HERRICK: A large number from here attended the Uniondale fair; it was a success in spite of the extremely inclement weather, both the exhibits and races being excellent.

FLYNN: The new bell on the graded school building is certainly a decided improvement; it certainly has a fine tone and is something that was much needed. ALSO, if the heavy rains continue it looks as though our pan cake crop would be rather small.

LIBERTY TWP.: Miss Thea Caswell is teaching the school at the orphanage at Brookdale. Mr. P. L. Shelp, of Port Dickinson, has for many years been engaged in charitable work, formerly conducting the orphanage at Brookdale. About 18 boys are now being cared for at this institution, the girls being kept at a separate institution at Homer, NY, that orphanage caring for a similar number.

NIVEN, SPRINGVILLE TWP.: Some sneak thieves recently entered the potato field of Ashley Button, at night, and dug his potatoes. They also took some nice squashes.

SUSQUEHANNA: Attorney John Ferguson has been receiving congratulations as the Republican nominee for District Attorney. ALSO, Dr. and Mrs. Clayton Washburn and children are planning to go to Jacksonville, Fla., in the near future, to make their home.

FAIRDALE: O. M. Warner won the bag of B. B. Timothy Seed that was offered as a prize for the person guessing nearest to the correct number of seeds in the Sun Flower at the Binghamton Fair. The correct number of seed was 2208, Mr. Warner’s guess being the closest. The above prize, which is easily worth $25, goes to him.

BRIDGEWATER TWP.: The Bisbee (Arizona) Review speaks very highly of a former boy, Rev. Edwin G. Decker, who has been pastor of the Methodist church in that city for the past year. A petition from his pastorate asks that he be returned to Bisbee for another year. The Bisbee Review says when Mr. Decker took charge of the church it was in debt in every department, but that his report will show that the church has paid debts of $1000 for the year. The church has a membership of 162.

MONTROSE: F. W. Hart has secured the agency for the well known Studebaker cars, the company manufacturing 20-horsepower and 30-horsepower touring cars and roadsters. Both are widely known as good machines, and have been winners in some of the most difficult hill-climbing contests and long distance endurance runs in which the best types of cars have been entered. Mr. Hart is now in Detroit visiting the plant and hearing lectures on the construction and care of the machines. He has purchased a touring car, which he expects to bring home with him in a few days.

THOMPSON: Everett Ely had a narrow escape from a fatal accident the other day while getting ice at the Borden’s. The tongs slipped in some way and punctured his cheek fearfully and knocked him down; he was insensible for a time.

BROOKLYN: Miss Julia Sterling came from South Dakota to visit her brothers, Ralph and other relatives.

NEW MILFORD: The evaporating plant of Whitney, Naas & Son are now turning out evaporated apples at the rate of about 250 bushels a day. This new industry promises to be an important factor in this place. From 15 to 20 hands are employed and will be kept busy for several months. After the close of the fruit season it is expected to resume the manufacture of crates and give ready employment to the help. ALSO, DeWitt Vail has installed a wireless telegraph station in town and can send and receive messages within a radius of 220 miles. Mr. Vail was taught this through an I. C. S. course.

FOREST LAKE: The Sisters of the House of the Good Shepard, in Scranton, are making their annual trip through this vicinity. They are stopping at Mrs. John O’Connell’s.

FOREST CITY: Anton Gantar has become one of Uncle Sam’s soldiers. He took the examination at the Scranton recruiting office, Saturday, was sworn into the service Monday and left Tuesday for the recruiting station at Fort Slocum, NY. He will be assigned to the cavalry arm of the service and after his initiative at the training station will go to a western post.

SPRINGVILLE: The Hertzberger moving picture show, which was billed to appear here three nights last week, did not materialize.

HARFORD: Rumor tells us that quite a number of our people are struck with a strong western fever and that we may soon expect an exodus toward that mecca.

GREAT BEND: The W. H. Minor house at the edge of town was burned Thursday night about 11 o’clock. It is thought to be the work of tramps. There was a small insurance. Mr. Minor had moved out a few days prior to the fire, as he intended to do considerable repairing to the house.

CHOCONUT: Two bees were held the past week in this neighborhood - one at Jerome Donnelly’s, cutting corn, and the other at Tony Gilroy’s, digging potatoes.

HOPBOTTOM: Miss Mullen, of Pittston, has charge of the intermediate department of our school.

LENOXVILLE: Geo. E. VanEtten, having sold his farm, will sell at public sale, on what is known as the Peter VanEtten farm, 2 miles west of Lenoxville, on Tuesday, Oct. 24, a big lot of personal property of use to the practical farmer. Horses, cows, hens, sows, young pigs and chickens, mowing machines, log chains, lumber, wagons, etc., must be sold, besides household goods. Lunch will be served by the Aid Society and W. C. Cox will “holler things off.”

NEWS BRIEF: It is known to be true that nothing will please a young man better than to have a young lady tell him that he has small feet.

I received a letter from a reader questioning whether it was unlawful to make loud noises at night, shine lights in your neighbor’s home and engage in other behavior that would cause stress and strife for your community during the nighttime hours. The answer to that question generally requires consideration of the section of the Crimes Code relating to Disorderly Conduct which makes it unlawful for a person to make “unreasonable noise,” provided that the actor has the specific intent to cause public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm.

Obviously, if the person is making noise during the late nighttime hours for the simple purpose of irritating his entire neighborhood, then this conduct would be considered the criminal act of Disorderly Conduct. What if the person was simply having a party and not specifically intending to bother his neighbors with the unreasonable noise emanating from the party? The disorderly conduct statute also makes it unlawful to make such unreasonable noise if the actor recklessly created the risk of causing public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm. This means that if the actor should have known that his late hour noisy party was going to bother the entire neighborhood, then it would probably constitute disorderly conduct. In all likelihood, however, the offending party would be given a warning about the noise - and, if ignored, there would be little question about the intent.

What about the use of lights to illuminate the entire neighborhood and thereby interfere with the restful sleep of your neighbors? The disorderly conduct statute also makes it unlawful to create a hazardous or physically offensive condition by any act which serves no legitimate purpose of the actor. The important language in that part of the statute would be the part that speaks to “no legitimate purpose of the actor.” In other words, does the lighting have a legitimate purpose or is it simply designed to annoy and alarm the neighborhood? It is unlikely that any person would install lighting for the sole purpose of aggravating his entire neighborhood, i.e., an illegitimate purpose.

The reader was referencing the drilling activities conducted by the gas industry and the continuation of offensive noise, vibrations, and lighting into the late evening or early morning hours. The reader wanted to know why it would be lawful for the gas industry to engage in that kind of conduct when a private citizen could not do so without facing a potential criminal charge. The question really boils down to the intent of the actor - and when you look at the drilling activities, the intent of the actor is a legitimate business intent, not a disorderly one aimed at simply causing public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm.

We have received a number of similar complaints relating to noise, dust, lighting, and vibrations connected with the gas drilling activities. While there is no doubt that these activities are causing some members of the public to be annoyed, inconvenienced and alarmed, this does not transform an otherwise lawful business activity into a criminal enterprise. As I have told some of the folks who have asked this question, the drilling activities are permitted - and the Department of Environmental Protection has the ability to curtail and restrict the drilling activities under the terms of the permit. If the drilling activity is outside the scope of the permit, then you have a more interesting question as you could argue that the intent is no longer lawful. If the drilling activity is within the scope of the permitted activities, there is no way to argue that it is disorderly conduct.

The reader asked why it would be that he could go to jail for making unreasonable noise at night, while the gas drillers can do it without fear of any criminal charges. The answer to that question really boils down to the lawfulness of making the unreasonable noise in the first place - and the permitting of the business activity by DEP makes the drilling scenario markedly different from the typical “unreasonable noise” scenario.

This is not to say that citizens have no recourse whatsoever to address such unreasonable noise, vibrations, dust or lighting. If your local municipality has ordinances that regulate such activities, then you could go seek help from the municipal authorities. In the absence of such municipal ordinances, the law also recognizes a civil action to abate public and private nuisances, which is generally defined as any conduct that a reasonable property owner would find unbearable or intolerable. You could consult with a private attorney to ascertain whether the offending conduct would be considered a nuisance and whether you could seek redress through the civil court system.

Please submit any questions, concerns, or comments to Susquehanna County District Attorney’s Office, P.O. Box 218, Montrose, Pennsylvania 18801 or at our website www.SusquehannaCounty-DA.org or discuss this and all articles at http://dadesk.blogspot.com/.

Q. I've been getting lots of ear wax lately. Please tell me this has nothing to do with getting older.

I wish I could. Ear wax problems are just one more indignity seniors have to deal with. I sympathize with your annoyance.

As you age, your eardrums often thicken and the bones of the middle ear and other structures are affected. Hearing sharpness may decline because of changes in the auditory nerve. Impacted ear wax is another cause of trouble hearing and is more common with increasing age.

Ear wax (“cerumen”) is made by glands in the external ear canal. This wax protects the skin of the ear from water and infection. The amount and consistency of ear wax varies.

Most of the time the ear canals are self-cleaning. There is a slow migration of earwax from the eardrum to the ear opening. Old earwax is constantly being transported, assisted by chewing and jaw motion, from the ear canal to the ear opening where it usually dries, flakes, and falls out.

There are two basic types of inherited ear wax - wet and dry. Dry wax is common in Asia, while wet wax is common in Western Europe. There's more fat in wet wax.

A moderate amount of ear wax is desirable. Both too little and too much ear wax increase the risk of infection.

If you have impacted ear wax, it can be eliminated with drops, water irrigation, and instruments used by doctors, audiologists, or trained technicians. Removal by a professional is the best method of getting troublesome wax out.

Over-the-counter drops work well for small amounts of wax. These drops are solutions of oil and peroxide. However, there are a couple of studies that found water to be as effective as OTC products.

Syringing with water is a standard method of wax removal. Water jet devices, such as those used for dental care, have also been used for ear wax removal. Do-it-yourself ear wax vacuum kits are available over-the-counter. A study comparing these vacuums to syringing found that the ear vacs did not remove wax.

When syringing, use body-temperature water. Cooler or warmer water may cause brief dizziness or vertigo. With your head upright, straighten the ear canal by holding the outside ear and gently pulling upward. Use a syringe to gently direct a small stream of water against the ear canal wall next to the wax plug. Tip your head to allow the water to drain. You may need to repeat irrigation several times.

Never irrigate the ear if the eardrum may not be intact. Go to a healthcare provider if your ears are blocked with wax and you are unable to remove it.

Don't use cotton-tipped swabs such as Q-tips. These swabs can push wax deeper into your ear. They also can break an ear drum and increase the risk of bacterial infection of the external canal, commonly called “swimmer’s ear.”

Never use ear candles to remove wax because they can cause serious injury. These are hollow, cone-shaped candles typically made of wax-impregnated cloth. These are inserted into the ear canal. The exposed end is lighted. Common injuries are burns and obstruction of the ear canal with candle wax.

To maintain the proper amount of ear wax, you can put baby oil or olive oil into each ear. It doesn’t hurt to put a few drops of clean oil into each ear every day. Swimmers often do this. This should not be done if you have an eardrum perforation. Another method is to have your ears cleaned out by your doctor on a regular basis.

If you would like to read more columns, "How to be a Healthy Geezer" is available at www.healthygeezer.com.

Dancing With Death Over The Centuries

Once I had a case of influenza so bad I missed close to a month of graduate school. I ran a fever and coughed until it felt like my whole world was turned upside down. Because I’m a geologist, not a medical doctor, I nicknamed that bout of illness “the plague.” But what I experienced was a walk in the park compared to the real McCoy.

The sheer virulent power of plague is a tale of human history that’s a warning ringing across the centuries. But the story takes its most interesting turn recently, as science has been unraveling more and more mysteries of the Black Death.

The first widespread outbreak of the plague we know about started in 541 A.D. Called the Justinian Plague because it started under Byzantine emperor Justinian I, it ran off and on for several decades.

We don’t know much about how widespread the Justinian plague was in Europe because written records were not being kept in many places at that time. But it certainly killed a meaningful fraction of the population we do know about, at one point killing thousands per day in Constantinople (Istanbul).

Modern science has taught us that the plague lives in rat populations. It’s often transmitted from rat to rat and from rat to people via flea bites. Improved sanitation measures that get rid of rats can help limit the plague. But, of course, modern sanitation was not even a distant dream back in Justinian’s day.

The story of the plague next jumps (like a flea?) to the Black Death of Medieval times. We know more about it across Europe because more written records were being kept in a variety of places. In London, for example, wise town fathers in 1348 established a special cemetery for those who died of the plague - a cemetery that lay outside the city walls to try to keep the dead from infecting the living. In two years, a staggering one third of London’s population died of the plague, filling the graveyard quickly where bodies were interned five deep. European culture of the era was simply never the same after the cataclysm of the Black Death.

The Medieval plague had some different characteristics from the plague of modern years. The Medieval victims sometimes exuded a deathly stench, and the bubonic variety created buboes - painfully enlarged lymph glands. The pneumonic variety was passed directly from person to person by coughing. That mode of transmission made the Medieval plague all the more effective at killing a lot of Europeans in quick order.

Recently more scientific information about the London outbreak of 1348 has come to light. Using advanced technologies of the sort that have even been applied to the remains of animals as old as the Ice Age, researchers have looked for DNA from the plague in the remains of the Medieval dead. The work is made possible by DNA sequencing machines, a high-tech way to isolate, categorize and sum up the DNA information in small and “broken” samples of ancient DNA.

The research work on the Medieval plague has confirmed that even though there were some differences between the Black Death of the Middle Ages and the plague sometimes found in Africa and India today, the same bacterium caused the malady. The powerful bug is called Yersinia pestis. It’s not found in European graveyards that date before the Black Death, but it is found in human remains in places like the London mass graveyard established outside the city walls.

The great good news for us today is that antibiotic drugs kill bacteria, the cause of the plague in all its forms. They don’t help with viral inflections - like the one that laid me low long ago as a student - but they can help enormously with bacterial infection. That – plus improved sanitation - has created modern populations that haven’t had enormous trouble with the plague for a long time.

Science is still learning about the Black Death. Let’s hope our luck continues good while science works out the details of what made the plague so very deadly in the past.

Dr. E. Kirsten Peters, a native of the rural Northwest, was trained as a geologist at Princeton and Harvard. This column is a service of the College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences at Washington State University. Peters can be reached at epeters@wsu.edu.