Did you know that old issues of the local newspapers can be found at the public library? You won't find physical copies of The Lexington Gazette though, they'll be on microfilm. There are drawers and drawers filled with little boxes, each containing a spool of film. Each spool has tiny photo negatives of newspaper pages, each only being about 2 inches long.
This week, we're taking a bigger step into the past than usual and looking at The Rockbridge County News in September 1914.
The word of the day on September 3, 1914 was: Prohibition. Half of the front page of this broadsheet issue was advertisements, but the other half included:
- A letter, from one William A. Anderson of Lexington, VA, that took up two and half columns.
- A report of VMI being ready if the war department needed soldiers to fight, and a request for $60,000 worth of artillery.
- Some personal mentions about locals and farming in the area.
- News in a Nutshell.
Prohibition was also mentioned on the second page of the issue:
- Frustration about prohibition applying to hard liquors and not beer.
- An appeal that legalizing prohibition would lower crime and thus the amount allocated for crime-related local government spending.
- A large ad with names of "thinking men" who oppose state-wide prohibition.
These early newspapers only had four pages, so to end this flashback, let's look at some ads and the train schedules for Lexington and Buena Vista.
