Sunday, July 29, 1917
In “one of the most peculiar … accidental drownings in this section,” a Troy man vacationing at Saratoga Lake drowns in a pail of water this morning.
Tolson S. Eland spends the weekend at his parents’ summer camp near Snake Hill. Eland is a machinist for the W. & L. Gurley company of Troy, “prominent in Masonic circles” and “well and favorably known throughout Troy,” The Saratogian reports.
Eland is last seen alive leaving his parents’ camp to get a pail of water. He has to go to a nearby brook because a pump at the campground isn’t working. After a while his father goes out looking for him and finds him lying on his stomach, his face wedged into the half-filled pail. Investigators aren’t sure whether Eland simply stumbled and fell or grew dizzy from the heat and fainted. A doctor at a neighboring campground declares him dead. A Stillwater physician confirms accidental drowning as the cause of his death.
MANY STUDENT OFFICERS HERE
“Saratoga almost had the appearance of a garrison town” this weekend as men from the officers’ training camp at Plattsburgh spend their leave in the Spa City. As the town gets ready for the August racing season, the military students “seemed to make unanimous choice of this place as a rendezvous over Sunday,” The Saratogian reports.
“Many of the uniformed and bronzed young men arrived Saturday afternoon and evening, enjoyed the night’s festivities in park, Casino and hotels, and after a night’s rest returned to camp.”
NOLLER GIVES LAST CONCERT
The men from Plattsburgh most likely took in one of the last concerts in Congress Park by William F. Noller’s Troy City Band. The bandstand will be taken over during the racing season by D’Avino’s Concert Band of Boston.
“Mr. Noller’s organization of musicians has been wonderfully popular with Saratogians and visitors alike,” The Saratogian reports, “and there was a record-breaking attendance to hear the season’s final concert.
“Director Noller’s effort to provide additional attractions, such as instrumental and vocal soloists of prominence, have been greatly appreciated and the desire for the return of the band next season is general.”
LOCAL BASEBALL
Enough of the jockeys riding at Saratoga next month have arrived in town to form a baseball team and challenge the hometown heroes of the Catholic Union today.
In an impressive display of multi-sport versatility, the jockeys come from behind to beat the locals, 5-4. They tie the game in the seventh after the Union reliever throws two wild pitches with the bases loaded, and break the tie with a ninth-inning single.