Bookmarks of Every Kind

Strip of Bacon About the Most Unique
That Des Moines Librarian Has Yet Found.

The most startling marker that Forest B. Spaulding, public librarian of Des Moines, Iowa, has come across in the books that have circulated from the library was a strip of underdone bacon. The most ordinary bookmark found in the books is the common variety of wire hairpin. Hairpins might be collected by the hundreds, Mr. Spaulding says, but owing to that very fact they are considered as fairly worthless from the collector's standpoint.

The vacation season is announced annually by the presence of snapshots in the returned books. These are both personal or otherwise in character. Postcards and letters, too, come in often. Frequently letters addressed and stamped are found just as they were left by the book's borrower who doubtless was proceeding post office-ward by way of the library. These are mailed from the library.

Mr. Spaulding has noticed any number of pretty girls sitting on the beach at Riverview Park with books, and he has been looking forward all summer to recovering a bathing suit absentmindedly left by one of the young ladies in her book.

--Newport Mercury, Newport, Rhode Island, January 3, 1920, page 3.

Posse Captures Laprobe Thief

Robert Lee, of Southwest 6th St., was arrested after being pursued three blocks by a posse of pedestrians at noon today. He had taken a laprobe out of the buggy of Mrs. James Newby of South 21st St. and McKinley Ave., while she was away.

Witnesses passing by say they saw Lee take the laprobe. Three persons started in pursuit and by the time he was captured, 20 more had joined the chase. He was cornered in the Sabin house at 4th and Chestnut streets.

Detective Denholm arrived on the scene, and Lee is now in the city jail.

--Original source, Des Moines Capital, Nov. 7, 1913, p. 1, rewritten.

To Sell No Freezo

L.B. Stoner, formerly of Fort Dodge, has opened a service station at 207 West Second street for the manufacture and sale of No Freezo, a solution to prevent frozen radiators.

Mr. Stoner states that his solution does not evaporate and that it will not destroy rubber or metal or injure the car in any way. It is said to be nonfreezing at 40 below zero, and nonboiling at 240 above.

Mr. Stoner has placed No Freezo in the radiators of many Fort Dodge cars with perfect success, and he is confident that Des Moines' car owners will be interested in it because of the present cost of alcohol.

--Des Moines Register, Nov. 4, 1917

ARMY PRISONERS SCORN I.W.

Refuse to Eat With Them in Camp Dodge Guardhouse.
Officers Yield and Provide Separate Mess.

Twelve soldiers of the Eighty-eighth division, confined in the guardhouse until they can be given a trial by court martial, went without a meal yesterday noon when they drew the line against members of the Industrial Workers of the World.

Fourteen members of that organization have been eating at the guardhouse mess along with the twelve men. When the latter learned the views of the I. W. W. they requested that they be placed in a separate mess, as they did not wish to eat with them.

Because the request could not be granted immediately the men decided to go hungry rather than eat at the same table with the alleged draft resisters. After the noon meal was over, arrangements for two messes were made, and last night the loyal dozen ate alone.

One of the peculiar features of the protest is that several of the twelve are socialists, but would not eat with an I. W. W.

--Des Moines Register, Nov. 10, 1917

Comment: Just reviewing a few old newspapers from the days of World War I, you can tell there was a big emphasis on "loyalty" and scorn for any dissent. In this little story, though, there's some different things going on. It sounds like they're all prisoners for one reason or another, draft resisting, being socialists.

DIVORCE MILL IS ACTIVE

Judges Untangle Several Matrimonial Complications Daily.

Des Moines still bids fair to rival Reno in the divorce batting average. Judges of the District court are kept busy all day listening to marital difficulties.

Judge De Graff granted Florence Warford, a divorce from her husband, James E. Warford, on the grounds of cruelty, inhuman treatment and drunkenness.

Elizabeth Harris was granted a similar decree in the same court. She charged her husband, Ralph Harris, with cruelty.

Mary Davidson was allowed a legal separation by Judge Thomas Guthrie. C. W. Davidson, her husband, is a convicted felon.

--Des Moines Register, Nov. 14, 1917