100 years ago in The Saratogian
Saturday, May 26, 1917
“Highwaymen, thugs, pickpockets and safe-blowers may be placed in the class of upright citizens in comparison” to the person who stole an American flag from a local Civil War veteran this evening.
Ezra Bootler of 99 George Street is “a man now nearing the sunset of a long life, the earlier years of which were spent on the battlefields of war in preserving the union,” The Saratogian reports.
When the U.S. declared war on Germany last month, Bootler hung a6’ x 4’ flag over his doorway. Sometime this evening, someone “used a knife and cut the corner from the rope on which [the flag] was suspended, the small bit of woolen being left to be discovered by Mr. Bootler on his return home Saturday night.”
Bootler calls the police, but investigators have not yet found a suspect or recovered the flag by the time the Monday Saratogian goes to press with Bootler’s sad story.
Flag raising
Earlier today, several hundred Saratogians gather outside the Adirondack Trust Company building on Broadway for a “simple but impressive” flag-raising ceremony.
Adirondack Trust president Edgar T. Brackett presides over the ceremony. Public school music teacher Selma Ladzinski leads the crowd in “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” before the flag goes up.
“Amidst the cheers of the gathering and the shrieking automobile klaxons, Miss Ladzinsky began the singing of the ‘Star Spangled Banner,’ and at the conclusion of the song the crowd dispersed after giving three cheers for the flag,” The Saratogian reports.
Two more recruits
William Peterson, reported yesterday as the first recruit accepted in Company L’s current recruiting drive, has been rejected due to defective eyesight.
Today, however, five more young men show up at the Saratoga Springs recruiting station, and two have been excepted pending medical examinations by the company doctor in Schenectady.
The Saratoga County company of the Second New York Infantry regiment has been ordered to fill its ranks to its full war strength of 150 men. The company numbered 103 men when the order was given earlier this week.
Today’s recruits are John P. Carroll of 29 ½ Warren Street and Frank A. Nolan, a local insurance agent. William Rosser of 58 Catherine Street offers himself, but has defective eyesight and is 1.5 inches too short for military service. Also rejected are George Andrews of Ballston Spa and Ernest A. Donnelly of Schuylerville.
What’s happening
Company L commander Captain Harry J. Young makes recruiting speeches at both the Broadway Theatre and Broadway Palace tonight. This evening’s movie attractions are “The Sixteenth Wife” at the Broadway and “The Derelict” at the Palace.