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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (March 2, 1961)
TIIK FKONTIF.lt, O’Neill, Nebraska, Thursday, March 2, 1961 Prairie I and lalk Holt County Has Good Water Bv ROMAINE SAllNDh-rtS. 4110 South hist St., Lincoln 6, Nebr. The past ten years or so there has been much talk in our Capital City of doping the city water with a drug said to prevent t<x)th decay. Some for it, many opposed, feeling that the Creator knew how to make water as well as to make grass to grow. In O’Neill in the long ago the citizens had their wells of water or went to the nearest pump or water drawn from a well in a bucket to got it. Even before then they washed their feet and got a jug of water at the Elkhorn. In the IKXO’s then? were pumps on the business streets of the town; one in front of Frank Camp- Romaine I jell's place of business at what is now Third and Douglas Saun< ere streets. Campbell conducted his farm machine and wagon business in the lower room of the building that then stood there, the family living upstairs, and all in that part of town got water at the Camp tjcll [jump. In the block to the east about midway were two pumps, one on the south side of the street and one on the other side. In front of Biglins on south Fourth street was a [jump and good fresh water for all who came that way. In the block to ttje east water was available at the nnmns in Ward’s and DeYarman’s livery bams. But O’Neill was ex panding so must have “water works.” Then the standpipe reared its lofty heights on the hill be tween the school house and Saint Patrick’s church. Holt county has good water and plenty of it, as does our state all over. But there are always those of the genus homo that must mess things up. It will come to a vote of the citizens of Lincoln this spring. * * * Two from Scotland, two from England, three from Germany, one from Russia and one from France friends in my part of the Capital City that I meet from time to time. Yes, in the long ago our dads and mothers all came from beyond the seas. * » * Mid February and spring like days. Snow faded uvray, the weather indicator out in front recorded G5 alxive zero the day this was written. Clear blue canopy of heaven above, golden glow from the bright orb of day as it passes hour by hour across Prairieland, children out at play in the warm sun shine and we old guys leave our overcoats hung up at homo. Another week, another day or two could be a blizzard coming our way. * * * There may be no one in the Capital City of our • beef state related in any way to one who held forth in the White House at our nation's capital in recent times, but just five blocks away from where my typewriter is parked dwells an elderly lady, frail and barely able to be up and about who says she and the wife of President Grover Cleveland were cousins. Our land went through its greatest period of hard times during the Cleveland administration in the 1890's, two or three cents a dozen paid farm women for their eggs, five cents a bushel for corn down in the farming communities of Nebraska, and four coming yearling calves in the cow country brought one dollar at a public sale out in the Mineo la neighborhood. Of course this cultured old lady up the street didn’t know about that, she being the charming sweetheart of a well to do gent in an eastern city. She lives today by herself with two daughters and their families near by. The Clevelands gone and by most of us forgotten. * * * The watch upon your wrist or in your pocket ticking away tells the time of day. The throbbing heart beat within counts off the hours and days as we travel life’s highway. * * * It was a week in February in the year I902.--Our new Short Line railroad from Sioux City had just got going and talk of extending it on west was heard on every comer . . . Baling hay was a fast expanding new industry and Neil Brenann had the bale ties . . . Dr. Deck of Ewing was an O’Neill vi sitor . . . You could get your tooth pulled or your picture taken at Corbetts . . . B. E. Sturdevant of Atkinson was in the city . . . Mr. Floyd A. Bolger of Marengo, la., led to the altar Miss Mamie Por ter of O’Neill . . . The soiree and musicale given by the Young Men’s Social Club to the young ladies of O’Neill at its club rooms in the O’Neill Bank Build ing was a grand social success. * * • The spring meeting of the State Historical Society has been set for May .7 in Omaha, when one or two notables will be there to address the group that gets together once a year to talk it over and eat a two dollar dinner. The pioneer who made history thought he was in luck if he had two bits with which to pay for his dinner at the Arcade hotel, where the KC hall now stands. * * * A shave and a hair cut at John Smoots or May Ion Prices barher shops on South Fourth street for 35 cents. And those two tonsorial artists lived well, owned their homes and had their “horse and buggy.” A shave and haircut at any barber shop in Lincoln today $2.50. And the tonsorial artists owns a comb, shears, razor and hair clippers. * * * The City Dads of Omaha a day recently sent over three buses to cart the members of our state legislature to Omaha where they were entertained for a time, given a good dinner and then taken back to Lincoln. Both Senator Nelson and Senator Orme were in the group . . . The Ak-Sar-Ben has set a date to entertain the state senators. Editorial Faith In Your Banker The third hank embezzlement in recent weeks was revealed last week, hitting headlines in all the daily newspapers. It was big news in eaoh instance. Such events shake a community to the very core. What makes them news, however, is their ex treme rarity. If such events were commonplace, they would be reported in little two-inch squibs buried deep within the newspaper. Bank officers and employees are human and as such are subject to the failings of all the rest of us. It is inevitable that some among this highly moral profession should succumb to temptation. The fact that three such cases have been dis covered in recent weeks can only be coincidence. Faith in banks is something we have developed over a period of many years. In some cases, there may be adverse feeling toward banks. We hope not. One of the most heartening developments coming out Of these events is the fact that the depositors, when their savings were returned, PUT THOSE SAVINGS RIGHT BACK INTO ANOTHER BANK! This we believe to be a fitting tribute to the banking industry. People still have faith in them, believe in them to the degree that they will re deposit their savings immediately, in the most powerful economic force in any community—the bank. Banking in small towns is a peculiar institution. Probably no one knows you better than your banker. He is a shrewd, hard-working man who works be side you on community projects, coffees with you during the day and sits beside you in church come Sunday. It is his foresight, his faith in the future of you and your community, that gives you the con fidence to go ahead with your plans. The banker provides us with the means to build homes, factories, even churches . . . provides us with faith in our future. The events of recent weeks has not dampened our respect for the banking institution. On the con trary ... it has sharpened our appreciation of the importance of the bank and the people who run it. It has made us realize that in our community the banks have been here day after day for many years discharging their duties faithfully and with faith in us . . . and we have taken them for granted. Your banker is a busy man. During the day he may be providing a loan to a businessman, far mer or rancher, making out deposit slips or helping a schoolboy start a savings account. He often spends his off-duty hours working with civic enterprises and community affairs. But he’ll be pleased if you stop by, shake his hand and express your gratitude for the faith he has had in you. Tell him of your confidence in him, his bank, his organization. Why not do it today? You’ll be glad you did. You Can't Create Money In the months to come it is a safe bet that much w 11 be heard about such things as adverse balance of payments, loss of gold, the value of the dollar, prices and foreign competition, all of which to the average person will be highly confusing. Adding to th" co 'fusion is the fact that this county “went off the gol 1 standard" many years ago. What this meant was that private citizens were no longer able to con'-e-t “paocr money” into $20 gold pieces or other oV. < ir.s. However, government is required to hold $12 billion of gold as backing for currency in circula tion. Some believe that gold should now be removed altogether as backing for the currency. This is a question that will be debated in months to come. Wrapped up in this one issue is the future stability of governments throughout the world and society in general. About 20 years ago a book was published en titled “The Promises Men Live By.” Its author, Harry Scherman, endeavored in simple language to explain the economic facts of modem life. His thoughts are pertinent today. Real money has always been—and still is—a tangible and useful form of wealth. Contrary to popular belief, government cannot create money. Money, in the thousands of years of human history, has taken strange and fascinating forms. In the early Greek world a hand ful of roasting spits became known as a drachma, a unit of money. In our history tobacco was used as money as were Indian blankets in the Far West. All of these things were of tangible value. While it may come as a shock, the green pieces of paper that we all now work so hard to obtain are not money. In the words of Mr. Scherman, “Even the wealthiest man nowadays own no money . . . What we handle, what we deal in, what we say we own, consists almost entirely of promises to pay money —promises made by our government or by our central banks . . . The indisputable fact about our modern world is that everything else we use as money can so be used only because it consists, at one or more removes, of promises to deliver gold in a stated weight and of a stated fineness . . . For about three thousand years . . . the use of silver and gold has been spreading over the earth until . . . they have become the predominant money of all the more civilized communities.” mi__ r __ . __ -» .1 • 1 f 11 * I a ijv, iuoiuij Ui muucr^ emu uic nac anu iaii ui nations and societies, makes two elemental facts grimly clear. Among private citizens the “promises men live by” in the realm of economics and money are rarely violated. The history of governments in the same area is a sadly different story. Centuries ago, rulers “clipped” and “sweated” coins to cheat their subjects. In modern times behind the intricacies of finance and credit the long-term record of govern ment is no better. When men act in the name of government, in the view of Mr. Scherman, ordinary moral standards that govern private citizens do not apply. And he backs up his view with a wealth of facts. His advice is to make “an untiring effort to understand the economics of this world in which you live and neither be content nor discouraged until, in honesty, you can feel that your compre hension is not too unclear.” That is a large order but as the experts find the authorities expound their ideas on what to do about these strange new problems of international payments and gold, the least we can do is try. Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona writes: “The ivory tower visionaries who produce the blue prints for the superstate, refuse to take into account the differences between men. “If government is to be truly the servant of the people and not their master, we must never per mit ourselves to presume that because something is good for one man it is good for all men.” Frontiers 1 50 YEARS AGO M. F. Harrington of O’Neill has filed a complaint with state .rail way commission against discon tinuance of trains between Long Pine and Norfolk Junction. . . Presbyterian church choir pre sents third annual song recital. . .Born to Mr. and Mrs. John Col man of Inman, an eight pound Ooy. 25 YEARS AGO Charles Wrede jr., 66, a pio neer in this county, dies Febru ary 22 after illness of several months. . .Applications for old age assistance are now being ta ken at county assistance offiqe. . .Period of extereme cold has had county it its grip 36 days, many hardships suffered. . .W. J. Froelich, who was snowbound here for several days, leaves for Chicago. 10 YEARS AGO Guy Coles and John Conards of Emmet return from two weeks’ trip in Texas. Louisana and Mex ico. . .Spelts-Ray Lumber com pany office burglarized by tran sient who receives reformatory sentence. . .Overflow crowd at tends 10th annual Holt County Breeders’ sale with 60 head sel ling for $32,750. 5 YEARS AGO Fred O. Robertson, 70, retires from Consumers. . .Mr. and Mrs. George Pongratz of Emmet cele brate 50th wedding anniversary. . .Leonard Martz, 80, retired Lynch farmer, dies February 19. . .Major General Guy Her.inger to visit O’Neill to inspect pos sible sites for national guard ar mory. . .Mr. and Mrs. T. E. Newhouse of Chambers purchase Wink Drnff store The Long Ago At Chambers 50 years ago Josephine Lienhart will teach school at Lynch. . .R. J. Starr has rented part of the old Hub bard hotel and will run an im plement house there. . Mr. Wry is having his tenant house fixed over and as soon as it is finished Dr. Bernard will move in. . .Char ley Graham started Monday to Norfolk with a load of goods for Guy Alderson. 25 YEARS AGO Florine Marie Martensen, 5 years old, dies February 16 from burns and shock suffered when her clothing catches fire. . .Coun ty Assistance Committee passes resolution barring from all forms of public assistance all persons patronizing beer and liquor stores or frequenting card rooms. . . W. D. Reinger, Clair Grimes and John Walter sr. are nominated at village caucus. DR. D. E. DAVID OPTOMETRIST Complete Visual Care Contact Lenses By Appointment Phone 2101 Spencer, Nebraska 'apifol Hews - Legislature's Budget Committee Details Spending of $7 Million By Melvin Paul Statehouse Correspondent The Nebraska Press Association LINCOLN—The Legislatures of the future may take a good look at the problem of distributing bills introduced. Requests for the copies often result in a shortage of printed legislative (bills for sen ators. State Sen. Hans Jensen of Au rora raised this question and sug gested that those wanting the copies pay a $2.50 fee. He feels this would eliminate half th;1 re quests and assure that sufficient copies of bills would be available for senators. The budget commit tee is studying the problem. But Sen J. W. Burbach of Crof ton said he doesn’t think a fee would be proper at this stage of the session but would be a good idea for “future consideration.” Sen. Harold Stryker of Rising City said perhaps a solution would be that those requesting copies of bills go through their state senators. Some solons say they get a request that says: “Send me everything that is free.” There are some 1,300 individu als and firms on mailing lists who receive free copies of pro posed legislation. In the 1959 ses sion 17,300 pounds of bills alone were mailed to those on the lists, plus 7,471 pounds of copies of dai ly proceedings of the Legislature. There are 12 full time employ es in the legislative bill room for the first two months of the session. This drops to seven for the remainder of the six-month long meeting. Park Bill T7»_i ~ l^i. •i. vyv UA JA V^AAA b V/A U AW» AAAAAA.V »« vering in the Legislature on the question of a sales and income tax is a bill to increase the state property tax levy for parks. This proposal was hung up in committee for some time as sa les taxers successfully blocked attempts to get it reported to the floor for debate. They tried to tie the .22 of a mill increase to a sales and in come tax, thus providing it would be effective only if a sales or in come tax were enacted by the Legislature. But this failed. By a 5-3 vote, the committee sent the bill to the floor where there is ex pected to be some more wrang ling over its relationship to a broadened tax base. The committee did amend the bill, earmarking .04 of a mill for development of a park and recreation area along the Inter state highway between Grand Is land and North Platte. The game commission has put a price tag of $1.2 million on development of the interstate parkway. Present guesses are the .35 le vy would raise $11 million in the next 10 years to boost the state’s park and recreation program. Nearly a million dollars is ex- ' pected to be spent during the 10 years for a 1,500 to 2,500-acre park in the vicinity of the Mis souri River. Capitol Punishment. If the Legislature passes a bill to abolish capital punishment Gov. Frank Morrison says he won’t veto it. But, he says, his thinking is still fluid on the mat ter of whether he favors or does not favor capital punishment— that is, execution of criminals convicted by courts of first de gree murder. Morrison says he thinks life im prisonment is much more severe than electrocution because it de prives a person of his liberty. He said he has not been shown any evidence that the death penalty prevents murder. The governor commented after he and Secretary of State Frank Marsh voted to change the death sentence of Luther Wesley Wilson of Omaha to life imprisonment. Morrison said one of the func tions of the pardon board of which he is chairman, and Marsh and Atty, Gen. Clarence Meyer, members, is to equalize punish ments. Meyer voted against changing the death sentence for Wilson. Spending The Legislature’s budget com mittee has come up with a more detailed analysis of proposed spending outlined by bills before the Unicameral. The total is $7 million, of which $3.6 million would come from state taxes. Spending, its relationship to the state property tax for support of state government and whether the tax base should consist of sales and income taxes are among the most pressing items up for con sideration by lawmakers this ses sion. License Plates Some motorists aren’t sure whether they like the stickers in stead of new license plates this WHAT QUALITY! WHAT BEAUTY! WHAT A PRICE! I WHAT A SAVING! F | Kea/ /y67 | FREE LIVE DEMONSTRATION IN OUR STORE DANKERT'S SERVICE 610 East Douglas Chambers O’Neill Phone 410-W Phone TV 2-2101 year. But a Legislative commit tee was certain it did not like the proposed bill that would have authorized a luminescent back ground for license plates. Nor did the Public Health and Miscella neous subjects committee want plates to be issued not more than once every three years nor less than once every five years. Both bills were killed. Renewal tabs would have been handed out if the latter proposal were adapted. Verdigre News By Vac Randa James J. Chalupnik, one of Verdigre’s pioneer business busi ness men, recently purchased the 160-acre farm from Mrs. Eliza beth A. Walker, which adjoins Verdigre on the south just across the Verdigre Creek. Mr. Chalup nik pliins to landscape this farm and divide it into lots and small plots where they may be used to build homes. A meeting was held Monday night at the Yankton Masonic temple. Attending the meeting from here and Niobrara were Dr. V. A. Walstrom, Alvin Foster man, L. O. Marshall, Walter Dob richovsky, Vac Randa, Kirk Snowden and Dale Jones. Ionic Lodge No. 87, AF & AM held “Guest Night” honoring the birthday of Mason George V*ash ington February 22 at the Nio brara Masonic Temple which was filled to capacity with Masons and their guests. Worshipful Mas ter Howard Mayberry gave the welcome. L. Kocina introduced the two speakers, Arden Uhlir of Verdigre, Star Farmer of America, and O. W. Samuelson, of Omaha. A film was shown on Lafay ette, during colonial days. Walt Dobrichovsky showed two films, one of Niobrara Centennial and one of Verdigre Lord’s Acre par ade. A buffet sup[>er was served. ROYAL THEATER Thurs. Mar. * Family Nit© - Entire Family $1-00 “THE FASTEST GIJN ALIVE” Glenn Ford - Jeanne Crain Broderick Crawford Fri.-Sat. Mar. *4 Edgar Allan Poe’s the evil “HOUSE OF USHER” Sun.-Mon.-Tues. Mar. 5-8-7 “THE FACTS OF IJFE” Bob Hope - Lucille Ball Wed. Thurs. Mar. 8 # Family Nit© - Entire family $1-00 “APRIL LOVE” Pat Boone - Shirley Jones Cinemascope - Color by Deluxe Ponton Insurance Insurance of All Kiads and Bonds FLORENCE PONTON, Prop. Phone 11X1_Golden Bldg PUBLIC AUCTION I will sell the following personal property at public auction at my home located at 522 North 1st St. (1st street east of bowling alley and 5 blocks north) in O'Neill, Nebraska on SATURDAY, MARCH 4 Sale starts at 2 p.m. • • * • ■ ■ Gas range GE Washing machine Coronado refrigerator-freezer com bination less than a year old and in excellent shape Kitchen table and 4 chairs Fruit jars Kitchen cabinet Wash tubs Ironing board Telephone stand Complete set cooking utensns, ana dishes Living Room Set End table and lamps TV trays Bedroom set and mattress Buffet New % size rollaway bed Coffee table Living room rug Several throw rugs Many miscellaneous items Other persons wishing to sell property on this sale are invited to bring the items to the above address prior to sale time. TERMS: CASH. No property to be removed until settled for. LOUIS NILES, °wner Verne Reynoldson, auctioneer Virgil Laursen, clerk Houu much Is Truck Set Tu VOIIR It’s impossible to pin down in dollars and cents. But con sider the value in these terms: What good would your farm prod ucts be to you if you couldn’t get them to market? Even if you could get them to market some other way, how much less would you have to take because they were not fresh enough to bring top prices? Consider, too, the tools, feed, fertilizer, implements and other necessities for farming. Chances are they came by truck. The same is true of the luxuries that make life more pleasant Your television set, washing machine, hi-fi, newspaper — the list is endless. How much is all this worth to your county? Trucks serve in so many ways it’s impossible to compute the exact value. But one thing is certain — trucks are the vital force that assures pros perity for this county — your county — and every other county in the state of Nebraska. On* W a I*Hm W <Urfrtnm*n(i l»r*p*r*rf hr NESRASKA MOTOR CARRIERS' ASSOCIATION. 500 SMrtli 13th Str**t. LINCOLN. HWRASB* This Space Paid For By O’NEILL TRANSFER JOHN TURNER Daily Service O'Neill-Omaha PHONE 578
