A glance in the rearview mirror
June 1922: Spit ball barred. Divorce ring is the latest. Tooth pulled to toot flute.
by Mary Jo David
The following news excerpts are from June 1922 editions of the Stockbridge Brief-Sun newspaper. These are mostly reproduced in the original, without edits or corrections. Visit the Stockbridge Library to view electronic copies of old local news publications dating back to 1883.
Spit Ball Barred: At a recent meeting of the Tri-County League Directors it was voted to bar the spit ball from use in the league games. This decision seems to meet with satisfaction all around according to reports. –6/1/1922
Help for the Housekeeper: The meats from prune pits may be ground and used to add flavor and richness to cake fillings…Popped corn painted with a brush and delicate colors of vegetable coloring may be used on a frosted cake as a decoration. –6/8/1922
Fine Points in English: The man had just informed the Pullman agent that he wanted a Pullman berth [on the train]. “Upper or lower?” asked the agent. “What’s the difference?” asked the man. “A difference of fifty cents in this case…The lower is higher than the upper. The higher price is for the lower. If you want it lower, you’ll have to go higher. We sell the upper lower than the lower. In other words, the higher the lower…” –6/8/1922
“Divorce Ring” the Latest: …the one who by the sanction of the courts has resigned her job as wife, makes known to all the world her renewed state of single blessedness. For the grass widow of today has just adopted the latest of fads, the “divorce ring.” The jeweled symbol of severance of the marital tie…is made of gold or platinum on which is mounted a broken Cupid’s bow at the end of which is set a jewel to represent a divorce… –6/15/1922
Woman Sheriff Heads All Raids: Bad Axe, Mich.—For the first time in the history of Michigan, and as far as is known in the United States, a woman has been appointed as county sheriff, and has been given full charge of the male deputies in the county. And this woman, Mrs. Lula McAuley, is no novice at the job either, for she succeeds her husband, Donald McAuley, for many years the Huron County sheriff… –6/22/1922
The United States court at Grand Rapids last week rendered a decision upholding the searching of autos by officers without the necessity of having a warrant. This will aid very materially in the enforcement of the dry law in Michigan. –6/29/1922
LOCAL/PERSONAL—June 1, 1922 edition:
- Stockbridge vs. Williamston: A large crowd witnessed Stockbridge defeat Williamston here, Decoration Day, by a score of 11 to 1. Moffat’s catch in the 7th was easily the star play of the day. Neiman was feeling cross and grouchy which accounts for his 4 hits out of 4 times at bat. Gate receipts were $212.
- Miss Audrey Westfall left last Saturday for Marion, Ind., to try out with the “Million Dollar Dolls” company. We hear that she made good and sings one leading part, also sings in the chorus.
- Gregory: Monday being “Skip” day for the Chelsea Seniors, the Unadilla girls Miss Dorothy Hadley, Lucille Barnum, May Cranna, and Mabel Ellsworth, skipped with Emmet Hadley to Whitmore Lake where they met the rest of the “skippers.”
LOCAL/PERSONAL—June 8, 1922 edition:
- South Iosco: Burney Roberts and Walter Kent enjoyed a good swim Sunday p.m.
LOCAL/PERSONAL—June 15, 1922 edition:
- Eleven Detroit men recently paid fines at Howell, amounting to from $10 to $25 for catching blue gills out of season. The largest fine was paid for keeping fish about three or four inches in length.
- Seven cans of large mouth bass were planted in Nichols and Jones Lakes Tuesday by W.T. Ostrander. The fry were sent here by the State Department upon request of Wilbur Ostrander.
INTERNATIONAL / NATIONAL NEWS
June 1, 1922 edition:
- Cairo the Wonder City. The stamp of the outside world and of the Twentieth century on Egypt is to be seen chiefly in Cairo…a living kaleidoscope, with its gleaming and drab human fragments…. White-robed Bedouin, Ill-clad fellah, shiny-black Soudanese and central African negro, swarthy Turk, Persian, Hindu, Mongolian, dusky Moor, Italian, Greek, Jew, Armenian, and the whiter folk from Europe, America, and the antipodes—all are jumbled together in Cairo, their various tongues making a babel that can hardly be duplicated at any other spot on earth.
- Notwithstanding fast motor boats that are being used on the Detroit River to prevent the smuggling in of beer, something like 3,000 cases a week are being shipped alone from Sandwich, opposite Detroit, every week. It is 9 per cent brew, and keeps two border breweries busy filling orders.
June 8, 1922 edition:
- Pulls Tooth To Toot Flute: Philadelphia—A real martyr to music has been brought to light by Miss Winnetta L. Stack who told of one small boy who confided that his life’s ambition was to play the flute. The teacher struggled in vain to teach, but his lips would not pucker right. “Joe, I guess you will never learn…because of the way that front tooth has grown. It is in the way,” she said finally. A few days later, the lad’s mother returned home to find her son’s face bloody but shining with triumph. He had borrowed pliers and had pulled the tooth.
June 15, 1922 edition:
- Windbreaks Prove Popular: The planting of windbreaks, which was started in Minnesota as an extension project in co-operation with the state forest department, has proven, in a little over a year, to be a very popular undertaking wherever it has been taken up. Demonstrations of windbreaks have been established under the direction of forestry experts, and trees have been furnished by the forest experiment station in Cloquet. …
