Antics by 1907 mayor draws headlines

"The behavior of Elgin's mayor is awful." "I can't believe the city would buy something and never use it." "Some people in Elgin sure like to gamble."

These are comments people might have made after reading the news of a century ago. Here's a look at those stories and others that made Elgin news during August 1907 as recorded in the newspapers of the time.

•Elgin Mayor Arwin Price was known for some rather unconventional behavior, but even he outdid himself during August 1907. Price, along with the 14 councilmen, volunteered to work a benefit soft drink concession at Lords Park. Arriving inebriated and chewing a crumbled cigar, Price collided with a group of small girls and then became verbally abusive to several customers. His refusal to provide change to a man who gave him a dollar for a nickel cigar drew shouts of "lock him up" and "call the wagon" from the crowd as they threw Cracker Jack boxes at him. The mayor finally retreated to the nearby pavilion and eventually took a street car home.

The trouble didn't end the next day as the stories carried by the newspapers prompted Price to visit three offices, and in one instance he threw a typewriter and damaged a chair. The mayor was later found "semiconscious" at a local bar and taken to police headquarters before being sent home. Calls circulated about town for his impeachment which prompted Price to issue a warning that he had a list of "20 men of prominence" whose arrest would be ordered if such action occurred.

•Ladies and gentlemen -- "The most astonishing, colossal, death-defying, and remarkable show on earth!" After a hiatus of three years, the Barnum & Bailey Circus arrived in Elgin by rail and traveled in parade formation to what is now a residential area on the near southeast side.

Twenty tents, over 1,200 men, and an array of draft horses each marked on the hoof with a "B&B" were just some of the features of the show. A particular highlight was a "loop the loop" in which one acrobat flew 55 feet through the air and was caught by another standing 70 feet above the ground. Police issued a warning to residents to beware of pick-pockets, and arrested five such offenders. Officers also broke up several games of chance going on behind one of the tents.

•Who said the police weren't busy in the good old days? Twenty-eight men and one woman were rounded up by Elgin police in two gambling raids in the downtown area. Officers observed the first group of offenders through a skylight of a Douglas Avenue bar and broke through the front door of the building to gain entry. That same evening, a smaller gambling arrest occurred behind the Eagle brewery on the west side. Over $200 in cash was also taken in what was believed to be the largest raid in Elgin's history up to that time.

•"I have not seen any teeth that are not genuine," said a member of the Elks Club in refuting charges that the club was using cheap slaughter imitations instead of actual elk teeth in lodge rituals. "They've been dug up from Indian graves. The blankets and the other substances they have been in contact with give them a color that adds to their value."

•Finally, what should we do with the city scale that has been sitting in a municipal warehouse? That was the question members of the city council struggled with after purchasing the scale two years ago and never using the device.

Original plans called for the mechanism to be used to settle disputes in weights of commodities such as hay, grain, and coal, between businesses and consumers. Which department should operate the scale and just where it should go were the recent matters of contention among the trustees.