Prairieland Talk
Letter from A Friend
By ROMAINE SAUNDERS, 4110 S*uth bu»t St.. Lincoln 6. Net>r
An interesting letter comes to me from Fay A.
Puckett, who from his boyhood days until recent
years was part of our prairieland community, but
as others here had done responded to the urge to
move to the great state of
Washington. Mr. Puckett writes
at length telling of a prairie fire
61 years ago that brought much
loss to his father’s family who
lived at that time some miles
out to the southwest. The fire
came from the south and
burned over a wide stretch of
country south of the Elkhorn
river. I recall that fire and my
home at that time was on what Bomatoe
is now known as South First
street in O’Neill, a half block or ***
more from the railroad. A neighbor and I stepped
over to the railroad, clmbed onto a freight car that
was on a side track and watched the fire which went
out when reaching the river. Mr. Puckett recalls, he
a boy of 7, of the family taking refuge in a plowed
field and saw their home destroyed. Then sometime
after that another loss by fire. Fay came with his
father with a team anti wagon to O'Neill, put up the
team in the DeYarman barn at what is now fifth and
Douglas streets, put themselves up at the Dewey
hotel on the south side of Douglas street midway
between Fourth and Fifth streets. The livery barn
burned and the Puckett team was burned. Fay's
father had money, if U and I didn’t those days,
bought horses and got reestablished out on the grass
robed prairies they loved. Fay has a brother in the
Atkinson community, so we trust Fay himself will
return at least to see us if not to remain.
* • *
During my recent sojourn in O'Neill where I
went to have u last look at the lifeless form of a life
long friend I did not have the heart to go to the old
home where that triond had lived so long, where I
had lived and where father and mother, grandfather
and grandmother and a brother had breathed their
last. Nor to step across the way to an empty home
where a family had lived and died, and the last one
in that home. Miss Ruth Harnish now taken away to
a home where she can be cared for.
* * *
Mr. Bishop of the defunct Bartlett State Bank
has been declared guilty in a district court trial of
embezzlement and making false entries in the bank’s
books. He is reported to intend to take his conviction
to the state Supreme Court. Action against the Bart
lett hankers lias for some time been pending and
now the district court comes up with a verdict of
guilty.
* * *
In radiant splendor the roses bloom among the
thorns. I see her now on memory’s throne as she
walked life’s highway amid its thorns and woes to
shed a ray of sunshine across the shadows.
* * *
It is (here, near a corner of the grass robed
front lawn, a bush enshrowded in velvet green and
bedecked with beautiful peonies in full bloom, the
flower for Memorial Day adorned in snow-y white
with bits of color tinted about the blooming beauties.
I pause in passing, look upon that lovely thing the
hand of nature has given man to see.
Omaha. Prairieland's Big Town, is some short j
of having a half million citizens. The 1960 census
takers report a population total of 456,478 of loyal
patriotic Nebraskans. Some eastern cities have lost
a few thousand citizens within the past ten years,
said to account for it because of some moving from
the city to the country. O'Neill, the county seat of
the empire of Holt, has grown the past ten years so
as to require the fourth ward in place of just *hree
as formerly.
» * *
May 30- Another Memorial Day. 1 did not stand
by the graves of my beloved dead this day, but with
the living we visited two of the extensive grounds of
the dead in the Capital City. Many dead and many
living who were there to place floral tributes upon
the graves of their dead. We paused for a few
minutes by the mausoleum where repose the re
mains of the first resident pastor of the Presbyterian
church in O'Neill, Rev. N. S. Lowrie, with the re
mains of his life's companion and the mother of their
sons and daughters, neither of whom stood today
by the tomb. Many of the living out today to stand
where their dead lay, to pay tribute to cherished
memories, the tribute expressed in a cluster of
flowers placed where the dead lay. "The living know
that they shall die, but dead know not anything. ’
• * •
The count for 1960 has been made. There are
154,272 Nebraskans who call our Capital City their
home . . . The bus put the passenger train up the
Elkhom out of business. The family car may do the
same for the bus, if that bus can pick up but one
passenger between O'Neill and Norfolk ... It w’as
100 years ago in 1860 the roll of drums called the
armies of the North and the South to the battle fields.
Down in Mississippi the centenial will be observed
by rebel patriots down there shouldering their guns
and marching out to try it again . . . June 12 the
Nebraska State Historical Society has its summer
gather in Kearney, and stories of pioneer experi
ences anti Indian scnlpings in that region and on out
to Fort Laramie will be recounted ... I saw him at
a bus station in an eastern Nebraska city. Our talk
brought out from me that I had lived in O'Neill. Did
you know J. P. Mann? A question that I could an
swer, sure I knew him. My questioner had been con
nected with a wholesale concern furnishing a line of
goods for the Mann stores, the main one in O’Neill
for over 30 years.
* * •
Harre, Smoot, Price to name only three O’Neill
barbers wielding the razor and shears in the days
when a bearded gent could get a shave for ten cents,
a hair cut tw'o dimes and a nickle. Barbers who have
come and gone. But for 45 years there has stood at
his barber chair at the Golden Hotel a stalwart hus
key who says he hopes to stick it out a few years
more then quit. But, Harry, a few minutes in your
barber chair to step down and hand you a dollar
don’t quit. And down the street a door south of the
building that had been the home of The Frontier,
stands at his barber chair these 30 years or more
an accomplished tonsoril artist who has no thought
of retiring as long as the dollars come his way. In
the old Holt County Bank building at Fourth and
Douglas streets a barber who neither hears nor talks
has been on the job many years in that building that
had recorded three bank failures six barbers now in
O’Neill, while in the days of Fred Harre he was the
only one.
Editorial
Rural Schools Fading Landmark
There is something about a public auction of
anyone’s private possessions that carries an over
tone of sadness. If nothing else the fact remains that
something once worth a struggle no longer has value
for the owner.
Of late this feeling of nostalgia is being brought
home to many of us as we see our old rural school
houses being knocked off to the highest bidder to be
used as brooder houses, shops or other extra farm
buildings.
Memories of kind, understanding teachers,
neighbor children who were nearly as close as bro
thers and sisters and the security of knowing that
we were among friends and held a place of import
ance in the group will always be revived at the sight
of these unpretentious little structures.
In place of a "foyer" was an entry with a water
cooler and a row of hooks for hanging coats and
caps. The "gym" was the whole school yard and a
recess out there painted little faces as red as Mis
souri pippins.
Not a few of us have dreams of heading back to
a little farm in time to put our children into a
"country school” that is close enough to home to
make it possible for us to have our kids at least
part of the day, which seems only fair if we are to
be held responsible for their honorable and upright
behavior.
We of the "old school" would hate like sin to
have the knowledge we gained from the hours of as
sociation with our parents wiped out of our con
ciousness as it would be if we had boarded a bus at
day break only to return at the close of the day.
O Tempora! O mores!
We Must Decide
Nebraska Signal
Recent debate in congress on the so-called de
pressed areas aid bill brought out many ideas on
the subject and it certainly was made clear that
geography has a lot to do with politics, something
that probably does not need to be pointed out.
In this instance, it was interesting to note that
some of the representatives from industrial states
that are in trouble, such as textile communities in
New England and coal mining regions in the east,
made considerable out of the argument that we can t
afford to permit any section of the country to disiu
tergrate because of changes in industry over which
the particular sections have no control.
The plight of coal mining regions and textile
communities has been brought about by new proces
ses, movement of industry from traditional areas
to other parts of the country and to active promotion
by areas favored with certain advantages in climate.
Legisation was proposed which is intended to help
such depressed areas make a come-back by pro
moting new' industries or reviving lagging industries.
We say this argument by certain representatives
of depressed areas was interesting because some of
these same representatives have made much out of
the cost of present legislation which is intended to
bolster agriculture, which has been in trouble be
cause of lowering farm prices and increasing farm
costs, brought about by so-called overproduction.
It is significant that those who argue we should
not permit economic law's to run their course in cer
tain areas, as they have been doing in the depressed
areas, strongly favor the natural operation of the
same laws when applied to agriculture in this part of
the nation.
It seems to us the w’hole matter is a question of
what should be saved and what areas should be pre
served for future needs. It would have been futile, for
instance, for this country to try to stop the decline of
the livery stable business, the manufacture of horse
buggies or the manufacture of kerosene lamps. Those
businesses and industries could have been subsidized
and saved for a time but probably not for long and
any effort at all would have been foolish.
Whether or not it would be wise to try to pre
serve certain communities in the depressed areas
which current legislation was supposed to help is a
difficult question to answer. The administration ap
parent ly feels the plan suggested was not feasible am
it was not convinced the matter is a national pro
blem.
In this connection, and without attempting to an
swer the question with respect to the areas cove ref
by the congressional bill, we w'ould suggest the natior
cannot afford to permit the disintegration of our ag
ricultural economy. The main reason is that th<
nation some day may be badly in need of the pro
ducts we now grow in surplus and that it might b<
more expensive to rehabilitate agriculture to mee
the food needs of the nation than to keep is soum
by expenditures that will keep farmers in busines
through equalizing costs and prices received.
It has been pointed out by many agricultura
economists that because of our population explosioi
in this country and throughout the world the sur
pluses of today may become the shortages of tomor
row. And tomorrow may not be as far off as it ap
pears on the surface.
.SSXJL Frontier
JAMES CHAMPION. Co-Publisher
BRUCE J. REHBERG, Editor
Terms of Subscription: In Nebraska. $2 50 per
year; elsewhere in the United States, $3 per year,
rate abroad provided upon request. All subscrip
tions payable in advance.
Entered at the postoffice in O’Neill, Holt coun
ty, Nebraska, as second-class mail matter under
the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. This news
paper is a member of the Nebraska Press Asso
ciation, National Editorial Association and the Audit
Bureau of Circulations.
NATIONALEDITORIAL
I
I
Frontiers
Ago
SO YEARS AGO
The contract for the addition to
St Mary's Academy was let last
Saturday to R. J. Jobst of Omaha.
The building is to ho completed by
April 1, 1911 . . . Wesley W. Conrad !
of Inman and Miss Elena Trow- j
bridge of Page were united in mar- j
riage by Judge Malone Wednesday
afternoon . . . The Junior 'Normal
opened in this city last Monday!
and will run eight weeks. About 150
teachers are registered to date . . . ■
Mr. and Mrs. O. F. Biglin return- j
ed from their eastern visit last |
Thursday . . . The O’Neill post of-,
fiee drops from second to the third
class on July 1 . . Mrs. Dan O'
Donnell of Stafford, one of the
pioneers of this county, died at a
hospital at Hot Springs, S. D., last
Saturday.
25 YEARS AGO
L. G. Gillespie has decided to be
a candidate for the legislature in
the first session of the unicameral
. . . F. N. Shaner, Ainsworth, be
gan work Tuesday morning in the
new city W'ell on the corner of
Fourth and Fremont streets . . -
The O'Neill City Council extended
the franchise of the Interstate
Power company for twenty-five
years . . . Twelve seniors at St.
Mary’s Academy received diplomas
on Friday, June 7. from Msgr.
McNamara . . . Deaths: Thomas ,
McKenzie, 77, died Tuesday at a 1
Norfolk hospital; Franz Freizen. I
61, hung himself in the garage at i
his farm home north of O'Neill
last Monday night.
11) YEARS AGO
A contract for the building of St. |
Anthony’s 40-bed hospital will be i
let today subject to the approval
of government hospital financing
agencies . . . William W. Griffin,
Holt county attorney, was elected
chairman of the Holt Republican
committee in a Saturday meeting
here . . . Tw’o O'Neill sisters,
Madeline and Catherine Ullom.
are now majors in the army nurses'
corps . . . The O'Neill Gun club
is moving to its new location near
the O'Neill airport ... St. Patrick’s
Catholic church Altar Society was
reorrc-nized Sunday at St. Mary’s
gym. Mrs. John Hickey was elected
president . . . Claude Hamilton, 54,
O'Neill businessman died at his
home Tuesday.
5 YEARS AGO
Large throngs are expected to
attend the second annual O'Neill
rodeo to be held Sunday and Mon
day, June 12 and 13 . . . The new
ly-formed O’Neill chapter of the
Junior Chamber of Commerce re
ceived its charter Sunday. Dwayne
Brog is the president . . . The Rev.
j Glenn Kennicott of Cairo has been
| assigned to the O'Neill-Emmet
J Methodist churches. He succeeds
Rev. Wallace B. Smith who is
I being transferred to churches at
Henry and Lyman . . . John Ban
sen, 28, of Amelia, is regaining his
memory' in an Atkinson hospital.
It is believed he fell from his
i horse . . . Dorothy Donohoe, daugh
ter of Mr. and Mrs. John E. Dono
hoe graduated from St. Catherine's
unit of Creighton University .last
week.
The Long Ago
At Chambers
50 YEARS Al.O(
Willie Calkins yesterday installed
a new Inman line phone in Smith
Bros, store . . . Rolo Munsinger
| while working on the A. T. ranch
was badly injured by having a
horse fall on him. Dr. Colmon was
called and at present the injured
man is doing nicely . . . There will
be a two weeks camp meeting at
j Chambers beginning June 19.
Those from a distance will find
pasture and water for their teams
j near the camp ground . . . Hazel
Bell is home from Tilden where sh ■
has been teaching school the past
year . . . Thomas Higgin’s new
| house is nearly finished and he
expects to move in next week.
25 YEARS AGO
The Chambers Swimming club
i will hold a meeting at the Rich
j ards cafe, Friday evening ... Mr
and Mrs. W. A. Smith and daugh
i i ter Bemiece, and son George
, | Myra Anderson and Mrs. C. M
I Smith returned Friday from a
' i months motor trip which took then
“ ! to Wellsburg, Pa., Washington, D
• C., and Niagra Falls . . . Thomas
, Newhouse was reelected as a mem
ber of the school board for the
f coming year last Monday evening
1 at the school meeting. $2,500 was
5 voted for school purposes ... Dr
O. M. Sanders hired pilot New
Holiday to fly him to Inman Tues
, day to deliver a set of false teed
to Mrs. G. W. Killinger. Roads ar<
1 practically impassible.
Try The Frontier Want
Ads — It Pays i
A Poem
From Mrs. Eby ...
PROFITEERING
When the shadows of evening had
fallen. The children were snug
in their bed.
And father had sunk in the old arm
chair to rest his weary head;
Mother with workbasket ever full
of garments that must be re
paired
Was so tired from the long day of
toil she would go right to sleep
if she dared.
But Bobby’s best trousers were
through at the knee where she’d
patched them three times before,
And as she held them up in the
dim lamp light, she saw the ot
her knee was torn.
They were simply past repairing
again. She laid them down with
a sigh.
“Father”, she said “I can’t fix
them” and trousers have gone
so high.,
He looked in her eyes so tired but
brave, fall of tears she would
not shed
And with voice hoarse with pent up
wrath these significent words he
said,
“Profiteering”, my what a great
big word, “Profiteering” the
thought is simply absurd.
That American men with good red
blood would stoop to a thing so
low, as Profiteering but I tell
you my dear it’s so.
The prices are going so high dear
I just don't know' what we’ll do.
With five sturdy boys to feed and
clothe and keep them in school
too.
I’m working so hard, I’m tired all
the time in fact I’m never rested.
But it seems sometime the wolf
at the door most surely has me
bested.
Can there nothing be done with
unscrupulous men who will crush
out the lives of the poor
' To pile up their fortunes, already
sky high and keep their own
homes secure.
“Mother”, he said as he stroked
her hair, “My heart aches to
see you so worn,
I And your cheeks once so rosy,
round and fair, have grown pale
from the burdens you’ve born.
But surely the God of our fathers
my dear, will help us out if we
try,
Raising men in our nation who
will stamp out this course and
will give us sweet peace bye and
bye.
—Della Stuart Eby—
Smoke from
"Brandin'
Iron" Crick
By J. C. Fudd
Weather's been hotter’n a tw(
dollar pistol along the Crick this
week. June sure is bustin’ out al
over, like that guy Shakespeare ii
always saying.
Mrs. Willie Kell has frying
chickens for sale, she reports, a
a buck apiece. (They’re not to<
big, folks, but Willie claim:
they're eating their heads off an<
they'll have to be thinned out.
She’ll fix them ready for the skil
let for two bits extra.
There will foe a pink and bla
shower for Mrs. Abe Gory nex
j Tuesday at the Newt Bundy home
1 unless it rains. (Newt’s grade get
slicker than grease, comes i
sprinkle on it.) It it does rail
they’ll have it at the Gory Ranch
Well, Lena got the vice-presiden
job again. This time it was caused
by a vacancy in the Move and Im
prove Project club she belongs to.
The lady who had the office got
miffed when a venture she was
sponsoring fell flat, so she quit the
thing cold and joined up with an
other outfit. This left the Move ami
Improvers an officer short. We
hoar some heavy electioneering
went on and more campaign pro
mises than the Republicans and
Democrats put together wen'
made but Lena's promotion slogan
•'Be a doer Skud with Eudd." was
too much for the opposition and
she came in winner by a nose.
Ijena says she knows how that say
ing about being "Often a brides
maid. never a bride." got started.
She belongs to about 17 different
outfits and has been within spittin’
distance of the president’s seat in
pretty near all of them but has
never quite made it. tKeep telling
her she ought to take a leaf out
of Rockefeller’s book ami play
hard to get for a change.)
Widow Essie Barker is going
strong on the Diet and Improve
Your Personality by Mail course.
She hasn’t been at it long but by
Gravy! you can see she’s shrink
ing already. About ready now to
start on the second step where she
bleaches her hair. Had to order an
other lxittle of bleach. Them wild
kids of hers poured the one she had
on Old Shep. Sure changed his per
sonality along with his looks.
Can’t get him to stir a hair to fetch
in the covvs-just wants to loll on
the davenport and peer at his new
blonde fur coat in the looking
glass over the buffet.
Well, see you next week.
If a child can feel down in his
heart that he has the supreme love
and protection of his parents during
these formative years there are
fears in his life that will gradual
ly leave him and trust wiM be sub
stituted for fear
A parents' h've and protection
should not be so deep that he is
prevented from associating with ot
her children, lla entire life a built
around the association with others
If he is not allowed to associate
with other children in his pre-school
days, his first year of school will
be rather lonely. He will dislike
school because his associations with
school are unpleasant. One of the
reasons could be that he found
it hard to meet and become ac
quainted with other children Pre
school parties for children of this
age helps a great deal to soften his
first years at school.
Most of us are now waiting for
our gardens to come up so we can
enjoy fresh vegetables There are
some who like WILTE1' GREENS
such as lettuce, spinach and other
greens that may be found in our
gardens.
Here is a recipe that is good
to fix these various greens;
WILTED t.KEENS
Melt 2 tablespoons drippings in
heavy pan. Add a little chopped
onion, and cook until soft ami yel
low Stir in cup vinegar. then
add 1 guart loaf lettuce or other
greens washed and cut. Cover and
heat a few minutes until greens
are wilted. Season wUh salt and
pepper. Serve hot 4 servings.
Canning time will sixm be here
with the strawberries looking so
good and the rhubarb ready to use.
There are three types of sugar
syrups recommended in the USDA
bulletin No. 8 which may be used
according to your taste.
To make this syrup mix sugar
with water or with juice extracted
from some of the fruit. Use thin,
medium, or heavy syrup which
suits the sweetness of the fruit and
vo.ir taste.
Sugar Water or Yield of
Juice Syrup
Cups Cups Cups
Thin . 2 4 5
Medium 3 ' 5 *4
Heavy 4 3 4 4 tU-k
Boil the sugar and water or fruit
juice together for 5 minutes. Skim
if necessary.
You homemakers who have been
canning for many years have found
good ideas which you would like to
pass on to the readers send your
ideas to me and I’ll be glad to in
clude them in this column. Write
to Mrs. Sarah Michaelis, Inman.
Stop
bindweed
(creeping jenny, possession vine, morning glory)
now
with Du Pont
TRYSBEN'200
WEED KILLER
Make this your year to control field bindweed effectively
and economically with anew liquid weed killer—Du Pont
“Trysben” 200. Spraying with "Trysben” 200 gives ex
cellent control of bindweed and keeps this deep-rooted
pest from taking over your valuable land.
“Trysben” 200 attacks bindweed two ways, through
the leaves and through the roots. Successful trials in
many states where deep-rooted, perennial weeds are a
problem have shown that areas sprayed with "Trysben”
200 stay free of bindweed and similar noxious weeda
that are hard to control with other chemicals.
TRYSBEN® 200 also controls
• RUSSIAN KNAPWEED
• BUR RAGWEED
• CANADA THISTLE
• LEAFY SPURGE
Du Pont “Trysben” 200 controls a wide variety of hard
to-kill broadleaf weeds and also woody vines such as
trumpet vine and certain kinds of brush.
“Trysben” 200 is a highly effective weed killer of the
benzoic acid group. Economical and easy to use, it is a
liquid to be diluted with water for spray application.
See your dealer for a supply of Du Pont “Trysben” 200
soon.
E. I. du Pont da Namoun A Co. (Inc.)
Industrial and Blochamicals Departmant
Wilmington OS, Dataware
On all chemical!, follow label instruction! and warnings carefully.
TRYSBEN® 200
WEED KILLER
BETTER THINGS FOR BETTER I.IVINO . . . THROUGH CHEMISTRY
Homemakers
Corner...
Sarah Mlohaelis
No artist's work is so high, so
noble, so important for all time
as the making of character in
; a child—Cushman.
A child from one to six goes
through many changes, both physi
cally and emotionally. A few of the
emotions which parents first notice
in their children may be anger
and fear.
Fear is an emotion in a child
which may make his life very un
pleasant. Sometimes this fear is
acquired by a child because his
mother may be afraid of storms,
insects, meeting new people, of
darkness, going places alone, fear
of pain or animals. It is then up
to the mother to try and work
at loosing these minor fears.
DIVERSIFIED
SERVICES,
INC.
FOUNDED 1894
exclusive notional
distributor for
• FIVE MUTUAL FUNDS
• ONE FACE-AMOUNT
CERTIFICATE CO.
• Pension and profit
sharinq plan services
For a prospectus-booklet
ond information
write or call
M. L.
(Mike) Burney
Box 37, O’Neill
PHONE 833
also ask about
A practical approach
to Life Insurance
needs
r ill
SYNDICATE LIFE
lasnrwK# and Annuity Cnmpwy
DIVERSIFIED SERVICES, INC
5
1
i
l
1
t . _
^_i■■■■
O'Neill's Big
RODEO
JUNE 17, 18, 19
6 Main Events-Plus Cutting Contest
Fri. and Sat. Evening 8 p.m. - Sunday 2 p.m.
Admission $1.25 Adults — 50c Children