From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Sept. 2, 1912:

• “Labor Day in the southern part of Douglas county is to be spent by the residents of that part of the county in working upon the old Santa Fe Trail to make some needed repairs and put the road in shape for tourist travel. It is a novel scheme that has been worked out in Baldwin and the operation should give Douglas county a splendid piece of roadway. In Baldwin all business is to be suspended during the entire day and the day observed as one of real labor. The country people, for two or three miles on each side of the Trail, and the people from Baldwin — men, women and children — will be on the Trail that day. The men with teams and tools, prepared to put the road in the best possible condition in a single day; the women prepared to serve a first class picnic dinner, and the children to have a good time. Everybody is expected to join in to make it the biggest road day in the history of Kansas…. ‘Bring the whole family, a well filled basket, a good appetite and have a good time,’ is the slogan.”
• “Col. Theodore Roosevelt will speak in Lawrence on Saturday, September 21, at 10:00 o’clock. The meeting will be held in the open air if the weather is good but in a hall if it is not. It is to be hoped that the meeting will be held in the open as no hall in Lawrence can accommodate the crowd…. The coming of Col. Roosevelt is a matter of much importance. It means that there is to be a vigorous campaign in Kansas for the Progressive ticket. While Col. Roosevelt is running for president as a Progressive outside of Kansas, in this state he is running as a Republican. In other words, he is the regular Republican nominee, or at least his electors are…. The university will be in session and that will bring a big crowd itself. Then the town people and farmers alike want to hear the former president.”
• “The department of agriculture [in Washington] which is cooperating with the Kansas state authorities has found that many deaths among horses in western Kansas are due to forage poisoning attributable to drought. The bureau of animal industry has sent an expert there. He reports that on account of the lack of rain, horses have been feeding on plants that caused intestinal irritation. The report indicated that if green alfalfa is fed to the horses there will be no further trouble.”
• “While everyone knows that water is heavy it is doubtful if many of the readers of the Journal-World realize how heavy the sprinklers used on Massachusetts street are when full of water. They are hauled by one team of horses with apparently no great effort, but their weight is surprising. When these sprinklers are full they weigh 9,200 pounds or but 800 pounds less than five tons, yet one team hauls them. One of the horses still in use on the sprinklers is 24 years old and has been in the service for quite a number of years, but is still able to hold down its job.”