135 Years Ago
Home & Vicinity – If every lady who wears even a song bird’s wing upon her hat knew that by this act she subjected herself to fine and imprisonment, and that a reward of $25 will be paid to anyone who furnishes information to convict her of such act, it is doubtful if she would wish to appear on our thoroughfares and in public places in open violation of the law. A milliner who exposes for sale “any wild bird other than a game bird, or has in possession any such song or wild bird, or any part thereof, after the same has been killed,” is subject equally to the penalty.

Is it not high time that people who are in the habit of driving their horses so rapidly and carelessly through Main Street were made acquainted with the law in regard to the rights of pedestrians? On Wednesday of last week I saw a gentleman struck by the shaft of a buggy driven by two ladies, and knocked headlong in the street. I myself would have shared a similar fate had I not made a supreme effort to reach the sidewalk. Let it be borne in mind that those on foot have always the first right of way.
October 1886

110 Years Ago
At a meeting of Company G last Saturday evening, it was practically decided that the company will this winter have a basketball team, a track team and a gymnasium team. Indoor baseball, however, will be dropped for the winter, the attendance being so poor last season, despite the excellent games, as to indicate a lack of popular interest in these contests. The athletic committee consists of Lieutenant Augustin, Sergeant Budlong, Corporal Finley, and Privates Melborne and White. At the range on Saturday, two members of the company, Corporal Finley and Private Woolheater, qualified in the sharpshooter and expert classes.
October 1911

70 Years Ago
Despite the giant strides made by television as a medium of entertainment, an author of five successful picture books for children scoffs at the thought that television will cause the small fry to discard their books. Miss Marsha Brown confidently expressed her faith in the future of books as a speaker at the annual Book Fair sponsored by the Oneonta State Teachers College yesterday. “All the ideas, hopes, dreams, fears and ideals of men are found in books which will never die,” she asserted. “Picture books can appeal to children when photographs cannot because photos are too true to life. The artist can draw things to satisfy the child’s keen imagination and lead the child to visualize new pictures of his own. Photographs, however colorful or artistic, limit the child’s mind to the real world, she said. Miss Brown showed the students “Dick Whittington’s Cat,” which she has recently published, as a sample of her own work. Miss Brown’s work has twice been a runner-up for the Caldecott Medal for the best picture book for children published each year.
October 1951

50 Years Ago
Dr John H. Knowles, director of Massachusetts Hospital, said Sunday that he cannot support a national health bill backed by Senator Edward Kennedy, D-Mass, because the bill “deals in sweeping absolutes.” Dr. Knowles also terms proposals made by the American Medical Association “totally unacceptable.” According to Dr. Knowles, the bill Kennedy backs views all hospitals as mismanaged, all private insurance companies as run by greedy and avaricious merchants, and all doctors as just trying to make a buck. “Such is not the case,” Dr. Knowles continued. “There are many fine private insurance companies that are exercising fine social conscience; the same is true of hospitals…” Of the A.M.A. he said: “I’m not going to hold my breath and expect remarkable changes. There haven’t been any and there will not be any.” Dr. Knowles called for regional hospital planning because “a lot of very scarce money” is being spent to duplicate facilities and services. At the end of this year Dr. Knowles will become head of the Rockefeller Foundation.
October 1971