From 19th- and early 20th-century publications
From the Spirit of Jefferson (Charlestown ,West Virginia) on May 3, 1863, come these observations:

A Legislator—a puppet moved by a man in the lobby. Legislation—The art of conveying public property into private hands.

HALLOWEEN IS UPON US. For much of America’s history it was a night when outhouses climbed onto roofs or mysteriously tipped over while occupied. Gates divorced themselves from fences and went to live on a roof. Horse and cows somehow found their way up flights of stairs, and their owners were left to figure out how to get them back down the next morning. And, of course, many a burning bag filled with manure was tossed onto porches, forcing the residents to stomp on them to put out the flames.

Such hooliganism has largely passed away, replaced with parties or viewings of Halloween I through XXXVII. Things were trending this way over 100 years ago. Well, maybe not the horror-movie-binge-watching thing. But while going through some of the columns I wrote that ran in the Clarksburg, West Virginia, Exponent Telegram, I came across this one that describes genteel Halloween parties in 1907 and thought I’d share it with you. I came across it in that year’s November 1 edition of the Elkins, West Virginia, Daily Inter-Mountain.

The DI-M noted that that the previous night's holiday was "perhaps the quietest observance" the city had ever seen, "with little of the rodyism (sic)" of years past. Perhaps, the paper observed, that was due to "a number of social functions throughout the city."

Indeed, parties had been the order of the day—er, night.

A Miss Alice Buzzell hosted an Owl Party on Elm Street, with hand-painted cardboard owls as invitations. This was no nightmare on Elm Street. Twenty-one guests played games and danced "until a late hour," fortified by a feast that included baked beans (bad idea, especially if bobbing for apples is part of the festivities), "weinerwurst," gingerbread and apple pie, all served among autumn leaves, apples, jack o'lanterns and cardboard owls.

Elsewhere, the guests of misses Ro and Vie Harding at "The Retreat" found dainty place cards with hand-written verses at their Halloween dinner. Byron Daniels entertained 20 girls from his Sunday school class, and "a number of young ladies" hosted a dance. Elkins High School was continuing festivities with a Halloween social at Hanley Hall on November 1.

While Elkins was enjoying refined holiday celebrations, in nearby Parsons a disgruntled William Smith fired shots from the rear of the Parsons Hardware Company into a crowd of Halloween merry-makers, wounding seven before he escaped.

Sigh. Sad to say, the disgruntled are still among us.