January 4

New Year's Eve Celebrations

On Monday, New Year's Eve, quite a number of Emmitsburgians celebrated the outgoing of the old year. Church bells were rung, whistles blown, revolvers were fired, trumpets blown, all to indicate the passing of another year and to welcome the new. Midnight services were held in the Lutheran Church.

Zero Degree Weather In The Vicinity

During the past week, Emmitsburg has been visited by very severe cold weather. On Sunday morning, at seven o'clock, the thermometer registered 10E below zero. The oldest inhabitants of this community cannot recall weather as cold as this so early in the season.

Play Held For Benefit Of Charity

That Heiress of Hoetown, a play presented by the players of the local Knights of Columbus council, was reproduced New Year’s night in St. Euphemia's Hall. If at its first presentation the play was a success, it was even more so at its reproduction. The hall was crowded to its utmost capacity, a great number of the audience being obliged to stand. The musical program by the Emmitsburg Orchestra added much to the success of the play. The proceeds will be donated for charitable purposes among the poor in this vicinity.

Report From Emmitsburg Public Library.

During the year, 68 books were added to the library. These include: reference – two; essays – one; history and biography – one; juvenile – one; fiction - 63. 50 of these books were donated and eighteen purchased. Three were discarded and three lost. The Library has on its shelves 547 books in total. In the eleven months that the library has been open, 1,887 books were circulated with an average weekly circulation of 39. Ten magazines were on the shelves each month with occasional copies of others. All were in great demand. The number of annual borrowers was 31. The number of monthly borrowers was 74; for a total of 105.

Uncle Bill's Own Column

After a vacation of ten years, uncle Bill has again become a member of the Chronicle staff. William Napoleon Ebenezer Podgable Tansy, better known as uncle Bill, was born in Souseville, somewhere in America, on January 13, 1853. From early boyhood William has been a great student. At the age of thirteen he entered Harney University and graduated from that ancient seat of learning two years later, with a degree in B.S.. For the next 30 years, during part of which he lectured in the universities of Hotstuffski, Siberia, Slobgob, Poland and various colleges in France, England, Ireland and Back River, uncle Bill traveled very extensively, familiarizing himself with the habits of many peoples and writing 167.5 works of various deep scientific subjects.

January 11

Public School Opened Monday

The pupils of the Emmitsburg public school resumed their studies on Monday. Due to burst water pipes and necessary repairs needed to the heating system, the opening date was delayed. Ms. Anna Rowe accepted the position in the public school left vacant by Miss Clara Rowe, who was recently married. Miss Mary Ohler has accepted the position at the Cat Tail branch one-room schoolhouse left vacant by Miss Rowe.

Enlistments And Transfers

Bernard Jenkins of Irish Town has enlisted in the Aviation Corps of the U.S. Army and will leave for the training camp at Columbus Ohio on Monday. Mr. Charles Rowe, a member of the United States infantry, of the national Army at Camp Meade, has been transferred to the Medical Corps. Mr. Rowe was the guest of his parents on West Main St. on Sunday.

Patterson Brothers Suffer Heavy Loss By Fire

A fire early Monday morning completely destroyed the large barn owned by the Patterson Brothers on the old Byers Farm about three quarters of a mile west of Emmitsburg. The origin of the fire is a mystery and was discovered about three o'clock by the seven-year-old daughter of Mr. Robert Eyler. The men at once went to the barn, but by that time the roof had fallen in. Neighbors arrived on the scene promptly and were able to rescue a great number of the stock. The chicken houses, corn sheds and other buildings were saved. The fire spread with great rapidity and the flames could be seen for miles around. The wheat crop was sold only recently, and fortunately had been delivered. The blaze consumed nine horses, eighteen head of cattle, six hearths, nine tons of cotton seed meal, 6,000 sheaves of fodder, wagons and horse carriages, entailing a loss of about $9,000 partially covered by insurance.

January 18

Business Brought To A Standstill On Monday

In compliance with the rule laid down by the Fuel Administrator in Washington for the conservation of fuel, business in Emmitsburg was practically on a standstill on Monday. The Union Manufacturing Company was shut down for five days. Both the parochial and public schools were closed and will continue to keep holiday on Monday for nine weeks. All the local stores were closed at noon.

Emmitsburg Snowbound

Owing to the heavy snowfall on Monday night and early Tuesday morning, Emmitsburg was completely snowbound. No mail left the local post office and none were received from noon Monday until noon Tuesday. It was impossible for automobiles or other vehicles to travel most of the roads.

A Birds’ Christmas Carol

One of the most sparkling, and at the same time one of the most pleasure giving little plays ever produced by scholars, formed the Christmas entertainment at St. Euphemia's parochial school. A delightful dramatization of Kate Douglass Wiggin’s beautiful story, The Birds’ Christmas Carol, was the source of which those present derived so much thorough enjoyment on that occasion. So many, owning to household preparations and to the rush of the holidays, were deprived of an opportunity to witness it. However, in deference to the very many appeals for a repetition of the former success, the original splendid cast again will present The Birds’ Christmas Carol, next Thursday afternoon and evening.

January 25

Boozers Thwart Closing Of Hotel Slagel Saloon

Members of the Former Former Boozers Association refused to leave the Hotel Slagel’s Saloon to allow it to close at noon in accordance with the recently issued requirements from the Fuel Administrator in Washington, in order to save fuel for the war effort. The Boozers protested loudly that the saloon was the only place they could drink without listening to the non-stop nagging of their women folk. "I’d rather be stuck in a trench on the front lines then listen to my wife screech all day to me about needing to fix the roof or chop wood," said one boozer. Other Boozers question the need to heat the saloon – "Pack enough of us in here, and give us enough hooch, and before you know it this place is plenty warm and our blood sufficiently provides us, for the temperature outside can drop to 100 degrees below and we would never know!" Burgess Annan’s attempt to talk them out of the saloon ended after his third shot of Dan Shorb’s special mountain mix.

New Machine Makes Bank Bookkeeping Automatic

In line with its policy of giving to its customers the best possible bank services, the directors of the Emmitsburg Savings Bank recently decided to install a ledger-posting machine to do its bookkeeping. The model chosen is one that has been giving satisfaction in the largest and most successful banks in the country. The machine has arrived in Emmitsburg and the new system of taking care of customer accounts will be inaugurated as soon as the transfer of accounts can be made from the old pen and ink system of keeping books.

The new bookkeeper is a Burroughs adding subtracting machine - the machine with steel brains - that makes all figure work practically error proof. With the speed that seems almost incredible, it automatically prints dates, lists old balances, subtracts and adds deposits and computes and prints new balances - all in one movement of the carriage across the page.

To one familiar with bank bookkeeping methods, this means that it not only posts figures to the ledger pages, but also automatically balances each account as the posting is done. Operations for the machine are extremely simple. Mere depressions of keys on the keyboard set in motion the mechanism, which automatically adds and subtracts in the proper columns, and prints the figures neatly on the ledger page. No longer will customers be required to surrender their passports - their only receipt for deposits - to be balanced from time to time. Instead, the bank will substitute the plan of handing neat print statements to the depositors on the first of each month.

Read Prior '100 Years Ago this Month'