Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 92, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 February 1918 — HAPPENINGS IN OUR NEIGHBORING VILLAGES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HAPPENINGS IN OUR NEIGHBORING VILLAGES

GIFFORD «■ Howard Page of Francesville yyas in our burg Sunday. Clifford Grim took Sunday supper with his best girl. Miss Beulah Walker called on Elsie Haniford Sunday. Miss Sylvia Lambert has been on the sick list the past week. Jud Zook and family spent Friday with Guy Zook and family. Born, Saturday, February 9, to Mr. and Mrs. Jean Ballard, a son. Lon Daniels spent from Friday until Sunday evening with George Lambert. There was no school in the large room Tuesday as Miss Ruth Kennedy was ill. Harris Swisher purchased a fine driving horse and buggy from Lon Daniels Saturday. Sunday school every Sunday at 10 a- m. Church services at 2:30 p. m. Everybody come. Mrs. Maggie Caldwell, and daughter and ' son went to Rensselaer Monday for a short visit with relatives. Miss Ruth Kennedy, Conda Witt, Charles Karch and Jesse Ward were the guests of Fairy and Gladys Elliott Sunday. James Steel came home Friday from Fowler where he has been working this winter. He expects to return there in a few days. Harry Reed, Will Obenchain, Reube.’ Snow, John Hill, Mrs. Lizzie Swisher and Miss Vesta Brown were Rensselaer callers Saturday. The gale off Paul Samuelson was largely attended and everything sold for a good price. Mr. Samuelson left Sunday for Lafayette. A noise gang gathered in our burg Friday night and raised an awful row. They called themselves the “Big Four.’’ A worse bunch gathered Saturday night and almost upset our little village.

JACKSON TOWNSHIP, NEWTON COUNTY Come, gentle spring, etherial _<ahem) mildness, come! Simon Yoder has moved to Colfax township, on the Hillis ranch. *Daniel Schanlaub, the “sawmiller,’’ will begin sawing again in a few’ days. I John Miller and Miss Ella Yoder, an Amish couple, were married last Sunday. I The balmy weather last Sunday just about wound up sledding in this locality. I Charley Smith, one of Uncle Sam’s boys, left on Saturday of last week for one of the training camps. W. R. Lee, the Mt. Ayr store-1 keeper, has bought the Watkins (farm in northern Jackson township. Emma Goldman’s lip, it seems, finally landed her in the pen. Well, good-bye, Emma. Take care o’ yerse’f. I Snow about all gone, but water! Believe me, dear boy, we have the largest and finest collection of water you ever saw. Ira Bassett of Morocco suffered a stroke of paralysis last Sunday. His condition Monday was reported as slightly improved.

Now, if someone would oblige us by seeing a flock of wild geese flying north, all doubts as to an eariy spring would be removed. Dr. E. R. Schanlaub of Morocco was in this vicinity the other day investigating the chances for getting lumber sawed for a new barn. Anyway, the groundhog sign is as reliable as many of the other “infallible’’ weather signs handed out by the local prophets from time to time. German army officers are reported as saying that lunatics and idiots make poor soldiers. They probably see the utter foolishness of keeping up the fight. 0 “Women and girls must be taught to do the farm, work,” says a farm journal. To which the storebox philosopher will doubtless add a hearty Amen. And, then, too, the time and energy used by some people in cussing '“old General Bolsheviki” could be more profitably utilized in raising kidney beans. Sidney Schanlaub is testing corn from a crib of about 400 bushels, with the result that at this writing the crib promises to yield up considerable good seed. Honest Abe, the mail carrier, got as far as the Makeover place on Monday and Tuesday of last weex, but from there he was compelled to back-track. Too much snow for the little U. S', wagon. Poor Bob White! As spring approaches it becomes more and more evident that he fared badly during the cold spell. The writer has not seen a quail for more than a month and hunters express the be-, lief that few oif these birds withstood the severe storms of January. Yes, we may safely discontinue the teaching of German in our public schools, not only fbr the period of the war, but forever. Turn down everything that bears the German earmark, from the literature of Goethe, Heine and Schiller down to the all-pervading stink cheese, and from the music of Beethoven, Lizst and Wagner to the crafty gut. sausage. „ In the beginning of the present winter everybody prophesied a calamitous season for the rabbit (family, these prophecies being based mainly on the high price off pork and beef. But, strange as it may seem, not in many winters was there so little hunting done, due in part to deep snows, but more particularly perhaps to the high cost of ammunition. The retired farmer could help some by going back to the farm. There is an opening also this year for the city man who is eternally howling about his great desire to become a farmer, as well as for the near poets who sing of the waving wheat, the tasseling corn and the lowdng kine. Let them all come and help replace the skilled labor that has left the farms. Testing by the ear is the only sure way to get reliable seed corn this year. Don’t be deceived into planting seed simply because it looks good, ’for a test or even a close examination will not inffre-

I quently show many of the best ■ looking ears to be utterly worthless for planting. One farmer, who I thought he had good seed corn, inI formed the writer that a thorough test showed barely fifty per cent germination. This is going to be an early spring. Huh? IHtow do we know? Didn’t we see squirrels playing leapfrog down in the grove yesterday? Didn’t our old cow, what never harmed nobody, suddenly flash about a yard of corroded tongue athwart • the horizon yester eve, leap much : above the earth and dance the Pawnee scalp dance twice around the . barn? Hasn’t the old gray goose been snooping around trying to locate a suitable nesting place? Isn’t , the glad cackle of the American hen ' again heard in the land, and doesn’t i the felt boots off the lowly hired hand exude a richer fragrance? And lastly—but what more do you-want? I "Lookee here, Albert,*’ said a Beaver township damsel to her steady company the other day, “you’ve bin cornin’ here and masticatin’ our vict’als onct and sometimes twict every endurin’ Sunday fer goin’ on two years, hainUyou?” I Albert admitted that he had. I “Wai, now, listen dost, Albert,’’ ■ continued the maid. “Be you a i meanin’ bisness or be you jist a j philanderin’ like? If yu mean bis-

ness it’s all right, but if you are cornin’ here fer amoosement you caint hit the dirt road too abrupt to suit me. With Hoover hollerin’ bis head off fer us to konserve our nat’ral resources and the prospect of flour doublin’ in price, you haint goin’ to shilly shally round here, eatin’ up farm products that ought to be goin’ to our allies in ferin parts.” And she slammed a hunk of biscuit dough on the table and struck it a mighty blow with her right fist,

FAIR OAKS John Lakin of Parr came up on business Wednesday. Rpstmaster Karr has been on the grip list this week. Bad colds and the grip are very prevalent in our town nowadays. Cottage prayer meeting was held at Sam Potts’ Wednesday evening. The school house contractors had another car load of brick unloaded the first of the week. It is reported . that John Dean has rented Enos Moffitt’s tenant house and will move in about a week. Our basket 'ball boys went over to Morocco one night last week and got it layed over them quite strong. F. R. Erwin has been busy with a bunch of men and teams dismantling and moving his dredge, preparatory to moving down near Wolcott. Mrs. Petty was taken very seriously ill last week with an attack of tonsilitis. Her parents were sent for and arrived Saturday, She is, slowly recovering at this writing. i There-" hasn’t been much gaso-! line burned in the past couple of months due to the fact that the. roads have been impassable for automobiles. Quite a saving, eh? ; Owing to the heavy rain Tues-: day Parm Wiseman’s sale was called off until March 2, after which he will leave for Montana, where he has purchased a farm and ex- j ipects to make his future home. Charles Jacks of Rensselaer has rented the Cottingham pool room and will put in a barber Chair and run them together. He moved his household goods and family here Wednesday, into Abe Bringle’s property on Front street. Ex-editor Schanlaub, who has proved his w r orth as a farmer by the splendid crops he has raised since he came to the farm, is now engaged in cutting and splitting. posts out of his fine tall white oak timber, and the same he takes ( ■much pleasure in doing. He is merely doing it so as not to get slack, so keeps busy. He is planning on testing his seed corn soon, of which he has a nice lot. We have had a great change in the weather since our last report. We had several nice warm days, and on Monday evening it began raining and kept it up all night until Tuesday noon. The snow disappeared very rapidly and where the roads were blocked there is som‘e snow yet. On the level it :s all gone. There was more sledding done and more people used sleds this winter in this county that there has been Ifor a great many years.

FOL'R CORNERS The Asher sale near Wheatfield Wednesday was well attended and prices all around satisfactory. Mrs. Alfred Duggleby and son Charles came home Tuesday via North Judson from a visit with her people in lowa. After six weeks of idleness the tin cans are doing duty again and the gasoline dealers are raking in the sheckels. Harmon Clark, the Wheatfield veterinarian, has secured the assistance of an all-around man to help him in difficult surgery and, believe me, George is equal to the occasion. F. W. Fisher' received a letter from his son Warren, who is at Camp Shelby, which states that there is an order in for heavier clothing, which means, he thinks, a trip north. When a person gives away records that has been purchased for his phonograph because the production is a U. S. A. patriotic air, would you consider him a German sympathizer? The dance and social given by the “400” at Wheatfield Thursday night was well attended and had it not been for the food officials here the joy seekers would not have been obliged to go home hungry. The winter’s heavy snow is now almost gone and the wheat, though small, has the appearance of having stood the cold weather O. K. Should the season from this on continue favorable, a good crop will be grown jlmmle Gore, the only Red Cross dog in Jasper county, was laid to rest Wednesday forenoon. He passed away a few days before by picking up a piece of meat which someone had doped. He laid in state for a few days so that all his friends could pay homage to what remained. Some oif the farmers are wondering if it-Would be possible to get some thrashing crew to furnish all their help necessary to put the grain to the machine, leaving the farmer to look after the straw and •thrashed grain this season. As this is being followed in some sections, wlhy not here? There is a case or two of undeveloped, or rather unexpressed, German sympathy in this locality, an open desire to disregard the orders issued by the food and fuel officials. For some time these parties have been given the benefit of the doubt as to their intentions of violating the spirit of the law, but from this time on the public will see that they get just what they are virtually entitled to, and no more.