100 years ago: District court judge speaks out for government services

From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Dec. 15, 1913:

  • “Judge C. A. Smart of the district court spoke last night to a crowded house at the Presbyterian church…. The central thoughts of the address were the government is the power of the many to protect the weak against the strong and the strong against themselves…. ‘When a locomotive goes into the ditch we replace it by our fares and freights, everyone giving his mite as he uses the railway. But how about the engineer whose life goes out under the great engine? Should we not see that the widow and orphans do not bear the burden of the loss alone?… The men and women, who have grown old in honest toil, should not be left to walk arm in arm with the grim companion Poverty, but should receive a pension after their service is done, often as honorable and heroic as that of the soldier who helped save the Union.’ As to where the income is to come for all this Judge Smart indicated, as a suggestion, that the swollen, unearned fortunes, running into the tens and hundreds of millions, should be made to pay tribute to the government to help protect the weak and to save the many idle rich from themselves. Judge Smart concluded with an eloquent plea for the erring, that society should not aim so much to punish them as to put them on their feet to become useful citizens.”
  • “Charges of speeding with his auto have been preferred against Fred Lindley, a speed merchant of some renown in Lawrence. The charges against Lindley follow a spill which the driver and his machine took early Sunday morning. Lindley ran his car into a ditch on the Eudora road just at the east limits of the city. It is said that a midnight joy ride was underway when the accident occurred.”
  • “N. H. Gibbons, owner of the Aurora and Grand Theaters this morning pleaded guilty to a charge of permitting persons to stand in the aisles and lobbies. He pleaded guilty on four counts, the total fine amounting to $25.50.”
  • “‘Prof.’ Lynn, who the officers believe to be Charles Bowman, is in the custody of the law. This became known when Wichita authorities informed Sheriff Cummings Saturday night that they had the clairvoyant in the city jail there and would hold him until a Douglas county officer could get him. Sheriff Cummings left yesterday morning and is expected to return with the fugitive tonight…. Since the filing of the complaint against the man of mystery several other stories of the practices of the clairvoyant have reached the authorities. The whole makes a sordid tale of crime and vice and imposition upon a number of young girls of the city. Whether or not any of this will be used in the trial was not known today.”
  • “Mrs. John E. Spencer, formerly Mary L. Webster, died at her home in Omaha Saturday evening, Dec. 13. A telegram to Mr. L. N. Lewis announcing the death of Mrs. Spencer, received Sunday morning and quickly telephoned to a number of home of old friends, caused a distinct shock of grief in Lawrence, which spread as the news was circulated at morning church services…. May Webster spent her girlhood years in Lawrence and her remains will be returned here to rest beside her mother…. She was one of the most beautiful and popular girls of her time here, a favorite in city and university society…. She was married April 27, 1891, to John E. Spencer, one of the large family of Spencer boys so well known in Lawrence. Since their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Spencer have lived in Omaha…. Two sons, Frank and John, aged twenty and sixteen, with their father mourn the loss of a mother and wife who has devoted her mature years entirely to making their home an ideal one…. And sincere indeed is the grief of scores of friends and neighbors who have known and loved May Webster. It is difficult for the elderly and middle-aged old time residents to think of her except as a strikingly beautiful, sweet and popular young lady, a center of attraction at social functions, with a bright smile and a kind word for everyone. She has occasionally visited in Lawrence since her marriage, but as she retained her beauty and vivacity to a remarkable degree her friends continued to regard her as a young woman. That she has gone is hard to realize. Hers has been a bright and useful life.”