A Look Back: Aug. 26

200 Years Ago

■The proprietors of the Mount Holyoke building are hereby notified that a meeting of the proprietors and such other inhabitants as feel an interest in making improvements in the road leading to and from said building, and any other additions which may tend to render this delightful place of resort still more comfortable and pleasing, will be holden on Tuesday next, at Oliver Warner’s Coffee House in Northampton, for the purpose of consulting what measures shall be pursued in expending the funds arising from the rents of said building.

■At the court of common pleas at Greenfield, a schoolmaster was tried for severely and immoderately punishing one of his scholars, a girl 9 years of age. After hearing the testimony, the jury were directed by the judge to return a verdict of guilty, if in their opinion, the punishment exceeded the bounds which the nature of the offense demanded. They retired and returned in about an hour with a verdict of acquittal.

100 Years Ago

■Judge and Mrs. Richard W. Irwin leave tomorrow for a weekend in Washington, as the guests of President and Mrs. Coolidge at the White House. Judge and Mrs. Irwin are the first Northampton people to be honored with an invitation to visit our distinguished fellow townsman and his wife in the executive mansion at Washington, now their home.

■A 17-year-old bootlegger, three Easthampton crapshooters, a bouquet of drunks and violators of both the liquor and automobile laws, were assembled in the District Court room to begin the week today.

50 Years Ago

■Northampton Democrats, chomping on cigars, hamburgers, and hot dogs, gathered last night at Look Park to praise each other and wish each other the best in up-coming election battles. There were calls for unity among the 150 people present once the Sept. 18 primaries are over, and there was an air of confidence about because everyone at the picnic knew that after the primaries there would be only three contests in the November runoff.

■Beginning Monday, the Gazette will report the pollen count reading for the last 24 hours as determined by the bacteriology laboratory at Cooley Dickinson Hospital. The reading measures the amount of pollen in the air to anticipate the magnitude of hay fever attacks affecting those with the disease.

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