Rome spent a quiet Christmas, though no less enjoyable, fifty years ago this week. The weatherman furnished a perfect brand blending the sunshine of spring with the gracing atmosphere of fall. All the stockings were filled, both rich and poor. Only 15 arrests for drunkenness were made.
Marring the holiday were a number of firecracker accidents. Little Sarah Elizabeth Bass, 10-year-old daughter of Capt. and Mrs. J.L. Bass, was suffering intensely from injuries received Christmas when a roman candle she was shooting fired through the back end and burned her hand. She was with friends at the Simpson home on East Second Street and was taken to Harbin Hospital after the accident. Andy Baker, of Lindale, was badly burned on the hand when a skyrocket exploded prematurely. Fran Anderson, 7-year-old son of J.M. Anderson, was painfully burned by the premature explosion of a firecracker. He was playing Indian with playmates at the home of his aunt, Mrs. L.C. Young, on East Third Street. The kerchief around his neck caught fire. He started running and little Ruth Young caught him and smothered the fire out with folds of her dress.
Will Jolly, of near Pinson, was seriously hurt when attending a Christmas exercise at Oostanaula. A firecracker exploded near his face and was thought to have put an eye out.
The new city directory compiled during the summer of 1912 reached the city this week a half century ago and showed 17,460 people living in the city limits. The government figures of 1910 gave Rome’s population at 12,099.… The auto fire tuck of No. 2 fire company was injured by a trolley car Christmas Day in front of the residence of R.L. Mallory on South Broad. The trolley was running at a fairly good rate and the motorman didn’t realize how near the auto was standing to the tracks and sideswiped it. The extension ladder was broken and several windows in the street car were shattered. … A near serious accident on the street car line at DeSoto Park occurred when Conductor I. L. Overton waited too long with the brakes, the wheels skidded and the car went on at full speed, striking the curve and derailing the tracks, the rear ones jumped to the ground, and as the car was buckling and vibrating, the rear trucks jumped back on the rails. Mrs. J.W. Bowman was slightly injured and a number of windows were broken. …
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Spurgeon Metcalfe, 14-year-old son of Dr. A.B. Metcalfe, pastor of the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church, was painfully bruised, if not more seriously injured, when his bicycle was struck by Roy Lanham’s touring car on Fifth Avenue. The lad was going from his home on Avenue A to the post office and the auto was traveling in the same direction. He failed to notice the approach of the car and was knocked down and run over. The bicycle was utterly demolished. The boy was pulled from under the machine and treated for his wounds. … The police impounded a mule which was found “loafing” on the street and the owner could not be found. From its appearance the mule had seen better days and was blind in one eye. … A street car with Motorman McDonald at the controls jumped the tracks on South Broad Street at the water tank and went into a telephone pole, smashing it to splinters. …
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Prisoners in the city and county jails were served Christmas dinner with all the trimmings this week fifty years ago. … A Christmas Eve attempt was made to burglarize the safe of A.B. Arrington’s wholesale grain and grocery company. The cash was not reached, but a pistol was stolen. … Safe blowers visited Cedar Bluff, Ala., early Christmas morning and threw the palce into panic. The stores of J.F. Sloan and Tatum & Clifton, leading merchants, were entered and their safes blown. Four individuals were traced down by bloodhounds and placed under arrest. … The Southern Express did a land-office business as the store opened on lower Broad Street to receive the shipment of holiday liquor. The house was filled with the joy juice from quart bottles to jugs and kegs. … Firemen were patrolling the downtown streets during the holidays and extra men were hired by the police department. …
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