Summit County Citizens Voice

Stories from Colorado newspapers of yesteryear

Time travel with Summit Voice each week as we look back through Colorado newspaper archives.

Compiled by Jennifer Brancaccio

HEALTH AND BEAUTY – The importance of bathing

We’ve all seen Neutrogena and Clearasil commercials on television stressing the importance of washing faces and bodies to prevent acne. Flipping through the channels, hygiene products like deodorant, lotions, and washes are prevalent. Who would have thought that similar ads would have been seen in newspapers from the early 1900s.

The Breckenridge Bulletin featured an article on personal hygiene on May 1, 1909. In it, the author stressed the importance of daily baths and the scrubbing of skin. Skin was described as a “complicated net whose meshes must be kept open and unclogged.” A brush or towel was recommended to open the pores. Upper class women were illustrated as the focus to the article in a light that insinuated that anyone of high social standing would be remiss if they didn’t wash regularly.

The article said regular washings would cure internal inflammation such as bilious colic. Fever, contagious disease and congestion could be cured by a single hot bath. Embarrassing ailments such as constipation could also be remedied with a soak and a sponge.

During the late 1800s, the presence of bed bugs and lice forced people to rinse their clothes and skin quickly with cold water. Soaps were later invented and bathing became more of a necessity in everyday live. The author of the article states how ignorant their ancestors were and couldn’t fathom how people lived for “one thousand years without baths.” Read more …

Washington report in Colorado unionization and strike

Workers organizing strikes have been prevalent in our nation’s history. Fair wages and acceptable working conditions have been debated among the government, workers, and companies for centuries. Most recently, citizens like UPS workers; air traffic controllers and teachers have gone on strike because they felt their superiors had treated them unfairly. America isn’t the only country that has felt the economic sting of strikes; countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa have also experienced public turmoil caused by striking workers.

During the 1900s it was common to hear of miners going on strike in America. On May 8, 1914, Washington D.C. released an article about the Colorado miners strike. Companies like the Rockefeller owned Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation were enraged that their workers wanted to unionize in order to protect their rights. Miners in Colorado earned only $1.85 per day and worked in some of the most dangerous and deplorable conditions of any profession. Clashes between miners and militia sent to control them often resulted in death and bloodshed. On April 20, 1914, the Colorado National Guard opened fire on a tent colony of striking miners and their families with machine guns, killing 19 people. Read more …

Hen makes nest

It’s always amusing to read about the antics of animals, whether it be faithful dogs like Horton the Quandary Dog, who greeted hikers for years along Quandary Peak, Colorado’s 13th highest Fourteener, or odd habits of local wildlife. Birds have been known to nest in awkward locations including roller coasters and shoes.  Farms were prevalent along with small mining towns in Colorado, oftentimes requiring their inhabitants to coexist in the strangest ways.

The Summit County Journal & Breckenridge Bulletin reported this week in 1912 that Charles M. Wrenn, the foreman of a car barn, found himself an odd but not so unwelcome guest. A hen has established herself in his office and Wrenn created a small area for her beside dusty files and railway records, seeing the bird not as a nuisance but as a companion for those who worked there.

Eventually, Wrenn stated that the hen “owned the whole office”, strutting around freely. After a time it was discovered that the hen has built a nest and laid 15 eggs in the office safe and the employees and residents in the area tried to pinpoint when they would hatch.

After some weeks of incubation, the office personnel and Mr. Wrenn opened the safe, expecting to find chicks only to find that only two had hatched. It was safe to claim that safes do not make the best of incubators.  Read more …

Letter from a sailor boy

Today, many families across the country have family fighting in wars on both land and on ships at sea. Our generation has seen wars like Operation Iraqi Freedom divide families, leaving those left back home waiting by their mailboxes and telephones for any word of their loved one. On May 3, 1918, the Mancos Times-Tribune of Montezuma published a letter on its front page from a sailor to his parents during World War I.

Lee Shock received a letter from his son, Rodney, who was aboard the U.S.S. Leviathan traveling from Liverpool. The Leviathan, a German ship formerly known as the Vaterland sailed to the United States and, upon docking in New York just as World War I began, was shored up in New Jersey for three years before being seized by the United States Navy.

Rodney Shock wrote of an enemy submarine attacking their ship. The Leviathan “got it first.” Shock follows by informing his father of strict rationing among the citizens of England that that one would be threatened with jail if they didn’t finished what they were given. Sugar was one staple that was extremely scarce during the war. Clothes were also in short supply and many people Shock observed only had the clothes on their backs.

While walking the streets in England, Shock wrote about seeing maimed men with missing arms, legs and eyes.

“You people in the West don’t know what war is,” he wrote. He followed on a more positive note that their ship brought aboard German prisoners the Destroyer Fannin captured off of a submarine. He also divulged that, had a submarine succeeded in overtaking their ship, over 15,000 soldiers would be in peril.

“I sure do long to be out in camp once more, and to be on an old saddle horse once again.” He wrote longingly. He closed his letter boasting that New Yorkers didn’t think their ship would make it to Liverpool without falling victim to attack, only to prove them wrong. Though they succeeded in their trip, the voyage to Liverpool burned an astonishing 10,000 tons of coal. Shock wishes his father well and signs off to begin his duties as watchman. Read more …

A letter to the governor

College newspapers do more than just let students know what is going on campus-wide. During the 21st century, newspapers with student staff have covered national and global issues in an attempt to educate students and show the world that they young people of America care about the world around them. This being said, when a law affecting how college students are punished for rioting, college papers make it a point to make sure state officials hear their opinion.

The Rocky Mountain Collegian, Colorado State’s campus newspaper, printed a letter to Governor Bill Owens on May 2, 2002. The editors expressed their disdain for HB 1173, a bill that, if passed into law, would allow the state of Colorado to punish students of any university accused of riots by revoking in-state tuition and financial aide for 12 months. Colorado Assembly members approved the bill, giving Owens the power to sign the bill into Colorado law.

The Collegian argued that students were already punished for infractions by the university and to have the state enforce the “riot law” and apply a mandatory minimum punishment on top of it would be overkill. Universities would be viewed as unable to be held responsible for their students.

The bill was seen as prejudicial against college students, making the argument that rioters in general aren’t subject to punishment under HB 1173. The Collegian begged an answer as to why other crimes like sexual assault and fraud by a college didn’t require a minimum punishment by the state. Read more …

Filed under: Breckenridge, Colorado, journalism, Summit County Colorado, Summit County news Tagged: | Colorado History, Colorado news, journalism history, Summit County Colorado