OLD NEWS: April 1919 was a heck of a month for Orange-Crush, Crow-Burlingame and scofflaws

From the April 27, 1919, Arkansas Gazette. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
From the April 27, 1919, Arkansas Gazette. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

Advertisements proclaimed the arrival of a new beverage on the Little Rock quaffing scene in April 1919 — and we're not talking about Hek, although we could be.

Hek was a "de-alcoholized beer" named after an Egyptian brew of myth and lore, and in April 1919, the Griesedieck Beverage Co. of St. Louis was looking for distributors in Arkansas. "Hek is beer ... without the alcohol" was the marketing line, until the Volstead Act prohibited using the word "beer" on de-alcoholized beverages. Then the slogan became "Buy Hek — by heck!"

But if Hek found any distributors here, they don't appear to have advertised the fact.

No, the beverage we're talking about was Ward's Orange-Crush, a fizzy juice bottled in Little Rock by the 15 employees of James W. Harper's Rose City Bottling Works at 1015 Center St.

The Arkansas Gazette reported April 1 that Orange-Crush was the product of a Los Angeles laboratory. In its early days, it contained actual orange pulp.

In addition to its characteristic flavor of the natural orange, it is said that it contains an exceedingly high percentage of food value. A seven-ounce bottle, [contains] 187.4 calories, which is greater than a medium-sized orange contains, and also greater than a seven-ounce bottle of milk under the National Dairy Council's analysis of 136 calories to a glass of milk.

This is how far we have come in 100 years: More calories meant more goodness in 1919.

A full page ad for Orange-Crush, in its first weeks of production at Rose City Bottling Co., appeared in the April 24, 1919, Arkansas Gazette.  (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
A full page ad for Orange-Crush, in its first weeks of production at Rose City Bottling Co., appeared in the April 24, 1919, Arkansas Gazette. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

Other new enterprises were being founded, too. In April 1919 the Little Rock City Council reached an agreement with the "Medical Department" of the University of Arkansas: The medical college would manage the city hospital.

The college tenders the free use of the second and third floors of the Isaac Folsom clinic building and the emergency hospital. It agrees to render free medical, surgical and special service to the City hospital.

The college faculty would be the hospital's visiting staff, and the college would maintain a clinical laboratory to examine specimens of milk, operate an X-ray lab to benefit patients, train nurses and keep records of all patients' cases.

Milk analysis was in there because the health department wanted the city to require dairymen to pasteurize their products.

NEW CAR BIZ

On April 23, 1919, the Gazette reported the founding of a new auto-related company on West Fourth Street. Principals were W.R. Crow, president; Ed Rackard, vice president; J.G. Burlingame, secretary; and Whitney Harb, treasurer. This "Crow-Burlingame Co." would conduct a wholesale automobile accessory and garage equipment business.

Also, the company planned to sell automobiles and airplanes. The Gazette reported April 27 that Crow-Burlingame was the first concern in the state to specify in its charter the right to handle commercial airplanes.

The new organization will engage in business at 233 West Fourth Street, the present location of the Crow Motor Company, distributors in Arkansas of the Velie line of motor cars, which, although it has been absorbed by the Crow-Burlingame Company, will be operated as in the past.

Modern Reader doesn't need more sentences from me to know that this business gained traction.

From the April 27, 1919, Arkansas Gazette. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
From the April 27, 1919, Arkansas Gazette. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

Speaking of traction, on April 20, Tom Laser of the Laser Motor Co. at Seventh and Main streets in Little Rock decided to stage a photo shoot with his latest sales model, a luxury car the Gazette termed "the Cole new eight." Possibly this was the Cole Aero 8. Whatever, the stage he selected was the sidewalk around the state Capitol.

Mr. Laser didn't stop his machine when he reached the huge steps that lead to the main entrance of the capitol building — he merely pushed harder on the accelerator and the car kept going. It may have been going yet if the big bronze doors had not been closed.

A cameraman was on hand to document Mr. Laser and his machine as they made their hazardous journey.

The automobile, with Mr. Laser perched upon the driver's seat, and apparently proud of his accomplishment, was standing on the top landing when Tom J. Terral, secretary of state and ex-officio custodian of the building, arrived upon the scene. Mr. Terral informed the driver that he was violating the laws of the commonwealth, and insisted that he remove to safer and saner territory.

I wonder where such safer territory lay? We've already seen early efforts to stem carnage on the streets, such as the experiment called crosswalks in 1916 and the creation of a new category of motorcycle police officer to chase traffic offenders in 1918. In 1919, Municipal Judge Harry Hale won friends and influenced editors by fining the pants off anyone arrested for breaking the Little Rock speeding ordinance: $25 per infraction.

Another ordinance that had been on the books for two years in Little Rock and North Little Rock was still trying to gain recognition when the Gazette published a reminder to motorists April 23 under the headline "Let Your Light So Shine That It Don't Dazzle":

Captain Bennett of the Little Rock Police Department last night instructed his men to warn all motorists who have failed to have their lenses frosted to comply with the dimmer law, as the war upon violators will begin tonight.

Many drivers had complied in April 1917 when the dimmer ordinance outlawed driving with lights that emitted a "dangerous blinding glare." Dangerous, that is, to other drivers, to horses, to pedestrians who all shared the streets with the electric streetcars and random passing animals. Businesses would grind down the glass or, as Bracy Brothers Hardware advertised, "for 25 cents you can get a can of glass frosting that will give you the ground-glass effect."

The fine for driving with a dangerous blinding glare was no less than $5. Recently, though, bright lights had become more noticeable than ever.

This ordinance also affects all soldiers and men stationed at Camp Pike. A large number of soldiers are under the impression that the dimmer ordinance is not meant for them, but in this they are mistaken, Chief Rotenberry said.

SPEAKING OF CAMP PIKE...

The War Department had issued a circular about clothing that was reported in a tardy manner by the newspaper's daily “Camp Pike Gazette” page (today we would call this page a “section”). The notice informed discharged soldiers that they were allowed to take some of their government-issued clothing home — one hat, one olive drab shirt, that sort of thing. If they'd forgotten anything, they could write for it.

Besides clothing, the list included combat toiletry kits — one hairbrush, one comb, one razor, one small steel mirror and two towels. Also, they could keep the gas mask.

So, no, Great Uncle Rudy did not sneak his gas mask out of the Army illegally.

Finally, Dear Reader, you may take one other random item from 1919 with you as you leave here today:

The Miller grocery store at 1023 W. Markham St. was broken into by someone who made a leisurely inventory of the stock but departed without any attempt to take payment for the labor involved in the entry — as the Gazette put it in a brite item atop its April 21 front page.

The grocer reported that the store's front door had been left unlocked but the screen door had been securely fastened. The burglar simply removed the screen door from its hinges and sauntered in.

In a conspicuous place in the store, Sergeant Thompson of the local police, who made an investigation at Mr. Miller's request, found a neatly written note, worded as follows:

"Dear Mr. Storekeeper — Next time shut the door instead of the screen.

"Respectfully yours,

Burglar Boy."

Many old things were brand new in 1919, but stuff like that right there never gets old.

Email:

cstorey@arkansasonline.com

Style on 04/22/2019

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