Nebraska Newspapers

    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
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Insurance of All
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PROMPT SETTLEMENTS
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PHONE 114 or 218
— O'NEILL —
L. G. GILLESPIE
AGENCY
Established in 1893
The neatest, nicest
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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.