A devastating fi re, school drama and more in Jan. 1935
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TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | JAN. 31-FEB. 6, 2020 17
Welcome to January
1935!
Hard work in
forming the jury
that decides the fate of Bruno
Richard Hauptmann, the
man charged with slaying
little son of the Lindbergs.
Each potential juror, farmers,
small shop keepers and
retired businessmen, plus a
few housewives, takes the
stand and faces a staccato
of questioning from the defense.
‘Are you prejudiced
against this defendant because
of anything you have
read?’ Time after time the
potential juror admits that
he’d formed a strong opinion
that no evidence, whatever
its nature, could sway
his judgment. The judge
succeeds in seating only a
man and a woman the first
day. Later that week, the defense
attorney says he will
name four suspects in the
kidnapping of the baby.
College Point is again in
the news as fire sweeps the
L B Kleinert Co Factory,
at 26th Avenue between
127th and 128th streets.
The building burns as wind
whips flames fed by acids
and chemicals. Starting in
the acid room of the rubber
manufacturing plant,
the fire completely destroys
one section of a top floor.
More than 125 employees
are out of work. It is discovered
by a watchman at
2:30 a.m. and quickly grows
to three alarms. A call for
aid goes out and help arrives
from along the North
Shore. Flushing was out on
another call, so the assignment
is handled by Battalion
Chief Uhl of Bayside.
A tower from the Bronx is
carried across the Sound by
ferry boat. One fireman is
knocked unconscious when
ladder falls on him. The
following day, ice coats the
building.
Red sympathizers stage
a demonstration in high
school. Police are called to
eject men at the august halls
of Newtown High. They demand
a cut in lunch prices
and free food for children
of unemployed. Earlier that
week, four students on the
bridge at 91st Place give out
handbills listing demands.
One of the students claim
they are expelled. A red
Hammer and Sickle is painted
on sidewalks in front
of every school in Corona.
School officials try to scrub
them away, but they are
plainly visible. Mail boxes
and lobbies were cluttered
with Communist throw-aways
in Newtown. A girl refuses
to salute the American
flag at school exercises held
in a Queens park.
Residents of a certain
street in Flushing complained
that their block had
potholes and broken sidewalks.
About two months
ago the city comes in to put
a new surface on the street.
A work crew shows up midmorning
with shovels and a
plow. They take a couple of
hours to remove cinders and
dirt. Later, some appear in
the afternoon and shovel a
new hole. That day a mound
of dirt appears. The shovelers
disappear. They came
back after a day with a tar
pot and a load of asphalt and
stones. With great leisure
about fifty feet of macadam
pavement is laid.
After the Thanksgiving
holiday, a few days elapse
before workman come back
again. With the same leisure,
another fifty feet of
pavement is laid. Once more
they vanish. No workers
have shown up in the New
Year. The pile of dirt, the
handiwork of the gallant
crew, can be seen no more
as it is buried under about
three or four inches of snow.
By spring it will be gone --
scattered about. Manholes
tower three and four inches
above the unfinished street.
At this pace the city will get
to the corner in time for
President Roosevelt’s next
inauguration - that is if all
goes well. Of course you
never can tell about that
heat next August.
That’s the way it was in
January 1935!
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