While Still Wet — News: May, 1919 Lexington Kentucky
Hazard coal field resources are the best in the country.
Taxes collected from the sale of liquor for April $2,249.897
Blue Grass Fair begins Labor Day.
Riots mark May Day around the world.
Lexington to Louisville interurban trolley commences January 1, 1920.
Kentucky has one third of the high schools it needs.
House Judiciary Committee fears politicizing liquor.
Prior to the war, liquor tax was $1.10 per gallon, now it is $6.40 a gallon.
A single seam of coal in eastern Kentucky spreads across 8,000 acres.
Lexington to Louisville round trip $.1.95 to see the Colonels v. Columbus baseball game.
Miss Sally Bright, 421 South Mill Street, received a card from her brother – assumed dead.
Say it with Flowers, Michler Bros. Co., 417 East Maxwell Phone 1419-Y
Senator Underwood of Alabama blocks women’s suffrage.
5 lb. pail of peanut butter $1.25
May 24: Petrograd has risen against the reds.
Ohio goes dry; wetcenters hosted farewells.
All troops except regular start home July 12.
Tell people what the League of Nations means; discussions have been too vague.
Good bread at before-the-war prices: Downing Bakery Company 115 North Broadway
5,000 strong cabbage plants, 1,000 for $5: Keller Florist 327 West Main Phone: 354
Strayed: from 148 North Hanover: 2 horse mules, reward: phone 3326-X
School teachers’ salaries are a disgrace.
1,100 to 1,200 pupils expected in the fall at the University of Kentucky.
15,000 people in Kentucky died from the Spanish flu.
A man may produce a barrell of beer for home, but a photo of the keg on his watch fob is advertising and will constitute a crime.
Marshmallow crème kpint jar 30¢ /Van Camp’s Soups, all kinds, 10¢ a can
Male Help Wanted: 500 colored laborers and miners with their families: U. S. Employment Office
Buy Liberty Bonds!
Dinner party for 30 Saturday at the Country Club organized by the younger social set.
Embroidered poplin dress skirt $3.98/Pink batiste chimese, lace trimmed 98¢
Land: $5.40 and acre in Fayette County
Female Help Wanted: Stenographer, Franklin Motor Car Company 276 East Main
Doors close as June 30 nears, 97 saloons, 6 dealers, 7 wholesalers, and 6 breweries.
Women’s shoes $4 to $5: Finney’s Shoe Store 119 North Mill Street
City, state, and national governments set to lose immense revenue from Prohibition.
List: Black silk umbrella, silver handle; left on South Limestone car. Return to Herald.
Leader
Massive unemployment predicted with Prohibition, over 100 business vacancies.
9 million gallons of whiskey stored in the 7th Congressional District: Bonded warehouses to be locked and barred.
Holding breath as June 30 nears.
Notes:
-One word or two remains in contention to this day: Bluegrass vs. Blue Grass.
– “Say it with flowers” was taken verbatim from a Michler’s newspaper advertisement in May, 1919. The slogan and Michler’s have been around for over 100 years.
-“Timing is everything,” and the U.S. Congress missed the mark. On November 18, 1918, a week after Armistice, Congress passed a temporary Wartime Prohibition Act prohibiting the sale of beverages containing more than 1.28% alcohol. Originally, the act was intended to save grain for the war effort. Wartime Prohibition, which was passed when there was no longer a war, took effect June 30, 1919. Juy 1, 1919 was known as “The Thirsty-First.”
– Point of reference: If you know where the Subway restaurant is on Main Street in downtown Lexington, then you know where Hanover Street is located. This is where the two horse mules “strayed.”
– “Car” in the context of the lost umbrella means trolley car.
12 thoughts on "While Still Wet — News: May, 1919 Lexington Kentucky"
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Very cool listing poem
Thank you!
So much to love here! And I learned a lot. Wonderful!
The research is so damn much fun. LoL
Thank you!
Your choices in this great list poem weave the story of an era. And perhaps, remind us that history can repeat.
Thank you, Greg, and yes it can…it doesn. My research on the Klan during the 1920s feel all too present.
Wowsers! Each line is a poem in itself!
You know, there is potential in that, e.g. in pulling a few of the news items and running with those.
I listed to an oral history yesterday from a man who had Happy Chandler as a fraternity brother. He mentioned the address of what was the Pi Kappa Alpha house on Euclid. I checked — the structure is still there! It’s been made into a duplex. LoL But there it is.
Thank you for your comment.
I love this–almost a found poem.
Thank you so much.
I sat and scrolled through newspapers for May, 1919, and it was positively spell-binding. I absolutely love doing the research.
Michler’s, disgraceful teacher salaries, Alabama politics, and pandemics have stayed with us.
Very cool list!
Can you believe that? When I saw the Michler’s ad AND that slogan, and it was in a May 1919 newspaper.
And Alabama politics! Underwood blocking the vote for women reminded me of Tuberville’s nonsense. 1 radical with a fringe agenda grinds progress to a halt.
And yes, the pandemic. Yesterday, I listened to an oral history where the woman spoke about a typhoid epidemic in eastern Kentucky in the early 1920s. She survived, and then was going around to the coal camps to cook meals for sick people! I need to see if that epidemic hit Lexington.
Thank you for enjoying my poem!