Halloween and a War

This isn't the typical Halloween article that I've been sharing this month but thought it brought a good reminder that even with a war going on some still tried to carry on with a show of respect. 

Printed on Friday the 4th of October 1942 in the Dallas Morning News out of Dallas, Texas

Halloween Monkeyshines Out;

Rowdyism Will Mean Jail Cell

Dallas is due for one of the quietest Halloweens on record if the authorities have anything to say about it.

Every restriction hitherto imposed will be drawn tighter, Chief of Police J. M. Welch said Saturday. There will be no toleration on this first Halloween of this war of pranks which destroy property or disturb peace.

And military authorities will be equally vigilant. Lieut. William A Gogreve of the detachment of military police here said every precaution would be taken to prevent any trace of hoodlumism by soldiers.

If necessary, he said, requests for special detachments of military police will be made for Halloween weekend.

Elm Street will be roped off as usual Halloween night from Harwood to Lamar, Chief Welch said, and several police officers will be placed on duty in each block.

Cruising squads in the residential areas will be doubled. Every policeman in Dallas will work that night.

Fireworks will not be permitted. Except in the downtown area, needless noise will bring swift arrest. Speeders will be harshly dealt with and such open unlawful acts as turning in false fire alarms or destroying property of any sort, public or private,  will be dealt with precisely as if they had occurred on any other day of the year.

“This is war,” said Chief Welch. It’s no time for any wild celebrations to keep our workers form their sleep or break up property we might not be able to replace.

“The city now has a rigid antinoise ordinance. The entire nation has been asked to conserve its rubber and automobiles as a direct contribution to the war effort.

“We are going to see that the laws are not broken, Halloween or no Halloween.”

Police would prefer that the persons who feel they must make a racket and celebrate go downtown, where they can be watched in a group.

They say one large crowd is easier to handle than roaming troupes wandering in residential sections.

For the quieter celebrants, however, all community centers in the Dallas park system are planning Halloween parties. Virtually all will include special programs.

USO headquarters at the Baker Hotel will have a special Halloween program and its usual Saturday night dance for soldiers. A Halloween party is being considered for the club at Love Field. 

Sunday's Cemetery -Cemetery Accident

Published in November during 1928 in the Dallas Morning News out of Dallas, TX
located on Genealogybank.com

Girl’s Leg Is Broken By Falling Tombstone

Special to The News.

     SAN ANTONIO, Texas, Nov. 4. – A falling tombstone resulted in a broken leg for a 10-year-old girl.

     Santas Rames went with her mother to San Fernando Cemetery to visit the grave of her grandmother. As the girl sat at the grave the tombstone toppled over on her. The mother extricated her and accompanied her to a hospital, where it was found her leg had been fractured above the knee. 

Troops meet crazy Madge

Yes here is another “crazy” story for the Halloween season. This one like some of the others that I’ve shared they month came from GenealgoyBank.com and has a twist of sorts. Appearing in the Dallas Morning News out of Dallas, TX on June of 1901 it tells the story of a mans experience while he was on picket duty.  

A CRAZY GHOST.

It was a cold, stormy night in the spring of ’63. The elements seemed to be jealous of the storming our troops had done that day and were taking their spite out on us. The thunder was incessant and a frequent intervals came great blinding sheets of lighting, making everything as light as day. God’s aim is better than a Yankee’s, and I feared he might see fit to aim one of those bolts at me. So I felt a deal more nervous out alone on picket duty, with the lighting playing hide and seek with me thank I had felt surrounded by my company with the enemy’s lead pouring down on us like water.

In order to keep warm kept walking back and forth before my post, although the slush made walking very tiresome. Every few minutes brought my steps by an old house, long since deserted by man, but not by nature.  She had covered it with luxuriant vines, as if to hide the signs of decay. The roof was completely gone, probably carried away by a storm similar to this one. The tall pines looked into the rooms below with evident curiosity. What they saw God alone knew, for men scarcely ever ventured near there. Many tales of ghost and spirits, and midnight cries whispered about it, and it was given a wide berth. I was sorry it was at my post of duty.

In the army one hears many stories of “haunts” and midnight wanderings of white-robed spirits and the strongest-minded of us can nor hear these tales without a shudder. We boys were prone to believe such things then – most of us coming from a black mammy’s care, whose entire stock of narrations were of disembodied spirits.

I must confess I felt “shaky” and lonely and wished I was in camp. It was about twelve when a most blinding flash of lighting revealed the old house vividly and played around me as an affectionate dog plays around the one he loves. I stood quite still, somewhat stunned, I guess, when suddenly I heard a shrill feminine voice; cry out “I see you!” of course she saw me - anybody could see me - but where was the owner of the voice? It sounded so natural I thought at first it must be a human. I called out when my speech had been given back, but there came no answer. I tried to persuade myself it was my imagination. That I was tired and excited – but when the next flash revealed me standing in the same spot and the voice called out, “I see you,” I knew it was just a pure ghost and nothing else. That ghost saw me run. I went to the camp as fast as I could, told a few of the boys of the ghost at my post; and well armed they returned with me to investigate. “I see you all,” it cried as we neared the house, and the boys suddenly withdrew from its angle of vision. Every time the lighting came it called, “I see you all.” At last we got ashamed and mustered up courage enough to enter the house, and on the stairway sat a little golden-haired woman – too little to harm a fly. She turned to flee, but I pinioned her in my arms and had her carried to the guardhouse for the night.

The next morning her father, a refined gentleman called for her. “She isn’t just right, sir,” he said with a choking voice as he place her in his carriage. I’m only daddy’s blue – eyed Madge,” she said. “And as crazy as a loon,” I observed as I walked away followed by the cries of the boys asking for my experience with ghosts.

RENA BONNER

Weatherford, Tex