THIS DAY IN 1918 IN THERECORD

Saturday, Aug. 3, 1918. The mugging of a Schenectady man early this morning sparks calls for another clean-up of downtown Troy’s red-light district.

Investigators spend the day hunting for whoever beat up Clifford Williams shortly after midnight. He’s found “bleeding and dazed” on Sixth Avenue near State Street shortly after 1 a.m. Williams tells the policeman who found him that he’d been stabbed in the head, but it appears that he was bloodied by being knocked to the pavement.

Williams claims to have lost $15.75. “The belief of the police is that Williams was followed by his assailants from one of the resorts [i.e. brothels] in the neighborhood of the crime, he having displayed his money,” the Sunday Budget reports.

Intoxicated when he was found, Williams is kept in jail to dry out. He’s fairly certain that he was attacked by two men, but didn’t get a good look at either of him. Upon being sent home, “He promised to return and renew the search with the detective,” but hasn’t returned to Troy since then.

The attack on Williams comes as a rude surprise to people who thought that New York State’s wartime “antiloafing law” would clean up cities like Troy. The law requires all draft-age men to hold productive jobs, preferably related to the war effort, or join the military. “The anti-loafing and work or fight orders issued by state and federal authorities helped some in ridding the neighborhood of male and female crooks,” the Budget notes, “but it would appear they are mustering again, and the time is ripe for another clean-up by the police. “Every male loafer found should be hurried into military service. Good men are being taken every day.” Tobacco a Necessity in a Soldier’s Life Shortly after the U.S. declared war on Germany in April 1917, The Record created a tobacco fund to provide local soldiers with cigars, cigarettes or the makings. Testimonials from appreciative troops appear in today’s paper. “Smokers were issued to my platoon when in the front line,” writes Lieutenant R. F. Zarake, “They certainly came at a most opportune time and are greatly appreciated.” “No one appreciates your donation more than the company commander,” writes Captain Wilton L. Hindley, “The spirit of the company is one of the most important things … and that spirit can be held at the highest level in no better way than through the regular issue of tobacco kits.” Goulden M. Swanson of the Medical Department of the 125th U.S. Infantry regiment writes, “This army stuff sure is some game, but that tobacco is the best of it all.”