By Richard van Pelt, WWI Correspondent
News from Europe dropped out of the paper for a period of days. Local issues and news predominated, of which the following are of interest.
“Journal Man Does Motorcycle Stunt” reads the headline. The headline further reads: “Jumps the Sidewalk and Climbs the Steps of a Residence on His Machine Which Dies Exhausted at the Door.” An employee of the Journal, R. V. Sefton was noted locally for his record for “climbing fences, ladders and most every sort of an incline with his motorcycle.” His latest stunt was to climb the side veranda of Dave Drager’s house at the corner of Seventeenth and State, knocking out the panels of the door with his bike. As reported:
It seems that Sefton was unable to work the throttle on his motorcycle as he was rounding the corner at Seventeenth and State streets. Not having a great desire to hit the curb broadside, and finding it impossible to “get in the clear” at the speed he was going, the rider took a flying leap over the curbing and, still unable to bring the motorcycle to a halt, sped through some rose bushes growing along the parking and took a straight shoot down Mr. Drager’s lawn. Sefton exerted every effort in the attempt to stop his wheel, but it kept chugging away. The plucky rider stayed with the machine, however, and it final arrived at the side steps of Mr. Drager’s dwelling, which were six feet high. Up the steps Sefton guided the motorcycle and, after bursting the panels out of the door, he fell off and the busy machine died in its tracks, evidently exhausted from the lively run.
The nature of corporations was as much an issue in 1914 as it is today:
The Great Northern Express company was arrested last night by Sheriff Esch on a charge of transporting liquor into territory where its use as a beverage is prohibited without having the same labeled according to law. In this case it was reported by the grand jury that the liquor was labeled according to the provisions of the law by the label of the wholesale liquor house, but witnesses which tended to show that the label of the express company had been pasted over the liquor label and covering the latter up.
When the job of arresting this huge corporation was presented to the sheriff he frankly admitted that it was a new line of procedure. He was entirely familiar with the methods of serving civil warrants upon corporations, but how to arrest one on a criminal charge was a different matter. The prosecuting attorney was unable to settle the question as it would be improper to arrest the .Salem agent of the corporation upon such a charge as the agent himself was not even an accomplice.
The matter was finally settled by calling the agent up and informing him that his company was arrested. The agent promised to to the matter up with the with the heads of the corporation and seek out the proper man to be arrested.
The Fourth being a slow news day, the following related events at the Oregon State Prison:
The only real Fourth of July celebration within the city limits of Salem was held behind brick walls patrolled by armed guards but the hilarity of the occasion was none the less genuine because of its being pent up. The 400 prisoners at the Oregon State prison celebrated Independence Day with the usual round of “gratis” lemonade. It is safe to say that of all the places in this state today where celebrations are in progress, the only one that flaunted the sign “Lemonade Gratis” was the one held at Salem. After each athletic event the majority of the 400 prisoners lined up before the stand were served with lemonade of. which there seemed to be an unlimited supply.
The Statesman reported a riot by Austrians in Boise in which two were killed, and three others sent to hospital:
Boise, Idaho, July 4. – Five members of the Austrian colony here are in the hospital, two of them not expected to live until morning, and three ore are under arrest as the result of a riot today. The trouble is an outgrowth of the death of Archduke Francis Ferdinand last week, which fanned to flame the implacable hatred of the Servian for the Austrian and the feud between the Greek and Catholic churches.
The first fight started in an Austria rooming house. One young man approached another with the assertion that “Your king, Francis Joseph, is a ——— ——- ——-.” With that the trouble started.
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The remaining members of the colony have been warned that any further trouble will be dealt with severely and a close watch is being kept on the various Austrian rooming houses.
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