Daniel Sandoval

Religious or not, rich or poor, young or old, every sweet interlude of life is stolen from inevitable oblivion, and yet people hasten death by killing one another. Belligerence was in the news for the first week of November.

100 years ago

The Nov. 11, 1908, Natrona County Tribune printed a front-page article that boasted about having the best election coverage of any newspaper of central Wyoming in the weekly edition published the previous Wednesday.

Results delayed: Election intrigue resulted in telephone wire being cut between Shoshone and Thermopolis. The details of the conspiracy were lost and the conclusion was premature, at best.

Jim Kinney supposedly arranged for the wire delivering election results to be cut to thwart the fair election of Park Hays.

Hays had the last word in a smug telegram to Kinney: "Hon. J.F. Kinney. Thermopolis, Wyo. You are beaten by 550. Congratulations. Wish it was 700. Cut the wires again will you."

Even though the Nov. 11, 1908, Tribune bragged about its journalistic prowess with the rapid election results, it also all but convicted Kinney in the press by making his involvement with the sabotage of the telephone line a foregone conclusion.

Bell Telephone was investigating the cut wire and vowed to prosecute whoever was responsible, a crime that would land the offender in prison.

Bragging rights: Cheyenne resident George Walker, secretary of Wyoming Woolgrowers Association visited Casper and was reportedly amazed by the orderly, bustling town.

Walker said that the clean streets, downtown shops, new homes, new courthouse under construction and cement sidewalks were dramatic improvements from when he visited Casper two years earlier in 1906.

Legal infrastructure: While the edifice of the courthouse was built, the Natrona County commissioners were shopping for furniture and there was a representative from a printing company from Omaha, Neb., looking to sell.

75 years ago

The second headline in the Nov. 10, 1933, Casper Tribune-Herald said, "Armistice Program to Hold Spotlight," referring to the 15th anniversary of signing the armistice that ended World War I on Nov. 11, 1918.

The reason Armistice Day still resonated was because the "War to End All Wars" tortured Europe with protracted, gruesome, trench warfare that killed more than 8 million soldiers without resolving political conflicts.

Bootlegging: Both President Franklin Roosevelt and Gov. Leslie Miller were thinking about how to regulate the legal commerce of alcohol, in the nation and the state of Wyoming, respectively.

Roosevelt was going to relax the embargo against importing alcohol products to ensure adequate supply and deal a death blow to the bootleggers who thrived during Prohibition.

Miller's advisory committee to the state Liquor Commission met at the Henning Hotel in Casper but shunned reporters and held a closed-door meeting.

Miller opened the meeting with introductory remarks and then took his leave, declining to make any public comment.

Prison labor: Warden A.S. Roach of the prison farm in Riverton hosted a banquet for 60 local businessmen in the barracks of the farm, with inmates and the warden's wife serving the attendees.

Reformation: Special services in Casper's Lutheran churches celebrated the 450th anniversary of the birth of Martin Luther, leader of the Protestant Reformation, born Nov. 10, 1483, in Eisleben, Germany.

50 years ago

The unblinking candor of the camera captured tragedy on the front page of Nov. 11, 1958, Casper Morning Star with a photo of Robert Knowlton crouched and holding his head as rescuers tried to resuscitate Knowlton's 4-year-old son.

Steve Knowlton drowned in a pond formed by a dam on Garden Creek.

Rolling rumble: A fight that started in Casper's Beacon Club started up again at a residence in the 300 block of South Jefferson Street. Dewey Siler, Lloyd Porter and William Burks got in an altercation at the bar on a Saturday night.

Porter and Burks left the Beacon with two women. Siler appeared at the house on Jefferson, and the three men finished the fight that put Siler in the hospital and Porter battered but in the jailhouse.

Porter was said to have admitted pulling a knife on Siler. Authorities said they were considering what charges they would bring in the case.

One's enough: Natrona County Prosecutor Raymond Whitaker made a motion to dismiss the murder charge against Rose Alexander.

Rose's husband for a second time, James Alexander, was convicted of murder in the death of Barbara Alexander, his second wife, whose body was found entombed in the concrete of the basement of the family home in Casper.

25 years ago

The lead article of the Nov. 10, 1983, Casper Star-Tribune was about the fighting in Tripoli, Lebanon, where Yasser Arafat complained that the Palestinian rebels who besieged his troops answered a cease-fire with new attacks.

Legacy lives: Casper philanthropist and businessman Fred Goodstein, 86, died of an apparent heart attack. Goodstein came to Casper in 1922, prospered in the oil business and eventually became a major benefactor to Casper College.

Veteran: The Nov. 11, Veterans Day, Star-Tribune featured an article about World War II veteran Charles Tsukishima, who was dismissive when asked about his medals.

"A Look Back in Time" is made possible with the help of Western History Archivist Kevin S. Anderson at the Casper College Western History Center, which is open to the public.