From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Aug. 17, 1912:

• “The officers called at a certain place on the east side last night in search of some refreshments. They had rumors of a place where they could be obtained and the entire department set out last night to locate it. Not that the officers were thirsty at all, but just because the police department seems to have an ambition to get a corner on all the booze that comes into Lawrence. They found the place all right and went in, but no one came to wait upon them. The proprietor could not be located and so the officers began to look about and served themselves. One of them made the prize haul of 16 bottles and they were cold, too, just off the ice. Another located a case of half-pints with only 12 bottles missing. The entire bunch was confiscated and taken to the station where the haul was invoiced. This showed that they had gathered 36 half-pints of whiskey and 16 quarts of beer. The owner has not yet called to claim his property.”
• “At least two Douglas county farmers are going to do their fall plowing with traction engines instead of with horses. The primary cause of the change is the high price of feed. Plowing is hard work and if a team keeps a plow going in the field a great deal of feed is demanded to keep it going. Randall Doolittle of Fairview has a sixteen horse power traction engine to which he has attached eight plows and has been plowing twelve acres a day. He is now thinking of dropping off two of the plows and in their stead attaching a harrow so the ground will be plowed and harrowed at the same time…. While a great many of the farms of Douglas county are not large enough to permit of an engine being used economically, yet it might be possible for several farmers to pool their interests and save money in handling their fall plowing.”
• “When Frank Toms placed a huge watermelon on the counter at the Journal-World office this morning it looked like a world beater. It was over twenty-four inches long and about eleven inches in diameter. Mr. Toms’ melons are as fine as one could find anywhere.”