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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (March 17, 1932)
Tales of Real Dogs-By Albert Pavson Terhune (A-A Jiggs Became Delirious With Excite ment His name was Jiggs. He was snow white (for a few minutes aft er each bath) except for a black spot which surrounded his right eye. He lived in Waycross, Ga., and he won state-wide fame as “The Fire Dog.” In his d»y—though he may still be on earth, for all I know—Jiggs attended more than 250 files. He was daft on the subject of confla grations. It woulu be pleasant to record that the little white fire-dog also had a record for saving lives and for pulling helpless children out of burning buildings or of giving the alarm which enabled whole families to escape, or that at least he drag ged forth imperiled valuables from the flames. But it is not on record that he ever saved anyone or anything. He was not only utterly useless at all the fires he attended, but he was al ways in everyone’s way. To Jiggs a fire was an exciting game, not a matter for heroism. He attached himself to Chief Harvey Thackston of the Waycross fire department, in 1928. He took up his home in the firehouse and graciously allowed the depart ment’s men to adopt him. They took him on as sort of mas cot, but more as an amusing play fellow. They endured more pester ing from him than the average body of firemen would stand from a whole of army of dogs- Jiggs had a way with him, and his human chums merely grinned at his mis deeds instead of swearing at him or kicking him. They tried to beautify him from time to time with a bath. But the minute he could sneak away after the tubbing, he would gallop to the coal-hole and fling himself into it, rolling over and over. Not until his coat was thoroughly begrimed would he venture back to the men who had worked so hard to make him clean. People passing by the fire-house got to criticising the men for the ugly dirtiness of their dog. This made the firemen sore, especially when nobody would believe that he had been scrubbed so honestly and so often. The moment the alarm clanged, no matter at what time of day or night, Jiggs was awake and on his feet in an instant, dashing for the largest of the three trucks, and jumping to the running board and thence scrambling up to the seat alongside the driver. From the time the alarm rang, the dog's clamorous barks never ceased until long after the scene of the fire was reached. He would bark so loudly as to make it difficult for the men to hear the chief's orders. The driver was almost deafened by the hideous racket so close to his ear. The series of wild barks served the Waycross folk as fully as did the screams of the siren, to notify them a fire had been reported. As the truck neared the blaze, Jiggs became more and more delirious V/ltn excuemem. June Ellis, in a long and clever article about Jiggs, in the Atlanta Journal, described thus his usual conduct at a fire: “Reaching the conflagration, one would imagine that Jiggs would be come a hero and rush into the burning building. But he doesn t He has never been known to re trieve a single article from the dog event which thrills him so. “Arrived at the blaze he jumps frantically about among the busy firemen, barking, nipping at their ankles, and in a dozen ways o-king himself a general nuisance. But the force love him, and they merely try to shoo him out of their wav'. “When he has arrived at the fire and has “helped” the force to un load, he busies himself by chasing any cat or chicken which may be in sight. He never wanders far, however, and strangers who loiter .around the trucks at a fire have his sudden close attention. The firemen leave their coats and other posses Depression Dents. From The Pathfinder. One of a thousand men (and women) who “sign up” every week on the outofwork list at Chicago typographical headquarters advises that the union is paying $8 a week to single unemployed members and $12 to those who arc married. The fund is derived from a seven per cent assessment on those who are working. Those employed on the Windy City newspapers are riving one day's work a week in addition to paying the seven per cent as sessment. There are upward cf 233.000 sions on the trucks, depending on Jiggs to guard them, which he does.” From the very beginning, Jiggs never failed once to answer the fire-house alarms the moment they sounded. But, within a few days he learned for himself that a ‘‘test alarm” is always rung at | 7 a. m. and at 5 p. m. and that these tests have nothing whatever to do with a fire. So presently he ignored them, contemptuously sleeping through them morning and night. But if a real alarm was rung a very few minutes before or after the tests were made, Jiggs was as swift to respond to it as any fireman. In some unknown w'ay he taught him self this difference. The driver of the biggest truck suffered most from Jigg's noisy ex citement on rides to fires. But he was vastly flattered that Jiggs al ways chose him to ride with at such times, instead of the two other trucks. The dog’s seeming devotion to him was something to brag about. But one day this driver was sad ly undeceived. Always, under or dinary conditions, the biggest truck was the first of the three out of the house and on its way tc the blaze Once, there was a briel delay in getting the big truck started, and one of the two small er trucks took the lead. With a howl of fury, Jiggs leaped down from his high seat on the big truck, and make a whirlwind dash for the smaller truck which was setting out in front of it. He sprang and scrambled into the seat of this foremost truck, wholly abandoning his old friend, the other driver. Several times after that, the same thing happened. The large truck was delayed and one of the others took the lead. Invariably, Jiggs left his usual post of duty and leaped up on the foremost truck. He had evidently figured out for himself that the big truck was sup posed to reach the fire first. There fore he had chosen it as the one to ride on. It was not a case of loyal ty to that truck driver. Drivers were nothing to Jiggs. All he cared about was to get to the fire ahead of any one else. During the first year of Jigg’s stay at the fire-house, a policeman came there during a round of the neighborhood. He had been sent to find what owners had or had not paid their annual dog-tax of $1. Jigg’s tax had not been paid. The officer declared the money must be handed over or else Jiggs must go to the dogpound. Jiggs seemed to sense the threat—or perhaps he did not like this stranger’s cone in speaking to his fire-house friends. For the dog made a wrathful dive for the police man’s shins, achieving a very credit able bite or two before he could be dragged away. The policeman complained to the city authorities, who made the wise decision that Jiggs was a mem ber of the municipal fire depart ment, and, as such, was tax-ex empt. I wonder if the queer little dog ' is still living. [ "LOOK IN THE BOOK AND SEE.’ See "clutch.” A noun. This meaning rare. But used out in the sticks— "A nest of eggs.” and likewise, too, “A brood of little chicks.” See "clutch.” A noun. This meaning is To all men crystal clear— “Device, when thrown or in or out, To put your car in gear.” . See "klutch.” A noun. In recent ad You’ll find, as e’en I did. "Device, which worn within the mouth. Will make false teeth ‘non-skid’.” —Sam Page, Middletown. Conn. — tUP) —De spite troubled economic conditions, the Middletown Savings bank an nounces it has made 1,648 loans on real estate and made only four foreclosures in the last four years. abandoned farms in Pennsylvania. Only $90,000 has been offered for the winter’s professional golf bat | ties. i Ire Lester, an inmate of the Rich mond. Mo., jail, dug a hole under the wall and offered the other pris oners a chance to escape but they refused. They explained later tc the sheriff, "We didn't want to lose three meals a day, with a roof over our heads, when there is no work outside." Production of autos in Canada r last year was 82,614, or 43 per cent under the previous year. j PAY DIRT AIDS I JOBLESS MEN Canyon Gravel Gives Up Gold to Old Sour doughs Los Angeles—(UPJ—Within hik ing distance of the Los Angeles employment agencies where scores of jobless laborers mill disappoint edly. a group of enterprising throw backs to the "days of ’49’’ today were making wages In the goldbear ing gravel of San Francisquito can yon. Several score of unemployed workers turned to the hills north of here when it became known that a handful of old sourdoughs were panning from 50 cents to $10 a day in the canyon. Gold Strikes There is no gold strike, in the ’49er sense of the word, but recent heavy rains, according to prospec tors, have uncovered enough pay dirt to allow an industrious miner to earn a livelihood. The scene of the diggings is vir tually at the site of the St. Fran cis dam which several years age gave way and sent, a flood of water into the Santa Clara valley. Roaring waters liberated by the collapse of the dam gouged into the hillsides and piled pay dirt three and four feet deep along the rocky banks. Henry Inger of Glendale, who had prospected off and on for a quarter of a century, found the pay streak. He made a partner of his neighbor, Gould Pickens. Sluice Box Waters of the creek are turned into a channel of their own mak ing, at the end of which is a sluice box built with a wooden gate On the floor of the box are cross strips of wood, a "Hungarian riffle,” Hen ry calls it. Into this sluice Pickens dumps a barrow-load of dirt and rock, and opens the gate. A stream of water rushes through, washing away the rock and dirt. Tiny specks of gold catch in the riffle. Pickens picks them out with tweezers and drops them in a bottle. -— . . A a --— - A Florida Jungle Within a walk from The Sanc tuary there exists a tract of that marvellously virgin tropical jungle into parts of which no human be ing has perhaps pushed his way for decades. Impenetrable by the un disturbed growth of years, it is with difficulty that the narrowest single trail can be cut even into a hun dred feet of dense jungle under brush to afford a glimpse of that treasure-house of all tropical low land: one of those dark mysterious creeks of water as clear as crystal and its bottom growth of mint and wild iris. Fed by springs at the head of the tract, the seemingly dark water wanders along, ham pered only by the fallen trees of past generations, each tree trunk a garden of wood-fern, overarched with bowers of wild rose and yellow jasmine. It is easy to picture the Seminole Indians canoeing down the creek for several miles until they reached one of those Floridian lakes that always surprises the Northerner by its miles of width. No Brazilian jungle on the Ama zon could be more densely tropical than this tract of virgin Florida jungle with its marvelous growth of centuries-old live oaks, with their trunks literally dotted with the blooming orchid, and their branches festooned with the drooping grey moss of the tropics. Palms to a height of eighty feet struggle up ward to catch a ray of sunlight, their great fan-shaped leaves gar landed and dripping with a shower of jasmine and rose. Trunks of trees rent by ages-old storms have be come, with their decayed wood, nature's own resceptacles of ex quisite fern, and one walks with noiseless tread on soft carpets made by centuries of fallen leaves and needles of pine. Not a sound breaks the stillness of the jungle: the human eye can detect no living thing, and yet one feels as he walks through the man made aisles of that tropical forest that thousands of eyes are fastened on him: eyes of the chameleon and of the turquoise-colored beetle, which closer scrutiny reveals on fallen trunks. To this refuge, im penetrable to the human, come the bear with her cubs, and the doe with her fawns. The wild-turkey, and the heron, find here a security which only a state of nature, un touched by man for decades, can give to the wild life of forest and jungle.—Edward W. Box, in “Twice Thirty.” SLIDING DOWN HILL. Remember in the days a-gone, How you and Bill and Ned, All boasted that each of you had The best and fastest sled? Remember how you slammed it down. And ‘-belly-bust” would thrill, As over "thank-ye-ma'ams” you flew, Perhaps unto a “spill?” Remember him you hated most?— That chrotchety "old pill,” Who dumped, with granite smile, at dawn, His ashes on your hill. —Sam Page. -----— PREFERRED JAIL TO CHURCH Waterbury, Conn. — (UP) — A well-intended attempt to give unem ployed floaters night’s lodging in St. John's church failed because the men preferred to spend the night in individual bunks at the po lice lockup. ---- INHERITS S.10,000, STILL WORKS Wichita, Kan. — (UP) _ Miss Nella Reed Is the perfectly contend ed business girl. She inherited $30, 000, but announced she was retain ing her position a* n railroad office stenographer. - THIS CURIOUS WORLD - the Sign language oFThe INO/ANft HAS &c£N PRESERVED FOR p&S JtRiW, 6V MfANS Of MOTION PkJore sound CAMERAS, major GENERAL SCttt AND ft^WTfeSN ANC/eNT chieftains HELpEV IN THE FILMING, AND l,300SHSNS, WITH THe Ao.~»ttPANViN<3 *<S«ONfo" WERE RECORDED. T£8QASEQP£HT STAGS'... one of THe lAfesX of oeep-S£A ftSK Tb &e 6£c*ashT OP. ft -_ STEAM (TANNoT &£ seen, Pcv? fr (SAsaeAR AS AiR. eoT,AS(T a#£S m cotiteT WITH AIR, fr con oeNses- ano Rooms' AAM^T. V5 © I Mi BY NCA SERVICE. INC* Hoiv Government Employes Have Increased Since 1923 Washington—The following tabulation, prepared by Representative L. W. Douglas, Arizona, member of the appropriation committee ol the House who is leading the fight against bureaucratic waste and expenditure, shows how the number of federal employes Increased from 548,531 on Juno 30, 1923, to 616,837 on June 30. 1931: June 30, June 30, In- De Department or Office 1923 1931 crease crease Department of State. 4,005 4.959 954 . Treasury Department. 55.411 51,744 ... 3,607 War Department. 51,159 53,356 2,197 . Department of Justice. 3,353 8,502 5,149 . Post Office Department.285,822 316,259 30,437 . Navy Department. 42,842 48,782 5,940 . Department of the Interior. 18,493 19,777 1,284 . Department of Agriculture. 20,261 28,175 7,914 . Department of Commerce. 11,472 23,680 12,208 . Department of Labor. 3,715 5,412 1,597 . Government Printing Office. 3,879 4,894 1,015 . Smithsonian Institution. 484 589 105 . Interstate Commerce Commission. 1,685 2,410 725 . Civil Service Commission. 508 631 123 . Bureau of Efficiency. 53 45 ... 8 Federal Trade Commission. 308 547 239 . Shipping Board. 3,054 1,065 ... 1,989 Railroad Administration. 1,038 12 ... 1,026 Alien Property Custodian. 131 141 10 . Tariff Commission. 190 319 129 . Employes’Compensation Commission.... 74 183 109 . Federal Board for Vocational Education. 30 83 3 . Panama Canal..-. 7,994 10,323 2,322) . Superintendent State, War, and Navy Department Buildings. 1,304 . 1,304 Railroad Labor Board. 67 . 67 White House. 43 43 . Public Buildings and Public Parks of the National Capital. 2,994 2,994 . General Accounting Office. 2.035 1.988 47 Veterans’ Bureau... 28.164 28,645 481 ..... Miscellaneous . 950 ... 950 Commission of Fine Arts. 3 3 . War Finance Corporation. 9 9 . National Advisory Committee for Aero nautics .. 291 291 . Federal Reserve Board... 199 199 . Board of Tax Appeals. 151 151 . Board of Mediation. 26 26 . Federal Power Commission. 50 50 . Federal Radio Commission. 132 132 . American Battle Monuments Commission ... 41 41 . Federal Farm Board. 315 315 . Personnel Classification Board. 62 62 . Total.548,531 616,837 77,364 9,058 DIVERSIFIED PHILOSOPHY. We’re pros and cons, and bitter, too, About the League of Nations; But every single one of us Is for a league of rations. Now “Kiki” Roberts gets five grand ‘Legs Diamond’s gal, you know) A week to go upon the stage And give a morbid show. Now congressmen present their bills, Most all too bad to pass; But worse arc found in envelopes, With windows like to glass. In a going concern he bought some stock, Some hours after dawn, And when the sun went down that night That stock was wholly gone. Japan informs the world just now, In manner quite specific, Ambitions that she cherishes Are really all Pacific. A liquid tone for wives, might be Most husband's ready choice; But me, I never like to be about When wifie strains her voice. —Sam Page. Hurley Denies Lobbying. Patrick J. Hurley, secretary of war, has made the following state ment: “My attention has just been called to a statement made by Congress man Byrns to the general effect that he objects to army and navy officers, the secretary of war and the secretary of the navy using their influence to prevent his suggested bill for the consolidation of the army and navy from seeing the light of day. He implies these agencies have engaged in what he terms ‘lobbying.’ Nothing could be further from the fact. Absolutely no steps have been taken by the war department, except to give testi mony when asked to appear before the appropriate committees of Con Mother of Camembert Cheese to Be Honored Camembert, Fiance — (UP) — More than 10,000 “gastronomic pil grims” will journey this year to this obscure Norman village to pay trib ute to Madame Marie Harel, in ventor of succulent Camembert cheese, and to place wreaths on the monument erected by American ad mirers of Mme. Harel and her cheese in 1927. Madame Harel died over a cen tury ago, but her soul goes march ing on in the form of 100,000,000 gress. Apparently Mr. Byrns objects to the secretary of war and the sec retary of the navy, and the senior officers of the army and navy who are called by Congress from ex pressing their honest and frank opinions. He would apparently lim it their testimony to a statement in support of his own views in the matter. Whenever army or navy testimony differs from his in his efforts to destroy a proper national defense for the nation, he attributes iheir statements to some sinister purpose savoring of intrigue and chicanery. "Mr. Cochran also is quoted as having submitted an editorial from the St. Louis Star stating that it had received a form letter from the war department asking for editorial protest against suspension of C. M T. camps. This editorial statement has no foundation in fact. The war department has never sent such a letter to anyone. It is engaged in no form of such activity, nor docs it attempt, directly or indirectly, to control the editorial thought of the press of the United States. “The efforts of Mr. Cochran and Mr. Byrns to make a political issue of proper national defense and to reduce the armed forces of the country to a state of impotence has undoubtedly aroused the resentment of many patriotic citizens who view with alarm these attempts to sub ordinate national security to the ex pediency of politics. It is quite pos sible that such citizens have en deavored to sway the press and public in general. I am glad indeed that they have taken such active steps to preserve the integrity of so , vital an element of the nation’^ de fenses as that represented by the citizen soldier.” Coach Dean Cromwell of the Uni versity of Southern California track and field teams, had six athletes in each of the Olympic games of 1924 and 1928. Camembert cheeses manufactured annually in France. -» ♦ --— AFRICAN FROG SHUNS WATER Boston — (UP) — A frog that i never goes near the water is one of the curiosities noted by Arthur Loveridge of Harvard's museum of comparative zoology during a trip through East Africa. He found this type of frog in an exceedingly dry and sandy region. I .. ♦♦ It takes eight gallons of special oil to give each of the elephants at the London Zoo its annual '"beauty i bath." .»■ Jb ■■ * DISCUSS EASY DIVORCE LAWS Nevada University Team Plans Trip TErrcingh Northwest Reno, Nev.—< UP'—Nevada uni versity’s debate team advocate* making marriage harder , nd di vorce easier. On a trip to be mad< into the northwest this winter, ♦ tie Uni versity of Nevada debate limn, ac cording to Coach Robed H Orif fin. will take both negative and affirmative stands cn the •ubjec* of whether the tendency inward easy divorce in the Unltrd State* constitutes a social menace "On our trip we will uphold botk the affirmative and negative sides, although in a majority of *; es we will probably defend easy di.orce," Coach Griffin said The Nevada team believes is ■ laking divorces easier and mar riage harder. Most divorced pe’< sons remarry, and In so doing r more careful in choosing a sec mate,” he said. One of the main points to used by the team in its •«gative defense, Giiffin stated, J> that the tendency toward easy divorce seem* to be a natural step in social evo lution, that American people are coming to be more rational in their viewpoints on marriage end di vorce. Nevada debaters will pirbablf have a great chance lo defend their stand on divorce, en< similar to that taken by their state when the six weeks divori* law wa* passed, when they invade the north west. HIRES CAUSE F1C9TS Harrisburg, Pa. — (UP) — Un seasonably high temperatures of stream headwaters, where fist*, gather to spawn, are blamed for fights, many resulting in fatal in juries, among brow* and lioolc trout, according to C. R fuller, deputy state fish commissioner fa charge of propagation. Along two and a hidf rnH i of the south fork of the Wall; ipau pack, noted as one of the finest trout streams in Pennsylvania, Buller said h« found HO brown, trout and two brook trout dead along the shoreline. He explained that “Ihere in juries are not caused by the fish endeavoring to eat each other, but are due to spawning activities. It occurs to a more or I'M degree each year. It is mme prevalent and more noticeable this ■iison because of low water conditions." With btreams running low us a result of a long dry sp*. II n great number of the trout reek th# headwaters of the mom olio.ra when the spawning star on up* proaches, he said. --- Jap Prospers Teaching Jiu Jitsu in Frame® Paris — (UP) — Combining th® diversified cits of painting, editing and giving lessons in jiu jltctJ, If. Isigonro, of Japan at large, in milk ing a notable success In Paris, not among the 800 Japan* here, tut in competition Vith belli native® and foreigners of the French capi tal. “The art ot jiu pitsu is a *’ ■ it® one,” he raid recent'*/, "s*r 1 *'• l® handed down by our I t 11® ancestors.” Despite the ft ■ 1 hat the versatile Ielgouro tel' • •* "Ip ponese newspaper and •i.v ya a rare skill at painting, his real pas sion is jiu pitsu. - . ««■ — Panama Anficipelcs Dull Carnival Staton Panama — (UP) — Merchant^ cafe owners and- cabaret oprrutcr* here are resigned to Uic prospects ol a dull carnival season. In prt-vlouf years the municipal and national treasuries gave generous support Mi the public fete that precedes th® Lenten season, but If* (-tor VaJdes, mayor here, has Iclil business nun that times ere too ha id for the mu nicipality to make any contribu tion, while nothing is qxflpettd from the national government. It is practically certain that the customary festivities, including pub lic parades with flouts, the selection and coronation of a ear nival queen, and official banquets and dance® will not take place. QUITS AFTER <« YEARS Windsor, Eng .—(UP)-General J. B. Wicughton has given up smoking after having been a heavy smoker was smoking loo much because eliur for 40 years. The general felt lie ing those 40 year: he edimatcal he had smoked about eieht humlretf weight of tobacco, oo’.llng over $2,660. He says he has not. felt tuij better in health ior it, yet. A Separate Rees*©. From Ftle Mt lc, Paris. "I hear you and Joan arc a happy married couple.” “Yes, the judge has just pie*n ised to give us a divorce.” -44 - Gold Nugget in Hctn’s Craw Sfrsce Sttsidt DownleviHe, C..1. — (UP) — Law fence Neskr’s feverish ha tils backyard is ao>-/ofyst* /y»to neigh bors “in the know.” A few days ago Mi3. Nesltr found a $14 gold nufci * t in. the *rvw of one of her chirk*-m Wow her husband is feverishly digging In the back yard. He repoits ‘good pay ’ in the dirt. -44 .—► 1 1*1 ' Fur trapping, Montmif'a oldest industry, still is the occupation ©1 more than 800 Diofessionals.