Lorain Daily News Front Page – June 2, 1913

One hundred and nine years ago this month, there was a lot going on in Lorain, and nationally, as this front page of the Lorain Daily News from June 2, 1913 attests.

There were the usual accounts of tragedy.

Sadly, a watchman in the boiler shop at National Tube was found dead there, with heart trouble as the likely cause. Funeral services were held for a young girl who had fallen into a bonfire in the rear of her house and died of her burns. And another young girl broke her arm while playing near her home on Fifth Street.

As usual, crime took up some space on the front page, including the story of a raid of a gambling house on East Avenue in Elyria.

Speeding was the subject of two articles, with two very different modes of transportation. In one, two young men were arrested for racing their horses on Broadway near 13th Street. The other article involved two motorcycle speeders, also on Broadway.

Speaking of animals, another article noted that a cow owned by the Mayor of Amherst lost its life at Stop 84, killed by an eastbound Lake Shore Electric car.

The political cartoon by Bob Satterfield offers a surprisingly cynical view of the lofty aspirations of the young graduate – with his own father trying to 'bring him back down to Earth.' (This Wiki entry for the cartoonist explains the story behind the little cartoon bear shown heading to the mines.)

****

Remember my posts about Mrs. David Beach and her long walk from New York to Chicago?  She was the vegetarian who passed through Lorain on her cross-country trip back in May 1912. She did it to prove that you needed neither meat nor water to accomplish such a feat.

Well, the above June 1913 front page includes an account of a similar feat by two long distance hikers ("Bax" and "Skip") walking from Buffalo, New York to San Francisco, California. They had left Buffalo on May 21st and, walking eight hours a day, hoped to arrive at their destination by Thanksgiving.

As the article notes, "The object of the trip, the two young men claim, is to prove that the vegetarian diet under laborious conditions is more efficient than a meat diet. The men push a cart made of a box and a pair of bicycle wheels in which they carry their supplies."

Hilariously, the young men had unfavorable opinions about the roads in our area. 

"The roads in the vicinity of Lorain are the worst we encountered since starting on our journey," the men declared. They were able to travel but eight miles last Saturday as the wheels on their cart gave way on account of the poor conditions of the Lake Shore road near Avon Lake."