Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 61, Number 214, Decatur, Adams County, 11 September 1963 — Page 11

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11. W 63

Charlie Kents Have Valuable Collection

By Mike Thoele Long, long ago, when Mother Earth had just settled down from a rather fiery and tempestuous youth, she was beset by trickles of water which flowed into cavities near her surface and deposited, year after ancient year, small amounts of multi-colored sediment which hardened into stone that was almost unbelieveably beautiful but hidden by coarse outer rock surfaces. Now, four hundred million years later, some of these stones, called agate, are being collected, cut, polsihed and mounted by an active Decatur resfltor, Charlie Kent, and his wife, Enid. The Kents, who have been collecting agate and jade only since 1956, have amassed one of the finest collections of gate, both rough and finished, in the northeastern United States. Their rock-hunting forays have taken them to Canda, Mexico and every state in the union, with the exception of Alaski and Hawaii. “There’s not much in Hawaii besides coral,” says Charlie, “but we’re going to have to get up to Alaska. There’s a lot of interesting rock there.” Found In West Most agate, Kent explains, is found west of the Mississippi, especially in Montana and Wyoming. The best fields are along the Yellowstone river in Montana and near Landers, Wyoming. Kent keeps a jeep stationed in Montana, where he flies each year to gather six or seven hundred pounds of rough, agate-containing rocks which are then shipped back to Decatur. He spends the winter months cutting and finishing the best specimens. Agate is only slightly less hard than diamonds and a diamond saw

,-T W J MKBrs \ 111 m I UjHjw JUL • IJIk. f - - [Bbv , j '•* 'faUß IT i i ■■ft ~.'V K.j! ujij ;■ Jl fel vir i \ 1 y Vi / rt U i.H SCULPTOR—A small jade Buddha figurine takes shape under the grinding wheel and steady hand of Charlie Kent. Another figure, which Kent carved from soap, serves as a model for the statue. — (Photo by Cole) PUBLIC AUCTION EVENING SALE HOUSEHOLD GOODS As I have sold my home and moving to California, I will sell at Public Auction my Household Goods — Located 739 HIGH STREET, DECATUR, IND. FRIDAY NITE, Septemebr 13 SALE STARTING AT 6:30 P.M. HOUSEHOLD GOODS Kenmore two-burner space heater; Magic Chef table top gas range; Speed Queen electric washer, like new; Kenmore automatic washer; 2-piece rose living room suite; brass bed, springs & mattress; l/i bed, springs & mattress,- oak dresser; chest of drawers; oak dining room table; buffet; six leather seat chairs; coffee table; hassock; 2 night stands; kitchen table & 4 chairs; lamp stands; floor lamps; table lamps; metal utility cabinet; full length beveled mirror; small mirrors; 3 card tables; 9x12 rug; 10x13 rug; throw ■ rugs; pure linen table cloth, new; satin finish bedspread; bedding; 2 gas room heaters; Roto broil Rotissery automatic push button, like new; electric fan; electric iron; 2 electric sweepers; tailoring sewing machine; some Antique dishes; several hand painted dishes; old candle holders; dinner bell; set gold trimmed dinnerware, service for 8; cooking utensils; other items. TOOLS: New Moto power mower; Gould shallow well pump; garden tools,- tree trimmer; many, many miscellaneous articles not mentioned. TERMS—CASH Not responsible for accidents. Refreshments will be served* MRS. GEORGE TESTER, OWNER Ellenberger Bros. & Herman Strahm, Auctioneers Bluffton phone 543—Ft. Wayne phone 745-5512 Craigville phone 565-3144 Bryce Daniels, Clerk.

is used to cut .the agate rocks. Kent has four such saws, composed of small diamond chips mounted in oil-cooled rotary blades which range in size from four to eighteen inches. .With the saws he cuts thin slices from each rock, watching each slice for an interesting pattern or silhouette. When an especially attractive piece of rock is found, a template is used to cut it to the desired shape and the edges are beveled. Then it fcs ground with carborundum dust and polished with tin oxide and a leather buffer. Some small pieces are polished"' by continuous tumbling for about four months. The real joy in such work is the number and variety of interesting shapes and designs which are found in agate. Kent has polished stones with color formations in them which depict redwood trees, landscapes, human profiles and lake scenes in almost all imaginable colors. Charlie’s prize is a small stone about an inch square with a perfectly detailed burning candle. He also has a wild-looking Alley Oop Caricature. There is a phenomenal element of luck involved in uncovering these patterns since there is no way of knowing what is inside a stone and some really fine designs may be only a very small fraction of an inch thick. Kent encounters frequent disappointments when he cuts into stones only to find out that he has bisected a really outstanding picture or color pattern. Mrs. Kent’s primary interest in rock collecting is jade. Her collection embraces specimens from all over the globe including one extremely rare South African jade stone with red coloring in it. Most jade comes from Wyoming, south-

■j » '\i ■ ■ iijip « flJ'B B* mm i Bf . f WORKSHOP—Decatur realtor Charlie Kent displays a slice Pf agate which he has cut on a large diamond saw in the workshop at the rear of his home. The workshop has tools and storage space for handling the six to seven hundred pounds of agate rock which the Kents collect annually.—(Photo by Cole) ■ "■■■■ - ** _ w i—■ Bi m

ern California, Burma and China. Make Jewelry Both the Kents make jewelry and other articles utilizing their stones as sets. They purchase the mountings for tie clasps, cufflinks, earrings, pins and necklaces, then cut and polish the stones to fit. They sell very little of this but content themselves with presenting it as gifts to ftipnds.’ Charlie, who is gifted with something of an artistic flair, a1 so makes small statues and other decorative items from agate and jade. He is presently working on a i minute two-inch jade Buddha using a figure he carved from soap, i as a model. His prize work is a > stone bouquet, constructed of small ■ cut .and polished pieces of both ; agate and jade. The flowers are . cut from multi-hued agate and the leaves and stems are made from jade and agate. The picture took nearly a year of spare time work to complete. To do this work Charlie has a spacious, well-equipped workshop in a garage located behind his house. The shop includes the diamond saws, polishing stones, storage space and an ample amount ,of the special tools required for making jewelry, The Kents who are members of the National Federation of Rock Collectors, also attend and have displays sit rock showa-ail over the country. Each February they participate in the Indio rock show at Indio, Calif. Does Not Complete “I’ve never competed in any of these shows,” says Charlie. “I just display my stuff. After I’ve retired and have more time to prepare I’ll try competing for some of the awards.” Agates are hard and tough gems to cut and polish but their relatively high availability has made them popular with collectors. Today there are thousands of “rockhounds” in the U. S. who spend their weekends and vacations either digging for agate or cutting and polishing it. The state of California alone has about 50,000 collectors. Perhaps another reason for the popularity which agate enjoys is the wide variety of colors, designs and patterns found within the stones. These patterns are like fingerprints no two of them are ever exactly identical. This can be said of no other gem stone. Agate Formation Agate was formed millions of years ago by a slow process of sedimentation. It is formed in cavities which resulted when hot steam and gases were emitted while lava was cooling, much like the pores which form in dough when it is left to leaven, then baked into bread. Silicon-carrying water seeping through the earth deposited its burden in these cavities and as the silicon built up and the water evaporated the hard agate stone was formed, impurities is this silicon form the interesting patterns which collectors hope to uncover. Agate has long been a favorite stone with man. Early cave dwellers used it as both a tool and a weapon. Various civilizations and peoples attributed magical powers to it It was even beaten into powder and drunk with a liquid as a cure for snakebite, headaches and skin diseases. But for Mr. and Mrs. Kent agate means jewelry and fun, not medicine and superstition, and the thousands of beautiful polished gems in their collection indicate that they have left few stones unturned in the pursuit of their unique hobby. Substitute Rug Padding If you haven't a regular rug pad, use newspapers under large carpets. Spread several layers flat under the rugs, and you’ll save wear, make the rugs look and feel better underfoot, make the floor warmer, and provide a soft tread. And also, the newsprint is a deterrent to moths,'

THE DECATPIt DAILY DEMOCRAT. DECATUR, INDIANA

• . u mm ill §i§ IIMh .;jjj 1 4* M gßjre j3HߣSj| 1 b mmmm i PORTRAIT IN STONE—A bouquet of flowers, all made from stone and mounted and framed on black velvet, was constructed by Charlie Kent from specimens of jade and agate in his extensive coi- . lection. About one year of spare time was required to cut and. finish the more than 80 separate pieces of stone in the bouquet. — (Photo hv Poiei

Traffic Fatalities High 35 Years Ago

By BOYD GILL United Press International INDIANAPOLIS (UPI) — When you think of the 1920’5, you weave a mental picture of ancient cars with running boards and straight-up-and-down windshields, and motors so impotent it was difficult to travel fast enough to get hurt if you had a wreck. Compare those antiques with today’s high-speed juggernauts and the fact there are three times as many motor vehicles registered in Indiana in 1963 than there were in 1928, and you find it difficult to believe there were-just as many traffic fatalities back in those days as there are now. Yet this is a startling fact borne out by Indiana State Police statistics dating back 35 years to January before the Memorial Day when Ray Keach won the 500-mile Indianapolis Speedway race with a daredevilish speed average of 97.585 miles per hour. Why Is Toll Not Up? Perhaps the experts who will lead the seminars and make the speeches at the Governor’s Annual Traffic Safety Conference here next week have the answers as to why we travel millions more miles in three times more vehicles and yet kill no more of ourselves and each other than back in the years just after the Model T Ford was relegated to obscurity. The reasons probably Include better highways, wider bridges,, better-built cars and better-trained drivers. Richard Weaver, deputy commissioner of the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles, is tye authority for the rise of the state’s vehicle registration from 849,809 in 1928 to 1,143.733 in 1941 to 2,511,458 this summer. And the state police records and communications division is authority for the fact that there wen actually more traffic fatalities—--12,007—in Indiana in the -1932-to--1941 period than there were—ll,s2l —in the 1953-to-1962 period. 1929 Fatals 1.054 On the record are the monthly totals of traffic fatalities for the 428 months which have passed by since -1928. The toll-in- 1929 was

1,054, just 27 fewer than the toll in 1962 which was 1,081. Just about any comparison you can make shows little regard for tthe passage of time. In 166 of those 428 months, the toll was 100 or more each month. Through the first half of that long 35-year period, there were 100-plus months 78 times, and for the second half, incorporating the present era, there were such months 88 times. The all - time record months mostly were in the 1930 s and 19405. Only four of the worst 14 occurred since 1950. The deadliest month was September 1941 when 158 were killed. Second place went to October 1937 when 157 died. Third place went back to November 1936 when the toll was 156. Strangely, of the all-time worst months none has< been recorded since 1955 when 142 died, and the deadliest month in nearly eight years came just last month with a toll of 135 that is still provisional and subject to increase as the gravely injured die later of their wounds. Seem To Make Strides Thus, despite the increase in miles traveled and numbers of cars and drivers* we seem to be making strides, although some safety experts do not like to encourage this belief on grounds it might stimulate carelessness. For instance, there was a ninemonth period in 1961 when the monthly death toll stayed below 100, from January through September: 1 You have to go all the way back to 1946 to improve on that and find that 10 months between February and November passed by that year with monthly tolls below 100. It is not general knowledge that 1941, the last pea-war year, racked up the state’s worst calendar-year toll in history, 1,478 killed The average driver doesn’t realize that there is nothing in the span of an entire, generation now reaching adulthood that compares with the 452 killed in a three-month late summer and early fall period 0f’1941, or the A36 killed in three consecutive-fail and-winter months in 19361

Underworld Canary To Sing In Public

Valachi n (Second Os Three) By HARRY FERGUSON United Press International WASHINGTON (UPIV — No criminal case can ever be much better than the credibility of the witnesses for the prosecution. If a jury distrusts a witness or decides he is lying under oath, the cause is lost almost automatically. That fact stamps a big question mark across the name of Joseph Valachi, the low-echelon gangster who has thrown himself on the mercy of the federal government and promised to tell all he knows about organized crime. His first public appearance will take place shortly before the Senate rackets committee. Later he probably will be taken before grand juries in an attempt to get indictments against major gangsters. Nobody is quite sure what kind of witness Valachi will make. “He has his ups and downs,” said a spokesman for the Department oUJustice. “One day he wijj bt calm and tell a rational, connected story. The next day he will not be so good. You have to remember that the man is badly scared.” Could Stir Suspicion Valachi is an uneducated man. He speaks in a gutteral voice that may not be clearly understood in the far reaches of hearing rooms and grand jury chambers. If he gets excited and confused on the witness stand — and there is fair chance he will at some stage of his testimony — he is going to stir suspicions among the listeners as to the validity of what he is saying. It would be misleading to judge the impact of Valachi's testimony on the basis of what is publicly known about the story he is telling. Valachi talked off and on for almost a year while under maximum security guard at Fort Monmouth, N.J. It may be that the Justice Department has some dy-, namite that will give the underworld a bad jar, but if so it is being kept secret. This is what is publicly known about Valachi’s prolonged “singing session”: he has outlined the organization of what he calls Cosa

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Nostra (“our business” or “our thing”) a loose confederation of gangs in at least eight cities. Each of these is called “a family," he says, controlled by a boss. There are lieutenants under the boss and. each is in charge pf a “crew.” Valachi says he joined the organization In 1930 and took a blood oath (his finger was pricked) to die rather than betray it. Names Top Brass He supplied some of the argot oi the underworld. When a gangster is ordered to kill somebody, it is called a “contract.” You get a contract when you are ordered to "hit” a man. Orders to “hit” are almost always issued by the boss, and Valachi said the bosses included: Vito Genovese, New York (although there apparently are five “families” in New York); Sam Giancana, Chicago; Joseph Zerilli, Detroit; Seoastian Laßocca. Pittsburgh; Angelo Bruno, Philadelphia; Stefano Magaddino, Buffalo; Raymond Patriarca, New England; John J. Scalish, Cleveland. Much of this Information was not exactly flash news to police and other law enforcement officers in those cities. The problem has been, not to identify the gang leaders, but to get something on them that will stand up in court. Valachi. for instance, has talked freely about some 30 murders, but as a New York prosecutor put it: “Our office can act only on evidence, and Valachi's statements arc pure hearsay.” What the Justice Department hopes is that Valachi can come up with some information about the middle and lower-echelon members of the crime organization, One source said he already had done so and federal agents now are busy questioning those persons in an attempt to obtain corrobotation of Valachi’s stories and build a solid structure of evidence. , -The man’s hole card in’ the underworld was his friendship with Vito Genovese, a New York “boss” about whom considerable i mis-information has circulated in ■ the last month. He lias been de- ; picted as the supreme commandi er of the American gangs, a sort

PAGE THREE-A

HAIR’S HAT? — This New Ydrk-created turban hat looks as though it were styled for today’s hairdos, but it’s actually the latest thing for fall. oi Oriental potentate tossing occasional scraps of favors to his underlings and issuing “contracts” sometimes in a whimsical manner. Shared Same Cell Genovese is currently serving a 15-year prison term for narcotics violation and at one time was Valachi's cell mate in Atlanta ‘penitentiary. A piece of fiction that refuses to die is that Genovese still controls the underworld by sending a steady stream of orders from his cell. The Justice Department pointed out that, considering the close scrutiny given to a prisoner’s mail and visitors. Genovese would have to . be doing it by mental telepathy, i This reporter can state unequivocally that he does not have a prit vate telephone in his cell. Genovese did not dominate the underworld. ■ but he was an important figure and Valachi stayed on his payroll for years. Then he got scared and turned stool pigeon. Needless to say the friendship is terminated. Genovese has an appeal of l)is narcotics conviction coming up this fall before the Supreme Court. The legend that he still dictates the affairs of the underworld probably got started because members of his New York “family” are waiting to sea whether the boss cah win his way back into circulation. ‘Tomorrow — Evolution of the - gangster from Capone to Cosa t Nostra.)