The Way it Was

Electricity injures sight

CHICAGO, Ill., -- Universal blindness is to be humanity's tribute to electricity is the theory expressed by Dr. H.H. Preston Pratt, X-ray and therapeutic expert, in the trial of a personal injury suit in Judge Winde's court yesterday.

The Union Traction company is being sued for $50,000 damages in behalf of Ruth Bostrom, who is declared to be partly blind and paralyzed from an electrical current which passed through her body April 10, 1902.

Eve Specialists have been the first to discover the corroding effects of the electrical currents being generated by millions of dynamos in every corner of the civilized globe, explained the witness. Day or night we are never free from its influence, he said. The eyes, the most delicate portion of the human body, will suffer first. Dr. Pratt cited the increasing prevalence of failing eyesight. Later will come a gradual sensitizing and burning of the hands.

50 years ago

Farm and Home buys Amerman building site

The two-story brick business building and rooming house, formerly know as the Amerman Hospital, at the corner of Cherry and Ash streets, has been sold to the Farm and Home Savings and Loan Association. The building adjoins, to the west, the home office of the association here and was purchased from L.F. Richardson.

C.A. Duncan Jr., Farm and Home president said today that no definite plans had been made for the use of the site. "We acquired it," he explained, "solely as insurance for any future expansion Farm and Home may need to make here."

It is anticipated that the structure will be razed and the lot made as attractive as possible until its permanent use is decided.