From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Mar. 21, 1911:

• “Chief Herd’s entire force is scattered over town today making a searching examination of back yards and alleys. It is the advance guard of the spring sanitation inspection which Lawrence will receive. Chief Herd is planning to scour the town three times before the end of April. This vigilance followed by the annual Tin Can day of the Civic League will convert Lawrence into a Spotless Town. The officers out today are making notes of all trash piles and unsightly back yards. The owners are notified that the unsanitary conditions must be immediately remedied. In two weeks the force will make a second scouring expedition to see how many have complied with the order, and to caution dilatory residents. A third trip will be made a week later to secure names for arrests of those entirely failing to heed the order. Tin Can day will be designated by Mayor Bishop late in April, and on this day all tin cans, dandelions, and lawn rubbish will be raked up by school children and carted away in wagons furnished by the Civic League.”
• “A bon-fire in the back yard of B. E. Bishop, living on Haskell road, spread to some hay stacks this afternoon and threatened to burn a long string of sheds and barns on the place. The Bishop home is beyond the fire limits and no water was available except that which the fire laddies could carry. By confining their attention to the stacks of hay, they managed to prevent the blaze from reaching the barns.”