seventy years. He started in as a clerk at Palo Alto for the Reading Company in the year 1862, serving under J. B. Sessinger. From there he was transferred to the coal clerk's office at Mine Hill crossing. After working at Mine Hill crossing but a short time he was promoted to the Cressona scale office. By attentiveness to his work he was made weighmaster in the year 1890, succeeding Albert Robertson, now a resident of Philadelphia and a former resident of Schuylkill Haven. Mr. Christian was born and reared in Schuylkill Haven and with the exception of a few years spent in Pottsville has been a resident of Schuylkill Haven all his life. He was born February 9, 1840. After attaining an education in the public schools of that town he went to work for the Mine Hill railroad company before attaining his majority. He is a man well known both in his home and surrounding towns and enjoys the acquaintance of a host of friends. Pottsville Republican of February 22, 1910 RAILROAD SCALES BEING TESTED The scales at all stations of the P. & R. Railway are being tested for standardization purposes. Tests of this kind are frequently made as the constant use of the scales puts them out of order. The customary big cast iron plates are being used. If the weight shown on the beam of the scale does not tally with the known weight of the testing block, the scale is known to need doctoring and it is then treated on the spot by the tester. SCHUYLKILL HAVEN ROLLING MILLS CLOSED DOWN Operations were suspended at the Schuylkill Haven rolling mills this morning. For what length of time could not be ascertained. Rumor had it that it would remain closed for one week while from another source it was learned that it would remain closed indefinitely. Some of the men employed there left this morning for other towns where they will seek employment. The suspension will throw several hundred men out of work. Pottsville Republican of February 23, 1910 The trolley company has issued orders to hold the six o'clock Pottsville car every evening except Saturday until ten minutes past six for the express accommodation of a large number of Pottsville people who work in our mills and factories and who have heretofore had to desert their work before quitting time or be compelled to wait for the six thirty car thus reaching home at a very late hour. The action of the Trolley Company meets with the approval of the workers. The rain of Monday and Tuesday had the effect of cleaning away great accumulations of snow and ice on our sidewalks and borough streets. The supervisor was kept busy opening culverts and attending to the floods of water that poured down from every direction. The regular monthly teacher's meeting beside the professional course work and the consideration of the current school matters took up the subject of night work. A few complaints had come in about much night work being assigned to pupils. By the report of the teachers it is evident that there is not much if any ground for complaint about night work. It has been reduced to a minimum. All night work from the third grade up can not be eliminated without seriously offsetting the course and the pupil's efficiency. It is true that this work bears harder on some than others but this would be true of school work were there no night work. Some boys and girls do not properly employ the study period they are given in school and the teacher busy with a large class, can not always keep them at it. Others are slow in their work and do not get accomplished what the rest do. Still others may be a grade too high and on account of the crowded condition of the grade below, cannot be put back. Then there are the nervous children who worry over their work be it little or much. These usually take nearly all their books home of their own accord and not by the advice or direction of their teachers. A number of such cases have been pointed out to stop them from taking home their books would arouse the anger of their parents for by far the greater number of parents want their children to have night work. One of the teachers received a severe reprimand from a parent because her boy did not bring enough night work home to suit her. He is a bright boy and could profitably use his time at home evenings if he had more work assigned. Then again while some are at home working faithfully there are scores of others who are on the streets. We see them and then wonder whether too much night work has been assigned. Which extreme is the worse. If your boy or girl has too much evening work, find out whether he or she does not bring home more than is assigned by the teacher. Instructions have been given the teachers to reduce the night work to a minimum. If any of you boys and girls fail to pass at the end of the term, do not blame the teachers since they have been compelled to let up on the measure on the slow ones. |