Too Poor to Buy Clothes

New York, 1895

Professor Chickening, superintendent of the Flushing schools, says that a large number of colored children have been unable to attend school during the past two months on account of insufficient clothing.


Refuses to Pay the Tax

August Johnson, of Patchogue, has refused to pay his village taxes, claiming that the incorporation of the village was illegal. He has been sued for the amount and will contest the case in court. His bill is only $6.


Plenty of Free Coal

Great quantities of coal are being washed up on the beach at Amityville from the wreak of the barge Seth Low, which went ashore at that place some weeks ago. The life savers of Zach's inlet station have gathered several tons.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, March 8, 1895, p. 1.

Wouldn't Be a Martyr

New York, 1895

Farmer Gustave Ritchenbach of West Hills, near Huntington, who was arrested Thursday on an attachment against his body for $5 dog tax and $8.25 costs, didn't go to jail after all. He refused to pay the tax, and when the town obtained judgment against him for the amount he still continued to ignore the proceedings. His lawyer informed him that the tax was unconstitutional, so Ritchenbach decided he would go to jail before paying it. While on his way to jail his nerve forsook him and he decided he didn't want to be a martyr after all, so reaching down in one of his boots he pulled out a greasy wad of bills and paid the tax and costs.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 25, 1895, p. 4.

In Jail for Dog Tax

New York, 1895

Gustave Ritchenbach, a farmer, living at West Hills, near Huntington, was taken to the county jail in Riverhead Wednesday morning in default of $5 dog tax and $8.25 costs. A tax is levied on dogs in the town of Huntington, but great difficulty has always been experienced in its collection. Recently the town authorities agreed to rigidly enforce the tax. The amount realized by this tax is used to reimburse farmers whose sheep get killed presumably by dogs.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, N.Y., Jan. 18, 1895, unknown page number.

No More Stamp Taxes.

1916

Washington, Sept. 6. — Elimination of all stamp taxes in the emergency revenue bill, seriously objected to by the House, was agreed upon late tonight by the conference committee, House conferees yielding in exchange for this concession their demand for restoration of a tax on refiners of copper.

To make up for the loss of about $5,000,000 revenue in sacrificing the stamp taxes, the conferees are expected to agree to a suggestion of House members that the net profit tax of manufacturers of munitions of war be increased from 10 to 12 1-2 per cent.

Sacrifice of the proposed stamp taxes gets the revenue bill back in accord with the original determination of the administration leader and the House ways and means committee to repeal all those provisions in the existing war revenue law which were generally regarded as annoyances by the public. The proposed stamp taxes which are now eliminated included bonds, debentures and certificates of stock, agreement to sale, conveyances, warehouse and custom house receipts foreign steamship tickets and Pullman car tickets.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 6.

Against Taxing Wealth

1916

The high priests in their search for some vital and appealing issue against the Democratic party have hit upon another dangerous one.

They are squarely on record, as the Post pointed out yesterday, in opposition to the eight-hour day for railroad workers, and the other working men of the United States are asking themselves what this ominous assault means. Nor can they be blamed if they become convinced that the Republican party is identified with the capitalists and the big "interests." Or if they feel that logically Mr. Hughes and a Republican Congress — if such should be the results of the election — would at once move to repeal the railroad eight-hour law. The bosses can only blame themselves and their candidate for the feeling that the party has no sympathy this year for the aspirations and hopes of labor.

But there is another issue just as likely to burn the fingers of the G. O. P. orators and leaders. It is opposition to the taxation of wealth.

Already the business has begun. Assaults on the income tax law here in other States are now under way. The people are being told how iniquitous it is that the south pays so little of this tax and the north so much, as if that were some fault of the law. The logic of this is almost incredibly clumsy.

Our extraordinarily rich and prosperous northern states, Massachusetts among the rest, pay more income tax to the support of the federal government for the simple and sufficient reason that the wealth is here to be taxed. There isn't a southern state but would rejoice with exceeding great joy if from its borders went to the national treasury at Washington as much money as goes from Massachusetts, for that would mean that it was rich, that many of its citizens had great incomes which were doing their share in the Federal support.

Idle wealth was never justly taxed in these United States until the passage of the Democratic income tax law. On the shoulders of the poor rested by far the heavier burden. Now come the Republican stump speakers and attack this fairest and squarest form of taxation ever devised on the absurd ground that it is "sectional," keeping silent about the fact that wealth is taxed wherever found, whether north, south, east or west.

Against the eight-hour day and against the taxation of hitherto hidden and evading riches — that's where the Republican party is headed, if it is not already there. — The Boston Post.

Income Taxes

1916

Ninety-nine full-blood restricted Indians in the Five Tribes of Oklahoma are paying Federal Income tax, according to an announcement made in Muskogee, Ok.

Joke Is Played on Peddler

1915

Victim Makes Queer Discovery Next Morning

A peddler arrived one evening at a small town and went to the only hotel there. Every room had already been engaged, but the hotel-keeper offered him a room which he could share with a negro. The peddler agreed, and asked to be awakened early the next morning.

Several jokers overheard the proceedings, and while the peddler slept blackened his face.

The next morning, being in a hurry to catch a train he made straight for the station when he was awakened. While passing the mirror in the waiting-room he stopped suddenly and exclaimed: "Hang it all! They've called the wrong guy!"


True to the Last

"Yes," said the traveler, "my wife's mother was the most admirable housekeeper that ever lived. Poor soul, she was eaten by cannibals in Africa."
"You don't mean it!"
"Alas! it's true. Why, when the savages had thrust her into the cauldron and she was beginning to cook, she cried out faintly with her last breath, 'Don't forget the salt and pepper.'"


Can't Look the Part Now

"John, dear," said his wife, "there was a poor man here today asking for old clothes and I gave him that shabby old overcoat of yours that was hanging in the attic. You didn't want it, did you?"
"Of course I wanted it!" exclaimed John wrathfully. "That's the one I always wear when I swear off my taxes."


About Five

[From the Pea Ridge (Ark.) Pod]

Mr. French who lived one mile south of town died Tuesday, of last week, and was buried at Siloam Springs, Wednesday. He leaves a wife and about five children to mourn his death.


Detects Smokeless Powder

United States naval officers have developed a colored glass which renders visible the fumes from smokeless powder.

Temperate by Common Consent

1899

Who can name a county which, without making "prohibition" an issue or legally forbidding liquor-selling, has not for thirty years contained a saloon? A correspondent of the Atlanta Constitution, on the track of a gold-mining "boom," professes to have found such an one — Union County, Georgia.

"If you were snake-bitten," said a prominent citizen to me the other day at the county-seat, "I believe you could not get a drop of liquor in the town to save your life."

In this county seventy-five per cent of the people own their homes. In the county-seat, only one family does not own its home. There is not a dollar of bonds on the county, and with the tax rate three times larger this year than usual, the total state and county tax amounts to only one dollar and fifteen cents on one hundred dollars.

Union County lies among the mountains of the Blue Ridge. The court-house is forty miles north of Gainesville, about one hundred miles on an air-line north of Atlanta, and about ten miles south of the Tennessee line. The quickest way to reach Blairsville, the county-seat of Union, from Atlanta is to go to Blueridge on the Atlanta, Knoxville & Northern Railway, and drive across the country twenty-six miles along the beautiful valleys and over the mountains.

I was told by a number of reputable citizens that there are many people in the county who have never seen a railroad. The eastern part of the county is probably forty miles from the nearest station in one direction, and fifty miles in the other. — Youth's Companion.

Overshadowed Poet Whittier's Fame

1910

Thrifty Fellow-Citizen of Whittier Pointed Out Blot on His Memory

Will Carleton, in a speech before the Writer's club, related the following reminiscence of a visit to the poet Whittier's old home:

"I was billed to lecture one evening at the town which had been for long years the home of the Good Quaker poet. Just before I went over to the hall, a thrifty-looking citizen accosted me.

"Will you probably say anything in praise of Mr. Whittler, tonight?" he asked, after a few general remarks.

"Why, yes," I replied, "I had thought of referring to him, and in a very complimentary way. I have read, admired, and revered him, all my life, and it will he a privilege, here in his own town, to add my humble tribute to that of the world at large."

"Well, that's all right," responded the thrifty-looking citizen," and we've no objection in particular, to your doing so; but you mustn't be disappointed if you don't get any applause with it."

"Why?" I inquired. "Was he not idolized here — is not his memory held in veneration? Has he not advertised this town all over the world?"

"Well, perhaps so," was the reply, "but after he died, we found out that he wasn't paying taxes enough on what property he owned, and, don't you see, it has kind of made him unpopular."

Gypsy Is Identified by Alleged Victim

1920

Blacksmith Says Woman "Blessed" Away His Bank Roll.

LINCOLN, Neb. — William Dunagan, of Roca, a little village near Lincoln, has identified a young gypsy mother as the woman who "blessed away" $248 of his bank roll in Roca last fall.

Mr. Dunagan is a blacksmith and alleges that the gypsy woman was one of a party riding in eight automobiles that stopped in Roca to have one of the machines repaired.

After he had repaired the car, he says, the woman "blessed him" and took all of the money he had on his person.


20-Cent Tax for Bachelors

Ohio Town Wants Single Men to Pay Sum Monthly

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio. — Unmarried men who pay no municipal taxes may be taxed at a rate of about 20 cents a month. A measure including that provision was reported favorably by the city council and is being considered by the mayor's advisory board. It was estimated such a tax would net the city $192,000 annually.

She Waits in Line an Hour to be First to Pay Taxes

Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, 1912

WOMAN FIRST TO MAKE TAX PAYMENT

Holds the Fort for Over an Hour

HONOR TO MRS. M. NOLAN

L. W. Russell Second in Race to Make First Tax Payment When Collection Began

The honor of paying the first tax when the office of the city treasurer was opened at 9 o'clock this morning fell to Mrs. M. Nolan, who had been waiting in the city hall corridor for over an hour. Mrs. Nolan's tax amounted to $66.18.

L W. Russell was second in line while H. Rosenow and J. J. Closkey were third and fourth. City Treasurer Muenter and his two assistants were kept Busy from the hour opening until late this afternoon receiving collections. The amount for the day gave promise of breaking all previous first day records.

Mrs. M. Nolan, in being the first to make a tax payment, occupies a unique standing in the "first payment hall of fame," for it is believed that she is the only woman to have membership in that exclusive circle.

—The Daily Commonwealth, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, December 17, 1912, page 4.

Wooden Leg, False Teeth Are Taxable

1920

ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- The cost of wooden legs or false teeth may not be deducted form the gross income in making out Federal income tax returns. This was the ruling of deputies in the income tax office. A man wanted to deduct the cost of a wooden leg, and a woman thought she would be permitted to deduct the cost of a new set of false teeth. Neither deduction was permitted.

When a north St. Louis business man made his return for this year he was questioned about his return for the year before. When asked why his tax return showed a smaller income from his business than did a statement he made to a bank when seeking a loan, he replied:

"A bank statement is one thing and a tax return is something entirely different."

--The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 27, 1920, page 5.