Somebody in Washington state came across an old copy of an Albany paper and sent it to us. So naturally work comes to a standstill while a few of us sit around and study what it contains.

The paper is the Albany Evening Herald of Sept. 11, 1920. Anybody born that day and still living is 89.

The front page is full of what now looks like snatches of history during the lifetime of many people still with us here in the mid-valley.

There's a story from London on the strife in Ireland. Sinn Fein has announced that if one of their leaders dies of a hunger strike in prison, British Cabinet secretaries will be tried for murder and assassinated by Sinn Fein agents.

In Marion, Ohio, Senator Harding, the Republican nominee for president, has made some point against the League of Nations treaty, warning that the language might some day "involve the United States in conflict."

From Italy comes news that workers have taken over more factories in a dispute with employers. "Bolsheviki movement grows," part of the headline says.

One of the top stories on Page 1 reports that two staff members of the Herald, editor Thomas Potwin and news editor Harry Hill, are now part owners of the Herald. Each has bought one-fourth of the paper from E.M. Reagan, who has been the sole owner for the previous eight years.

The paper describes itself this way: "The Herald is the only Republican daily published in a large section of the Willamette Valley."

As for its plans? "The new partners ... contemplate no change in the policy of the Herald except to push the business more vigorously as the field develops and makes a larger paper possible."

No matter how hard they pushed, things evidently didn't work out quite as the owners had hoped. Five years later the Herald is sold to the rival Democrat, and the Albany

Democrat-Herald is born.

The other big news of the day is that the threshing season in the Tangent area has ended and five teams of horses, left unattended while the drivers sought shelter from the rain under some trees, staged an "exciting runaway."

In Albany meanwhile, someone at Third and Calapooia streets has complained about a solicitor for a "picture enlarging concern." The police chief arrests a young man and takes him before Mayor Curl. "After being warned by the mayor not to make himself obnoxious, he was released."

From San Francisco comes word that the first mail plane from New York, "P.J. Murray, pilot," had arrived from Lovelock, Nev. "Although it was originally planned for the plane to arrive here late yesterday, delay at Salt Lake City made this impracticable. The plane was forced to stop for the night at Lovelock."

This ad, placed by the registrar, is in the paper too: "The University of Oregon is maintained by the state in order that the young people of Oregon may receive, without cost, the benefits of a liberal education."

Without cost - those were the days! (hh)