From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for June 25, 1916:

• “Clinton Reno, 836 Indiana Street, was declared insane in the court of Probate Judge C. E. Lindley this morning…. Reno, who is more than 70 years of age, was arrested yesterday on Indiana street when officers found him brandishing an axe before a crowd of excited children and leading a ‘charge’ to the ‘fort.’ Reno declares he is the founder of Fort Reno, and frequently suffers hallucinations. No examination of the convicted man was necessary this morning. He came to the court room shouting protestations against his being held, and then immediately became absorbed in conversation with Dr. E. R. Keith, whom he thought was the mayor and ‘a splendid looking candidate for president.’ Reno’s wife and son testified as to his insane actions in the past. The unfortunate man will be held at the county jail by Sheriff W. J. Cummings until orders for his removal are received from the state board of control.”
• “A discussion of the advisability of instituting a seventh grade in the north side public schools was discussed at the meeting of the North Side Utopia club held at the Methodist Episcopal church last night. The sentiment of the meeting, which was attended by about fifty north side residents, was in favor of such a move if it were practical from a housing standpoint. The two school buildings in North Lawrence are filled to overflowing at the present time, with only six grades using them.”
• “Two hundred seventy-eight is the number of automobile licenses issued in Douglas county this year in excess of the number issued last year, the year in this case being that of the treasurer’s office, which ends June 30. The total number of auto licenses granted in this period was 983. There were also ninety-one licenses issued for motorcycles. Of the $4,742 collected as license fees, $782.75 goes to the state. The remaining $3,959.25 is for use on the roads of the county. Last fall was particularly hard on roads in this locality, and the result was a considerable use of this fund for ordinary upkeep.”
• “War, which has worked so many changes in the daily habits of the Germans, has now conspired with warm weather to induce the Germans to drink ‘soft drinks.’ Bottles of lemon sour, ginger ale, cream soda and other beverages included under the generic name of ‘pop’ in the United States are beginning to make their appearance on shelves and bars formerly devoted to beer, and the thirsty people are drinking them, not from choice, but because they have to. It is no longer possible to make enough beer to meet even fairly modest demands of the reduced home population. The majority of the larger beergardens will not be opened at all this summer, and for some weeks it has been no unusual thing to find some of Berlin’s biggest restaurants and beerhalls without a drop of beer early in the evening of warm days. The sale of beer to households in containers charged with carbonic acid gas has been discontinued, and only favored old customers can still get bottled beer…. The scarcity is, of course, due to the fact that the empire has had to limit strictly the amount of barley which can be turned into malt.”