Forest Lake – One of the veterans attending the celebration in Gettysburg is Pvt. Stanley Warner, formerly of Forest Lake, now of Conneaut, Ohio. It was while carrying a stretcher, on the second day of the Gettysburg battle, he had a piece of shell rip across his chest, knocking him senseless. When he recovered he found that his coat had been ripped across the front and his skin was scratched. Otherwise he was unharmed. “I found I was on my knees; what I was doing I don’t know,” he said discussing the incident. Mr. Warner had with him a priceless relic. It was an army coat of black cloth with brass buttons, which he wore on the day of Lee’s surrender, at Appomattox. A woman, nearby, wanted to buy a button from Mr. Warner. “A $1000 bond wouldn’t buy one of the buttons,” he said. [Stanley, who died in 1924, was a member of Co. H, 143d Regt. Penna. Volunteers. His brother, Asa, who died in 1922, was a First Sergt. in the same company.]

Susquehanna/Montrose – The Tenth U. S. cavalry, formerly commanded by President Teddy Roosevelt, composed of 700 colored troopers, are en route from Susquehanna to Montrose. They are coming via New Milford, which they reached shortly after 8 this morning. It is expected they will arrive in Montrose about 10 a.m. They are said to be a fine looking body of men and horses and they did some skillful cavalry maneuvers at Susquehanna and gave a regimental band concert. Montrose people hope to see and hear a similar exhibition and concert on the Rogers’ farm, a half mile below Montrose, where they will camp. Congressman Ainey endeavored to induce Col. Gresham, commanding the cavalry, to give a concert in the center of town this evening, but his decision will probably not be known until his arrival. A concert may be given at the camping ground.

Kingsley – Mrs. A. M. Loomis was pleasantly surprised on her 77th birthday, June 23, by a feast prepared almost wholly by her 5 year old granddaughter Lucile. The menu consisted of potatoes, meat, boiled eggs, bread and butter, lettuce, crackers, pie, cake, cookies, fig tarts, junket, strawberries, bananas, lemonade and tea, with caraway and wintergreens for relishes. At the close of the feast Miss Lucile, with an original presentation speech, gave grandma a beautiful bouquet of roses and other flowers.

Franklin Forks – Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Birchard will reside in Laurel Lake, he being the new stage driver from that place to Montrose. ALSO Remember that ice cream is served every Saturday evening at Alliance hall.

Clifford – Prof. Glenn R. Bennett is home for the summer holidays. He will go to Chicago in September, where he has a lucrative position in one of the large colleges. ALSO A large gathering of men met at the home of Edward Reynolds, of Welsh Hill, to give willing help to raise the large and up-to-date barn which Mr. Reynolds is putting up to replace the one that was destroyed by fire last winter.

Harford – Henry Jones, son of Congressman E. E. Jones, is home from Lawrence Academy, Groton, Mass., where he graduated in June. [Henry later became a member of the Lafayette Escadrille, of the French Air Services, composed largely of American pilots during World War 1.]

High Schools – Susquehanna county has 15 high schools, Oakland and Thompson being added to the list during the year and Uniondale was given permission to organize. There were in the county, last year, 212 directors, 291 teachers and 7,226 pupils between 6 and 16 years of age. The salary appropriation for the county was $17, 478 and the high school appropriation was about $4,700.

Burnwood – Harold Dickey, formerly of this place, is a street car conductor at Binghamton, N.Y.

Thompson – Saturday night, as L. N. Hubbard was driving home with his milk, his horse became frightened at an automobile and backed up against a tree in Mrs. Neal’s yard. Miles Hubbard, his grandson, was driving. Mr. Hubbard, in attempting to jump, was thrown to the middle of the road, the milk can overturned and the wagon was badly damaged. Fortunately, no one was injured. ALSO At a meeting of the trustees it was decided to sell at auction, Monday next, the seats in the Methodist Episcopal church, the money to be used in procuring new ones at which time the work of repairing the interior of the church will begin.

Forest City – Ludwig H. Conrad is at Gettysburg, the only veteran from town in attendance. ALSO The United Sportsmen, at a recent meeting, decided to place boats on Cottrell and Howell ponds for the convenience of its members. The boats on Stillwater will be removed. A more careful use of the boats will be the order and their use will be limited to members only.

Uniondale – Walter S. Lyon believes that the farmers of this community are unwise in shipping their milk. He says that farmers can make more solid cash in converting their milk into cream or butter than where the whole product is sold. He sells cream and feeds the skim milk to calves and pigs thus deriving a profit from the by product. He is raising nine calves that are beauties and from which he will eventually build up a herd of Holsteins.

Montrose – A wrestling match between Jack McKeage, of Montrose, and

Dexter Very, of Fairdale, is an athletic event which will interest all who witness the afternoon program at the celebration here the 4th. Both are clever collegiate wrestlers and it is confidently hoped that a match may be arranged.

News Brief: One of the strangest coincidences of American history was the death of two ex-presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, on the same day, July 4, 1826. Adams and Jefferson were political enemies. When Jefferson was inaugurated his predecessor did not even wait to receive him. In 1825, Mr. Adams, feeling his growing infirmities, hoped that he might live to see the fiftieth anniversary of the nation. The hope was realized, and it seemed as though, being thus gratified, the great intellect of the Revolution cared not to live throughout the day. He expired before noon, almost his last words being: “And Thomas Jefferson still survives.” Jefferson did survive, but only for a few hours. He, too, had been desirous of living for the semi-centennial anniversary of the nation. But he was so ill and fragile that it was not expected he would hold so long. The morning of the 4th of July, 1826, came at last, however, and with a satisfied look upon his face, the author of the Declaration soon passed away. Neither Adams nor Jefferson knew of the death of the other on the same day. Five years after another ex-president, James Monroe, passed away on the 4th of July, 1831.

Several months ago, I went to the hospital for an eye issue. After a brief exam, I was provided prescription drops to be placed into my affected eye. Then, the doctor and I started a general conversation about work, and I commented upon the spiraling increase in opiate addictions in Susquehanna County. I noted that our property crimes (burglaries, trespasses and thefts) were largely attributable to addictions and drug usage – and those crimes had increased over the past five years or so.

During the conversation, I noted that over the past few years, we have prosecuted several individuals who committed (or attempted to commit) armed robberies of pharmacies – not for money – but with robbery notes that contained notations for specific prescription painkillers, the “legal” opiates. The robber would walk into a pharmacy with a homemade “script” and use the threat of violence in order to fill that “script.” Further, there have been numerous pharmacy burglaries where the offenders simply broke into pharmacies after hours to steal painkilling opiates. The offenders have no interest in money or property – unless they are stealing it in order to get their next opiate fix. In my discussions with treatment providers, addictions to “legal” opiates (prescription painkillers) and illegal opiates (heroin) has skyrocketed.

At that point, the physician looked at me and made a blunt statement – he said that there was a growing problem with medical professionals becoming legal drug dealers. The physician recounted problems with people who simply come in off the street expecting to get a script for painkillers from an emergency room visit. Just walk in and complain about some painful condition and hope that the doctor will scribble out a script for a powerful opiate. No need to find a the corner drug dealer – no worries about getting caught by the police – simply get the doctor to write you out a prescription for your dope – then run to the pharmacy and get a bottle filled to the brim with your favorite flavor.

The doctor told me that when physicians refuse to write these prescriptions for the demanding patient then the patient becomes irate, irrational and sometimes uncontrollable – and the local police department has to be called to intervene. Given that I have prosecuted several of these disorderly conduct cases, I told the doctor that I had seen what he was talking about – and I thanked him and his facility for doing the right thing.

I know that the good doctor was identifying a problem with no easy solution. It goes without saying that the relationship between a doctor and a patient is a private and personal one. Each patient has particularized medical needs – and each physician has different views on treatment options and pain management. There is no practicable way to tell a doctor what he or she should be prescribing – each patient is different. On the other hand, I understand the frustrations that my physician was voicing to me – the view from some in the profession that doctors have become something akin to pill pushers for a certain segment of the population.

Several years back, I had an oral surgery – and the surgeon gave me a prescription for pain management. I tried to hand it back to him – and he refused to take it. He became irritated with me when I told him that I did not want it – and told me that he did not want to be called in the middle of the night because I was suffering from extreme pain. He told me to fill the prescription “just in case” I needed to use it. I took it – and after some internal debate, I filled it. I never did use it – the thought of taking it frankly scared me as I have seen too many addicts over these many years as a prosecutor. I was not taking any chances with how my body would chemically react with that powerful drug.

I was thinking of that conversation with my physician the other day when I read about a recent report that found seventy percent of Americans are taking some prescriptive drug – with the most common drugs being antibiotics, followed by antidepressants, and then painkillers. Thirteen percent of all prescriptions were for painkilling opioids. As to the class of people most likely to be prescribed painkillers, it was not the elderly population as you might expect; rather, it was the young and middle-aged adults.

I wish I could say that I was surprised – but I have seen far too many able-bodied young people coming through the criminal justice system that have prescriptions for painkillers. It makes probation supervision difficult because when they fail a urine drug screen, they pull out their “medical” prescription as a defense to their opiate usage. Does this mean that too many people are getting prescriptive painkillers? Does this mean as my physician suggested that doctors are becoming legal drug dealers? Has this country seen a spike in serious injuries that require younger and younger patients to have prescriptive painkillers to simply function in daily life? I do not have the answers to those questions – but I can tell you one thing, the current state of affairs is a good prescription for producing criminal conduct – and encouraging recidivism.