(be sure to read Part 2 of this story, posted last week!)
The News-Bulletin was no small town gossip rag. Aside from covering all local happenings, it also carried four or five serialized novels a year, as well as national and international news illustrated with photographs. A representative example would be a piece that appeared in an August 1931 issue that showcased the construction of the Empire State Building.
Zesty flavor came from numerous bits of humor that appeared in the News-Bulletin’s pages, such as an early series of columns called People of Our Town, which lampooned various personalities found in rural communities. Characters such as the irate reader, a “man who has found something in this paper that he doesn’t like” who is “going around to bawl out the editor” were highlighted. Also featured was the “classy loafer”, who was “waiting for a good job to turn up, when he is going to blow this hick town.” Another piece of whimsy was “Stille Nacht”, a re-printed column that appeared in the June 21st, 1929 issue that not only pastiched two men looking for a speakeasy, but was also partially written in German.
This dapper fellow appeared in the People of Our Town column, a parody of various characters to be found in a typical small town of the 1920s.
In December 1924, the Semmlers ushered in a column called The Clearing House, in which Mokena residents were encouraged to write in to the paper and share their opinions on issues of the day. The zeitgeist of the era springs forth from these columns, in which townspeople voiced their views on the prohibition-related crime wave that plagued the countryside around Chicago, decrying everything from hard roads which made “escape very easy for the bandits in their high powered cars” to mail-order guns which “often times arouses some cracked brain nuts to start on a hold up career.” Bootleg liquor also stood in the crosshairs, which in the words of one village resident, was being sold to “weak minded fools to drink and kill themselves with.”
At the end of the 1930s, a series of fictionalized letters were printed in the News-Bulletin under the title Uncle Hy Says. These had a lighthearted humoristic bend, and were loaded with political jabs and inside jokes about Mokena business people. In the same era, a thinly veiled editorial column named Bugle Calls existed in the form of pieces written under the nom de plume of Zeb Potter. Another column called Voice of Vox Pop appeared with some regularity. In a March 17th, 1939 piece dripping with local satire, one “Back Alley Spike” wrote “Boy, oh boy, Mokena has a real crisis. Europe has been hogging every crisis, but now we have one right here… Why, it’s the biggest scandal since Hitler took Austria!” The piece went on to parody stodgy Mokenians whose feathers were ruffled by a political new comer running for local office, with the monikered author glibly adding “Why, the nervy young so-and-so, he hasn’t been living here 75 years yet.”
The true flavor of the News-Bulletin came from the great American tradition – the snide letter to the editor. An early example of towny salt was the communication printed by the Semmlers in July 1921, in which a resident complained about the less than optimal condition of village streets, a subject that would later prove to be a big one for Bill. The writer asked “What are the streets of Mokena for? Are they a garbage pail?” and admitted that “my temper gets the best of me when I have to drive my clean machine over egg shells, muskmelons and lemon shells, corn husks and muddy slop holes…” Referring to Bill Semmler’s status as village clerk at the time, the anonymous writer threw a barb his way when he snarled “Say, Mr. Editor, maybe you will scrap this as you are a member of this board, but if you do, there are other papers.”
The many letters received by the Semmlers weren’t all grumbly, many were laudatory. Typical were the words sent by John H. Cappel of faraway Mattoon. Cappel had spent his formative years in Mokena, and like Bill, could trace his heritage to the founders of the village. In March 1926 he dropped a line to the News-Bulletin office reading “I want to congratulate you for the good paper you are putting out. As I enjoy reading of the old hometown very much, I can hardly wait until the paper comes…The people of Mokena and vicinity ought to be proud of the paper you publish.” Closing on a touching note, Cappel wished “that you may prosper in your work, is my prayer.”
Another representative bouquet came by way of an unidentified writer to the Joliet Spectator in 1939. In what surely must’ve left their editor a touch confused, the correspondent breezily complimented the publication only then to quickly heap praise upon the News-Bulletin, expressing “I like our Mokena paper. It is a well printed and newsy country weekly, far above the average country weekly in get-up and print. I want to congratulate the editor of the Mokena News-Bulletin for his fine paper. ”
The Semmlers also received a bouquet from none other than the Chicago Tribune. During the euphoric period immediately after the end of the Second World War, Norma Lee Browning of the prestigious publication found herself in Mokena, vividly profiling local residents and life in the village. Upon examining the News-Bulletin, she declared that “its make-up has dignity; its reportorial style has a cosmopolitan touch.”
Mokenians used the News-Bulletin as a forum to quash rumors, the bane of small town existence. A wave of malicious hearsay that had been spreading in the area regarding farmer George Hauser induced him to write to the paper in the spring of 1933. Facing foreclosure on his farm, he wrote “I would like to get a few lines in the News-Bulletin and let the public know the truth about the gossip that has been going on about me.” Addressing each piece of the story individually, he eventually came to the nastiest part of the episode. Hauser stated “There was also some gossip being circulated that I threatened a shooting and this is a lie. I did not come from fighting stock.”
Those who were on the starting end of hearsay also got a chance to speak. During a period in October 1924 when some burglaries had recently taken place in town, hardware storekeeper Milton Krapp sold some keys to residents Peter Homerding and Aloys Perschera. Finding the purchases suspicious, Krapp tipped off village constable John Frisch. Later realizing his mistake, the shopkeeper wrote a note to the newspaper, which reprinted it on the front page under the heading “An Apology.” Explaining what had happened, the Mokenian made his realization clear that the event had “cast a serious reflection on the characters of both Mr. Homerding and Mr. Perschera, and as they are entirely innocent in this matter, I hereby publicly extend my apologies to them for the statement that I made to Officer Frisch concerning them.”
Bill and Margaret Semmler weren’t simply journalists reporting the news, they were also arguably Mokena’s most passionate advocates, who used the News-Bulletin to lift the community in every way. A long column published in the February 11th, 1921 issue called “What Can Mokena Do?” addressed a shortage of housing in the village and a general sense of stagnation that had crept in. Bill penned the piece, which cheered “Mokena would have a future if everyone got together and pushed” and “Let us see how some small improvements can be made, which will lead to bigger ones.” While warning that “out of date customs do not work anymore”, he devotedly pushed for development, patronizing local businesses, and keeping up the town bandstand at Union and Third Streets.
Bill Semmler’s editorials leapt off the page and forced the reader to take notice. In reading them, one came to see that his heart beat for Mokena. In response to later accusations that his paper was favoring the advancement of other nearby communities, Bill authored a front page editorial called “Mokena Needs Co-Operative Boost.” Appearing in the April 15th, 1926 issue, Semmler defended his stance that “The News-Bulletin always stands ready to boost any worthy project or undertaking that is for the betterment and welfare of any community, and to knock everything that knocks the town.” Coming straight to his hometown, he said “This town has the finest opportunity in the world to become one of the best towns along the Rock Island, but whether it does or does not, all remains not with its citizens, but with its business men!” Calling on Mokena’s tradespeople to band together and promote commerce in town, he also declared again that “The old petty jealousies that have dominated Mokena for years must be eradicated before the village will progress. At present we have too much of that old spirit. It doesn’t pay to nurse this spirit. Cut it out and let us all work for one goal – the upbuilding and progress of Mokena.”
Another editorial, which appeared in the September 7th, 1928 edition, addressed a particularly prickly issue. A piece was printed detailing how some town boys had been caught in the basement of an abandoned Front Street building, allegedly in the act of setting it aflame. The young men later turned up at the News-Bulletinoffice down the street, claiming that they merely had the misfortune of being found with a kerosene lamp in their possession, and that they’d been spinning their wheels in the community, with nothing to do and nowhere to focus their energy. Titled “Youths Present Social Problem”, the subsequent editorial on this matter said “The fact of the matter is these boys are RIGHT…The youth of today will be the citizens of to-morrow. The old idea that a boy or girl must sow their wild oats is all the bunk….Let us wake up and do something for the youth of our community.”
(Stay tuned for the final part of this story!)
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