150 Years Ago
Horse waterfalls. The vicious effects of fashion were put to the test in Wheeling, Va. The Intelligencer recommends buyers at the government horse sale to try the horse’s tail to see if it is real, or a waterfall, affixed by Spaulding’s glue.
130 Years Ago
Row at Benton’s. Abe Molly came in with a team of horse and dusty harnesses and ordered Simon Deegan to clean them. In the morning Abe went to harness his horses, but could not find the harnesses and began to charge everybody with stealing them. He was pretty well filled with bad gin — and belligerent. It appeared that Deegan, the harness cleaner, had put the harnesses in such great shape that his owner didn’t recognize them. After understanding the nature of the transformation, he paid Deegan a dollar and treated all the hands.
110 Years Ago
Advertising. “The Briggs Hotel — The fame of the kitchen and room receives its praise from the public. Meals — 25 cents; rooms — from 50 cents up. Best Second Class Hotel in the state. Spacious sample rooms for commercial men. Electrically lighted throughout. Telephone services to all points. Gilbert Briggs, proprietor.”
70 Years Ago
Military souvenir warning. There may be a little “booby trap” in your home. Col. A. Dishman, ordnance officer for the Ninth Service Command, warned owners of grenades, shells, fuses and other war-time items that it is impossible to determine if “sudden death or painful injury” lurks inside of the souvenirs.
50 Years Ago
Tea to honor Mrs. Sawyer. Mrs. William A. Reinken, chairman of the Ormsby County Democratic Women, reports that plans are underway for a tea honoring Mrs. Grant Sawyer, wife of Nevada’s governor.
20 Years Ago
Carson City movies. “Dangerous Minds” with Michelle Pfeiffer, “Waterworld” with Kevin Costner, and “Seven” with Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman.
Sue Ballew is the daughter of Bill Dolan, who wrote this column for the Nevada Appeal from 1947 until his death in 2006.