100 YEARS AGO Pig purloining perplexes 50 YEARS AGO Cheers to Christmas babies!

We know the ox and ass were said to be present at the birth of Jesus, but what does the Bible say about pigs and chickens? Just days after a pig was stolen from the office of the Albany County treasurer, two porkers were purloined from a woodshed in behind the Jronczys home on Third Street. Mrs. Martin Jronczys was awakened on Christmas morning by the sounds of what she first thought were carolers. She listened more intently and realized they were squeals of her two white pigs. She raced to the window to see two boys climbing her back fence, each with a swine under his arm. She called to them, but by the time she dressed and ran outside, lads and livestock had disappeared. The pigs were recovered later that day.

The next day, Joseph Mahon reported to police that as he was returning to his home at night he heard a crash coming from his backyard and when he went to investigate, he saw a window had been shattered in his chicken coop. Then he noticed three small boys climbing his fence, each armed with one of his chickens. The youths who committed the fowl deed were arrested. There was no word yet if these were the same boys who had earlier made off with Jronczys’ pigs.

Nineteen babies had been born at area hospitals at Christmas, with 16 born at St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany. First of the Christmas day arrivals was at 2:45 a.m. at St. Peter’s Hospital: a tiny boy tipping the scales at four pounds, 14 ounces. He was four weeks premature and was in guarded condition. Other babies were born at Bellevue Maternity Hospital, Samaritan Hospital and Saratoga Hospital.