Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

In 1910, a masked and armed man crept through an open window of the Hancox residence on the South Hill. 

He demanded money from the pockets of Mr. and Mrs. Hancox, then sat at a table and talked with them about “religion, socialism and morality.” Then he absconded with $20.81.

Two years later, he showed up at their front door, knocked politely, and handed them $20.81 and an apology. He said their talk that night “was about the first encouragement I ever had.”

“I’ve quit the old game for good,” he told the couple. “I’ve earned this money honestly.”

“Someway, both my wife and I thought that chap was no common thief,” said Hancox, a lawyer and reformer. “We felt it was just a case of his being up against it and unable to get work. We talked pretty straight to him that night.”

From the divorce beat: The husband-wife vaudeville act of James Kelly and Annie O’Brien had audiences in stitches with their act in which Kelly pretended to “throw the young woman about … with only the idea of fun.”

It was not all fun. In divorce court, O’Brien told the judge that her husband “choked me, threw me into the wings, cursed me and almost broke my bones during our act.”

The judge granted the divorce.