Our Town 100+ Years Ago... December, Part I

1+ Years Ago - December, Part I: While the children were counting down the days to Christmas back in December 1898, adults were busy with world affairs. The peace treaty of Paris was being finalized with the key details of Spain withdrawing from Cuba and the Philippines and giving up its sovereignty over Puerto Rico. The U.S. postal service was suffering growing pains with 73,000 post offices and 200,000 employees and a projected debt for the year 1900 of over $4,000,000.

The 55th Congress was in their closing session which meant a message from the president would be read, all two hours and...