From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for May 14, 1914:

• “Lawrence and the west part of Douglas county are going to have a good roads day. It will be Tuesday, May 26, and every able bodied man will be expected to take a pick, shovel or a rake and get out on the road to do what he can. That was determined at an enthusiastic meeting held at the rooms of the Merchants association last night. The meeting was to discuss good roads and especially the Red Line but it took this turn and from that time forward there was great enthusiasm…. A. C. Walter and S. Stull were appointed as general supervisors. It is their business to lay out the work, make the stations and put some responsible man in charge of each department. Chris J. Kraft and Harry Stull were appointed to look after the camps and refreshments. The plan is to have the wives and daughters of the workers assist in preparing a lunch. The Kanwaka church will be asked to serve coffee and hot lunch. It is desired that each man take his camp dinner along and have it served by his family. This will put the women into the work in a most substantial manner. The idea is going to take like wildfire. It means that the roads between Lawrence and the west county line will be well worked on that day.”
• “The convention of newspaper men comes to a close this evening, after four days of very profitable discussions and lectures. Prof. Merle Thorpe, head of the department of journalism at Kansas University, is being congratulated on every hand for the magnificent convention he had given the visitors. It was he who originated the idea and who is responsible for making May 10 to 14, 1914, red letter days in the history of every Kansas editor who took the time to attend…. The biggest, brainiest experts of American have been here to talk advertising, circulation, cost-finding, and news-gathering, and it has been a veritable treat for the hard-worked Kansas scribe.”
• “For six hours this morning — from 4:00 o’clock till 10:00 — Lawrence was without water. At 5:00 o’clock last night a break occurred at the plant owing to a rustout of one of the valves on the boiler. The plant was not shut down till ten o’clock last night after the standpipe had been filled. Work was immediately begun on the repairs and they were completed about 3:30 this morning, but it was ten o’clock before a gasoline engine could be secured and water pumped back into the boiler. Ordinarily the Water company has three boilers in place but two of them are now being replaced with new ones and that leaves but one to do the work. The standpipe is virtually useless in such an emergency. It was full at 9:00 o’clock last night and at 4:00 this morning was empty. Had a fire started this forenoon there would have been no way to get water with which to fight it.”
• “The mass meeting on Monday evening to discuss the school question will meet in the Bowersock Opera house. The committee has secured the use of the theater and from the interest that is being shown and the talk on the street there will be a large crowd. The meeting is for the purpose of getting some definite line on the desires of the citizens of Lawrence as regards new school buildings and a building policy. It is very important that there be a full attendance and a general discussion. Whatever is done regarding new schools ought to be done soon.”