From our archives, 100 years ago

A team of “yeggs” did their explosive work in the small community of Black Bear, near Wallace.

A yegg was the slang term for a safecracker, or cracksman. 

They broke into S.D. Lemieux’s store and post office in Black Bear, blew the safe with nitroglycerin and made off with cash, postal funds and stamps.

The only clue was an empty bottle that had contained the nitroglycerin.

These yeggs knew what they were doing. They used blankets and other materials to dampen the explosion and prevent damage to the store and the contents of the safe.

In other words, they were good yeggs.

From the auto beat: A terrifying accident on the Monroe Street hill left three women injured.

Mrs. F.G. Meeks was driving a six-passenger auto up South Monroe Street to Seventh Avenue when the engine died and the machine began to roll backward down the steep incline. Mrs. Meeks applied the brakes and then the emergency brake, to no effect.

The auto picked up speed and raced backward across Sixth Avenue. It then careened off the street, struck a wooden sidewalk, blasted through part of a porch and finally tumbled backward over another sidewalk and into a vacant lot. It didn’t stop until it smashed into a woodshed.

Two children in the auto were unhurt, but three women suffered lacerations and bruises.

When rescuers raced to the scene, Mrs. Meeks proclaimed, “Never again will I drive.”