The Town Reacts to President Harding's Passing
White Bluffs mourns the sudden death of the President, with locals reflecting on his recent visit.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
White Bluffs, like all the rest of the country, was shocked when the news was flashed of the death of President Harding. Bulletins issued by the chief executive's physicians Thursday had had an extremely hopeful tone and people generally, when they heard the news, could not believe the end had come. Several White Bluffs folks heard the president in Seattle last week, little realizing that they were listening to his last public address. Flags over the state land office and in the railroad park were hung at half mast all day today, Friday.
“Several White Bluffs folks heard the president in Seattle last week, little realizing that they were listening to his last public address.”
President Warren G. Harding's death in 1923 was a national trauma. It serves as a reminder of how, before instantaneous digital media, news traveled through wire bulletins, transforming local communities into participants in national grief simultaneously.
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