Corpus Christi History
By Murphy Givens

Wednesday, Mar. 24, 1999

Century-old news boiled down

   There was a feature in the old Caller more than a century ago called "News Boiled Down." It was a compilation of items from other newspapers around the country. As I have been searching lately through old microfilm archives, I selected a few items from old Corpus Christi newspapers that I found interesting. There's no deeper meaning behind their presentation, just tidbits of history "boiled down."
   The Caller reported on Aug. 30, 1885:
   "M. Lichtenstein left on the steamship Aransas for New York to buy his fall stock of goods. Besides Lichtenstein, the Aransas carried 12 other passengers, plus four more on deck, 102 bales of hides, 11 bales of cotton, five bundles of wet, salted hides, 1,913 bars of lead, and 147 bags of istle." [Wet hides were uncured and istle was a fiber used for making rope.]
   The Caller on Sept. 13, 1885, reported that the City Council passed a new city ordinance for public schools. It was signed by Mayor George F. Evans. The ordinance spelled out that "school would be for nine months, if funds last that long. The white school was to have five classes. The teacher of the first class would receive $100 per month. The Negro school would have two classes and the first teacher would be paid $60 per month." [Emphasis added.]
   On Sept. 27, 1885, the Caller said that more than 5,000 plover, a game bird, were killed within two miles of Chaparral. The paper said several ladies took part in the hunt.
   On March 5, 1887, the Caller reported:
   "The last thought of the Texas press is in favor of clean journalism and against lampoonery and billingsgate. We agree with the Fort Worth Gazette, which says `even legislators have some rights.' "
   In July, 1889, it was reported in the Caller:
   "Dr. Spohn's team ran away Thursday morning, the horses coming to a halt in front of their favorite saloon, after having pitched the driver out at Mark Downey's tin shop and turned the buggy over in the street. The driver was somewhat stunned and bruised and had to be assisted off the ground. It could have been worse."
   Two weeks later, the paper took note of "a jolly party of six young lawyers who arrived in Corpus Christi Monday morning in a pleasure yacht, having started out from somewhere near old Indianola five days before on a fishing and hunting jaunt... " The paper identified the lawyers and their club standing as: S.F. Grimes, Cuero, chief shark; A.B. Davidson, Cuero, white shark; V.B. Proctor, Cuero, man-eater shark; F.C. Proctor, Victoria, blue shark; S.B. Dabney, Victoria, hammer-head shark; R.W. Stayton, Corpus Christi, shovel-nose shark.
   In the same edition, the paper reported:
   "F.P. McMullen, contractor for the Edison electric light system, has been canvassing the city for the past week, on a proposition for lighting the streets. It is proposed to substitute all the coal oil lamps at present used in the city, with the Edison incandescent 16 candle power lamps, lighted by the low pressure system, at the rate of $2.50 per lamp per month... This system of lighting will greatly reduce the danger of fire... "
   A week later, the paper reported that members of the City Council "have wisely decided to light our streets with electricity instead of the ancient oil lamps now in use, which only serve to make darkness visible, and to that end have closed a contract with the company for seventy lights."
   The following year, on Nov. 14, 1890, it was reported that "Guadalupe G. Falcon sent to Governor Ross, in the early part of the week, 151 rattles from snakes which he killed in his pasture since the 1st of last May. Many of the snakes killed were of extraordinary size." [There was no word on the governor's reaction to the gift.]
   On Dec. 5, 1890, the Caller printed a correction: "The type made us say T.C. Wright received $50 for ten wildcat skins at last commissioner's court. The amount was only $5, ten skins at 50 cents each."
   In the Aug. 20, 1904 edition of the Corpus Christi Crony, the editor, a fierce anti-smoking zealot, wrote: "Cleaning out the gutters is progressing in Corpus Christi and would proceed more rapidly if cigarette suckers did not stand around and pollute the air so as to sicken the scavengers."