I've been following the Iowa state news with great interest, and I'm wondering -- Was Iowa at the turn of the century (1900) more violent than it is today, or was it just that the news that was "fit to print" then is no longer reported in the same way? I do seem to remember from my early childhood in the 1930's in a very rural area that my mother often warned me about many dangers that could result in getting shot or otherwise injured. She had been born in 1898. I never took her seriously but maybe I should have. She was worried about standing in front of a window at night, lest we be shot at by someone in a passing car. There was always a loaded shotgun kept next to the front door. It was an open secret that a moonshine still was in operation "somewhere over yonder." I sometimes wonder how much it has all changed. I now live in California and haven't been back to Iowa for at least 50 years. Jeanne Surber (originally from Keokuk and Wapello Counties)