From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for June 13, 1916:

• “They’re having a jolly little party down at the new river bridge today. All opposition, whether it be in the form of rain, high water, or log jams, is steadily being put down, and there isn’t a happier, jollier bunch of workers in all Douglas county than that on the Kaw river at the foot of Massachusetts street. The river has fallen about fourteen inches since the rise yesterday. Hard rains in the vicinity of Blue Rapids and Concordia will probably cause it to rise again tonight, however. The engineers have little fear of the high water, unless a log jam forms at the bridge…. Workmen clamber about on the framework, perched carelessly on the edge of the structure, where a fall would mean a 40-foot plunge into the Kaw. As they work they joke with one another constantly. Directions are given by the bosses by waving their arms, and there is no need for verbal advice. ‘Isn’t this the happy bunch, though?’ asked one of the six men who has been on guard all night, watching lest another log jam form beneath the old bridge. ‘I’ve been workin’ on bridges six years, and I never saw such a jolly crowd.'”
• “The good roads bug got into the ear of the Merchants’ association at their meeting this noon, and turned the session into a stirring cry for good roads in Douglas county. Win Newmark started the pyrotechnics when he declared that Lawrence merchants were losing trade because the roads surrounding the town were not in fit condition for travel, and that Topeka was drawing trade from Lawrence territory simply because she built roads of such good quality that the farmers could ride over them by automobile at any season of the year. ‘Unless Douglas county builds such roads,’ declared Mr. Newmark, ‘the merchants of Lawrence might as well build a fence around the town and charge admission to get in — so far as trade is concerned. It doesn’t matter how much we advertise, or what bargains we offer — if we don’t build good roads for the farmers to travel on, they won’t come to Lawrence to trade.’… An attempt will be made by the Merchants’ Association to have a ten-mile concrete or rock road built in some direction from Lawrence, and then to work for similar roads throughout the county.”
• “The city commission held an adjourned meeting this afternoon to consider an ordinance providing for the creation of the office of city inspector who shall have supervision of plumbing, flues, chimneys and wiring in the city. N. J. Kennedy appeared before the commissioners this morning and said the master plumbers of the town were in favor of a modern inspection ordinance in Lawrence.”
• “Sheriff W. J. Cummings left this morning for Salina, where he will attend a meeting of the county sheriffs of Kansas tomorrow. The chief business to come before the meeting is the organization of a league to track criminals escaping from the places where they committed crime. Auto thieves are the most troublesome members of this class of delinquents, and the sheriffs expect to fix some means of trailing and identifying them. From two to seven automobiles are stolen daily in Kansas, according to Sheriff Cummings, and desperate efforts will hereafter be made by the police to catch the offenders.”