150 Years Ago
Perils of Editing a Frontier Paper. The editor of the Owyhee Avalanche, under the head of “Agreeable Business,” gives the following incident of a newspaper editor’s life on the border of civilization: “For instance, in a recent issue we referred directly to a ruffian known as Captain Prescott, and incidentally to a guerrilla named Al Cage. We did this in justice to ourselves and community at large. The other day, while quietly seated in our sanctum, taxing our brain for ‘more copy’ in response to the named villains, one of them armed with a hatchet and the other with a Bowie knife of large dimension, made a violent attack upon our person. The alternative was to fight or die. We accordingly seized a large knife, about two feet long, used for cutting paper and bird our assailants pretty freely. They sued for mercy, we spared their worthless lives and told them to dust, and they got up and dusted. We should take this occasion to state that if they or any one attacks us with intention of doing bodily harm, we will shoot them dead on their tracks or cut their throats from ear to ear.”
130 Years Ago
At Stewart, Colorado last Saturday, a gang of cowboys took possession of the town and demolished the post office and its contents. About 100 shots were fired, but one hurt.
100 Years Ago
America’s Honor Roll. Casualties among the expeditionary forces thus far reported by General Pershing including today’s total 7,315, the war department announced. It is making public the weekly summary of total casualties. Deaths in action and from wounds, disease, accidents, and all other cases number 2,927; while 4,046 have been wounded and 342 are missing in action, including men held prisoner in Germany.
70 Years Ago
Explanation of the objectives of Alcoholics Anonymous was given members of the Carson City Exchange Club Tuesday by a member of the national organization. He stated that alcoholism is a disease and that it should be recognized as such. The speaker said that since its inception it has been 14 years and some 58,381 people have found sobriety.
50 Years Ago
Douglas County authorities will seed a five-count involuntary manslaughter complaint against a driver of a truck that slammed into a car on Highway 50 near Spooner Summit late Saturday, killing five of the nine occupants.
30 Years Ago
‘Screw Nevada II’ bill ok’d. A powerful Senate committee approved a bill Thursday to limit the money Nevada would get to monitor federal work at the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump.
Trent Dolan is the son of Bill Dolan, who wrote this column for the Nevada Appeal from 1947 until his death in 2006.
