125 Years Ago 1898
From The East Hampton Star, January 28
Liberty to talk as he pleases is the birthright of the modern American child, and he uses it to produce a jargon, half made up of slovenly pronunciation and half of street slang, uttered with a sort of bar-room intonation. Now that the country is beginning to pay some attention to the aesthetic side of life, this evil of bad language ought to be taken in hand by parents and teachers.
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Where hogs are fed corn they should not be allowed to eat apples, and especially not those which are sour. The effect of corn feeding is to cause acidity of the stomach, and this makes the hogs’ mouths sore. When they bite a hard, sour apple, or an ear of hard corn, this soreness is so much increased that the hogs cannot eat at all. Soft corn will produce this effect as well as hard corn. Feed hogs in this condition beets and some ground corn mixed with wheat middlings until their mouths are healed.
100 Years Ago 1923
From The East Hampton Star, January 26
Along with the announcement that a prominent anglers’ club has proposed legislation placing restrictions on salt water fishing comes the word that the up-state gunning clubs will make an attempt to shorten the open wild fowl season on Long Island. The up-state sentiment seems to be strongly in favor of the change.
The open season at present is from October 16 to February 15, and those experienced in Long Island wild fowl know that shooting ducks before October 16 is next to an impossibility, as the wild fowl do not appear in any numbers until November.
Hunters say that there are more ducks in the bays and creeks in January than in any other month of the year and they also claim that the birds do not begin to mate at that time.
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Extremely low tides have laid bare the keels of two old whale ships condemned and wrecked for junk at Sag Harbor ninety years ago. Boys walked about the wrecks dry shod Monday and Tuesday, and some dug out copper bolts that have remained in the liveoak a hundred years and more, and when scratched with a knife glitter brightly like gold.
Old-timers, who recall the days when Sag Harbor sent to sea a fleet of seventy whaleships, say that these hulks are remains of the whale ships Thames and Fair Helen, vessels that sailed many voyages and made the firm of Mulford & Sleight wealthy.
The half-buried timbers lie directly opposite the site of the whalemen’s oil cellars near Bay street and close to property of William Farnum, actor, who has a big boathouse and marine railways for accommodation of his yachts.
75 Years Ago 1948
From The East Hampton Star, January 29
It is always a thrill when an unusual bird comes to your feeding tray. It need not be a rare bird, but if he is a newcomer to your premises, his coming causes mild excitement. But if he does not tarry or return, then you are downcast, for you know that you did not have the food he likes.
The tree sparrow is a regular winter visitor to Long Island, but he is not generally a backdoor visitor. He prefers the fields and open spaces where weeds raise their hoary heads above the snow, or seed pods on dried stems wave in the wintry wind; weed seeds being the special dish of the tree sparrows.
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Pork liver, often neglected by the housewife, is worth almost its weight in gold in food value, according to nutritionists. Lean meat and liver of pork contain the B-complex vitamins — riboflavin, niacin and thiamine — which are essential in keeping the nerves on an even keel. So necessary are these regulating substances that even a slight deficiency may result in “nerves.” Other sources of supply are milk, cheese, whole grains and meat.
When the family’s nerves begin to get on edge, serve them a good meal of well-cooked pork liver, baked potato, green beans, whole wheat bread and milk, nutritionists advise.
50 Years Ago 1973
From The East Hampton Star, January 25
Ground was apparently broken last weekend for a 35-unit cluster-zoned luxury housing project at the corner of Gingerbread and Toilsome Lanes in East Hampton, but residents who tried unsuccessfully last summer to block the development through court action have come up with what they believe is an argument that might quiet the bulldozers, at least temporarily.
The ad hoc committee, whose membership has been estimated at about 200, claims that the East Hampton Village Planning Board failed to submit the subdivision’s plans for review to the Suffolk County Planning Department, as required by Section 1323 of the County Charter.
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Repetition, perhaps, has diminished its news value, but the five members of the East End Supervisors Association voted unanimously on Jan. 10 to request State Assembly Speaker Perry B. Duryea Jr. and State Senator Leon E. Giuffreda to use their “influence” for the passage of two bills amending the State Constitution that would enable the creation of a new County here.
The bills, which were approved by the Legislature last spring, need approval for the second consecutive time during the two-year term of the Legislature just started if the proposal to split Suffolk into two parts is to proceed. The next step would be a Statewide referendum in November 1973 on the Constitution amendments. If passed, the Legislature could consider a bill to erect the new County in 1974.
25 Years Ago 1998
From The East Hampton Star, January 29
For the third time in as many months, the East Hampton Town Board is the target of an airport-related lawsuit.
This one, filed in State Supreme Court last Thursday by Pat Trunzo 3d on behalf of individuals and associations opposed to the runway reconstruction, seeks to prevent the town from moving forward with any runway work and demands that the 1994 updated airport layout plan be declared null and void.
The suit comes only weeks after Town Supervisor Cathy Lester appointed a “blue-ribbon” committee to look into the runway project and make recommendations on the future of the airport.
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A continuing leadership dispute among the Montaukett Indians threatens to delay, if not derail, the tribe’s effort to gain Federal recognition.
The feud pits Robert Pharaoh of Sag Harbor against Robert Cooper of East Hampton. Mr. Pharaoh says his claim to be chief, or grand sachem, by ancestral right was recognized by the tribe in a 1995 election, while Mr. Cooper, a former East Hampton Town Councilman, claims to have been elected chief at a tribal meeting held in Amityville in November.
“Until I step down, he’ll never be chief,” Mr. Pharaoh said this week. “And I never plan to step down.”
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The most expensive project ever mandated here by New York State, the permanent closing of East Hampton Town’s two landfills, will average either $84 or $104 a year for 27 years on the tax bill of the average house, according to the town budget officer, Michael Haran.
