West Side Notes

In 1915, the Pant

agraph had a geographical focus. So that readers could find the news that interested them the most, there were columns for each surrounding small town and even news of Peoria and Clinton in the Pantagraph. One daily feature was the West Side Notes. This column would give news of any event that occurred on the West Side, most frequently the railroad news. Whenever there was a change in employment workers, this would be announced in the paper.

On July 16, 1915 the manager of the Union News Company was changing. The Union News Company, according to an earlier column provided a newsstand and refreshments such as fruits, cigars and confectionaries. Uniformed employees of the company would enter the cars while stopped at the station and sell items to the passengers while the train was stopped.

Breaking news could include such heartbreaking news as the death of a beloved dog or the addition of an additional car to a train, which of course meant additional employment for three lucky railroading gentlemen.