A Look Back, March 30

■Straw cutting machines, of a new and much improved construction, are for sale at the tavern of Oliver Warner in Northampton, who is the agent of the patentee. Price $10. The following gentlemen have recommended this machine: Rev. Joseph Lyman, D.D., Hatfield; Hon. Jonathan H. Lyman, Northampton; Oliver Warner, Esq. do.: Capt. Isaac Damon, do.; Enos Boise, Esq., Blandford; Calvin Burnham, Esq., Lenox.

■Taken up by the subscriber, a cask of oil in the Connecticut River, near the mouth of the Manhan River. The owner can have it by calling on the subscriber, proving property and paying charges. — Samuel Nolton, Easthampton.

■Fred P. Belmont, who has been manager of the Plaza theater in Northampton for the past eight years, will be promoted to the position of manager of the new Calvin theater when it opens in April, it was announced today by the Goldstein Brothers, owners of both theaters.

■A strike among the loom workers at Belding Bros.’ Silk mill, following the introduction by the company of the new “three loom system,” was threatened in statements made to the Gazette today by several of the employees, and on Monday morning a meeting of the workers is to be held in Moose Hall on Pleasant Street to take final action on the question of a walk-out.

■The Northampton Planning Board last night voted unanimously to reject the plans for the Tinkham Woods subdivision on Westhampton Road. The board based its rejection of the plans for the 77-unit subdivision on a variety of grounds, mostly connected with technical errors in the plans submitted.

■The Northampton School Committee last night hired Walter R. Crowther Jr. as vice principal of the newly expanded Ryan Road School. The selection of Crowther as vice principal of the school, now a 600-pupil structure, ended weeks of debate by the committee on how to define the precedent-setting position. Crowther, a science supervisor for the elementary schools, will be the first elementary school vice principal in Northampton.