October 21, 1910

No, sweet Alice[i], that is not a flying machine Dr. Leonard intends to take him to the planet Mars. That thing you are looking at is a hen coop: one of Dr. Leonard’s latest inventions.

The man and his daughters who have been setting the wood for burning coal have completed their job and left the ground. London Nelson has bought the shack in which they lived, and removed it to his residence near Lavinia Bridge, and will make a kitchen of it.

It has been decided by the “knowing ones” or rather the Milton Court of Cassation that there is no harm in working on automobiles on Sunday. This should relieve the doubt in minds of any who take Sunday to do this kind of work.[ii]

In making her debut on Sunday morning in a hobble skirt[iii], Miss Laura Gamble, a Milton visitor, fell headlong from the front porch and is much mortified over her misadventure. It is said she will no more wear the “nasty thing.” In respect to Miss Gamble’s feeling we mill make no comments on the spectacular occurrence; mere remarking incidentally: “There is nothing hidden that shall not be revealed,” and the crochet work was neat and pretty. So much for the hobble skirt.

Luther S. Wilson has bought two building lots at Stevensonville.

The Milton colored schools opened on October 3rd with Miss Jennie Baer of Pennsylvania, principal, and another colored lady as assistant. The principal was the incumbent of last year.

Prof. W. H. Fearing has repainted the front of the Times office.

Miss Viola Reed of Lincoln has been the guest of Mrs. Mary E. Reed, on Broad Street.

At the home of James Morris there is a grape vine that has borne a succession of crops the present year. This has been made possible by cutting off, or pruning the ends each month; when the new wood grows, and more grapes are raised on these new shoots. This is something new to many of us but may not be to a […]. There is now on this vine grapes in the various stages of their developments,–green, partly ripe, and ripe, but unfortunately they are of the sour kind.

Adolphus Johnson, on Chestnut Street, has two of the largest sty hogs we have seen anywhere.

J. Polk Bailey lost one of his horses on Friday, and he has another in failing health, result of old age.

The electric lights were out two nights last week. This and other courses have led some of the patrons of the Georgetown plant to discontinue that service. The Royal Packing Co. plant has attached its wires to the Conner building, and it is only a question of time when the Milton plant will lights the town. It has been evident all along that there is not power enough in the Georgetown plant to light Milton as it should be lighted; or if enough, it is not used.

John Willey is convalescing from an attack of typhoid. The eldest daughter of Elias Bailey of near town is suffering with the same disease.

There were a few tomatoes delivered last week and the Packing Company, and H. B. Draper’s canneries were in operation on Friday.

Goodwin Bors. & Conwell and the Royal Packing Co. continue to ship canned goods.

S. J. Wilson & Son have removed into their new building, corner Front and Federal Streets.

The Republican Club holds its meetings in the Reed building on Front Street. The Democrat Club holds its meetings in Firemen Hall on North Union Street.

The Sunday Schools of this county held their […] annual session in the Millsboro M. E. Church on last Monday and Tuesday.

Robert Morris was operated on at the Medico […] Hospital, Philadelphia, last week for intestinal troubles. His condition is said to be very average.

Mrs. Marie Chirtine Neilson Hopkins and daughter, wife and daughter of Dr. R. B. Hopkins, returned home on Thursday in the best of health, after a […] months visit to her native land—Copenhagen, Denmark.

Steamer Marie Thomas arrived at Milton dock last week, and is laid up indefinitely.

Miss Lottie Welch returned home on Friday after a visit to Philadelphia and Wilmington.

Rev. Frank Holland returned last week from Pittman Grove wither he and family had been for some weeks, regaining health. He is much improved, and officiated at his church on Sunday.

Fred Reed is convalescing from a serious attack of tonsillitis.

Mrs. A. C. Raught and son Roland have returned home from a visit to New York.

Charles Fisher, who has bargained to buy Waples & King’s Hardware Store, has rented the J. C. Hazzard property on Federal Street and will remove therein about the first of December.

John Coulter has purchased an automobile.

Irene M. Hargro, daughter of the Rev. David Simpler and wife, died of typhoid on Tuesday, aged 26 years. Funeral services were held at the colored M. E. church in South Milton on Friday afternoon, by the Rev. D. J. Blackston and Heavalow, and interment made in the colored cemetery near town by J. R. Atkins.

Clara F. Rice, relict of the late George A. Rice of near Lincoln, died on Sunday of paralysis, aged 75 years, 6 months and 15 days. Funeral on Tuesday morning at late residence, by the Rev. Savage of Milford, and sepulture made in Lincoln Cemetery by S. J. Wilson & Son.

The falling leaves are getting troublesome to those persons who desire to keep clean front yards, and are in the habit of sweeping their yards, and destroying the refuse; but their trouble is made double by these persons who seldom clean their yards; or if they sweep them the leaves remain along the streets, and are blown back, and over persons clean walks. Besides, these front walks which are seldom swept, present a bad looking spectacle, in contrast with the clean walks of the neighbors nearby. This was notable last Sunday.

Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Welch visited Beaver Dam Church yard on Sunday to view the last resting place of Mrs. Welch’s parents.

On Monday H. K. Wagamon began to tear down the chimney in the property, lately purchased, on Federal Street, and making other preparations toward its repair.

Thomas B. Ingram has commenced to remove his back buildings preparatory to removing the front one back some distance from the street.

As the noon train of Monday, which is a mixed train, was trying to switch off a couple of cars, the switch was turned to soon, or not soon enough, and the forward wheels of one of the freight cars were on the main track and the hind ones on the switch, or vice versa, and one of the cars was overturned, and it required the most of the afternoon to get the road in order for travel again. We are aware this explanation of the occurrence is about as clear as mud, but it’s the best our information gives us, and it all happened at Milton.

D. A. Conner left on Tuesday to spend a few days in Wilmington.

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[i] This may have come from the popular serialized novel The Gipsy’s Prophecy, by Emma Dorothy Eliza Southworth (1819 – 1899), the most popular American novelist in the latter part of the 19th century and a supporter of social change and women’s rights. One of her characters says, “No, sweet Alice, I am not taking you back to the parsonage.”

[ii] There was no such thing in Milton; the Court of Cassation is the highest level of appellate court in France and Belgium. It is the “court of public opinion” that the writer is referring to. The issue of Sabbath observance was a contentious one in Milton at that time.

[iii] According to Wikipedia, a “hobble skirt” was a skirt with a narrow enough hem to significantly impede the wearer’s stride, and was a short-lived fashion trend around the turn of the 19th to the 20th century and the early 1910s. Every so often, someone has tried to reintroduce this style. A good (if extreme) modern example would be Morticia’s black dress on the ‘60s comedy series The Addams Family.