125 years ago

january 8, 1886

An enjoyable evening

A very enjoyable evening passed on New Years at the handsome and hospitable residence of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Gaasch, a few miles northeast of Marion, by a large number of their friends. Although the evening was somewhat stormy, the house was soon crowded with happy faces and merry voices.

At about half-past eight the sports of the evening began. Music and games of all kinds were enjoyed by all. At eleven o’clock, came the ever-welcomed dish, “Oysters!” after which there were more games and music, until about two o’clock, when the party separated for their respective homes. In all, it was a very pleasant affair, if there wasn’t’ a wedding or roasted pig.

Samuel Wardell, of Flatbush, New York, died the other morning from a fracture of the skull. He was a lamplighter of the town, and had to get up early, but being a sound sleeper had so contrived a shelf in connection with an alarm clock that a stone would roll off at a certain hour and awaken him. The night before there was a party at his house, and the bed was placed at the wall, directly under the shelf. Wardell went to bed without changing its position, and when the alarm went off the stone fell on his head, inflicting fatal injuries.

We believe yesterday was the most disagreeable and this morning the coldest winter weather we have ever experienced in Kansas. Quite a number of schoolchildren, who ventured out, were nearly frozen. Numerous people, young and old, had their ears, fingers and toes frosted. It was a very bad day. The beautiful day on Wednesday found most people unprepared for it.

Marion was the scene of a disorderly rumpus Wednesday night, in which several men, old enough to behave themselves, participated. The row started it seems in Perry’s billiard hall, and was renewed late at city hotel, one of the parties getting considerably mutilated, about the face, it is supposed with a knife. They enriched the city coffers considerably Thursday, and it is to be hoped will keep sober and peaceable in the future.