Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 August 1912 — COURT HOUSE NEWS IN BRIEF [ARTICLE]

COURT HOUSE NEWS IN BRIEF

Interesting Paragraphs from the Various Departments OF JASPER COUNTY CAPITOL The Legal News Epitomized—Together with Other Notes Gathered from the Several County Offices. New suits filed: No. 7984. Andrew E. Jackson vs. Georgia Johnson, et al.; action in partition. ■ »<& _ Mike Duffy and attorney Elmore Barce of Fowler, the latter having been out to the home place north of town for a few days looking after some building repairs, were spectators at the Bull Moose convention Wednesday. Mike would not object to congressional honors himself on the democratic ticket. There was certainly quite a prominent bunch of former republicans in attendance at the Bull Moose convention here Wednesday. Among the number not mentioned in our report of the convention elsewhere, we noticed A. F. Knotts, former representative of Jasper and Lake counties, and several others formerly prominent in the old party ranks. Messrs N. Littlefield, O. K. Rainier, L. Strong, W R Nowels, «J. A. McFarland, E. P. Honan, - Arthur Tuteur, \V. H. Barkley, Dolph Day, Joe and Arnold Luers, S. D. Clark, Wm. Hershman, T. F. Maloney, A. H. Dickinson, Frank Garriott, Frank Fenwick, Dennis O’Reilly, Charles Littlefield and F. E. Babcock were among the democrats from Jasper county who attended the representative and senatorial conventions at Monon Thursday.

At a recent meeting of the county Board of Education it was decided to begin the rural schools as follows: ~ September 16—Gillam, Hanging Grove, Keener, Walker, and Wheatfield townships. At the same time Superintendent Lam-on arranged for the Preliminary Township Institutes dates as follows: Sefttemeber 6—'Kankakee Township, at Dunville. September 7, at Renssgjaer, Barkley, Carpenter, Jordan, Marion, Milroy, Newton, and Union townships. September 13, at Fair View school house in Gillam tp.,—Gillam and Hanging Grove townships. September 14, at Wheatfield— Keener. Walker and Wheatfield townships. This year Supt. Lam son has arranged for the regular county Institute to be held from October 7 to 11. This is a plan that is being tried in some of the counties of the state, and will be tried here this year. County Superintendent Lamson sent in his statistical report to the State Superintendent Wednesday, and from it we copy a few of the more important items; The total number of pupils enrolled in the various schools of the county for the school year 1911-12 was 3,204; 1,582 males, 1,622 females. No colored pupils. The ‘average daily attendance was 2,427. In the high schools the enrollment was Wheatfield, 58; Remington, 49; Rensselaer, 171. graduates from the township schools were 77, and from the high schools, Rensselaer, 26, Remington, 2; Wheatfield, 6. The average length of the township schools was 140 days; and 'Remington and Rensselaer, 180 days and Wheatfield, 160 days. There was paid by the townships for teachers f 35,694; Remington 85,625; Rensselaer $13,59-.80,< a grand total of |57,844.20. There are, including the incorporated towns of Remington and Wheatfield and the city of, Retfs-' selaer, 110 school buildings in the 1 county, 103 of which are frame 1 and 7 are brick. There were 111 teachers em-' ployedand they were paid the township teachers for attending township intsitutes, 51,726.39. On July 31, 191-2, there was a total of 144.#18.81 on hand in the tuition funds of the county and in the special school fund 817,753.68.

I Our Desert Highways. When one journeys over the principal roads throughout our state, he is surprised that there are so few trees planted along the highways. Generally the few trees we find are volunteers which have miraculously escaped their enemies. The question naturally arises, why are our roadsides so destitute of trees? The principal reason is because the owner can not protect them. Jhe roadside tree is nobody s tree or rather everybody’s tree. The trunk is patched with signs, sale bills, etc., and perforated with nails. The branches must furnish gads for driving stock. The traveler, wearied by his horse fighting flies, breaks off the smaller of the branches and fastens them to the harness in lieu of nets. The telephone man regards trees as an arch enemy and sometimes so badly mutilates them they are offensive to the astbetic sense, and we wish he had cut them close to the earth to end their miserable existence. The practice of using roadside trees as guy poles is very injurious to them. The small boy finds delight in climbing in them, breaking off the branches, and in clubbing them, especielly if they are nut bearing trees. Their grateful shade causes them to be used as hitching posts, and the tied animals usually lunch on them. The objection that trees prevent the roads drying up quickly is much more than balanced by their grateful shade It is true that it takes some space to grow a tree but the value of the crop shaded by the tree is far less than the value of the tree to the public, tho value of the Wood produced and the added appearance to the farm. The time has come when our best farmers appreciate the .value of. the roadside trees and are eager for the time when they can plant trees with a reasonable assurance that they will hot be destroyed, Laws are needed to protect roadside trees and every property owner should' urge his representatives to pass laws protecting trees along the public highways.