From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Aug. 25, 1911:

• “A shovel, a piece of rafter, a bucket and a donkey got three men in trouble on Garfield street yesterday evening about 6 o’clock. The three men were up in police court this morning, but were unable to explain what it was all about. It seems that they got into a quarrel over how much a little donkey belonging to one of them could pull. It is said that two of the men were driving past the home of the third with a load of sand when their wagon got stuck and they were unable to pull out for several moments. The third man then volunteered to bring out his mule and pull out the wagon alone. The others took this as an insult to their horses and resented it. The third man says they resented it with a shovel and a piece of scantling. They pleaded guilty to this charge…. Then they decided that the other fellow also should pay a fine and one of them swore out a warrant for the other fellow charging him with assault with a tin bucket.”
• “When the city schools open on the eleventh day of September for the beginning of the fall term the buildings will be in the best condition they have been in for some time. Changes and improvements are being made in every building and things will be put into the best possible shape by the time the school bell calls the children in from their summer’s playing…. There were walls to be replastered and papered, new desks to be put in. Blackboards that had become gray were ordered reslated and many of the old desks revarnished and the initials that the boys took such pains in branding on top of them were removed.”