From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Oct. 29, 1914:

• “The passage of a city housing ordinance and a state housing code to mitigate conditions in North Lawrence and the ‘Bottoms’ and the empowering of the city health department to inspect and regulate houses requiring attention, is advocated by the Housing Committee of the Social Service League, as a result of the recent survey…. While the reports of the investigators do not reveal conditions of actual slumdom, there is an incipient slumdom in the city that necessitates immediate attention before the problem grows too large to be handled without stringent methods. In North Lawrence the semi-rural character of the settlement and the large size of the lots mitigate the evils in the situation. Conditions, however, are undesirable. Of the 25 houses visited, only one was of stone construction, the remainder being of wood. Eleven of these were characterized by the investigators as mere shacks, and three were reported as being absolutely unsafe for habitation…. Only one house of the 25 visited had sewer connection, although the survey showed that the sewer was in the street, accessible to four other houses. Twenty-three families had wells, two being forced to depend on neighbors for their water supply. The outside privy pits were found to be in fair condition, only four being offensive…. In the matter of garbage disposal, conditions north of the river are considerably better than in the ‘bottoms.’ Fourteen families feed the garbage to chickens and swine, two families haul it away every second week, two burn it and over one-fourth dispose of it by throwing it into the back yard…. On the east side seventy frame buildings were studied, and it was found that at least twelve of them should be torn down, as their condition is such as to make it impossible to make them habitable. Twenty-three houses were found with dirty rooms, and 32 with insufficient lighting in some of the rooms…. Thirty-two of these families make disposal of their garbage by throwing it into the yard, leading to a recommendation by the committee that the city find some more suitable method of garbage collection. The people in the poorer sections of the city are unable to pay fifteen cents for the collection of garbage, the rate fixed by the present city ordinance.”
• “Have you subscribed to the Red Cross Fund yet? The University is conducting a strenuous campaign to raise $1,000. The Merchants’ Association has undertaken a campaign downtown. Will you help?… To give the Fund a boost, the Journal-World has arranged for the assistance of the Hanky-Panky company, which is to give a matinee performance at the Bowersock, on Saturday, November 7. They will put on a free concert on Massachusetts street, in front of the Journal-World office, at noon on that day, all the principals and chorus taking part. After the concert, the girls of the company will take up a collection for the Red Cross fund from the crowd.”
• “The K. U. Band will go to Kansas City tomorrow to take part in the opening celebration of the new Union Station. Director McCanles said that the band would return tomorrow night to be on hand for the Oklahoma game.”
• “Hutchinson, Kansas – An undersized mouse, which had become trapped in a connection, short circuited wires in the city electric light plant here today, stopped the street cars, put out all the lights in the city, shut down certain parts of the salt plants, chemical works, newspaper typesetting machines, one telegraph company and other industries depending on electric power for an hour. Edward Benson, assistant engineer at the plant, tried to get the mouse with a pair of tongs, without shutting down the plant, and was badly burned about the hands, arms and face, but will recover.”