From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Jan. 3, 1914:

• “Back to school on Monday…. For the Christmas holidays are over. To Lawrence it means the return of a thousand or more students who have been away at their homes to spend the Santa Claus days. The advance guard of these students arrived in Lawrence yesterday. More came in today and tomorrow the numbers of the returning ones will be larger…. Baggage men and cab drivers are reaping a harvest again now, caring for the wants and needs of the returning student population. All classes on the hill will be resumed on Monday and work will proceed uninterrupted until the spring vacation at the first of April…. The basketball season opens on Thursday and Friday with games with Ames University. Captain Sproul and his men have been working regularly during the holidays and the Jayhawker goal tossing aggregation is rapidly getting into shape. Followers of basketball are expecting much of the 1914 men and their work in practice indicates a good season.”
• “W. W. Cockins received a New Year’s gift yesterday that was worth while. It was a telegram announcing that a two hundred barrel oil well had just been struck on his land three miles northeast of Elgin, Kansas. Mr. Cockins has almost a thousand acres of land surrounding the well. The field where the oil was struck is known as the Chautauqua County pool and is considered one of the steadiest producing field in the middle west. The new strike will open up thousands of acres additional to the field and Mr. Cockins’ land will lie in the center of the territory.”
• “To arouse interest in the country schools with the idea of ultimately making them better is the object of the second annual rally day for Douglas county schools to be held in Woodland park the last of May or the first week of June. ‘If we can succeed in arousing interest in our country schools then people will be more ready to improve them. We can never get our district schools on a higher plane until we do arouse more interest in them on the part of the parents and the voters,’ said County Superintendent C. R. Hawley today.”
• “Is the Lawrence Water Company ready to accept an offer of $150,000 for its plant? A rumor coming from a most reliable source was heard this morning which would answer the question in the affirmative. The rumor insists that the company is ready to reconsider its answer given the city council last Tuesday night in which it refused to consider the proposition made by the council.”