PLATTSMOUTH SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
MONDAY, AUGUST 25. 1919.
FAOE POUR.
Cbe plattsmoutb journal
PUBLISHED SEMI-WEEKLY AT PLATTSMOUTH, NEBRASKA
Entered at Postofflce, Pl&ttamouth, Neb aa aeoond-claaa mall matter
R. A. BATES, Publisher
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE $2.00
A great deal of this high cost of
living conies frohi the high eost of
politics.
:o:
Keeping your mouth shut puts a
lid on ignorance and passes for
wisdom.
-:o:-
Garlic will drive away rheuma
tism, but nothing will drive away
the garlic.
:o:
If you don't believe that army
food offered for sale is good stuff,
askany soldier.
:o:
Don't be like a hen and put in
the rest of the day cackling after
you have laid an egg.
What is a bosom friend, anyhow?
We never had a bosom friend. Maybe
it is because we haven't any bosom.
:o:
Lawyers work the men, doctors
work the women, and politicians
work everybody, playing no favor
ites. -:o:
A blonde hair on a blue serge
coat should never be affected as a
color scheme by the husband of a
brunette.
Experiences is a dear school, and
if it be the college of alcoholic ab
sorption the tuition is extra high,
and then some.
:o:
Eat less, booze less, keep your
head cool, your feet warm, your
mouth shut and inflate your nickel
into two-bits.
:o:
The man who works with his
hands gets $3 a day, and the man
who works with his mouth gets ev
erything else in sight.
:o:
There are two jobs which seem to
be a good deal alike being presi
dent of Mexico and holdng a year
ling bull by the tail.
:o:
Too much booze is a sin, all right,
but there are also several other
brands, and where some prohibition
ists make their mistake is in think
ing all sin is wet.
:o: :
nig enough fortunes arc being
made out of the manufacture of
chewing gum and Battle Ax plug
without either men or women work
ing over time on the finished pro
duct to increase the dividends.
;o: -
Be a manly man, strong Jn cour
age and firm in whatever is right.
If you come to what looks like a
stone wall, don't sit supinely down
and sob, but climb over it, dig un
der it, or butt it down.
:o: :
NOT MUCH DANGER.
An exchange worries for fear
women will catch cold if they don't
quit going barehesded. With the
more or less gentle sex having an
abundant head of hair to start with,
and reinforcing that with baled
hay, felt mattresses, rats, puffs, ex
celsior switches, a gross of hairpins
and a yard or two of six-inch rib
Iran, the danger is not apparent.
INVESTMENTS
Public Service Corporation
Paying
1
Can b had ia amount ol
$100
PAUL FITZGERALD,
Investment Securities
First National Bank Bld'g,
Omaha, Neb.
PES YEAR IN ADVANCE
There is nothing the matter with life
And the sunshine is never dim,
For the man who's in love with his
wife,
If she is in love with him.
-:o:-
A poet and the fellow with a bum
liver both have that same soulful
expression.
-:o:
A flood of immigration does not
do as much damage as a flood of
water, but it smells worse.
-:o:-
Better have callouses on the
hands than on the conscience or next
to the cushion of the chair.
:o:
When the devil reads what a few
United States senators are saying it
tickles him nearly to death.
:o:
We would think more of colleges
were it not for the excruciating and
altogether damuable college yell.
:o:
When coming in late and trying
not to wake her up a fellow always
steps en that squeaky board in the
floor.
: o :
San Francisco has a lady under
taker. None of that for us. We
would wake up, no matter how long
dead. ,
Keep looking for something to
find fault with and your face will
get twisted with wrinkles like a
corkscrew.
:o:-
The cider-mill squashes up a few
worms., of course, but being squash
ed they can't land in one's vermi
form appendix.
-:o:-
One reason new inventions are in
demand at good prices is because
most of us couldn't invent a bung-
hole for a barrel.
-:o:-
A Los Angeles man has just paid
$1,000 for an old bible, when he
could have got a perfectly good new
one for a dollar.
:o:
We like to see Hie young folks
dance, but quit it ourself as soon as
we got to figuring tip the mileage
proposition it involved.
-::-
YOUNG MEN'S HEALTH.
Some of the things which seem in
a fair way to be forgotten are the
revelations made by the draft as to
the health of young men.
From one-third to one-half of the
boys coming before the examining
boards were found to be unfit for
service in the field.
While the necessity was before
the country of maintaining a great
army abroad and keeping an active
working force at home, the business
of making over as many of ' these
youths as possible into strong,
healthy men went steadily on.
Now, unless measures are taken
to keep up this work, it will lapse,
and instead of an army of men,
hale and well equipped physically
for the economic struggle, we shall
revert to the old, low standards un
der which it was possible for so
large a percentage of American
young men to be physically unfit.
Gen. Leonard Wood urges the
necessity for correcting this nation
al weakness, and holds that univers
al military training is one of the
most effective agencies. Undoubted
ly a. great proportion of the men
who had army experience showed
marked physical benefit.
CerlalatlJ' for the sake of present
efficiency, and for the sake of gen
erations to come, the nation can not
afford to forget this solemn lesson of
the draft. Whether it be distinctly
military or not, every educational
institution from, first to lasjt should
have some definite program for Im
proving the physieal and moral
standards of the youth, in its care.
WAR AND PROSPERITY BOTH H
Everybody is so prosperous just
now they don't know what to do.
Wilson, Clemenceau, most of our
F congressmen," and all of our politi
cians assure us it is so, therefore it
must be so, yet the bullheaded and
stubborn cashier at the bank -will
persist in using red ink on our ac
counts. The undertakers have
doubled the price of coffins, so they
are prosperous, too, while none of
the rest of us can afford to die, and
few can afford to live. Rents are
up, taxes ballooning, meat a luxury,
butter and eggs ditto, marriage on
the decline, race suicide staring us
in the face, skirts are slit, money
hiding out in tin cans and stocking
legs and half of the people are scared
as rabbits.
We have initiative, recall, refer
endum, blue-sky government by
commission, partial suffrage and
half-way prohibition, and we are
so dodgasted prosperous some of us
don't know where we are going to
sleep tonight. If the ultimate con
sumer can dodge the cold-storage
prosperity pirate and manage to tide
over this great wave of prosperity
until some real old-fashioned hard
times come again, maybe he can live
on his salary. Gosh! We like pros
perity if it don't break us!
:o: '
THE SCOUT AND THE TRAP.
If, years ago, people had realized
the value of training boys there
would have been little need now for
protective game laws.
One of the big things that the
boy scouts learn Is the protection
of wild life. Wanton slaying of
wild animals, bird-hunting and egg
stealing all are forbidden under the
scout law. The cruel practice of
trapping also is regarded as one of
the things in which no true sports
man will indulge.
It has been discovered, however,
that the law against trapping has
been nade too sweeping to coincide
with the public good in some cases.
Dr. William Hornaday, in speak
ing on the subject, says that the
only case in which the use of the
steel trap in animal hunting can be
brought into harmony withi the boy
scout ideal of mercy is where there
are present animals distinctly a
i
menace to the life and property of
the community. In ridding any sec
tion of this sort of undesirable
neighbors the scout may employ a
sleel trap if necessary.
The sly gray wolf, which works
havoc among flocks in the west, the
fox in some sections, the skunk and
the weasel who rob the henroosts.
spoil the crops and prey on -the
birds, may be considered legitimate
game for the scout trapper, but only
in cases where their depredation?
justify stern measures.
This training of boys from their
youth up in the protection of their
wild neighbors is one of the best
elements of scoutdom. No race of
valuable and beautiful animals will
become extinct in the future as so
many have in the past, if the coming
generation of hunters learns such
principles as these.
:o:
PERCENTAGE OF PROFIT. '
The French government has es
tablished a provision that no food
dealer is to be allowed more than 15
per cent profit. The cost of com
modities to the wholesaler or retail
er is definitely established and made
a matter of public record, and the
merchant is abliged to conform ac
cordingly in adjusting his selling
prices.
There may be some question as to
the precise rate of profit justifiable
in various lines of food trade; but
docs not this French policy strike
at a fundamental evil and estab
lish a fundamental principle?
It is natural that manufacturers
and dealers should make a larger
amount of profit on their goods,
measured in dollars and cents, than
Ihe'y ma.de" before the war, because
to some extent the general ' price
level is legitimately higher. That
is to say, if an article used to sell
for $5 and bring" 50 cents profit, it
might sell now for $6 or $7 and
bring 60 op 70 cents profit. That
' would mean simply a continuance j
of the same rate of profit, 10 per
i
cent.
The fact, however, seems to be
that manufacturers, jobbers and
dealers in general are not satisfied
with the percentage of profit they
were making before the war. Instead
of, say 10 per cent profit, the pro
ducer may exact 20 per cent. The
middleman, the wholesaler and the
retailer may each exact as much, or
more. The result is a pyramiding of
profits that may result in the doubl
ing or trebling of the total profits
which have to be made up out of the
price paid by the ultimate purchas
er. It is a difficult thing, and per
haps not a wise thing, to try to fix
prices. It is an Infinitely detailed
operation, which can hardly work
successfully or fairly. But is it not
possible to get at the matter as the
French do, by simply restricting
the percentage of profit?
:o:-
LOST FOOD.
In one of the big cities there is
said tohe a "rot train" of 15 to 25
cars which runs regularly to a big
dump out in" the country, with its
cargo of decayed foodstuffs.
Some of that food is spoiled in
transit from the farm to the city.
More of it is spoiled while standing
on the switch after arrival. It ia
openly charged that much of the de
cay is due to the deliberate and
systematic action of commission
men in refusing to accept carloads
of sound food, and letting a consid
erable percentage of the receipts
rot right along, in order to keep up
market prices.
The producers, who are almost
helpless, have to stand the loss.
That loss is passed on to the entire
consuming public, with a liberal in
crease, in the form of higher prices
for the stuff sold.
Add to this the waste that occurs
in almost every wholesale and re
tail store, due to poor methods of
handling the produce.
Add the foodstuffs that decay in
the garden and orchard, and in the
shed while awaiting shipment.
There is extortion enough, " but
there is still more waste, and it is
just as indefensible as the extortion.
-:o:
OPTIMISM VERSUS PESSIMISM.
Pessimis.ni is as destructive a force
in one's health as it is in one's pur
pose and performance. The aver
age pessimist seeks the shadows
and wilfully deprives ' himself of
the life-giving sunshine. The sun,
the flowers, the trees and the green
foliage of the glad earth smile at
him in vain. The trill of the birds,
the murmurous whisper of the
brooks, the organiug of the wind as
it comes cavalierly through the for
est, kissing the silence into song,
are all dead to the dulled ears and
jaundiced eyes of the pessimist. lie
hears only his own groaning and
sees not the silver lining to a cloud.
Optimism, happy, bouyant, whole
some optimism, counts as much for
health as all 4he laws of hygiene.
Illness is not only a misfortune, but
half the time a self-inflicted 'wrong.
We recognize this clearly enough in
dipsomania. We trace consumption
or pneumonia to a cold carelessly
contracted. . We know that small
pox, plagues and fevers aredue to
uncleanliness of person or surround
ings. Science is relentlessly fixing
responsibility for early all our ail
ments upon ourselves. And we de
sire to aid it right now by. the as
sertion that pessimism is a breeder
of disease, while optimism is a vig
orous and effective eradicator of al
most everything that ails you in
this life. N
There is no power on earth that
draws like the power of kindness.
Kind thoughts lead to kindly acts,
and kindly acts make lifelong
friends for you.
Kind thoughts are good for your
health. ,. They may not cure a tooth
ache, nor keep you from getting fat,
but they give you a good, rich feel
ing around the heart. Kind thoughts
are as much an asset as honesty. A
narrow miuded man is too selfish to
be kind. Be kind to aged people,
for they will not be here very long.
15c
So, also, be kind to the young, for
they will be here a long time.
In this big, lonesome world, both
in the cities and in the farm houses,
can be found many hearts that are
pining for kind words'". A seed of
kindness dropped there will spring
up a flower.
Look up at God's blue sky and
starlit or sunkissed heavens; listen
to the song of the birds; note the
smile on Ihe face of your neighbor;
shake off the blue devils; work
hard; eat and sleep well; and thank
the' Lord or your manifold bless
ings; instead of digging down, into
the earth for musty bones, growling,
groaning, grumbling and predicting
calamity which never comes.
Be an optimist. It is jut.t as
WatMm'LMand'shstlte
an' a friendly natural tobacco. " Keep yo' put-
on airs an' ' sauced-up" tobaccos for the fellow,
that likes nut sundaes better than home made
pie
So says a friend of ours named Velvet Joe.
And he just about hits the nail on the head.
s
Velvet is made for men 'who think there's"
no smoke like real tobacco. If you are that
sort of man, listen:
Velvet was born in old Kentucky," where
more than one good thing comes from. It was
raised as carefully as any other Kentucky
thoroughbred. But the real secret of Velvet's
friendly qualities is its slow natural ageing in
wooden hogsheads. !Ageing in the wood
never hurt anything and least of all, tobacco..
.
And so we say, Velvet is good tobacco
nothing more or less. It runs second to
none.
The picture of the pipe on the tin needn't
keep you from rolling a jim-dandy cigarette
with Velvet.
1P f I
I'll Sfc Ml ill
I'll m3j & 111
I ll W?Z Mm Ml
1 .11 ft!
-the friendly tobacco
easy as being a grouch, and just as
cheap. Get next to the Fatherhood
of God, the Brotherhood of Man and
the Gospel of Sunshine.
:o:
VISITING IN THE CITY.
From Friday's Dally.
"Mrs. W. F. Bull and two children
arrived in the city Wednesday even
ing for a visit at the home of Mrs,
Bull's parents, Dr. and Mrs. C. A.
Marshall. For the past year Mr.
Bull. has been located at California,
Pennsylvania, where he has been
superintendent . of the telephone
lines, and the family have been
making their home n that city but
are preparing to move to Canton,
Ohio, where Mr. Bull has accepted
the position of manager of the etate
telephone lines 7 in that city and
vicinity. This Is an important pro
Not 16 cents
or 17 cents
But 15 cents
Actaal Six
motion and one that the many
friends of Mr. and Mrs. Bull here in
the old home will be pleased to
learn of.
TO ATTEND FUNERAL.
From Friday's Dally.
Charles S. Johnson, the Burling
ton yardraaster, departed this after
noon for Rock Island. Illinois,
where he goes to attend the funeral
of his sister-in-law, Mrs, i V.
Johnson, whose death 'occurred on
Wednesday at the home in Duluth.
Minnesota. The news came as a
great surprise to Mr. Johnson as he
was unaware of the illness of the
sister. The body will be laid to
rest in the family lot at Itock Islaud
where the Johnson family reeidcl
Xor a number of years.
Fancy stationery at tail office.
