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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 8, 1960)
Praineland Talk "Politics of Little Interest" By ROMAINE SAUNDfcrtS, 4110 South Sort St.. Unooin 6. Nebr. I handed the genial gent who put the new shoes on my feet a ten and a five dollar bill. He gave me five cents in change. Fifteen dollars less one nickle for a three-dollar pair of shoes Maybe 1 should have put off buying shoes until the next trip to O'Neil] where Archie Bowen maybe could have given me a dime or quarter In change after handing him the five and ten. But I am in our Capital City and one of my tribal group sees to it that I am properly clad from head to foot. And who was that genial gent that look my fifteen? That was Mr. Mills who traces his family tree to one of B the Sturdevant brothers, pio neers and prominent citizens BaoiKlera of Atkinson. Mr. Mills is connected with one of Lin coln's oldest mercantile establishments. Told me it is more than two years since he visited in Atkinson. • • • Lincoln has had a Mexican Indian in the city a few days recently. He is a reformed former criminal and prison inmate, now going about from city to city visiting prisons and jails to talk to inmates and point them to a better way of life, sells stories of his early life and some recorded bits of sermons to pay his way from place to place. Has a young son with him, their home being in southern California, a land once the home of his ancestors the Aztec Indians. That little fellow, his son, smiled and thanked me when I handed him a dollar bill. A one time criminal now a saintly fellow-being going about to do good. O'Neill has become an educational center. A large arciturealy grand public school building or buildings up on the hill as you go up Fourth street, and just across the way the large academy buildings known as St. Mary's that is now to enlarge and im prove its service for the young. A one room frame building, O’Neill’s first schoolhouse, stood a half mile west and D. P. O'Sullivan weilding the rod to make kids behave and learn to read and write. And Kate Mann presided as teacher for the younger children in what later became dedicated and known as the Methodist church. I know of one at least that learned his letters and 2 plus 2 of Miss Mann who still is here, the well known John Sullivan, at recent times serving as a county official. Now at his childhood home south of the Elkhorn. Schools, we have them today in great buildings, qualified and cultured teachers. Who now remembers that prairieland teac her lost in the great blizzard of January 12. '88 who found shelter in a hay stack but was so badly frozen she did not survive. And that school boy Mark Murphy who walked the three miles to town each morning to school, three miles back home, a six mile walk day after day, A pioneer woman of the Page community did not write to her eastern kin folks in her homestead days because she did not have two cents with which to buy a postage stamp. Maybe some of your tribal group do not write today because they lack the four cents needed for a postage stamp. * • • All is peaceful on prairieland, rains and sun shine and abundance for all. Other lands, other re gions of earth, troubled. Nation rising against nation and people against people. State and national elec tion just ahead, but Nebraskans feel at ease know ing that who ever is elected their grain fields will continue to produce, hay meadows stacked with hay as usual and the herds of this great Beef State as abundant as ever. • • • Laugh and the crowd laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone. No—not alone. Down there along life’s highway sits a lonely soul weeping the hours away. Smiles and tears, joy and heart ache—and soon it is all over and you are laid away. • * * He was at Lynch in Boyd county last weekend, a friend of mine here in the Capital City. Hot and dry up there he tells me but the citizens of the com munity with whom he met in a church service are a happy people and live in comfort. Hot and dry down Lincoln way it continues hot and wet, heavy rains at frequent intervals. Weather reports the country over tell of heavy rains, unusual in late August. Little or no interest in the coming state and national election. Even Holt county newspapers are politically silent. Not so fifty, sixty, seventy years ago. The editors those days, Mathews, Riggs, Mc Donough, Kautzman and others pulled the political hide from candidates that were not in their political group. Some fun, some excitement in those days over election of candidates. Today politics of little interest. • * • She has a house in Baltimore; streetcar runs right by the door. Jimmy get your haircut pompi dore. • • • On October 22 the Nebraska State Historical Society officers and members who can come meet in the society’s annual gathering at the beautiful Com husker hotel in Lincoln, the main speaker to be a notable from Northwestern University. Husking com is a relic of other days. Maybe the grand hotel on south 13th street should take another name— Beefsteak Hotel, for instance. * • * A student of Holy Writ and traveling much at home and abroad Evangelist Billy Graham concludes that the end of the world is close at hand. Are wo ready for it? Editorial The Old Order Changeth "The old order changeth, yielding place to new." ■o wrote Tennyson, a great many years ago in his Idylls of the King. But the words and the thought apply in full force to the U. S. political situation of today. National Review Bulletin recently said some thing that, in its essence, reflects the thinking of a growing number of political observers: "Chicago confirmed Los Angeles in suggesting that the new generation now ousting its elders from the nation’s controls is composed not merely of new men but of a new kind of man. For all those differences that will so intensely occupy the attention of the voters of this country and the peoples of the world . . . John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Richard Milhous Nixon seem to be fashioned of very similar psychic clay. Both are totally ambitious, ruthlessly unsentimental, masters of organizational tactics. Each handled his party’s convention in essentially the same way. Boldly, with an exact sense of timing and precise calculation of pressures, they smashed or conciliated all opposition, won full personal ascendancy, and then moved to draw all the diverse party elements into a single meshed machine. "It was as if the pattern and techniques of modern, assembly-line mass industry were finally being extended, under the compulsions of TV, to the business of politics. By computer-checked plans and tactical intuition, these political engineers guaran tee the orderly progress of the agenda, just as the astute manager of a great modern factory main tains the steady advance of his production line.” Only time will tell whether this is good or bad, or whether it is just a temporary phenomena or the beginning of a new political era. That aside, Nixon and Kennedy have taken over their parties with amazing completeness. The older leaders, with few exceptions, have been brushed into the wings. The national committees, m a matter ui weens, nave been almost revolutionized so far as real authority and power of decision are concerned. This has been an amazing feat. It is no secret that many top Democrats, including the party's only former President, opposed Senator Kennedy and that some leaders with a reputation for vast political astuteness went to Los Angeles confident he could be stopped. The Kennedy forces, consisting largely of very young men, made their elders look inept. Vice President Nixon, by virtue of his position as a member of an incumbent Administration, was in a different position at Chicago. But from the word go there was no question of who was boss, and who was calling the tune. Not the least of Mr. Nixon's political achievements was the way he brought differing ele ments of the party into line—notably Governor Rockefeller and Senator Goldwater. This campaign will be the most intensive in his tory. Mr. Nixon plans to hit everyone of the 50 states. Senator Kennedy probably will too. Both are in defatigable, and possessed of almost unbelievable vigor. Both belong to the tough modem school of politics, in which quarter is neither asked nor given. It will be a tense, exciting campaign too. It's true that the Democrats have, roughly, a 3 to 2 edge in voter registrations, that is is mathematically im possible for the Republicans to take over the Senate, and that the chance of a Republican win of the House is exceedingly remote. This, the unitiated might think, indicates easy sailing for the Kennedy-John son ticket. But the experts see the battle as a toss up. The voters, as a series of elections has proved, regard the Presidency differently than they regard Senate, House or Gubernatorial seats. Purely parti san considerations apply less and less in choosing the Chief Magistrate. So, as the saying goes, both candidates will run scared. Too Much, Too Soon Right now, when schools are opening is as good a time as any to quote from an article in the Mt. Washington Press of Cincinnatti, Ohio. ‘‘It must have started, I think, with long pants for little boys,” writes the editor. Wherever it start ed, however it goes, we in this lovely land are the victims of a vast foolishness of our own creation. "Of a sudden, a childish childhood is somehow disgraceful. A tot who can't do a reasonable fac simile of Fred Astair at eight is socially retard ed .. . the pet who hasn’t ‘gone steady’ by the time she reaches junior high is tagged and labelled a wall-flower . . . and the lad who hasn’t his own car by seventeen is underpriviledged. "And this is bad and sad for it throws the living of a long and happy life out of kilter. The peaks are passed while the children are still in the valley . . . the thrills are gone before they can be properly ap preciated. "When all the good ‘firsts’ are crammed into a few immature years, what can we expect but a seek ing and searching for new experiences down the more devious path of life?” We have found that it is much easier to make promises than to carry them out. Giving money to a worthy cause is one way in which a person extends his helpfulness. Few' people ever decide voluntarily to give up a job that pays off regularly and generously. It is very hard to mix work and loafing; some how they do not seem to get along together. JigJSLfRONi.R 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 postoifice 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. NATION A l CDITORIAl I*#®1#1 Frontiers Ago 5* YEARS AGO The carpenters and decorators have completed their work upon St. Patrick's church and the work of installing the furniture is now going on. The date of the dedica tion has not been decided upon yet, but it will be the forepart ol October . . . J. B. Mellor. Arthur Ryan. J. J. Thomas and Jas. F. O'Donnell took the early train Tuesday morning for Lincoln where they will attend the state fair and see Speed On go after the big money in the 2:15 pace . . The WCTU annual convention w-as held in Inman September 1 and 2 ... A 40 page bulletin dealing with the problem of con solidation of rural schools has just been issued by the State School Superintendent . . . M. F Harrington returned last Tuesday evening from a two weeks busi ness and pleasure trip to the Pacific coast . . . Miss Julia Big lin returned last Friday evening from Scranton, Pa., where she had been visiting relatives the past three months. 25 YEARS AGO Martin E. Lantis of Rose, in Rock county, last Monday com pleted a filing on 120 acres ol government land in Rock county This entry will probably be the last one made on government land in the United States . . . VV. H. Barnhart of Atkinson, has rented the Ryan building on Douglas street formerly a gn> eery store and will open up a wholesale fruit and vegetable market therein the first of the coming week . . . Tuesday, Sept. 10 was the 76th birthday ol Grandma McNichols and a few of her friends and well wishers gathered at the home of her daughter, Mrs. T. F. Donohoe tc help her celebrate the event . . Rev. and Mrs. A. J. May left for Omaha Tuesday morning to at tend the annual conference of the Methodist churches of the state . . . Christopher William Hagen sick, known by everyone as "Billy” died at his home in O’ Neill last Monday morning. He was one of the real pioneers ot the county having lived here since 1884. 10 YEARS AGO Seven hundred fifty have re gistered in O’Neill’s schools There are 70 boarding pupils this year at St. Mary’s Academy com ing from Montana, Wyoming South Dakota and Nebraska points. The O’Neill public school’s enrollment is down slightly . . The golden wedding anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Swan Pearson, prominent residents of Bristow occured Wednesday, Sept. 6 bul the observance of the event was held Sunday . . . Mr. and Mrs Ernest Spahn of Clearwater were scheduled to sail from New York City, bound for Rotterdam, Hol land . . . Art Fuhrer and Joe Scripter of Atkinson were sentenc ed to one year each in the state penitentiary and Benny Braun ol Atkinson to one year in the men's reformatory in district courl Tuesday on charges growing out of a hog stealing incident at the Gene Carr farm north of Atkinson on June 20 . . . Deaths: Roberl Carr, John B. Wrede, Mrs. Art Snyder, Miss Nellie O’Connell and Charles Schmoker. 5 YEARS AGO C.E.A. Johnson, who has been manager of the 13-county O’Neill district for Consumers Public Po wer since October 1, 1952, has been made manager of the Ne braska western system with head quarters at Scottsbluff. Johnson’s successor is K. L. Van Voorhis, Chadron district manager since 1943. . .“Grandma” Hall is 100 years old. A picnic took place on the farm where she lives with her son, William, about 23 miles north of O’Neill. . .Thursday eve ning and during the early Friday morning hours O’Neill volunteer firemen had the busiest eight-hour stint on record. They were called to four different fires Thursday night. . .Mr. and Mrs. Roy Lowry celebrated their 54th wedding an niversary with a picnic held at the Ft. Randall park . . . Hugh J. McManus, 56, a lifelong resident of O’Neill and a veteran of World War II died Tuesday, Sept. 6 in St. Anthony’s hospital. The Long Ago At Chambers 30 YEARS AGO Mr. and Mrs Charles Bamuni are attending the State Fair and visiting friends in Lincoln this week . . - L>an Finigan of O'Neill Panama and elsewhere was in our burg Tuesday fighting over the Philippine War with B. J. Newlon . . Mrs. Bowen of O' Neill was down the first of the week to see her daughter, Mrs. Arthur Fluckey, who has been very ill . . • Ves Potter's team startl'd rather lively for O'Neill . Tuesday morning, but after runn ing across E. E. Perrin's porch, taking out two posts, they ran across the street and brought up , against a telephon? pole where Mr. Potter caught them. ■ ts YEARS AGO The gates have swung open on the 43rd annual South Fork Fair and from all reports it bids fair to out do all previous years and so far the weather is assisting , with fine weather . . . Miss Vir- 1 ginia Lambert has accepted a position as school teacher 7 miles north of Emmet ... Representative L. G. Gillespie attended the fair here today . . . Floyo Snodgrass of Neligh has resumed his i>osi tion as principal of the Martha Consoliated school for the com ing year . . . Mr. and Mrs Her man Holcomb returned last Tues dav from a very enjoyable two thousand mile auto trip through Western Nebraska, Wyoming, the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National parks. "The EDITOR" We wonder just how many O’ Neill residents really know what the population of O’Neill is. Our friend. George Hammond, says it is all in your point of view and after we checked the population signs on the highways leading into O'Neill we’re ready to concede he is right. However, we won’t concede that the signs are right. The tourist traveling from east to west will enter the city and see a sign in forming him that the population is 3,030 and if he continues on highway 20 he will leave the town with the same population. However, if he turns north and happens to glance at the road sign as he leaves town the sign will show an increase of 20 per sons since he entered a few min utes back. It says 3,050, Now if his curlouslty gets the best of him and he decides to double back and check, once more to look at this growing metro polus and he drives to the south part of town to get a better view of the situation he will be in formed that the population has again increased, this time to 3,080. By this time he is ready to be lieve the tourist folder told the truth about the great fertility of the state If that isn t bad enough, puy the poor tourist who enters from the south and sees the popula tion decrease from 3,080 to 3,030 by the time he gets to tile other side of town. Just for the record, according to the report which we just re ceived from the Bureau of The O’Neill's population was 3,027 in 1950 and the preliminary figures place the population at 3,10i. Before we print this though we ’re going out and see if we can’t make a few bets with our friends as to the population of O’Neill. —BJR— A Kansas City, Mo. man was charged and found guilty of il legal soliciting funds for the al leged “Good Samartian Army of American”, in Holt county court last week. Although the man could not think of anyone that the organization had helped in the 25 years he had been so liciting for it, (he claimed to be the president of the corporation and his daughter-in-law the sec retary-treasurer) we can not help but think that this is not much worse than some other fund rais ing organizations which are cloak ed an air of respectability but still use up to 97 percent of the money collected for “administra tive” costs. We wonder if the TURKEY DINNER St. Peter's Catholic Church EWING, NEBRASKA SUNDAY, SEPT. 11 Serving Starts at 5:00 p.m. Adults $1.25, Children under 12, 50c ATTRACTIONS FOR ALL next fund raiser who calls on us can give us the name of oije per son who hss actually been helped —BJR— Most economists like to deter mine the value of Uncle Sam's dollar by comparing its worth with what the dollar would purchase in 1939 This comparison shows the dollar is worth less than 48 cents today. Actually, in 1939 economists were looking at financial affairs through eyes of a 1939 dollar, and some of them had even rolled their comparison base back to 1910. If you were to make use of the 1910 dollar today in any kind of comparison, we would find the American dollar has dwindled in terms of buying power to some thing like eight cents. Smoke from "Brandin' Iron" Crick Bv J. C. Kudd Fall weather has hit the Crick. No matter if the Almanac does say it’s still summer- when you hear the Katy-dids hollerin’ all night long and kids yelling around the schoolhouse all day you can figger summer is shot Miss Savus reports, “Things are progressing normally at school this week." Guess the new pup ils and the old ones have finally got shook down in the sack to gether. Seems like there was sev en fights the first week whilst they were getting acquainted. Now, barring a few skinned noses and black eyes any one that did n’t know, would think they’d al was been friendlier than pick pockets. Miss Savus is pretty as ever Maybe picked up a little mite of weight over the summer Soon oo chd crot an pvpfivl of WidflW Barker’s dieted down figure anil a good sqjint at Mrs. Willie Kell’s nieces (They don’t have to leave for a couple of weeks yet) and noted how they’ve got Delano Bundy and all the other unattach ed guys in the neighborhood run ning in circles, she ordered a a case of grapefruit juice, two dozen eggs and three boxes of Ry-Krisps (Hunger oughta to put her in a fine mood to cope with all them new kids and take the starch out of the old ones!) Bet she’ll soon come out skinny as a hound dog and twice as mean if she don’t add a few calories now and then. Lena wishes every flower lov er to know that the last of this week (according to the Almanac) the sign is right to slip your ger aniums and transplant your Af rican Violets. If you catch ’em at the right time they won’t give you a bit of guff, just bloom like crazy all winter. She’s done her's like that for the last two years and sure has had some beauts, that for the last two years and sure has had some beauts. Old Man Chinn is pertty good again after his late accident. Had Abe Gorey tinker up the jeep so he could run her to the County Seat for a good over haul job. Had to leave her u pthere whilst they sent to Chicago or St. Louis or somewhere for repairs He’s driven’ an old pick up that belongs to the garage while the jeep’s out of circulation. Rev. Peebles was up looking over the accident site and dogged if he didn’t stub his toe on the old bugger’s teeth. Both plates. Wouldn’t accept the $10 reward either. Tickled the old boy so that he sent it to church with Mrs. Newt Bundy to put in the collection plate. See you next werk. Do You Know Your Neighbor? -Know Your Neighbor" is not a contest There are no prizes given for correctly identifying the person pictured. The only reward Is the satisfaction of knowing your neighbor Melvin Ruzicka, local hardware dealer was last weeks guess who. Here’s a man about town you should know. rr. r.. | LET'S DRIVE ! CAREFULLY ■ Delivering the most in step-saving convenience... Extension phones—in color! Make life easier, brighter for the whole family with step-saving telephones in kitchen, bedroom, basement! Besides extra convenience and privacy, Eju enjoy a comforting sense of protection knowing a telephone is always ithin easy reach. Nine beautiful colors to choose from. 3R FULL DETAILS and to order, call your Bell Telephone business office. NEW! THE (nU/ljCOM EXTENSION PHONE. Petite and pretty —lights up, tool White, beige, pink, blue or turquoise4Aak about it! : " ' ' ' | • •