From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for August 3, 1913:

• “Just now the big issue the country over is Good Roads. Not that it is a distinctly new movement, but that the need of road improvement is becoming to be realized more and that the people of the country are taking more interest in road work and are doing more of it. In Douglas County there has been good road talk for many years, when the drag first came into prominence and its usefulness was clearly demonstrated Douglas County fell in line and the roads over the county began to show a marked improvement. Each year the movement has spread and has become more general, and as a result Douglas County now boasts of some of the very best roads in the state…. Autoists from the city who seek relief from the heat of the evenings in a spin out into the freshness of the country tell much of the conditions they find, they have spotted the best roads and they know of the few stretches of poor roads that prevail in the county. There is one road of which the autoists complain very much, the Eudora road, which is likewise the Golden Belt Route into Lawrence. It is said by the car drivers that this stretch of highway is badly in need of dragging to rid it of the ruts which have been formed and which make travel extremely inconvenient…. It seems that there has been no work done on this road since the last rain.”
• “The work of remodeling the old Usher house at 1415 Tennessee is being rushed so that the house will be ready for occupation by the Beta Theta Pi fraternity at the opening of school next fall. The Betas purchased the house early last spring and workmen have been at work on it since that time. Included in the repair work are complete wiring and replumbing of the house, replastering in many of the rooms and the rearranging of the plan of the house on the first floor, involving the removing of several partitions. The complete cost of the work being done, including the installing of lighting fixtures, will amount to almost $5,000, and when completed the house will be one of the largest and most modern of any Greek Letter organization in the city.”