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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 12, 1954)
Prairieland Talk . . . Present Calendar Is Okay By ROMAINE SAUNDERS. Retired. Former Frontier Editor LNCOLN—It has been announced from vat- | ican City that Pope Pius XII places the Catholic j world in opposition to the adoption of the world calendar, joining church leaders of other groups and men of affairs in America and Great Britain who feel there is trouble enough in the world to day and this calendar change would mean more confusion. The governments of India and other Asiatic countries favor its adoption by the United Nations. The Calen dar reform association hopes to have its calendar adopted as the world measurement of months by January 1, 1956. Little is known by the pub lic at large about what this so called world calendar would in troduce. A blank day feature each year takes no account of one 24-hour period, destroys the weekly cycle that has come R0maine down the centuries unbroken since the beginning of time, one Saunders year Sunday the first day of the week, next year the second day of the week, the following year coming up as the third day of the week, and so nn There have been changes in the calendar in the past, but not to disturb the order of the days of the week. The present calendar was inaugurat ed in the 1582 and we seem to be making out all right with it. ♦ * * A party of Nebraska archeologists is un earthing what appears to be the forgotten abode of a forgotten people in the vicinity of old Ft. Randall. . . A Nebraska matron, whose name is spelled with three letters, recently gave birth to three babies. . . In the death of Bess Streeter Aldrich, the state loses a notable personage and prolific writer of stories of pioneer life on prai rieland. . . Eighty men at the Burlington railroad shops in Lincoln were laid off last week. . . Rep resentatives from many Nebraska counties have appeared before the state board of equalization to ask the board to let valuations stand as de termined by the counties. . . Up goes the price of milk one cent per quart again in the capital city. No trouble for me to boycott a dairy. A recent act of congress makes the way a bit easier for a dip into federal funds and to walk off with a wad to build you a swank resi dence. How this program of cutting taxes, split ting budgets, providing homes for the home less. keeping farmers on the gravy train, and giving the superannuated old stiffs bigger checks can hold out is yet to be seen. * * * A white-headed old man without a dime to his name in a “nursing home’’ put his false teeth in a glass of water and left the glass in the bath room. Another aged inmate, wanting a drink, dumped the contents of the glass in the drain and got his drink unaware of what he had done. Is it spite worx or an nonesi eixori 10 Dring to an end that which they feel has gone far enough that inspires the New England republican and new dealers from below the Mason and Dix on line to hop on Senator McCarthy? The Wiscon sin senator has long “stolen the show” from oth er senatorial aspirants, leaving a pretty well de fined conviction that envy has inspired the oppo sition to Mr. McCarthy. This strictly human trait is worldwide. The teeming millions of Europe, Asia, Africa and South America look upon us with envy rather than scorn because we are a contented, well fed and well groomed people, while they are hungry and unhappy. Envy, jeol ousy, covetousness—it may set the world aflame. * * * More than 400-million-dollars have been devoted by the descendants of ancient Abraham to the erection of synagogues in cities through out the country the past 10 years, * * * On September 10 newspaper fellows and their families are to be entertained at the Nebraska state fair, presumably having been handed passes reading, “freedom to the grounds.” A chicken din ner will be put on at noon for the scribes, who are told to “bring the kids.” The bunch will be guests at the afternoon shows and can stick around for the evening performances if they so desire. Think I would rather go out to O’Neill to see friends, sit beside Mike, Horiskey at the steer ing wheel and roll out across prairieland for an afternoon. * * * Famam, a little town down in Frontier coun ty, is said to have been the birthplace cti a gent named Johnson, one of seven reds caught in the FBI net in Colorado and California in one day’s haul. A Denver, Colo., judge thought $100,000 each was about right for bonds and the gents, in cluding a woman or twro, are now in jail. If you have a grievance against Uncle Sam for any rea son, better not get violent as the Smith act can pen you up until the funeral directors take over. * * * It takes weeks of burning sun to work ruin to crops. A hail storm will do it in a few minutes. Rains up to four inches and destructive hail in a few communities broke a protracted rainless peri od in counties of southeast Nebraska. One farm er in Thayer county, who had irrigated his com and was looking forward to a good crop, will have nothing from that 75-acre field. Hail did its work completely. * * * Learn a trick from the birds. A pair of robins was starting a home. The lady of the pair had secured a length of cord and in her flight to the building site the string first caught under her wings and then as she flew over a light or tele phone wire the string became snagged on the wire. Robinette was left suspended in the air when her gallant mate came to the rescue and after violent fluttering both flew away. * * * Filling 51 mail bags, the papers of the late Sen. Hugh Butler are now in the possession of the Nebraska State Historical society. Editorial . . . Difficult to Explain explanatory uanuouts were given 10 me press and State Highway Engineer L. N. Ress took it upon himself to appear before the Cham ber of Commerce in Atkinson to discuss the thing. But people who watched the state highway de partment cut down a host of trees and attempt to build a new road through Elkhorn river valley lowland, west of Emmet, are not favorably im pressed with the engineering advice. It seems you can drill a hole several inches deep in the new U-S. highway 20 grade, which parallels for about four miles the old established grade, and you can strike water. Contractors were called off the hardtopping project while the engi neers now attempt to dry out the grade. There is some question how successful the “mop up” will be. Many oldtimers who use the road frequently said from the start the highway experts wouldn’t get away with the four mile new stretch, which is intended to be wider and straighter. South of O’Neill on U.S. highway 281 the old established road bed is being abandoned in favor of another parallel stretch, approximately the same length as the Emmet debacle. Besides mov ing trees, REA and telephone lines, this bit of new road goes through clay pits in which water stands the year around, also some low land. In the latter case the original road bed seems adequate to us. Although we know absolutely nothing about highway engineering, we’re not en thusiastic about parallel roads, when original road beds may be good enough for widening and improvement. Furthermore, we’re a bit dollar conscious when the question of moving costly new REA and telephone lines and clearing swamps becomes a questionable factor. It’s Fair Season Again It’s fair time again: It’s that season of the year when all Holt countyans should stop their work-a-day tasks and take stock of the finest specimens of agri cultural and handiwork output that go on display for four days at Chambers. It’s a period during which, if properly approached, your pride and faith in the empire of Holt will be renewed. The 62nd annual Holt county fair opens Mon day, August 16. at the fairgrounds at Chambers and continues through Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. j\ vanea entertainment nas been planned. In addition to the fine agricultural, school, livestock and handiwork exhibits, precisely and properly shown in fine exhibit halls and barns, there’ll be baseball, fun on the midway, band music, danc in and, most important, a rodeo. The 1954 rodeo, traditionally the entertainment feature of the fair, will be staged under the lights. It’s our guess the grandstand and bleachers will bulge with spectators as some of the nation’s top rodeo per formers participate for the $1,500 in rodeo prize money. All in all, a great fair lies ahead, and we’ll look forward to seeing you there. Right now we think the officers and direct ors of the Holt County Agricultural society, spon sors of the fair, deserve a vote of appreciation and thanks. Theirs is a year-around task of perpetu ating the fair, constantly planning improvements and ways to better the exposition, and moving forward with very limited resources. We’ll see you at the fair! Now that the primary election is over we can turn our interests to hay yields, com prospects, the all-star football game and world series. ‘83d Has Great Record’ Despite the prolonged filibuster, the 83d con gress entering its last few days is accomplishing an excellent record compared with previous con gresses. This is the opinion of Rep. A. L. Miller (R) of Nebraska’s sprawling Fourth district. Writes Congressman Miller: “For example, my house interior committee has acted on 241 of the 607 bills referred to it. Only the judiciary committee has received more bills and the vast majority of those have been private ones. “The pace has been quickening the past few days. Of the approximately GOO bills signed into law by the president, 104 have come from my committee. Eleven others are awaiting his signa ture and four are being prepared to be sent to him. Only one of the bills has been vetoed. “A number of the bills which my committee heard directly affect Nebraska. Those include the Sargent irrigation project, the Ainsworth project, and the Glendo multi-purpose dam to provide critically needed water and power for our state. Much has been done to promote irrigation and reclamation. “Then, the appropriations committee cleared all appropriation bills before the June 30 deadline for the first time in many years. Truly, a good record,” Congressman Miller concludes. Less Speed, Not More We noted that the reaction of some traffic engineers last week when they learned of Pres ident Eisenhower’s proposed 50 billion dollar highway building program, was that speed limits are too low. Now we don’t claim to be traffic experts, but judging from our own experience, both in driving and observing other motorists, we would say that more speed is something we could very well &et along without. Perhaps speed is not the cause of all high way accidents, but we would be willing to say that speed is a factor in a majority of cases. Perhaps if the highway building program does go through, higher speeds will be possible on mod ernized roads, but until that time, we don’t think that more speed will solve the problem. Irrigation enthusiasts, attention: Maybe the supply of water two inches below the surface of the new U.S. highway 20 grade, west of Emmet, should be tapped and put to good use. .MlP Frontier CARROLL W. STEWART, Editor and Publisher Editorial & Business Offices: 122 South Fourth St. Address correspondence: Box 330, O’Neill, Nebr. Established in 1880—Published Each Thursday Entered at the postoffice in O’Neill, Holt county, Nebraska, as second-class mail matter under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. This newspaper is a member of the Nebraska Press Association, National Editorial Association and the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Terms of Subscription: In Nebraska, $2.50 per year; elsewhere in the United States, $3 per year; rates abroad provided on request All sub scriptions are paid-in-advance. Audited (ABC) Circulation—2,335 (Mar. 31, 1954) 4 News, Views and Gossip ! BY THE EDITOR V Crystal Ball The Sunday sport sections earlier this month heralded with banner headlines and a generous amount of space a look into a crystal ball by Brutus K. Hamil ton, athletic director at the Uni versity of California and veteran U.S. Olympic coach. The story bearing a New York City dateline began like this: “Brutus Hamilton has for the third time in 20 years raised the level of the track and field rec ords he thinks men can achieve in athletics in the foreseeable future. Out of his 17 ‘perfect records’ first charted in 1934 for the standard Olympic events, all but four have been broken, and j one of these has been tied. Of his revised list of 1952, two al ready have fallen. Now he has lifted the sights on seven more marks. Still unanswered,” the story continued, “is the question of limits beyond which man can not go. “Peering into the crystal ball, Hamilton can see the 62- foot sl.otput, a 275-foot javelin throw, a 7 feet 1 inch high jump, 200 feet in the discus, 16 feet in the pole vault. “Australia’s Landy evidently is capable of running under the world’s record in the 3,000 me ters.” ¥ * w ‘Pop’ to Airmen We’ve often wanted to tell The Frontier’s readers a bit about Brutus K. Hamilton (he was Ma jor “Pop” Hamilton in England during World War II, functioning as an intelligence officer). A tall, erect and greying fellow, | an athlete in his own right in I his prime, “Pop” Hamilton car ried the burdens of the war per haps too seriously. By war’s end, he was haggard and worn and a tired, prematurely old man. Last summer in Lincoln the Stewarts (this scribe, Peg and the three kids) dined with “Pop.” It was a reunion for the three adults, who had gotten rather well acquainted in England dur ing the war. When the Sunday sport sec tions devoted so much space to Hamilton's prognostications we dug into our files just for a re fresher on a grand fellow. “Pop” and this writer lived in ai armed camp for 3Vz years on a bit of lush English countryside that was transformed into a hea vy bomber base. Major Hamilton frequently would drop by my stand on the airdrome and we’d discuss things in general and the progress of the war in particular. Occasionally, “Pop” would drop off carbon copies of letters to his beloved wife (she was born at Marysville, Kans., near the Kan sas-Nebraska border). Sometimes I’d inherit from him carbons of pages from his diary. Frequently he’d bring around an airman whose particular exper ience he wanted to share with you. Never have I known another man of such wisdom, insight and knowledge in the handling of and dealing with men. No wonder he has been repeatedly chosen U.S. Olympic coach! * * * Born in Mizzou “Pop”, now sixty-ish, was born on the Missouri-Kansas border. His first job in the athletic big . time was at Kansas university where he developed Big Jim Rausch and Glen Cunningham, the great distance runner. At Hardwick air field in Eng land, “Pop” lived with the crowd of young men who spent several years carrying the war to the enemy before the invasion took place. He slept with them, ate with them, occasionally flew with them and he shared their heartaches and fears. I've watched "Pop"‘ get up from an interrogation table after the warriors had return ed from a bombing mission over Europe. His face would be lined and drawn. Not infre quently he'd disappear into a corner after the intelligence routine questioning was over and weep over the loss of a crew. One time a French town was bombed by mistake. “Pop” piec ed together at the intelligence table what had happened. When his work was finished, he came to my office. He told the story. There were tears in his eyes. “Fop” loved France. He knew some innocent lives had been lost that day. Un tiroc o irl ant fnr dreds of airmen. In Lincoln last year he casually mentioned how many wedding invitations he ac cumulated after the war from former Hardwick men. “Pop” had been in World War I. We used to call those fellows “retreads.” “Pop” Hamilton has forgotten more about handling men, their problems and emotions during a long, drawn-out complicated war than a military academy could ever teach. In his quiet, fatherly and instinctive way, he could lecture eloquently with only a few words. He excelled in deal ing with humanity. * * * Westminister Classic I could tell you about the time before D-day when the tiny isle was about to burst at the seams and “Pop”, lying in bed in a London hotel, knew big things were about to happen. In the middle of the night he ordered a taxi and went out to Westmin ister bridge. He wrote a classic about the shrill little whistles on the tiny boats busily plying the river. He told of the indomitable pulse of Mother England that beat ’round the clock to carry this terrible war to the enemy. He caught a word picture of the battered English people in a de fiant moodr—a picture I won’t forget. I wish space permitted repro ducing it here. On another occasion he went to a village Methodist church z/i a t o m a t i “I’m through with messy Ice trays.My Servel Gas .Refrigerator makes Ice Cubes without trays” Servel makes ice cubes automatically, places them in a basket. Pick out one or a dozen, whatever you need. No trays to clean or refill. Only Servel has no moving parts ... operates with low-cost natural gas ... is guaranteed 10 years. __ > I See your Ser vel dealer or Kansas - Ne braska Man ager about a new Gas Re frigerator, to day. ! /(cW%. riafwAflJ! Gas id todougi viqq&t -6^ai/n-.u;<s^ea^c£Mt I fcu{ tb-a-nd tfo/n ^ome/.* For Dependable CAS Service for a Sunday "eventide" ser vice, worshipping with the vil lagers, singing the hymns — seating himself beside two old gals — spinsters. Next day he left me a copy of the letter describing the evening to his wife and to his young daugh ter, then 17. living in Berkeley. He accompanied the spinsters to their parlor for tea and cake. They exhibited their crocheting, showed him their library, and discussed “the Americans.” Later he bicycled six or seven miles back to camp. From our collection of “Pop” Hamilton’s papers, I picked at random these entries: June 1, 1944 (a few days be fore D-day); “Pardon a little verbosity on the old fella’s part. He has a feeling that this month will see dreadful and epoch - making events. Then, when those things start, he’ll be too busy to do more than merely note events without comment. Everything points to immediate and import ant moves—limited train service, restrictions, no passes, hurry, hush-hush, secret practice mis sions, order to carry personal arms. This gentle month of June may be bathed in blood and dire events. How do the boys feel? No different—or, should say—anx ious to get going, to get the hor rible business done and over with (Continued on page 11) ■ ■ u 114'|TWfr mmsm® Sun.-Mon.-Tues. 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