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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 2, 1954)
Prairieland Talk ... ‘Old Jules’ Occasional Visitor By ROMAINE SAUNDERS. Retired. Former Frontier Editor LINCOLN—Possibly Mrs. Dave Stannnard, L. C. Gillespie or some relic of pioneer days may recall having seen a bewhiskered and begrimed specimen of frontier life from over at Niobrara who came to O’Neill a few times. That was Old Jules, about whom Mari Sandoz wrote a book. Miss Sandoz is to be the af ter dinner speaker at the 76th annual meeting of the Nebraska State Historical society to be held at the Cornhusker hotel in Lincoln September 25. Miss Sandoz is the author of a num- i_ ber of books dealing with pio- Rot_.aina neer life in Nebraska. To what extent it received Saunders public attention is immaterial but Gov. Robert Crosby designated August 23 as “Mari Sandoz day.” Her first book was “Old Jules” and he was her dad. * * * October 14. 15 and 16 the Nebraska Library association will be in convention at the Black stone hotel in Omaha. Miss Elizabeth Hage, li brarian at Eldridge, la., will address the first session. Mrs. Marion Marsh Brown of Omaha, a Nebraska author of note, will be one of the con vention speakers. Where the O’Neill bus depot now functions and meals and lunches are for sale, J. J. McCaf ferty conducted a hardware and tinshop business from early days until 1903 when T. V. Golden bought out Mr. McCafferty. Then Walter Hodgkin of the Leonie country and J. H. Peeler became partners in the business. . . It was in that year that two prominent families of the Emmet com munity became closely associated when Stella, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Maring, became the bride of Alexis Ashton. . . That year J. S. Harrington was elected mayor, Clarence Camp bell city clerk, Barney McGrevey treasurer, O. E. Davidson police judge, and E. H. Whelan, James F. Gallagher, Emil Sniggs and Henry Zimmerman composed the council membership. • * * Representatives of the nations that were gathered in Brussels ostensibly seeking common grounds for unity that will lead to world peace give it up as hopeless, as most any prairieland patriot could have told them. Trust the world council of churches meeting in an American city can get together on fundamentals, as those at the first council of the Christian church did in old Jerusalem in the year A.D. 52. w » w Four kids around 17 years of age from what were supposed to be respectable homes in an eastern city were caught in a police dragnet for beating, torturing and killing their victims “for the fun of it.” Two churches in an eastern Ne braska community were visited by a similar gang and destruction wrought within sacred precincts. And such inhuman, evil acts are rewarded with a few years confinement at most. Maybe the whip ping post would be the thing for the kids, awaken parents to their responsibility, and jar the public out of its unconcern. * » * The state supreme court faces an unusual case for judicial decision. A Lincoln lawyer brings suit for damages against one of the district court judges of Lancaster county, alleging that the lawyer’s good name and character suffered from what the district court judge got off his chest and fired at the attorney who was representing a client in his court. A case of “smear” coming from the eminence of the judicial throne. Was it what he ate at a luncheon over at Om aha or the lingering bitterness of defeat at the polls that exploded again when Adlai Stevenson addressed a group of Nebraska democrats in which he said the present national administration is “stuttering, stammering and staggering?” The not yet forgotten new deal administration did not stutter or stammer handing out mink coats, gath ering about it the five percenters, making mil lionaires out of building contractors through “cost plus” and escorting certain favorites aboard the gravy train. It did not stagger at involving the country in three wars in less than a generation, bringing desolation to a million American homes when word came to mothers and fathers and young wives, “John killed in action.” Pendergast vote frauds and ballot box stuffing in Kentucky —no stuttering and no prosecutions; internal rev enue collectors caught in bribery and no stutter ing; Capone gangsters pardoned without batting an eye after serving less than a third of their time; millions of government funds tossed to adminis tration favorites under the guise of “RFC loans” with no stuttering involved. Come on, Mr. Ste venson, you are at heart a patriot—just cut out the partisan animosity. * * * A prairieland woman, Mrs. A. W. Koester of Alliance, was honored at a gathering in New York of Camp Fire workers for her outstanding leader ship of the Camp Fire Girls of her community being one to whom was awarded the national me dallion of that organization. . . President Eisen hower is said to have expressed regrets that Sen. Eva Bowring of Nebraska will not serve the full six-year term. Many Nebraskans feel the same. It could be made possible, not probable, by a write-in campaign. . . The name of Amos L. Le der of Atkinson appears among a list of 14 Ne braskans arriving from the Far East aboard the naval ship which docked at Seattle, Wash., re cently. * * * In promoting the nomination of a candidate for U.S. senator. The Frontier returns to an early tradition. In the hectic political history of Holt county what the editors of The Frontier had to say was a guide post for voters. * * * Do you wish there was somewhere within reach a fabled “Land of Beginning Again”? Every new day opens its gates to beginning again. Ev ery human failure makes an appeal, begin again! Every loss and every misplaced hope offer the promise to the one who will begin again. Did aspirations ljuild a high tower that now lies in rubble?—begin again! Have you made a sacred vow and failed?—begin again! Has the highway of life been strewn with failures and disappoint ments for you? It is not too late to begin again. Out of life’s turmoil, out of life’s struggles, out of life’s failures, here stretches forever ahead the “Land of Beginning Again.” * * * The daily suicide record in Japan is placed at 54. the favorite means to this end being to jump into the burning crater of a volcano. And this record is said to be surpassed in Switzer land. Belgium and Australia, three countries of earth that escape involvement in world wars. * * * Plates on which are inscribed in letters of gold, “Liquor Kills,” are riding the rear bumper of cars. These express the conviction of the gent at the steering wheel, who is thus trying to tell the pub lic that booze is responsible for more highway crackups than will be admitted. Editorial . . . Time for Stop Sign une wonaers now many persons are yet to a be killed, maimed or injured at the dangerous junction of U S. highways 20 and 281, northwest of O’Neill, before a stop sign is erected? No matter what the Nebraska highway de- I partment’s policy is concerning which federal highway should have the right-of-way, if any, etc., it is entirely wrong not to have a large sign north of the intersection for warning and slowing down the southbound traffic and another sign, ordering a full stop for that same traffic, at the intersec tion. A “slow” sign has been in position for some time, but obviously this has been inadequate. It’s a fair guess the corner is the scene of about one death per year, on an average, not to mention the alarming frequency of near-tragic accidents. In most instances one of the vehicles is driven by a stranger who doesn’t know the danger inherent at the tricky and deceptive cor ner. Disregarding all other considerations, The Frontier feels appropriate traffic control signs should be erected without delay. The same feeling is held by Holt County Sheriff Le0 Tomjack, who investigated the most recent accident in which six persons were hurt, although not seriously. No Future? (From the Nance County Journal. Fullerton) Sometimes people say there’s no more future left in this country. Everything discoverable has been discovered, they say, and everything invent able has been invented. We’re surprised at this lack of information about all the things this country needs. The field for new things is practically limitless. The big brain who can come up with a rattle-proof pop corn sack for the character in back of you at the movies will have it made. The future Edison who will invent a simple porch gadget to drench an in sulting magazine peddler when you push a button inside the screen door will acquire honor and riches. A fortune awaits the perfector of a de vice that will permit you to talk back to radio and television orators when they get too mouthy in your living room. A rear-view mirror to show a hefty gal in shorts how she looks to everybody else would be one of the country’s fastest selling gift items. No future left in this country? Don’t let ’em fool you, young feller. We got more of that than anything else! End-of-swimming-season results: Small fry leaping from 10-ft. diving board. Example In Foreign Relations Greek farmers in the tiny village of Antheless recently unveiled a bust of Walter Eugene Pack ard of Berkeley, Calif., in recognition of his con tribution to their local economy. The 70-year-old United States soil authority turned an alkali soil in the Antheless region into a rich rice-producing farmland. Paekard required six years to do the job he went to Greece to accomplish and is soon leaving Greece to return to his home in California. Until he transformed the Sperkhios river district into a rich rice-producing region, Greece was forced to import about $5,000,000 worth of rice annually. Packard found that he could wash out the alkali acres with fresh water from the Sperkhios river, thus making it suitable for rice production. After six years, Greece now exports roughly $5, 000,000 worth of rice annually, rather than im porting a similar amount. The difference, after the work of Packard, is a difference of $10,000,000 in Greek foreign ex change funds a year. Greek farmers look upon Packard’s work as a miracle, and the former U.S. land reclamation director highly deserves their thanks for transforming this community into a fertile farm valley. These are the things through which genuine international understanding and friendship are developed and if the United States had more ambassadors of the Packard variety, it would have the support of more and more of the world’s peoples. ^hlErontIer 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) 0 *jl News, Views and Gossip BY THE EDITOR ^ - ^ Sandhills Are Rich This is a sample of what S. W. Lohman of the United States Geological Survey has to say about the Nebraska sandhills in a special “type area” study of “Subsurface Facilities of Water Management and Patterns of Supply”: “Nature has endowed this area with an abundance of grass, natural hay meadows and water. “In the western and northern parts of the area the thousands of natural lakes and ponds provide water for the livestock — else where, stock wells with wind mills are easily constructed. In an area north of Hyannis many flowing wells supply stock water. “Judging from the numerous brown haystacks that dot the luxurious meadows, ordinarily more of this commodity is grown than is consumed.” Cattlemen began to settle the sandhills after 1860, as railroads pushed westward, Mr. Lohman pointed out. “The first settlers found unex celled natural conditions for cat tle-raising and experience has not forced a change in the use of the land,” he adds. He calls the area “unique,” topographically, and says it “re sembles a stormy sea.” Most sections of the high plains are underlain Dy large ground water reservoirs, but the sand hills is exceptional in that re spect. ‘The mean rate of replenish ment to this particular reservoir . . . is aljout five times greater than that in most other parts of the high plains—thanks to the mantle of porous sand which the precipitation infiltrates readily,” he explains. The area’s population has drop ped since 1920—from about 45 thousand persons to about 36 thousand. That, however, is a poor gauge of the sandhills’ prosperity and economic activity. “Previously the area had con tained many small, separately owned homesteads in a region where only large holdings could be profitably operated,” Mr. Loh man points out. Since World War I, and par ticularly during the drouth of the 1930’s, small farms have gradual ly been merged into large ranch es. * * * Hyannis Richest But he points out that the cities and towns in and near the sand hills have been growing at about the same pace as other com munities on the high plains. He mentions that Hyannis, with a population of 432 in 1950, “is reported to have the greatest wealth per capita of any com munity in the United States.” “This wealth was derived from cattle-raising,” he explains. However, great wealth was drawn during World War I from the water of alkali lakes around Hyannis Mr. Lohman sounds almost like a chamber of commerce booster when he talks of the sandhills’ “exceptional” recreational facili ties. “The many lakes, ponds and marshes are a haven for wild ducks and other waterfowl, which provides good hunting,” he says. He cites the “good fishing” and the wild fowl, including the pheasant, grouse, prairie chicken and partridge. Mr. Lohman calls the ground water streams in the sandhills “striking,” because they are so clear despite their fast flow. Ground - water supplies have been “virtually untouched” in the sandhills, he says, though they serve lands outside the area “and can serve additioanl lands.” Incidentally, Nebraska Con gressman A. L. Miller of Kimball is chairman of the house interior committee which sponsored the study of nine areas in the United States, chiefly n the West. We were so impressed witn Lohman’s sandhills’ findings we could not resist reproducing por tions of his report. Excerpts from Lohman’s effort, done from a cranny on Pennsylvania avenue, are similar to something our friend, Romaine Saunders, might have said in his “Prairieland Talk.” * * * Videots Three matrons, one from Em met and two from O’Neill, were discussing television the other evening. Mrs. A1 Carroll said, one day an airplane was over O’Neill and in radio contact with its home base. “A man’s voice came in on channel 6,” she said, “and the pilot told his home base to relay to his wife the word he was over O’Neill and would like to have his wife meet him in about 30 minutes.” Mrs. Bud Cole mentioned that telephone linemen were working on a pole and a TV viewer she knows insisted the test conversa tions on the phone line splashed into the TV set and out into the livingroom. Our good wife, third member of the trumvirate, reports “pick ing up” Charleston, S.C., and Pensacola, Fla., occasionally — something which has been rath er common. All of which proves there’s a certain amount of fascinating voodoo in TV and even the elec tronics engineers don’t complete ly understand it, else these things would not be permitted to occur. —CAL STEWART To Kentucky — Mr. and Mrs. George McCarthy end daughter, Lynne, left O’Neill on Friday, August 13, via auto for Louisville, Ky., to attend the 72nd annual supreme council meeting of the Knights of Colum bus held in the Kentucky hotel. After the convention, they visit ed several places of interest in rveniucky, including .Mammoth cave. Enroute home they also vis ited friends and relatives in Chi cago, 111., Kenosha and other cities in Wisconsin, returning home Saturday, August 28. When You and I Were Young... Minus Owner’s Okay, Team Sprints Home Family Sees Building Topple in Storm R. R. Dickson’s black and white English pointer, Colonel, won the grand prize at the field trials of the Nebraska Field Tri als association. Second place was won by an English pointer own ed by Judge Harrington. There were 25 other dogs entered for the run. . . Pat Biglin’s team in dulged in a little sprint the other night without the consent of the driver. The team was standing by the oil tank at the North Western track when the bell an nouncing 6 o’clock peeled forth. The team started at once for their quarters up town and got there by a circuitous route without causing any damage. . . Lloyd Gillespie and family returned last week from an exended visit at Minneapolis, Minn. Lloyd says they were about in the storm center when the Twin Cities were devastated by the recent cyclone. However, none of them were injured beyond a hair whitening terror as they saw a massive building crash in ruins and a grea monarch of the forest topple from its throne. . . O’ Neill’s omnibus service will be increased by another vehicle of this kind now in course of con struction at Hagensmith’s black smith shop for the Dewey. 20 Years Ago A free day will be held in O’ Neill. Funds for entertainment have been raised and a day with plenty of enertainment is assur ed. . . Two persons were injured in an auto accident when the car they were in went out of control and into the ditch five miles west of town. . . Mrs. Bartley Blain, 87, died at' her home in Page. Mrs. Blain had been a resident of this county since 1909. . . The re publican and democratic county conventions were held in O’Neill on the same day. D. H. Cronin was elected chairman of the re publican county convention and Garry Benson of Ewing, secre tary. Dr. N. P. McKee of Atkin son and W. H. Holliday of Stuart are counterparts from the demo cratic convention. 10 Years Ago Students from both schools are organizing a teen age canteen in O’Neill. Many cities all over the country are adopting this idea. . . . Six Holt county 4-H club members have been selected to represent Holt county at the state fair. . . Dorance C. Crabb and Franklin J. Scott were in ducted into the armed services during the month of August. . . The Woodman circle organized a sorority chapter here. There aie 25 charter members. One Year Ago Chief Petty Officer Duane Thorin was one of the FUW s returned in a recent prisoner exchange in Korea. He had been a North Koreap captive for 19 months. . . The U.S. civil service commission announced that the first examination for postmaster at O’Neill will be conducted soon. It is a $5,370 a year job. . . W. L. (“Will”) Medcalf, 86, died at St. Anthony’s in O’Neill. . . Dr. Earl Leonard Deacon, famous British meteoroligist, popped in for a few days’ visit at the wiz ards’ paradise six miles north east of O’Neill, officially desig nated as the Air Force - Cam bridge research center’s great plains wind turbulence field pro ject. ELKHORN FLOWER SHOP New Location: 413 East Douglas Street (Four doors east of former location) O’NEILL, NEBR. Night Phone 530W Day Phone 579 We Telegraph Flowers Flowers For All Occasions i. o* INSURANCE Insurance of All Kinds Bonds — Notary Public 20% SAVINGS ON YOUR PREMIUMS RELIABLE COMPANIES c PROMPT SETTLEMENTS Office in Gillespie Radio Bldg. PHONE 114 or 218 — O'NEILL — L. G. GILLESPIE AGENCY Established in 1893 The neatest, nicest walking oxfords you can buyl Are you acquainted with the wonderful quality, comfort and smartness of Official Girl Scout oxfords? Smart girls wear them regularly, because they’re good looking and economical. Whether you’re a Girl Scout or not, you can wear these beauties! See our fine selection soon. BUSTER BROW* GIRL SCOUT '-SHOE-' In White or Brown WIDTHS: AAA, AA, B & C 8.95 Pr • & , Women’s Nylons First Quality PER PAIR 69c 3 PAIRS.1.99 \ USBORNE’g The Family Shoe Store North-Central Nebraska’s Finest O'NEILL PHONE 384 4 Important Reasons why yon should huy a PONTIAC Right No, wf J Pontiac is One of the Greatest Cars Ever Built! Match today’s Pontiac with America's finest cars and you’ll get a dramatic picture of Pontiac vulue. First of all, Pontiac is big bigger, in fact, than many cars costing hundreds of dollars more.* Pontiac is beautiful—with its distinctive Silver Streak styling. Inside, you’ll find genuine fine-car luxury and appointments— along with the roominess and comfort that come only with a long wheelbase. But the big surprise comes when you test Pontiac’s performance. See how alert it is to every demand in traffic, how it handles and comers almost without effort, how it takes to the open road with plenty of power to spare and saves money every mile. 2 Pontiac has the Best Resale Value in its Price Class I Along with all its fine-car size, luxury and performance, Pontiac has a very special attribute no car at any price can beat-its un surpassed reputation for year-in, year-out dependability. Pontiac’s carefree, economical long life and its proved record of amazingly low maintenance expense are so widely known and acknowledged that it commands the highest resale value in its price class. Be cause Pontiac is America’s most desirable ueed car, your original investment comes back in greater measure when you trade. ^ Pontiac is Priced Just Above the Lowest I After you’ve convinced yourself of Pontiac’s value, after you’ve considered all the good things you’ve heard about its depend / ability—see how it compares dollar-wise. Despite the fact that it’s a fine car in every sense of the term, Pontiac is priced so near the lowest that if you can afford any new car you can afford a Pontiac. 4 We’ll Make You a Deal You Can’t Afford to Miss I Right now we’re making such liberal trade-in allowances that you just can t afford to pass up the greatest opportunity vou ever had to become a fine-car owner. Come in and get the'facts. r DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR 1DC CAN’T BEAT A FONT.AC t WN. KROTTER CO. Phone 531 ... , _ _______ O Neill, Nebr.