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

• “Too much ‘Wild West,’ perhaps shows, literature or pictures, fired the imagination of Johnnie Stout, 11 years old, of South Lawrence, to such a degree that when he accidentally gained possession of an unloaded revolver Saturday evening he became possessed of the idea that to go out and ‘shoot-up’ the band concert being held in Woodland park would be a grand feat. Johnnie told one of his companions so, anyway, and the companion being lacking in some of Johnnie’s enthusiasm for real excitement decided to tell his mother of the young ‘bad man’s’ intentions…. The companion’s mother was more alarmed than her son. She promptly called Johnnie’s father and told him of the intentions of his son. Then she called ’38’ and when Sheriff ‘Billy’ Cummings answered the phone told him to hasten to the park to save the lives of those who were unsuspectingly sitting entranced by the tunes from the First Regiment Band. Before the sheriff could get out of his seat to answer the order the boy’s father called and said the gun was unloaded and that he would bring Johnnie home and train him in the way he should go. Johnnie will be brought before the juvenile court this afternoon. It is thought the boy made the threat to ‘shoot-up’ the park either in fun or to scare his companions. Certainly he would never have done it had he realized the consequences.”
• “With a light shower of rain falling, the temperature down to a comfortable point, with the fountains bubbling in the halls, school rooms repaired and fresh and clean, about two thousand boys and girls of Lawrence took up the duties of the school year this morning. Work that had been dropped the first of June was taken up again this morning and soon the school year will be fairly on again…. Conditions were almost ideal this morning for the opening of the year of work. The little folks were obliged to come with rain-coats and parasols, but the atmosphere was crisp and cool and in keeping with the thought of ‘readin’ and ‘writin’ and ‘rithmetic.’ The board postponed school because of the heat last week and was rewarded with a change that made school life much more agreeable than it would have been the earlier part of last week…. Everywhere this morning one could see the little folks and the bigger folks starting off for the school house. The High school students were the first to be seen stirring. At 7:30 the bell in the old school sounded the first call of the season and soon thereafter the youths and maidens began to gather in the assembly room for the opening ceremonies…. At nine o’clock the other school buildings took on an educational air. Little folks with books and pencils moved in through the big doors into the rooms which will be almost home to them for the next nine months. The sessions were shortened today and the little folks sent out early for the annual invasion of the book stores.”