Schoolhouse Damaged    (April Fool's Day - 1917)

Some time during last Sunday night the public school building at Chicota was entered and considerable damage is said to have been wrought. Seats and desks were torn up and scattered around over the building, books were tossed in and the stove and ashes that had been dumped out in the yard during the winter were scattered around over the floor. The plight in which the building was placed was said to have been the result of a ghastly attempt at an April fool joke by the school boys. On account of the mess in which things were placed Prof. Dodson, the teacher, had to adjourn school Monday until the building could be straightened out. The trustees have expressed a determination to find out the names of the boys responsible for the condition of the school and make them pay the damage.