I \ ** State Historlwi Socl*f The Frontier - - I' !■■■!— ■■■ I ■ .. I ■ ■■ ' ■■ ■ ■ II ■ I. II ■■■■ ■■ ■ M I II ——m ,xv ~~ O'NEILL, NEBRASKA, THURSDAY, APRIL 12,1945 NO. 48 | Spotted Tail Takes to Trail in a t ruck Not since Spotted Tail’s bloody: bands required that soldiers be quartered at Ft. Hartisough on 1 the south and Ft. Randall on the Missouri to the north has there been so many Indians in town as on Sunday night last. The slogan now is not Another Red Skin bit the dust, but rather put poor lo to | work. And Uncle Sam, the em I Idem of the Great White Father, is doing that. Packed in like a double-deck load from off the sheep ranges, fifty-four Indians with tepees, camp equipment, gloomy squaws, wild-eyed kids and lordly bucks from the reservations somehow found hanging on room in a truck that tarried in town for a while on the way to Hastings where the men will work on government projects. They take their "homes" with them, not merely because of lack of house room but because an In dian at home is thoroughly In dian at heart. He may be college bred, a competent worker amid the white man’s cultured sur roundings, yet his home is the squalor and dirt and smoke of the tepee camp life. He may grunt his thanks for a porterhouse steak but would rather have roast dog or jerked venison. There is extensive construction work for the U. S. Navy now be ing developed in the Hastings area. These Indian families are being taken to help on the job. They do not have the white man’s worry for a place to live as all they need is a spot for a tent and would rather be employed in con struction work than under the military discipline of an army camp, where there is “too much salute, not enough shoot.” Word early in the week re ported Bob Brittel’s condition im proved. He was reported previous ly to be in a critical condition in Portland, Ore., where the family moved some time ago from here. SMALL DOSES PAST AND PRESENT By Remain* Saund*n An effectual way of making converts to a New Deal program is putting gents on the payroll. If you are not prepared to ad mit that you are also one of a shoddy outfit don't stand on a street corner and watch the gang go and come. What has happened to our good old American fruit pies? Order pie at a public eating place and there is set on the table a soggy mess of corn starch and flavor ing extract that would just about poison a pup. There it is in plain words, send your clothes to the naked in China and a yawning big box to drop them into. Some of the fair sisters will not have to take off much for themselves to light out for home naked. Country publishers are asked to donate from three to five col umns a week to propaganda for the perpetuation of various offi cial or executive setups that are not much in public favor and are not even put on the dollar-a-year payroll. Not many out this way care a hoot about Omaha power or MVA, other than a considerable senti ment for nature as it is. Our own grand little river has been ruined by too many ditches that do no one any good. The Elk horn as nature cut a winding trail across our prairie had its alluring swimming holes, abound ed with 5-pound pickerel and in winter furnished blocks of pure natural ice for summer storage. . The work of ditch diggers has I left but a withered remnant of the crystal stream we once had. Whether the storage of grain and other products is a proper function of government is debat able. And experience discloses that most government business ventures involve loss in addition to the cost of maintaining an army of administrative heads. If it all adds up to the welfare of the citizens the day of permanent bliss is at hand. A native of the lands east of the Mediterranean many years ago in O’Neill took an American girl as his bride. She soon left him. The disillu sioned Asiatic had the memory of “two glad, happy weeks’ to take with him back to his native coun try. Maybe our “glad, happy weeks” will end some day to make the discovery we have been living in a fool's paradise. Just what would an up-to-date doll-baby do if set out on no man’s land in a tepee and a band of Sioux warriors came to call? Probably her Yankee courage would meet the situation as it did for Mrs. John O’Connell back in 1875. The O’Connells had an chored their hopes for home and fortune on the north bank of the Elkhorn in the vicinity of Atkin son and pitched a tent until logs could be hauled from the Eagle and cabins built. There came a day when the men had all left camp for a journey to the nearest base of supplies, Mrs. O’Connell and the children left to run the tented camp. While the mother was engaged in the duties of her canvas home a band of painted Sioux warriors galloped up. Al ways hungry, always beggars, they wanted to eat. They were in a fair way to clean up the camp supplies when the plucky woman told them to clear out as they could have nothing more. They were on the warpath, not with whites but with the Poncas over by Niobrara and the im placable Pawnee to the south. So sharpening tomahawks and knives on the O’Connell grinding stone they headed for a Ponca camp. War, blood shed, suffering, desola tion, broken homes and broken bod ies—a care incumbered world. Our favored prairie land has heard the human sighs coming from afar, has had a view of the burden of sorrow and distress and need and has opened the purse strings in response to appeals that may appear to be coming In too often. The need Is great. If among American citizens there are those who give their time, their energy, ! their talents without money, without ■ price to solicit funds to soften ' suffering anywhere, as little as I 1 can do is to 'chip in' with my fel ! low citizens. R.S. BRIEFLY STATED Mr. and Mrs. John Berger are spending a fortnight in Omaha. Mr, and Mrs. Harry Walling and wife of Albion, visited at the L. C. Walling home Sunday. Mr. and Mrs. Ed Slaymaker, of Green Valley, were in the city Wednesday. William Froelich returned to Chicago Sunday after a fortnightly trip to his home here. E. J. Mack of Atkinson was an over night guest at the home of his daughter, Mrs. James Rooney, , Sunday. Frances Cronin and Frank Big lin were at Lynch Sunday on a 'visit to Pat O’Connor, confined in I a hospital there. Mrs. Harvey J. Sheton, Jr., of St. Louis is spending a few weeks with her parents in O’Neill, Mr. and Mrs. John Melvin. Mr. and Mrs. Fred Kuren of Long Pine attended the memorial service held here Sunday for Pvt. Richard C. Young. County Treasurer J. Ed Han cock expects to be called to Leav enworth soon for the military go ing over for army service. Assessor L. G. Gillespie is one O’Neill gent that sports a spark ling new spring hat. Lloyd ad mits it is not from the emoluments of qfffice — he had a birthday the 10th. __ Dr. J. F. and Mrs. O'Connell received a telegram Sunday from tlieir son, who has sailed the sev en seas as one of Uncle Sam’s navy boys, had landed in Phila delphia and they expected him home on leave. Edw, M. Gallagher of the First National Bank was re-elected county chairman for another year of the United War Fund of Ne braska at a recent meeting of the state organization at the state house in Lincoln. Mrs. J. C. Harnish, who re ceived word in February of the wounding of her grandson, Frank James Harnish in Germany and that he was taken to a hospital in England, receives no further word of his condition. There are building prospects and plans formulating for "after the war” which if brought to tangible strcturefe will be an other stride forward for the city. Just now the plans are kept “un der the hat” and none otf the in terested parties are making their plans known. A lot of things are curtailed while men fight and bleed and die, construction of new housing or business struct ures among the largest of these. It happened in the “good old days,” according to Walt O’Mally. He was a schoolboy spectator in a pool hall on Fourth street while two gay young blades were shoot ing the ivory balls. The game finished, the boys settled with the house when the newly installed helper at the pool hall thought he would be a good fellow, opened a fresh box of cigars and passed them around. The boss came In, learned the truth and fired his helper whom he had hired 30 min utes before. But give us more liberal-souled helpers. You don’t get a chew of gum now if you buy out half the stock in store. Railroad interests, union min ers and other groups are doing what they can to make a monkey out of the river navigation, irri gation, flood control programs. Uncle Sam has sunk millions in our rivers and the merry work will probably go on in spite of proven losses and failures. Busy bodies must keep going and pub lic funds spent. We were taught in school that water seeks the lowest level. Our once magnifi cent Elkhorn was doing it on a meandering down grade with a drop of 10 feet to the mile, but it too has come under the defac ing hand of time. School Land is Boosted With sixty-six townships com prising Holt county and tvfro sec tions in each township school land is a sizeable interest in the county, developed over the raise in values of these lands recommended by Hugh Dillon, state surveyor. Rentals are based on fief of valua tion. The valuations have been made by the land commissioner after personal survey of all tracts by Mr. Dillon. In a few cases the value per acre has been more than doubled which if adopted as rec ommended means the doubling of rents. School land in the county is di vided into three groups—culti vated, grazing and hay lands. This in turn classified in groups. The higher figures below are those of the state surveyor, the lower as recommended by the county board of supervisors: Cultivated IjukI A1__ $24 $20.00 A2___ 16 12.00 A3_ 10 7.60 A 4. 6 4.50 A5_ 2 2.00 Crazing I at ml G1__$6 $4.50 G2___ 4 3.60 G3......' 2 1.50 G4.. 1 1.00 Hay I