100 years ago in The Saratogian

Tuesday, Jan. 8, 1918

“Is it a bomb or not a bomb? That is the question which is puzzling the members of the local police force in regard to a little iron ball which is reposing innocently enough in the corner of a window casing in police headquarters,” The Saratogian reports.

A reporter can’t quite take seriously the suspenseful events on West Circular Street that result in the police acquiring the iron ball.

The ball itself “is about three inches in diameter and weighs a trifle over three pounds. It is evidently composed of cast iron and is of rich dark grey color. On the top and on one side the ball has been filed until the brighter metal underneath shows through the greyish exterior. Also, it has a point near the top, in a small plug or cap, possibly an eighth of an inch in diameter.”

If the police don’t know what to make of it, imagine how Mrs. Edward Hill feels when she finds it on the kitchen floor of her home at 197 West Circular. The U.S. is at war with Germany, after all, and the Huns are capable of anything.

Hill phones police chief James H. King and tells him, “We’ve got a bum.”

“A bum? Well, what do you want us to do with him?” King replies.

“Oh, not that kind. An explosive one. One of the things that they blow up with,” Hill clarifies.

That gets King’s attention. The chief orders Detective James Sullivan to the scene. “Upon his arrival he found that most of the residents of that particular section of the city were gathered about the Hill residence,” writes the reporter, who apparently followed Sullivan from headquarters. The neighbors keep a “respectful distance” from the mystery object” while the detective advances “gingerly” to inspect it.

“Don’t drop it!” they advise Sullivan, “Look out for the damn thing! You’d better be careful how you handle it.”

Having ascertained that “the iron ball did not seem disposed to do any immediate stunts,” Sullivan confidently stuffs it in his coat pocket and returns to headquarters. Mrs. Hill subsequently explains that her son had found the object on the street and brought it home, but she “did not like the looks of the thing.”

The police will keep the device “for some time unless some venturesome soul appears who is willing to investigate its innermost secrets with a sharp drill,” the report concludes. What’s Happening Tonight’s screening of “Mother O’ Mine” at the Lyric Theatre is a benefit for the Dominican convent, while the Palace’s screening of “The Sunset Trail” benefits the management.