Prairieland Talk—
Not ‘Fluffy, Fluttering’ Flakes
By KOMAINE SAINDEKS, 4110 South Slat St.. Lincoln 6. Nebr.
LINCOIJnJ In a recent number of ‘‘In All Its
Fury,” a publication devoted to perpetuating the
memory of the great blizzard of January 12, 1888,
appears a story by the late T. A. Graham under
the title, “The Blizzard in Holt County.”
I do not know where the author's home was in
Holt county. There was a Graham family out in
Shields township which we T
knew well. The Graham that !
wrote the blizzard story’ was
apparently not of that family.
To give his story a touch of
literary nicety, he went at it
this way: "Beautiful fluffy,
fluttering snowflakes great
numbers of them, were sinking
slowly, half floating toward
our earth.”
Not so that morning in
O'Neill where the engineer of
this department was. No Kinialne
"fluffy, fluttering snowflakes” founders
of the poet's dream. Rather a snow cloud dropped
to earth driven by a mighty tempest "in all its
fury."
(Editor's note: It is possible the Mr. Gra
ham referred to alxjve was a member of the
Graham family south of Emmet. One mem
ber of that family in recent years wrote a
book of limited circulation. A highlight of
that lxx>k concerned a classic south of Emmet
bullfight.)
• • •
Pluck a dandelion bloom despised, but
where call you find a speck of gold among the
green more like a touch of color divine. Pause,
sniff and look when* lilacs bloom along the way,
as you hurry about from day to day. Things of
nature, the stalwart pine, blooming bush anil
g resin robed earth, endless as time.
• • •
At the annual meeting in June, 1906, T. D.
Hanley, IT. P. J. Flynn and D. J. Cronin were
elected to serve on the school board. The report
of Dr. Gilligan, treasurer, showed the district in
debtedness to have been reduced during the year
from 520,000 to 58,000 . . 82-year-old Grandfather
Powell of Stuart, having received a letter from a
niece whom he had expected to care for him that
she was going to be married and could not come
to him, went out to the bam, ended his life with a
bullet in the brain. . .M.D.Wileox, postmaster and
merchant at Dixon, S. D., was convicted in court
on a charge of stealing horses. . . Fire destroyed
the Bowen livery bam on lower Fourth street and
the Bazelman lumber business a night in June that
year. . . Misses Clara Gatz and Eula Barton were
visiting friends in Orchard. . . Mr. and Mrs. F. B.
Cole were spending a day or two with their daugh
ter at Amelia.
• • •
< 'un't teach your dog how to do It? Well, the
trainer must know more than his dog!
The night has run its course, another morning
dawns, the bright glow of sunbeams from an un
clouded orb of day flood the eastern horizon. An
other pleasant May day starts down the highway
of time, a day for planters in the "com country" to
rattle across fields, another day of apple blossom
time. City dwellers rake and scrape a hit of garden
ground, mow lawns and sprinkle water over grass
and walks. Nature awakens from winter hiberna
tion and [Hits on the silken gown of green, bud and
blossom and leaf. Memorial day a little way off
when we place again our floral tribute at the
abode of our dead. Mother's day a little way be
hind, father's day just ahead; but to devoted sons
and daughters here in prairieland every day is
mother’s, is father's, ever mindful of the divine ad
monition, honor thy father and thy mother.
• • •
A citizen of that little state of Rhode Island, F.
M, Felts, has compiled a work dealing with the
history of Holt county which will appear in book
form later this year. Prairieland has a rich store
of pioneer experiences of historical interest, and
none more so than Holt county romance and ad
venture, tragedy and comedy, political battles cov
ered wagons of the pioneers and saddle horses on
down to automobile days; homesteaders "happy
as a clam in this land of Uncle Sam" while hold
ing down a claim. The late J. J. McCafferty
wrote the story just as he saw it, and it is great
ly to l)c regreted that it is greatly to be regreted
that it was never published. Holt county citizens
await with anticipation and interest the Felts story
of the settlement of the prairieland empire of Holt.
• • •
So the barbers of O'Neill have formed a trust,
still individually cut hair but ni price cutting.
Memories of Fred Harre, of John Smoot and the
two-bits for a handclipped haircut and another
dime for a shave. Now the barber goes over
heads with machinery, the machine age, asks and
gets a dollar for mowing the upper story meadow.
Most of them down this way charge a dollar and
a half. Our dollars are said to be about worthless.
But how is it everybody, even the cordial gent at
the barber's chair, has a hand out reaching for
the dollars? One dollar for a 25-cent haircut, two
dollars a night for the pillow at the hotel you once
got for 50 cents. Why not with the guys sawing
boards and driving nails demanding $20 a day?
• • •
Told me his name was Martin and his home in
Greeley county. In Lincoln to hobnob with his
daughter and family and would visit others of his
tribe in Oklahoma before returning to Wolbach.
He had helped win the late war by holding down
a war job in Grand Island and now had joined the
ranks of the hasbeens. A remaining bit of mascu
line modesty so I refrained from asking her name,
a lady holing up in the capital who said she was
from Custer county, and Prairieland Talker is from
Holt county. So Lincoln draws citizens and visit
ors from all over the state. Are there Holt county
patriot who have not yet set foot on O street
Come down and see us!
Editorial—
What Isn’t Complicated?
A great deal is written and said these days
about the revolution that is taking place in rural
(agricultural) America.
Farming and ranching, like other industries
such as manufacturing, are undergoing radical
changes due to the increased use of machinery,
electrical gadgets, even electronics.
The horse has practically disappeared. Sim
ilarly the need for extra farm hands has diminish
ed even though farm units afe larger. In the
ranching community, there are seasonal demands
for extra ranch hands, but it’s a widely accepted
fact the rural population has diminished in the past
20 years and it is becoming more and more diffi
cult to keep the young ones down on the farm.
Someone has figured the rural population in Amer
ica is at>out half what it was in 1929.
A generation ago it was generally felt that
“anybody can farm ”, Now it’s "anybody can TRY
farming.”
■" m .. j ~ t. r.._Kunnhinir hnrpnhtillts
x \j aui>uwu ui, - ---
capital investment amounts to 50- to 100-thousand
dollars. One must have credit and considerable
dough to get into agriculture today.
Relatively few can get any such amount of
credit, so there are relatively few new farmere or
ranchers. The new ones come into it by virtue of
birth or marriage. Any more very few start from
scratch.
Then there’s the deterrent of taxes. Young
farmers and ranchers today labor under a tax
bite and an inflated dollar that foreclose almost
before the operator can get his feet on the ground.
The farmer and rancher of tomorrow must be
more than a capitalist. He'll also be required to
be a technician, versed in various skills. Either Mr.
Farmer himself or some member of the family
has to be an accountant for one thing, and he must
have at least elementary ability in mechanics, soil
culture and economics with emphasis on marketing.
This makes farming and ranching sound, com
plicated and difficult.
But what isn’t complicated and difficult now
adays?
The product parade is a novel idea and un
doubtedly will attract considerable interest.
Not a Chance If He’s Lazy
This is an age of specialization. When a spe
cial job is to be done, we call a specialist
But when an individual is out of a job and he
happens to specialize in thumping watermelons to
find out whether they are ripe, that is bad. If
he is drawing unemployment compensation, he
can simply sit back and wait until the watermelons
are ready.
The public can offer him a job of bookkeep
ing, helping brand cattle, shoveling coal or herd
ing bees, but he doesn’t have to take it. He can
stand on his constitutional right, refuse work at
which he is untrained, and occasionally get a dole
from the county.
This calls attention to a few local problems.
Try and find a man to spend four or five days
cleaning up your premises. Billiards and bowling,
even the ice show in Omaha, can prevent certain
otherwise unemployed workers from taking on a
part-time job.
We know of an unemployed person who turn
ed down a good job at good pay for a few days.
“If I take it,” he replied, “I’m supposed to report
it. That will come out of my unemployment
check.”
This is an age of specialists The jack of all
trades, master of none, just hasn’t a chance—that
is, if he doesn’t want to work.
Teach Children Tractor Safety
No parent in his right mind would give his
boy a charge of dynamite and instruct him to
blast out a tree stump, yet many parents don’t
think twice about letting their youngsters operate
a tractor without proper training.
The National Safety Council’s study of 317
tractor fatalities revealed that 50 of the victims
were children under 10 years of age, and almost
one-third of the fatalities were less than 20 years
of age.
You as a j>arents have the greatest opportun
ity to instruct your boy in tractor safety. Begin
by showing him that the controls must be easily
reached and applied if accidents are to be prevent
ed. Let physical maturity and maturity of judge
ment dictate when your boy can operate the tractor.
A short piece of rubber hose, a toy tractor,
and a string tied to the tractor can be used for an
effective demonstration of causes of tractor upsets.
wnen tne toy tractor is puued in a straignt line
over the hose causing the rear wheel to cross the
hose, the tractor takes a bounce and remains up
right. But when pulled in a circle at the same
speed, this bump upsets the toy tractor easily.
Demonstrate the danger of unshielded power
takeoff shafts with an old dishtowel. Wrap one
corner of it around the shaft, hold the opposite
corner lightly. With everyone well back from the
shaft, start the tractor motor, open the throttle
about half, and engage the PTO shaft.
Being in a hurry to clean off a cutter bar has
resulted in many serious accidents. Use a carrot
attached to a nail in the end of a board to show’
how quickly fingers are lost when exposed to
the fast-moving cutter bar.
Demonstrate also the correct techniques in re
fueling a tractor and hitching equipment. Import
ant, too, is know how to extinguish a fire. Light
a pan of crude oil and let your boy actually put
out the fire with an air-charged, dry chemical ex
tinguisher. Also, show him the effectiveness of
other extinguishers, w’ater-soaked sacks, and dirt
in controlling fire.
Our only hope is that the attacks on Vice
President Nixon were not representative of the
feeling toward America by all Peruvians. We are
told the demonstrations w'ere communist inspired.
There is no doubt such demonstrations are a com
mie tactic. But the question is: Are all anti
American exhibitions communist shows? Or is
it possible we don’t win many popularity con
tests any more? In any event the violence is
a sad chapter and most certainly was the work
of thugs regardless of political affiliation.
ilgjE Frontier
CARROLL W. STEWART, Editor and Publisher
Entered at the postoffice tn O'Neill, Holt coun
ty, Nebraska, as second-class mail matter under
the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. nils news
paper is a member of the Nebraska Press Associa
tion, 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 upon request Ail sub
scriptions payable In advance.
Bowling Team Competes in Omaha
Members of the Caterpillar gals bowling team
from O’Neill competed in mixed singles in the
Missouri Valley Machinery company's tourney re
cently in Omaha. Left-to-right: Mrs. Art (Carol)
Tibbets. Mrs. Joe (Delores) Menish, Mrs. Don
(Harriet* McKamy, Mrs. Clifford (Nel) Harding,
and Mi's. Donald (JoAnn) wecker. in the tieut ot
50 men and women. Mrs. McKamy won fifth; Mrs.
Wecker, 14th. In O'Neill howling the gals parti
cipated in the Booster league and at present
stand in second place with three weeks of league
competition remaining. The Frontier Photo.
When You & I Were Young . . .
Townsend Owner of
24-hp Jackson Car
To Buzz Holt, Boyd
Brown Counties
50 Years Ago
Roy Townsend is proud pos
sessor of a 24-horse power Jack
son automobile. He’ll find it con
venient travelling in Holt, Boyd,
Brown, Key a Paha and Rock coun
ties where he is overseeing
bridges which he is building. . .
Drs. Ira and Skelton were out to
Eric Borg’s and took out a sec
tion of his rib and removed the
pus from an abscess which had
formed in his lung. Albin Berg
strom and Josie Hammerlund are
helping at the Borg home.
O’Neill high beat Atkinson high
11-9 in baseball. Players for
O’Neill were Golden, Campbell,
Kane, McNichols, W. Biglin, Ry
an, Ward, Mullen and McCafferty.
Atkinson players were Morgan,
Webber, Donley, Scott, Mohrman,
Purdy, H. Miller, A. Miller and
Callen. In a game with the Peel
ers vs. O’Neill, the score was
the Peelers 4, O'Neill 3. Players
for the winners were T. Murphy,
H. Coyne, J Murphy, Hopkins,
D. O’Malley, Gagahan, W. O'Mal
ley, Minton and Simonson. O’Neill
players (who by the way were an
unorganized team put together
hurriedly because the Emmet
boys failed to show up to play the
Peelers) were B. Coyne, Boyle,
Gibbons, Sullivan, Biglin, Kane,
Mammond, Hanley and Coyne.
20 Years Ago
Mr. and Mrs. E. J. Grenier
were pleasantly surprised when
all their children came home for
a family reunion. . . Mr. and
Mrs. Claude Hancock of David
City held a family reunion. All
their children were present ex
cept Mrs. Vance Kline of Clarks
burg, Mo. . .The Frontier is cele
brating its’ 58th year of publica
tion. Mr. Cronin, the present
editor and publisher, has been
with The Frontier since February
11, 1892 . . Dora Hughes was
valedictorian and Virgil John was
salutatorian of O’Neill high
school's graduating class. . . Don
na Shellhase and Helen Wilkinson
f.,*, nntntnndinrr f n rm
account records in 4-H work. . .
Iiuke Kersenbrock received a se
vere gash in his forehead and
left cheek whn he ran into a barb
wire while riding his bicycle near
the tennis court. Eight stitches
were required to close the gash.
. . . Miss Madeline LVom was
awarded two outstanding awards
at commencement exercises at
Jefferson medical college hos
pital school of nurses in Philadel
phia.
10 Years Ago
Natchel Rzeszotarski, a farmer
living nine miles northeast of At
kinson, narrowly escaped death
when a horse he had roped be
came frightened and started to
run. The man’s leg became en
tangled in the rope and he was
dragged three-quarters of a mile.
. . . Deaths: Troy Howard, 48;
Mrs. Henry Huntsman, 91, of Ne
ligh, formerly of O’Neill. . . Mrs.
William Beha held a tea in her
yard for members of the Purple
Pansy girl scout troop and their
mothers.
One Year Ago
“It’s been a long, long time
since the agricultural conditions
have looked better than they do
today", said J. O. Walker, who
travels extensively in Holt and
Boyd counties. . . Deaths: Austin
L. Hynes, 60; Miss Bernice Mur
phy, 57; Mrs. Alice Axtell, 105,
the state’s oldest resident; William
P. Carroll in Omaha and El wood
E. (“Beck”) Wallen, 76 after leg
amputation. . . Total precipitation
in Chambers for the year amount
to 7.51.
Money To Loan!
Household Goods, F*er»onal
Property, Oars, Trucks,
Farm Equipment
IX)W RATES
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Loan and Investment
Company
0>/3s when you buy
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Chambers
■ mm mm mm imm mm mm m
^Q(]Mei4it..AH NEBRASKA ?
PIM Thi» diorama, »how- .
HR mg Wild Bill Hickok
1^^ in the act of (hooting
*** David McConlet, i» 1
in the Nebratka Hit
torical Society'* mu
teum in Lincoln. The
incident which gave
Hickok hit nickname,
occurred in 1861 at
Rock Creek Ranch in
what it now Jeffer
ton County.
The livelihood of your local tav* Nebraska division
ern operator depends on strict Vnhtd Sum
law observance. He deserves Brtum
your help to keep standards high VP^Q/ foundation
in your community. £,1 Bank ntj, . i.na.m
$5*98]
PER GALLON I
^ WHm AND READY-MIXED BODY CQZQftf jj
--
COYNE HDW.
Phone 21
O’Neill, Nebraska
PITTSBURGH PAINTS keep that look longer!
May is National
Car Safety Monte
From new Safety-TVin headlight*
to new sculptured rear deck, every
gleaming line of this Fairlane
Club Victoria say* "fine carl”
Look what you've been missing
if you haven't driven a 58 FORD
You fust can’t appreciate all the wonderful things that have been done
to make driving more fun t i t until you've checked out in a shiny 58 Ford I
The fun begin* with the simple act of get
ting info the car. Only "yesterday” it
was stoop down or knock off your hat.
Now that has been changed. There’s
room for you and your hat inside the
58 Ford.
Even before you start the engine, notice how
much more you can see. Full-Circle visi
bility lets you see where you’re going ...
see what’s coming ... see to park!
Now touoh the starter. Observe how smoothly
your engine idles. That's because each
Ford engine is built with painstaking
care. Each V-8 is electronically balanced
while operating under ifr own power.
No other car in Ford’s field goes to such
lengths to bring you an engine that will
operate smoothly . . . dependably . . .
efficiently. (If your pick is a thrifty Six,
you can’t buy a more powerful, more
modem 8-cylinder passenger-car engine
than Ford’s 145 horsepower Mileage
Maker Six.)
Ease down now on the throttle and you’ll take
off with all the dash and verve of a
Thunderbird! For after all, the 58 Ford
offers you the Thunderbird's own trans
mission and engine! Team Ford's Cruise
O-Matic Drive with a Thunderbird
powered V-8 engine, and save up to 15%
on gasoline. It’s like getting back I5<t on
every gas dollar!
Neit hunt up the roughest roads you can find.
Notice how bumps lose their bounce
with Ford's softer-riding suspension sys
tem. Notice how Ford’s exclusive Auto
matic Ride Control combines Angle
Poised Ball Joint front suspension with
long, tailored-to-weight rear springs so
that you ride level . . . corner level...
enjoy a "big car feel.”
And Ford gives you more much more in the
way of riding comfort. Ford seats are
wide — sofa-wide. You sit in a relaxed,
natural position with Ford’* Automatic
Posture Control.
Always a Itadar In salaty, Ford again has
Rioneered new feature* to protect you.
ew Safety-Twin taillights, for example,
keep you safer because they give better
warning to cars behind you. And only
Ford otters you famous Lifeguard De
sign—the whole family of safety features
designed to protect you should an acci
dent occur.
Than there are the hidden valuee that are yours
when you choose Ford. The car is put
together with fine-car precision. The
finish is durable enamel—baked enamel
that helps Fords keep that new-car shine.
On the inside, too, Ford cars give you
more insulation than any other cars in
Ford's field.
Why not discover ad you’ve been missing if you
haven't driven a 58 Ford? See your Ford
Dealer and find out firsthand all the
wonderful things that have happened
to Fords. And remember: a comparison
of manufacturers’ suggested retail de
livered prices shows that Ford is lowest
priced of the "low-price three" in 17
out of 19 comparable models!
So why not make tomorrow your day
to drive a Ford? The keys are waiting
for you at your Ford Dealer's. See him
and discover all the fun a Ford can bet
PROVED AND APPROVED AROUND THE WORLD
58 F0RD
JHE FINE CAR AT HALF THE FINE-CAR PRICI
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FOURTH & FREMONT, O’NEILL, NEBR.
-/ Check your car Check your driving */ CHECK ACCIDENTS
