Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

A number of small boys were wreaking havoc on orchards in the Altamont neighborhood. They were climbing the trees, eating the fruit and “cursing anyone who happened to remonstrate.”

The probation officer took a dozen boys into custody and a judge passed sentence – of a sort – on them all. He released them to their parents and suggested that their parents give them “a good spanking.” In addition, several of them would have to give up their Saturdays to report to the probation officer.

Two older members of the gang had been in trouble before and will “probably be sent to the reform school.”

From the nude aviation beat: The pedestrians at Main Avenue and Bernard Street heard shouts of fear coming from the El Dorado boarding house. They looked up to see a naked man flying out of a third story window.

W.T. Nichols, 23, a plumber, had managed to fall out of his third story window “without as much as a finger ring on.” Curious men – and a number of curious women – converged on the street to discover that Nichols was bruised and shaken, but without broken bones or internal injuries. He apparently bounced off a wooden porch.

How did he happen to come flying out the window?

He said he had no idea. However, his condition was “decidedly alcoholic.” A search of his room indicated that he was “well supplied to withstand a dry Sunday.”

He was under observation at the hospital for head trauma.