Prairieland Talk
"We're Happy as a Lamb"
By ROMAINE SAUNDERS. 4110 South 51st St.. Lincoln 6. Nebr.
Sixty, seventy or more years ago you met a
Mullen at every street comer in O'Neill. Where are
they now? Well, on the south side of O'Neill's main
drag between fourth and fifth streets is parked Leo
day after dny. In California is
another of the Mullen family
who recently wrote me a cheer
ing letter from which I also
gather that Wallie has mem
ories of life back here. Who
does not who got started on the
highway of life in the O'Neill
community where all knew and
loved and respected their
neighbors. Mr. Mullen sends me
copies of the I»s Angeles Times
which seems to be for the late Remain*
Republican candidate for presi- Saondew
dent, Mr. Nixon, for governor of that great Pacific
coast state. Glad to hear from you friend Mullen
and I assure you that I continue to cherish the
memory of yr>u and your once numerous trilie in
and around O'Neill.
• * *
The citizens of earth in many lands are in
trouble under the dictates of ruthless rulers. And
here we are enjoying peace and plenty, happy as
a lamb in this land of Uncle Sam!
• • •
Saunders county just to the northeast of our
Capital City leads the state this year in com pro
duction Will Holt county have the most turkeys this
Thanksgiving season?
Their home was at Blair by the river that runs
between Iowa and Nebraska. Husband, wife and
five children killed in a highway crack-up, a little
lad the one survivor of that family.
* * •
A few more than 400 families moved into Lin
coln during September, probably coming to our
Capital City for educational advantages the uni
versity and colleges afford.
* * *
Friends who sent me papers and publications
to read should now be thanked and told that after
91 years along the highway of life I have but one
eye and my vision so poor I do not read, my daugh
ter reading to me the letters and messages that
come from friends. I am still able to see the type
writer keys and so can typewrite my Prairieland
Talk.
* * *
No more the circus tents down by the railroads,
no more the traveling show troups at the old rink
such as the Kickapoo Indian Sagwaw outfit and no
more the happy roller skating parties.
* * *
A gloomy sunless day. No smiling face is near,
no out stretched hand to wipe away the tear. Then
from out of the distance comes a voice: Keep going
oil the run! Tomorrow you will have some fun!
Mrs. Witherwax of Spencer writes me a good
cheering letter from which I learn that she was
bom near Scottville in northern Holt county and
was related to that unfortunate Barret Scott, who
was waylayed by Vigilanters on his way home to
O’Neill from a trip out north, taken to the Whitting
bridge and hung, his body dropped into the icy
waters of the Niobrara river a cold day in Decern
l>er, 1894. Mrs. Witherwax seems to have spent her
childhood in the Scotville community, married and
settled in Boyd county and has memories of life as
it was and is today on Prairieland. Another good
letter comes to me from Mrs. Mary Haggerty Law
son of Columbus, she being a native of O'Neill, a
daughter of the Billy Haggerty family, and recalls
with pleasure the ups and downs of life in the days
■tow gone, expresses her sympathy over my recent
tumble and breaths a prayer for my recovery, as
did many others, and here I am on the go again.
Mrs. Lawson identifies herself as "your Scotch
Irish friend.” Her dad was Irish, her mother Scotch,
l>ut Mary is a Prairieland patriot, a citizen and
native of Nebaska.
• « *
After some sixty years out on the grass robed
beauty land of southwest Holt county, Howard Berry
and his guarding angel, Mrs Berry, now make their
home in O'Neill. I hope to see them when footsteps
again may carry me along the streets of the good
old home town of my youth. I had understood Mr.
and Mrs. Berry had looked over the desert sand
lands of states to the southwest of us but concluded
that Prairieland was the best for a home for them
as they have come to retirement age so here they
ire in O'Neill where from time to time they can
go to the open country.
* * »
That young Miss who killed mother and dad
over in Cedar county because they would not consent
to her going out on “dates” is now in the state
prison for such as she to serve out a thirty year
sentence. No dates now only such as direct the lives
of convicted crime doers.
* * *
My son, Glenn, came out from Ohio recently to
spend a few days with his father, sister, brother
and friends. Glenn and his wife Florence now live
in Dayton, Ohio. Their son, who was bom in O'Neill,
as was his father, is in educational work, an in
structor in a college in a Michigan city. In the
193vVs Glenn was the linotype operator in The
Frontier print shop. He and Florence and their
little son went to a New England state whei'e they
lived for some year. And my son Romaine flew in
from a New England state to spend two nights and
a day with us. His home is in the Los Angeles,
Calif., community and he travels by air for the
corporation he is identified with. Breakfast in Lin
coln, dinner in Los Angeles. Glenn gets here and
back liome on rubber tires.
Editorial
He Hasn't Lost Yeti
Jack Paar, the cube of the tube, whose frantic
antics are beamed into the livingrooms of millions
of American homes each week is at war with the
press. This in itself is nothing new for Mr. Paar
has been jousting with the newspapers through most
of his hectic career. King Arthur's Knights could
have taken lessons from Mr. Paar for he has yet
to come out second best in any of his tilts. We
can’t help thinking that the free publicity awarded
to the Tonight show has been a major factor in in
creasing its popularity. Those viewers who have
been “unlucky?” enough to miss one of Mr. Paar’s
exhibitions are always able to read a full account of
it in their morning papers.
And if Mr. Paar feels a particularly sterling
performance coming on all he has to do is hint to
the press that he has something up his sleeve and
they jump at the chance to alert the public that
Jack is at it again.
Jack's latest tirade seems to center on the pre
mise that newspapers in general arc warmongering,
libelous and untruthful and are corrupting the
nation's morals by accepting ads picturing girdles
and Maidenform bras. It is comforting to know that
Mr. Paar is watching out for us and has discovered
just what the cause is of the nation's moral decay.
It is also interesting to note that the television
broadcasters can point to their charts and say that
fifty million people spend between five and six
hours a day watching television and yet maintain
that television is not in part responsible for what the
American people are like today.
If fifty million people spend that much time
watching so much television and it has no significant
effect, that incredible waste of human time is the
most damming indictment that could be made. It
would mean that those fifty million may just as well
have visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads
and that they don’t have the emotional response of
fifty million tadpoles.
It is comforting to know that five nights each
week we can turn on the tube and invite Comedian
Jack Paar into our home and give us the lowdown
on Dorothy Kilgallen and the American press. And,
oh, yes, Jockey shorts — B. J. R.
Sfc Frontier
BILL RICHARDSON, Publisher
BRUCE J. REHBERG, Editor
Terms of Subscription: In Nebraska, $2.50 per
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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.
N ATIO N M. I Tgt IA t
They're Tough Questions
Nebraska Signal
We were among those who received question
naires from Senator Carl Curtis asking how much
federal income taxes people in the various income
brackets should expect to pay. We note several
newspaper editors have answered the questions in
their columns, giving some very interesting angles
and views on the questions.
Our first reaction was similar to the editor who
stated he did not plan to answer the questions and
that he didn't think he should be expected to do so.
Rather, it was his position that he expected Senator
Curtis and our other representatives to use their
judgement in deciding how much we should pay.
Another editor expressed the opinion we should
expect to pay all we have to pay in order to meet
our obligations to ourselves and to the peoples of
the world who seem to be dependent upon us for
leadership and a certain amount of financial as
sistance.
We will confess frankly we have not as yet filled
in our questionnaire and we don't believe we will be
able to do so unless we can get more information
than we now have upon which to base our answers.
The trouble is families in the same income
bracket may have different expenses because of
such factors as illness and perhaps because of the
difference in local tax rates affecting people living
in various communities. Of course, the tax laws at
tempt to allow for this but it still is difficult to
say that people with cerain incomes should pay so
much in taxes.
We don’t know what Senator Curtis had in
mind when he sent out the questionnaires. He cer
tainly doesn't plan to use our answers to help him
start a campaign to fix tax rates based upon our
desires. If he does it would seem the government
may be short of funds even sooner than it is ex
pected to be under present rates.
We suggest the senator might have asked two
other questions we believe we can answer. He could
have asked how much taxes we would like to pay.
Most of us would answer none. He also might have
asked how much taxes we are willing to pay to
keep what we have and preserve world peace. We
believe most of us would answer we refuse to place
a limit on what we will pay for those purposes.
W e don t believe the above remarks will be
much help to Senator Curtis but we might comment
we think the questionnaire has been of value to
all of us. It has served to make us see that fixing
tax rates is a mighty complicated and delicate pro
position. We appreciate what our respresenatives
are up against and we wish them well.
Ralph T. Moore writes, in Oregon Voter: "The
subject of increased federal aid to education is the
present source of much controversy in the Congress.
And. few people stop to consider that the phrase it
self is both fallacy and lacking in basic logic. For
"hat is contemplated is actually a diffusion at public
school costs that takes from certain States and
gives to others in accord with the proposed formu
la. It is essentially a money matter, with education
only incidental and wholly dependent upon the pre
sumption that the bigger the spending the more the
education, a pure fallacy too obvious to admit at
argument"
Frontiers
Ago
50 YEARS AGO
O. O. Snyder went to Lincoln
last Tuesday to attend the an
nual meeung of the IOOF Grand
Lodge. . Mr. and Mrs J. A.
Donohoe returned last Thursday
evening from their wedding trip
to the Pacific coast and wtre m< t
at the train by a dozen automo
bile loads of ycjng people who
escorted them to the home of Mr.
Donohoe s mother for an infor
mal reception. . .W. L. Shoemak
er returntd from Douglas, Wyo.,
last Monday where re had been
following the Black Hill circuit
with his pace, Doctor Jim P. . .
C. A. Smith arrived in the city
from South Omaha last Thursday
the Burlingt n depot here as
night and will tukt charge of the
Burlington depot here as agent.
25 YEARS AGO
O'Neill high school football
team met the Bassett high school
team last Monday afternoon and
the locals to >k the boys into camp
for the first time in five yeats
with a score of 6-0 . . . Arthur^
F. Melcher, Atkinson, and Mi:.s
Bernice Trese, Orchard, were
granted a marriage license in
county court last Monday. . .Far
mer Page minister, the Rev. M.
E. Gaidl, ditd at Pae.f Jur.cti n,
la., the forepart of the week. . .
The first of the school dances at
St Mary's academy was held
last Monday evening . Mr. and
Mrs. J K. Ernst celebrated their
40th wedding anmvtrsary Sunday.
10 YEARS AGO
O’Netll Municipal band, com
posed of music students from both
O’Neill public school and St.
Mary's academy, will participate
m band day activities October 20
at Wayne State Teachers college.
. Gene Cantlon, manager of
Gambles store since August. 1917,
will leave Friday for Oxford
where he has purchased a dealer
owned store. . George McCarthy,
O’Neill, is re-named secretary of
the Nebraska Knights of Colum
bus. . -Sgt. Edwin C. Hansen, son
of Mrs. Mary Hansen, has re
ceived the bronze star for meri
torious service in overseas com
bat. . Mrs. Anna M. Brown. 93,
Holt county resident since 1881,
died October 17 at her home in
Chambers.
5 YEARS AGO
A caterpillar tractor and 11
stacks of hay were destr yed by
fire Monday on the Dewey Sch li
fer ranch 14 miles south of O'
Neill. . .Vincent Thiele, Ewing,
Merwyn French jr., Page, and
Dave Keidel, Stuart, nominated
for awards in the Sioux City
three-state soil ccnsevation pro
gram, have been declared Ne
braska winners in the compe
UUi^ . .Rites are held Ocu her
at Ewing St. John Catholic
church for Gottlieb A. Bauer, 73.
who died October 12 at his home
south of Ewing. . .Darrel Dexter,
son of Mrs. Olive Dexter, O’Neill,
has been president of his class
for four successive years.
The Long Age
At Chambers
54 YEARS AGO
About 25 friends of Miss Gla
dys Baker surprised her Satur
day evening, a pleasant time was
spent by all present. . Rev T H.
Evans is holding a revival meet
ing near Bartlett at the Sand
stone schoulbou.se and he is hav
ing grand success W Calkius,
Jas. Grimes and F. D South are
attending IOOF Grand Lodge in
Lincoln this week . Presbyterian
Aid met today with Mrs Fred
Kiltx. . .M Beaty and A P No
ble went to Elgin last week re
naming heme Saturday with a
load of apples . B. G Hanna
contemplates building a new
house. . Ten of the little school
mates of Violet Smith, and her
teacher, Miss Adams, surprised
her with n party at her home
Monday to bid her goodby before
her departure for Lincoln where
she w.il take medical treatment.
25 YEARS AGO
Miss Wilma Wilson, eldest
di*aghter of Mr. and Mrs. Ed
Wilson of Chambers and Mr Har
vey Brandon of Esbon, Kan.,
were married in Goring August
17. . Tuesday evening abdJt 100
of the friends and neighbors of
Mrs Luella A. Parker went in on
her a; her heme north of town
to help her celebrate her birth
day. Monday 40 Chambers
men went to the Brotherton ranch
and killed 1000 crows which were
scared into the trees by a plane
so the men could shoot them . .
One of the small daughters of
Mr and Mrs Austin Anderson
suffered pamful outs and bruises
when she fell out of a moving
trailer. . .Wednesday evening fine
broke an around the chimney on
the roof at the summer kitchen
at the Charley Fauquier Jr.
home, causing roof damage.
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