Around Burlington: Random violence, knife attacks and gunplay warranted little attention Bob Hansen for The Hawk Eye They are just two brief notes from the Burlington Gazette newspaper of 1885 and at the time attracted very little attention. The articles are given less space than the report of the Knights of Labor picnic at Schlampp’s Park or the Druids picnic at Bierweth’s Park on Fourth Street. However, from a distance of 136 years, they raise the disconcerting possibility that this old river town was a gathering of feral sociopaths and random miscreants. The first article is a police report concerning the very unfortunate George Smith, a barkeep at the venerable Union Hotel. The newspaper records that on the previous afternoon, George and his friends, Frank Foote and Tom Vaugh, were enjoying an autumn afternoon on the hotel’s front porch.