1957 Columns, January - June
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Roaming in the Gloaming

With Bob Forrest

Things Material and Immaterial

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January 3, 1957

  The new curfew law at Shakopee comes up for its first reading this week. This may be a model law for the state. The youngsters are divided into three classes, according to age. Here’s the catch: the parents and guardians of the children will have to go to jail or pay a fine every time the youngster violates the curfew law. There’s been a lot of gang warfare down there and the council is trying to break it up. Worst feature about a curfew law is that is only drives the kids to the neighboring towns that do not have a law. Out of this may come a state curfew law. ---   After all is said and done, the city of Minneapolis cannot escape the responsibility of the hospital fire which took eight lives. A fire prevention bureau that had the power to prohibit lighted trees in hotels could have included hospitals. ---   Christmas-tide brought two sets of Christmas carolers to our door: the one from the school, the other from Brownie Troop No. 22. Bright-eyed youngsters who sang with their hearts as well as their voices. Christmas without youngsters is lots worse than a kiss without a squeeze. ---   Ed Sullivan of the TV show a while back suggested that business firms instead of putting on Christmas parties send the money to the Hungarian Relief Fund. A Lubbock, Texas firm took his advice and when the show troupe arrived for the annual Christmas event it was told the show had been cancelled. Made them kind of mad, and on the back of their autos they put signs: “Don’t buy Mercurys for Christmas, send the money to the Actors Relief Fund.” Moral: if you can’t take it, don’t dish it out. ---   The more you remember about the country you live in, the prouder you get. Years ago, after we had whipped Great Britain, some of our merchants sent ships into the Mediterranean to trade with Turkey, Greece, etc. They were stopped off Gibraltar by the Algerian pirates who had taken toll from every ship for 200 years. This United States, in order to trade in the Mediterranean, had to pay the pirates the sum of $800,000; that’s a good sized hunk of money in these days and was more then. We further agreed to pay them $25,000 a year thereafter, and we gave them a frigate besides. This was on Nov. 28, 1795, when Washington was president. In 1805, the head man of the pirates notified the U.S. that it would have to raise the rent or he would declare war. This made the U.S. hopping mad and we sent out a fleet and wiped out the pirate nest forever, and they made peace in 1805. The Algerians chased like wild beasts and here we sit on top of the world. We must humbly remember we did not come this far alone. ---   Here’s something some village might be interested in. If a bartender or manager of the municipal liquor store is ever caught selling liquor to minors the court can revoke the license for thirty days. Be a pretty heavy fine in some towns. ---   Fairmont must have poor TV reception. In order to improve it, Robert Mackay is asking for a franchise to put up a booster station, which will give the town A1 reception. He intends to feed the new service with wires. Charges will be from three to four dollars, then there will be a monthly charge for the service of five dollars. Fairmont must have rotten TV reception. ---   Remember the Senator McCarthy investigations and the well known phrase, “I refuse to testify on the grounds that it might incriminate me.” Over at Marshall a while back, five men and youths had been arrested for attacking a girl. Two of them pled guilty. The third accused came up for trial. The girl refused to testify against him, stating that it might incriminate her, and she sat down with the fifth amendment in her hand. The young man was acquitted. The other two will be tried January 7th. ---   Had real good luck this Christmas. On Saturday our youngest daughter and her husband, Ray Elias, and Peggy Jean drove down from Minneapolis. Bundled Ma and the Roamer into the car and brought us to Minneapolis where we enjoyed a holiday week. Our other granddaughter, Kae, is in nurse’s training at St. Barnabas Hospital in Minneapolis. Our youngest grandson, Robert, is attending the University of Minnesota. ---   Years ago, many years ago, we were working as a clerk in the legislature. We can remember one group that came up that winter. They were Con Casey, good old soul, Anton Lunder and Bill Forsaith. We went to the show and after the show someone said “Eats.” We were partly city-broke and showed off by taking them to a chop suey joint. It was upstairs on Wabasha Street close to the Astoria Hotel. Like every Chinese place, it fairly glistened with carved teak wood, embroidered pictures, gaudy lanterns that hung everywhere, with tinsel and lace. Con sat next to me, looked around and whispered, “Bob, Heaven can’t be much prettier than this.” One night last week we rode down Nicollet avenue. It was dressed in its Christmas finery and never before have we seen such a beautiful spectacle, which was enhanced by the Dayton’s decorations. About a mile of beauty and charm which could not be excelled and when we got to the end we could not help but remember Con’s remark of fifty years ago. ---   We rode back from Minneapolis on Friday and there was not a fleck of snow or a spot of ice on the highways. Something unusual for this time of the year. There was very little old snow left in the fields until we got to Tracy. ---   Those tranquilizing pills that have been sweeping the country of late are in bad this week. Dr. Lawrence Cobb, former public health official, testifying before a senate subcommittee at Washington, D.C., said they were physically more harmful than morphine or heroin. We’ve taken two or three of the pills, but like most of the medicine you take, you’ve got to have a little imagination. ---   Now that the farmers have spoken on the corn problem it should be easy to get a suitable agricultural measure through Congress. The Democrats are in the majority in both houses of Congress and they should put through what the farmer wants. This is their last chance, they have been in control during the last two sessions and brought forth nothing, third time is out. ---   This is the week that the office party in the big cities struts its stuff. Years ago a lot of them ended in a drunken debauch. Few missionaries were invited. Folks took their hair down and there was no roof. Nice girls in offices who had boy friends waiting for them downstairs were pawed over by a tipsy boss and by department heads who petted them and hiccuping told them, “My wife just don’t seem to understand me.” In New York last year, the boss furnished the booze for one party and the help, the ginger ale and pretzels, etc. Going home that night, one of the autos loaded with guests who were also loaded, had an accident. A lawyer found that the old gent had supplied the liquor was responsible. The fine was $60,000. That’s one office party where “we” boys and girls will have to supply the giggle water, and the old man the sobering coffee and the ham sandwiches. Sat., Dec. 29th. ========================

January 10, 1957

  Seldom have we had a finer New Year’s Day than we had last January 1st, and never before have we had such a fine day of entertainment. Starting with the Parade of Roses at Pasadena, Calif., one of the world’s real spectacles: five miles of female beauty, flowers and prancing steeds. One float had 30,000 blossoms in its decorations. There were not enough flowers in California so blossoms were shipped in from other states and Hawaii. Got a real thrill when the band from Edina marched and counter-marched as they went by. Another thrill was when the Scottish Highlander band marched by. It got our thoughts back almost 80 years when we used to watch the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders marching down from Stirling Castle to drill. They passed our home three times a week. Another kick we got when the lassie Highland band from Iowa strutted its stuff, ending with the “Hieland” fling. Another kick we got was watching Iowa massacre the California team from Oregon. Half the Oregon players’ homes are in California. ‘Twas a great day. ---   From the number of colored people appearing in TV, radios and prize fights it must be hard to keep some folks in the deep South from taking an axe to their TV sets. There are more colored people on the programs than there are riding the buses in Montgomery, Alabama. ---   When the Omaha took off its night train, nearly every night telegrapher lost his job. Some of them are seeking jobs in Canada where railroads are still being used. Gasoline put them out of their jobs. By the way, the Northwestern officials are cutting and paring, don’t be surprised if something does not happen to the branches. On the Pipestone branch there is some talk of making Slayton the end of the branch. Other rumors are that several agents on the branches will be let out, which will mean the end of telegrams in many a small town. The N.W. pruners seem to be doing an expert job. ---   While you’re looking for bargains don’t forget your local post office. You pay 4 cents for a stamped envelope. Buy a hundred and they cost you $3.64, a saving of 36 cents. ---   Rheumatism has never received its rightful due. Whenever you hear the name spoken it generally is with a flood of abuse or sarcasm, forgetting the good it brings: whenever you have a real attack of rheumatism you forget all about your other aches, pains and ailments. ---   Speaking before a meeting of scientists in New York last week, a doctor from the University of Minnesota brought words of gold to many a woman that smokes. He said that science had proved that smokers who had quit the habit invariably got fat. That’s a shot in the arm to many a woman who has been without an argument: what man wants his wife to get fat? ---   The course of True Love runs fairly smooth in Murray county. There were only eight divorces in Murray county in 1956. During the same period 118 marriage licenses were issued, 14 more than there were in 1955. July seems to be the favorite month for divorces, three being granted that month. March, April, May, June and December had one each. We asked Doug Johnson, clerk of the district court, “Did you ever have the same man who had bought a license ask for his money back? Did you ever have a man want to change the name of the female?” The answer was “No.” All of which proves that when a Murray county lad asks and she says “Yes,” he had better start taking a course in dishwashing. ---   Dogs, doggone them, bring trouble to some homes. Over at Winnebago Mrs. Alice Smith got into an “altercation” with her husband over his dogs, and Justice Rorman sentenced her to 90 days in jail. Bernard, that’s her husband, however has to take his five dogs to a new boarding place. That Justice Rorman must be a brave man. Fancy sending a woman to jail for 90 days for “arguing heatedly” (that’s what the dictionary calls it) with her husband. If there were many justices like Mr. Rorman in Minnesota both Murray and Pipestone counties would have to start building jails and a lot of men would be eating at restaurants. Note: Justice Rorman suspended the 90 day jail sentence and put her on probation for six months. ---   No wonder it takes five years to be a lawyer in Minnesota. At Alpha the question of raising the salary of the mayor and councilmen came up at the last election. The vote stood 33 for the raise, 24 against and 10 voters did not vote on the question. The antis claimed that when you not vote on a question like this, you vote against it. They took their complaint to the attorney general. He ruled against them, saying that blank votes do not count. Yet at every state election since we can remember, we have been told that if you vote a blank vote on an amendment you vote against it. ---   See where there’s a new cure on the druggists’ shelves, for the common cold. One of the ingredients is polyvinylpyrrolidine: a name like that should cure any disease. ---   Every once in a while and sometimes oftener somebody around forty or fifty writes an article, “How to Keep from Growing Old.” Beautiful bunch of words that mean little to the one that is growing old and adds to his or her aches and pains each day. Only way to keep from growing old is to stop making calendars. ---   The Marv Lawrences of the Heron Lake News sent us their book, “Lunkers Unlimited,” a story of the Cree land up in Northern Saskatchewan, with emphasis on the fishing: the graylings, king sized pike, and fat battling lake trout. Fancy being on a fishing trip and throwing back Northerns that weighed 20 pounds. Whether you fish or not you’ll enjoy the story of how fishing dreams come true. ---   Spiegel, the Chicago installment mail order house, seems to be hungry for business. In a circular they tell you how much credit you have at their store, and that if you pass on they will send your widow a receipt for what you owe them, up to $1,000. The Prudential will pay your widow providing you’re killed in an accident an equal sum of money. What will they not do in this day and age to get more customers. ---   Next Saturday, January 12th, is the anniversary of the deadliest storm in the history of Minnesota. A combination of terrific high winds, loose snow and swiftly dropping temperatures ushered in the big blizzard of 1888. This storm took over 109 lives in Western Minnesota alone. Herds of cattle were driven by the wind until they perished. Farmers died between the house and barn. Many perished coming home from town. Caught out on their way home from Avoca a farmer and his wife were stalled in a huge drift. They unharnessed the team and let it go. Then they turned the sled box over and crept underneath and spent the night. If the snow drifted over the high box you came out alive. If no snow drifted over the sled, your name was among the 109. This one storm had everything. Temp was 40 below in the morning. There more lives lost in western Minnesota in this one storm than there have been from tornadoes and cyclones since the state was organized. ========================

January 17, 1957

  People are always telling how nice it will be when they can retire. Rev. Vordale, pastor at Slayton, Lake Wilson and other towns for 47 years of service decided to retire. He and Mrs. Vordale decided to move to California and end their days. Rev. Vordale is back to Wisconsin and has a church at Oconomowoc. Retirement isn’t the millennium for an active mind. ---   The gifts that were given for the first baby of the year would surprise you. There were pages of them in some towns. With the advantage of scientific birth control look for developments in the future. It will be as interesting as a horse race and may be made a pari mutuel event. That is if the state would initiate it. Many folks would have something to sit up for awhile waiting for the returns to come in and singing “Auld Lang Syne.” ---   How’s this for an election? Perham voted on a school bond. The vote: For, 268, against 18. ---   Nearly every county in the state is busy raising funds or building homes for the aged. Some counties are building homes in connection with their hospitals, churches are also building homes and then there are a lot of private homes that are carefully and efficiently taking care of the aged. Murray county is fortunate to have an institution of this kind at Slayton. It is operated in the former Home Hospital by Mr. and Mrs. Abner Olson. Mrs. Olson is a graduate Asbury hospital nurse in charge of the Slayton Nursing Home. A woman of wide experience in nursing and caring for sick folks, she keeps the hospital as neat and clean as a pin. At the present time there are 21 guests of which six are women and fifteen men. The average age is eighty four. The home is inspected the same as any hospital both by the State Board of Health and the Fire Marshall. Twenty four hour service is maintained in the Home. Three meals are served each day, the main one being served at 11 o’clock. Breakfast is at 7:00 and supper at five. Seven women are on the pay roll. The patients most of them are satisfied and contented in the Home. The oldest patient is Simon Anderson of Lake Wilson, he is eighty nine. The guests have rooms for recreation. The Legion Auxiliary of Slayton does a fine job at Christmas time. They bring Christmas joy to the residents. They also have a Birthday party each month at the Home. An orchid to the Slayton gals also one to the Assembly of God who holds service there each Sunday. You run into some sad things however. For instance there’s the man that never has missed a meal there in 4 1/2 years nor has he had a visitor. You folks in the best of health, never think that someday perhaps you may be in his place. It will come, it always has. “Someday You’ll Understand.” A post card to some of the guests at the home means more than gold: and they cost so little. We can only thank Mr. and Mrs. Olson for offering to the people of the county such a fine home for the aged to help them down their way towards the setting sun. ---   While the federal government is eternally after trust and combinations for restrain of trade Minnesota seems to take an opposite view. Two saloon keepers at Mankato were arrested, says the Windom Citizen for selling liquor below the prices set by the liquor commission. The Citizen man wants to know if the state can do that with liquor, why can’t they do it with coffee, beef steak, etc.? Along the liquor line some of the members of the female sex in and around Balaton are peeved because there is no “powder room” in the giggle water joint in that town. They claim they are entitled to one under the 29th amendment to the constitution. ---   Gov. Freeman made the going a little harder for drunken drivers last week when he issued an executive order suspending drivers licenses for 30 days. You did not go far enough, Governor. All motor accidents are not caused by drunken drivers. You should have compelled all drivers to take yearly tests, as to their sight, hearing and reflexes. When autos meet head on, on a straight country road, with good visibility, the drivers sight, hearing or reflexes are at fault. ---   If you pay any attention to statistics it looks as if the girls of 1972 are going to have just as hard a time getting a man as the girls of 1956. Three hundred and thirty-three babies, first saw daylight in the Murray County Memorial hospital in 1956. Of this number 176 were girls and only 157 were boys. ---   Folks all over Minnesota are still “Oohing and Ahing” over the big Parade at Pasadena, California, forgetting that St. Paul, Minnesota put on the Daddy of all parades, when the VIP’s of the nation gathered on September 3, 1883 to make the trip to Gold Creek, Montana to see the Golden Spike driven which would connect the two sections of the Northern Pacific, the first railroad to the west coast. St. Paul put on a parade that day in which there were 725 decorated wagons and floats and 4,500 participants. In the group of 350 VIP’s were ambassadors, Generals Grant, Sheridan, Jim Hill, four governors, etc. They left the next day on four special trains, each train was preceded by a pilot engine. The party went through to Puget Sound. There were gala days at the big towns along the way. It is from one of the guests, the late George N. Hillman, court reporter at St. Paul from 1875 to 1929 who was hired to “take down” all the speeches, that we glean the above facts. Note: we have not got through our head yet how they could put on a parade with 725 floats in a day, unless the wagons were three or four abreast, but it stands in black and white that the information is true. It was the biggest show in Minnesota history and Mr. Hillman wrote that champagne was more plentiful than water. The “Golden Spike”, Mr. Hillman said proved to be a figurative expression. The spike actually used was an old and rusty one. ---   Time brings many changes and this month will bring perhaps the greatest change in the lives of Mrs. Forrest and the Roamer. We have almost come to the end of our toilsome journey and life gets to be almost a burden. We are both over eighty and the rigid winters begin to look more fearsome each year so we have decided to spend the rest of our days at the Minnesota Masonic Home. It’s not easy after one has had roots in Murray County for over 73 years. They go down deeper than you think for we have lived here where there were wet years. The officials of the Home take over the sale of our home, furniture, etc. so that is one heartache we escape. To the folks we have worked with and fought with down through the years, and thinking of the many kindnesses extended to us, this is an appreciative Good Bye. Our address will be the Minnesota Masonic Home, 11400 Normandale Road, Minneapolis, Minn. Would like to see you or hear from you. Yes, we’re going to keep on with the Roamings for awhile. ---   We cannot leave without expressing our thanks to John David for letting me run the Roamins each week. Not once during the years has he ever suggested an item or struck out an item. The Murray County Herald is one of the best papers in the state. No paper is more widely clipped for its editorials than the Herald. We know for we read 140 country newspapers each week. You’ll also notice that when country newspapers are clipped by the twin city papers, the Herald is always among them. ========================

January 24, 1957

  Picked up an old magazine the other day. It was called “The Outspan” and was printed at Blomentine, South Africa in 1954. What intrigued us most was a story about Flying Saucers. This one was seen by a school teacher near Durban and was willing to stake everything he had the story was true. Those Flying Saucers get around, don’t they? ---   The sales tax will be up before the legislature again, but it won’t pass. Some day it will: thirty-two states can’t all be wrong. Public opinion does change: whoever thought three years ago that the rural school consolidation problem would have such a change of heart. ---   A woman in Ann Landers column complains that her husband kisses her so effectively that he bends her bridgework. Take out your bridge, little woman, but don’t do a thing to dampen his ardor. Men like him don’t grow on trees. ---   Next time some loud mouthed politician tells that taxes will be lower in Minnesota, don’t you believe him. Taxes will be record high in this next year and will continue to go up: you just can’t have your cake and eat it. ---   New officials on the Northwestern must a mixture of Scotch and Jews. The way they trim things is a caution. Last one pared the name of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha R.R. to the Chicago and Northwestern. That should cut down the ink bill. ---   Bulbs are still causing a little uproar down at St. James. They are not tulip bulbs but Christmas tree bulbs that were stolen from outdoor decorations during the holiday season. There was so much criticism that 170 bulbs were laid at a newspaper office door. In the box was a letter from the gang that evidently stole them, threatening that unless the village would supply more recreation centers they would strike again. There was an old blacksmith that lived in Lake Wilson in the very early days. He had two melon patches. He bought some rock salt in August, broke it into little bitty pieces. Fall came, melons started getting ripe. He had callers. He loaded up the old muzzle loader, putting in the rock salt instead of buck shot. He had patience. They came one night and when he saw them bending over in the moonlight picking out the ripe melons he let them have it where the pants were real tight. They did not need any lie detector or any finger prints: you could always pick them out when they sat down on the old rough bottomed wooden chairs, and old Refield’s melons mellowed, ripened and smiled untouched until frost came. ---   Sounds like a fairy story. A man in Chicago, Ill. finally got a divorce from his better half because she snored. He made her sleep in the attic for five years. He should have bought some old style flannel lined clothespins. Some mouse traps have plenty of spring, too. Of course the whole story must be a darned lie. What man would ever dare try shoving his wife in the attic. It’s generally the other way around. ---   If there’s something to this man-made rain, the government should offer a million or more to anyone who could make the thing work. Bearing in mind that the new contraption will tear the rural sections apart worse than the school problem. When a farmer has hay down and they have a meeting for a needed shower of rain, how would he vote? ---   What is the matter with us Americans? Another decent magazine passed on last week. First the American Magazine, then Collier’s and then the Woman’s Home Companion and now the Town Journal, formerly the Old Path Finder (another popular paper). The funny thing about this magazine epidemic is that none of them died from not having enough subscribers. All of them had millions. Death came because it took too much money for help and materials. ---   The crying need in this country today is a course in voice modulation in every school. A scientist with three or four capital letters after his name, when asked “Why do marriages break up?” answered, “Little things like the tone of your voice do the damage.” So quit barking at that dear, sweet husband of yours. ---   Crime seems to be up in Cottonwood county. In 1956 there were 330 criminal cases against 151 in 1955. Auto violations brought most of the increase. One case was for the employment of a minor. This type of suit always irks us. Kids are better off working than they are running around raising hell. ---   The scientists that said our winters were getting warmer are evidently wrong. The winters of the “good” old days seem to be coming back. ---   Progress oft-times brings tragedies. See where one big gas pipe line in one of the eastern cities went blooey and ten thousand homes were without heat, and some will be for several days. ---   Around the holiday season you will find items in many a Minnesota country newspaper about the Kiwanis, Lions and other civic organizations taking dinners to the needy. If we have needy families on Christmas day we must always have needy families the year round. There should be no needy families in the U.S. ---   This government aid of surplus food stocks to low income people is more than surprising. For instance, Pulaski County in Arkansas pays out $33,000 a year to distribute the government pork, beans, butter, cheese and every other surplus, including fresh fruit and vegetables to low income people who live in that county. Mississippi County, same state, raised a cotton crop worth $36 million last year. It has 24,000 people getting food surpluses. The state of Mississippi has 600,000 enrolled for free surplus food. The distribution day “is a bedlam,” says Mrs. Elizabeth Varner, a relief worker in Bolivar County. “It’s terrifying to come down the office and find out that a carload of cheese had arrived during the night from Wisconsin or some other outlandish place.” Small grocers are being forced to the wall. One said, “Who’s going to pay thirty cents for a pound of oleo when you can get two pounds of creamery butter by asking for it?” This distribution of surplus food is not confined to the South. During the steel strike, 175 car loads of surplus foods were shipped in free for the striking steel workers at Pittsburgh. Three million low income families received over 394 million pounds of surplus stocks last year. In Alabama the folks called distribution points “Eisenhower Supermarkets.” This relief is not county relief or state relief but federal relief. How did it get started? Two years ago Senator Clements and Congressman Jennings introduced a bill giving surplus stocks to unemployed coal miners in Pennsylvania. It took, and by the time it got through being amended it included every state except nine, and Minnesota was not one of the nine, nor was any of the states around it. If these stocks are eligible for low income groups there are some families in Murray County that should get their share. ========================

January 31, 1957

  When you hear folks talk about the “good” old days, don’t believe them. Today is just as good and just as bad as they ever were. Human nature has not changed much through the ages. Our juvenile delinquency is not as bad as it was in the “good” old days. Back in 1656 some nuts in Salem, Mass. hung a nice grey-haired old lady because some said she was a witch. Thirty-six years later, six girls living in the same town heard about it (there were no dailies then) and started seeing things. In the gang was an Indian boy who chored around for Rev. Samuel Harris. The gang started stories about an old grandmother being a witch. Got the folks so stirred up about it that they hung the kindly old lady. They did so well that assisted by two preachers, that year they hung 19 old people, mostly women, for being in league with the devil. An old man named Giles Corey was so bewildered by the charges that he could not answer, so they gave him a merciful death. They laid him gently on the ground, put a few boards on top of him, then kept slowly adding rocks on the boards until life had fled and Giles was not able to answer to the charges. So far our juveniles have not reached that depth of devilment. “Them” were the days when they put a man in stocks or in jail if he kissed his wife on Sunday. ---   We are writing this from the Minnesota Masonic Home from the high banks on the Minnesota river, where we expect and hope to end our days. Our new home is really a magnificent home. With excellent rooms, well filled with over a hundred and fifty guests who go out of their way to aid and assist the newcomers. The food served in a beautiful dining room is ample: no sirloin steaks, but it is about the average meals that you have at home and they are served quickly, deftly, while the food is still warm. There are church services every Sunday morning. The reception rooms are spacious as are the men’s smoking rooms. Men can smoke anywhere except in the halls. Ladies must do their smoking in their own room. You are not “fenced in,” you can visit your relatives for days if you want to. Coffee time comes in the forenoon at your snack room, where you can have your tea or coffee and other delicacies that your friends or relatives would like to send you, such as preserves, jellies, a cooked pheasant or duck, etc. The men who contrived such a beautiful home of soft quiet beauty and charm will live on. Their memory will not be forgotten by the generations that follow. Ask any one from the old country about the Old Folks Home, they shudder. When we were nine we visited friends in Ayrshire, Scotland, and we went to see the old folks fed. In big oak slabs, holes were cut about the size of a bowl and chiseled smooth. A not too neat woman came along with an iron pot of porridge and dished it into the holes. There was a big pitcher of skim milk and a horn spoon: that was the breakfast. For dinner, scotch broth. For supper more porridge and sometimes a scone. What you see at the Homes today make one believe in the Arabian Nights story. When you come here you’ve got to make up your mind to like not only the place but your fellow guests as well. The Home is calm and peaceful as a brook, all due to the kindly and friendly management of N. W. Hodgson, Superintendent, and Mrs. C. Trumble, housekeeper. ---   Can’t remember any agitation of any kind that has hit the country as hard and fast and dropped down to a walk as quick as the Hungarian problem. Workmen in this country were willing to feed them but did not want to give them their jobs. ---   Folks sympathized with Art Carney in playing second fiddle in the Jackie Gleason TV show. Art had his chance for a week or two but just could not make it. Many a top notch second baseman can’t make the job as manager. ---   Railroads still do some good. At Lake Wilson, the Northwestern railroad sold its old well to the village of Lake Wilson. The village fixed it up so the water can be pumped into the mains at a cost of $2,500, and now has two good wells. With a big new schoolhouse coming up and farmers hauling water for stock and the house it was sorely needed. ---   There was no snow on the highways between Murray county and the Twin Cities in December, nor was there any when we came up this month. Don’t look good. Can’t remember a winter with a heavy snowfall that was not followed by a good crop. ---   We lost an old and valued friend last week, one of the closest and nearest of seventy-five years of our life. We went into a clothing store to get a suit of clothes. It was early in the day and two salesmen grabbed us. They trotted out suit after suit, but nary a vest. We asked, “No vest?” Both salesmen looked at us blandly, and suavely echoed, “A vest? Years ago they tell us that men wore such things but we have over 7,000 suits of clothes on hand but not one vest.” We asked rapidly, “Where does one keep his matches, fountain pens, pencils, your little comb (one looked at my hair and smiled inwardly), your package of Sen Sen, tooth picks, bus tickets, watch and chain (other salesmen with “They don’t have watch chains any more”) and that little piece of “Masterpiece” chewing tobacco and the few cloves?” They both answered. “There’s an extra pocket in the coat that will take care of that.” “Yes,” we added, “And there as an inside pocket in the vest where you kept extra tender love letters and an extra $10 bill.” Snapped back he with “You don’t have either any more.” As a last shot we asked, “Where can we hang the napkin on our bosom? And where does the gravy, the extra scrambled egg, the pea soup, etc. go now, between the shirt and the pants or rambling over the top of the pants?” It’s heck to be old. ---   What makes the difference in the price of eggs? Cong. Anderson of Tyler wants to know. He says No. 1 eggs are worth, or rather bring, 29 cents a dozen in Tyler, and in Washington, D.C. they bring 69 cents. Go to it, Carl, here’s one thing that everyone in your district is interested in. ---   Good joke on the Supreme court was they balled things up in that constitutional amendment last fall. When the bill passed, they found they were called “judges” on their doors. Was the word “Justice” so we will have a new law to change it back? We always felt there was something the matter with that amendment. ---   In the village of Bloomington where we now live the council has been having some wordy arguments. Residents say they would say one thing and do another. The Sun says the council plans on buying a tape recorder for use at the meetings. Good idea, but we can remember some village council meetings where some of the words spoken would not be allowed on the air. By the way, this recording plan could be used by some men and two women we know. It would be good for them to listen to their own remarks during the day, could change their ways. ========================

February 7, 1957

  Up in Cass County the legislative fight was bitter and there is now a contest as to who will hold the seat. In the early days the party in power, if they needed the vote real bad, seated its man. Remember one contest in Murray county: Fred Norwood of Skandia twp. ran for the legislature, was declared elected. His opponent contested Fred’s election. We got a letter from Jim Larson, a former Walnut Grove man, who was assistant secretary of state under Julius Schmal. Jim was a big spoke in the republican wheel then. He asked me to tell Fred that he should get a Mr. C. Howard of Redwood Falls for an attorney and he thought he could make it. Fred did and was seated. Charley Howard later moved to Pipestone and in a few years ran for district court judge. He was elected. After election he called on me and said, “There is a vacancy in the clerk of courts office in Murray county, do you want it?” The salary wasn’t so hot, neither was the future: there was no pension, no nothing, and we decided to stay in Lake Wilson. ---   We’ve always insinuated that women were the cattiest folks on earth. We were wrong. Anne Morrow Lindbergh, wife of the famous Minnesota air ace, writes poetry, must write a lot of it as she published a book of them recently. The Saturday Review is the stamping ground of the cultured, pompous and longhaired. John Ciardi, chief critic on the Review staff, pounded on Anne’s book as a hungry cat would on a sick mouse, and stripped Anne’s poems one by one until they were down to their BVD’s. He sneered at her grammar and jeered at her diction. It took him two full pages to do the butchering, opening with “For her poems I have nothing but contempt,” and closing with “But what will ever forgive Mrs. Lindberg for this sort of miserable stuff.” Blow, knife cuts and even bullet wounds will heal, but his printed words that sear and sting will bide with gentle Anne Lindberg as long as she lives. ---   The members of the legislature should have waited until the last day of the session before they made their raid on the state treasury. The boys upped not their pay but their expense account, to $12 daily. A raise of 20 percent. Does this mean that all state employees will get a raise of 20 percent? When we first worked in the legislature the boys stayed at the old Astoria hotel, now they must have the bridal suite at the St. Paul Hotel. ---   A while back a Minneapolis judge gave H. O. Holve a ninety-day sentence. Harold had failed to yield the right of way and two people were fatally injured. Last week he changed the jail sentence to a $100 fine: it’s getting so most anyone can afford to kill two or three pedestrians. ---   Can’t help but think but what those tranquilizing pills are medicine’s greatest gift to man and woman kind. In mental hospitals they have worked cures up to 80 per cent of the patients. You know, we’re all a little off on something, so keep a supply of this new drug on hand. ---   Isn’t all this furore of the U.S. going abroad and teaching East Indians, Chinamen, Arabs and what have you trades, occupations, etc. rather ironic, when you consider our 150 year failure to provide some schools of this kind for the Sioux and Chippewas. ---   Some day the pot is going to boil over in the sunny South. Some day those half baked bomber will blow up a house and kill a lot of children and then “All hell will be to pay and no pitch hot.” The South should remember what happened to their pride in ‘61. ---   Many people have lived in Minnesota all their lives and never knew that there were rattlesnakes in the state, while all the time they were helping pay bounty on them each year. Houston county paid $1,700.50 at fifty cents a rattler. You never hear of anyone dying from a snake bite any more: at the price likker is now, who could afford it? ---   Over at the Lakefield Standard, Dick Douglas has been running a very readable column for some time. (Wish we had his English). He asked for suggestions for a name of the column. We were going to write to him about the Texas newspaper that hired a man for its column. He was a callow youth and headed his first column, “Casting Pearls Before ___.” He left fast the next morning. Dick is a stepson of Ann Berry, who used to help me in the secretary’s office, come the county fair. Bedsides being good to look at, Ann was efficient and agreeable. ---   The legislature is going to try and re-apportion the state this session, a move that has been in the making for fifty years. Why not reapportion the state somewhat after the plan of the U.S. Give every county a representative and then divide the state into senatorial districts according to the population. This would give the house to the rural districts and the senate to large centers of population. ---   You’ve no idea how sweet and fragrant an obituary can be if you read it when you’re still living: obituaries like flowers smell sweeter than they do when you’re down under. ---   We’re going to get a chance to hear from the village where we lived so long. Doc and Harriet Suedkamp wrote, “We are sending you the Pilot and hope you’ll keep on reading it.” Thanks. ---   Calling on us last week was Mrs. Chas. Topel of Balaton. Jane came from Currie to Lake Wilson, a pert, freckled redhaired lassie, and managed the Lake Wilson Drug store of the late Dr. Balcom. Later she married Chas. Topel. She became interested in the Eastern Star organization, worked her way up until she became Grand Worthy Matron of Minnesota. Another Murray county girl to reach the coveted honor of Grand Worthy Matron of Minnesota was Mrs. L. Thorburn of Marshall. Rose was a daughter of the late Geo. H. Woodgate of Slayton. “Woodgate” was a household word in Murray county for two decades. Few men did more for the development of Murray county in the early days than George H. Woodgate. ---   This UN outfit seems to be slipping and is reaching the “Scrap of Paper” state. It’s getting so big an unwieldy that it has no snap at the end of its whip. ---   There is a scarcity of doctors in Minnesota. Over 150 communities are trying to get doctors. Seems as if the University could spare one of its investigators to visit those localities, find out their needs, tell them what to do and how to go about getting medical men. The state sends out men when hogs, cows and sheep are sick. Even chickens with the pip get a man on the run, but human needs are ignored. The Minnesota U. makes hundreds of doctors a year but most of them get their degree and beat it. Why not have them agree to practice two years in the state where they get their education. ---   Seems you, Mr. Taxpayer, have something coming from the state of Minnesota. For the last few years you have been paying illegal taxes. The $5.00 on your state income tax is illegal as the debt had been paid some time before. When you overpay Uncle Same he refunds: Minnesota holds out her hand. ---   If you ever want to make a railroad trip south and have to take the train at Worthington, remember that the leaving time of the train has been changed. It no leaves Worthington at 12:25 p.m. As there is only one train a day, you will save a long wait by asking. ========================

February 14, 1957

  Gasoline is up 3 cents a gallon. You can call it the Nasser Special. This man Nasser is the most dangerous man in the world when it comes to gasoline. Any time he feels like it all he has to do is sink a couple of old tankers in the canal. Not only gas will go up but many other far east products will go sky high. ---   Supt. Fisher and Robert Keller of Slayton, fine types of the alert aggressive young men in the educational and agricultural fields of today, visited us one day last week. They were on their way home from a state wide educational meeting. Both seemed interested in the Home. We enjoyed their visit. ---   What a dramatic ending that was to the increase of twenty per cent in the legislature expenses. Reminded us of the male dreams of sixty years ago when the villain tied the fair maiden to the rails and the smoking locomotive rushed down the track to crush out her young life and the hero arrived just in time to cut her bonds and while the train rushed by the audience sat with it stomach in its mouth. This is the last time this bill will come up unless perhaps it will come up in the last few days; anything can get by then. When big bills are in the making, why wasted buck shot on peanuts. Neither Joe Vadheim nor Rep. Wee voted for the bill: we didn’t expect they would. ---   The Winston cigaret got more free publicity in the press from the high brows of late than the company could have bought for a million dollars. The slogan was the bone of contention. In Gary Moore’s show the slogan is “Winston Tastes Good Like a Cigaret Should.” The priests claim that “like” is not the proper word. It should be “as.” ---   Keep your eye on the month of March, as business in the month of March, whether it goes up or down, foretells the pattern for the rest of the year. At least that is what one of the leading financial papers says. ---   Another piece of sad news is that cigarets are going up one cent a package. The Reynolds Co. gives a one reason for the raise that it costs them more money to advertise to get you to smoke their brands than it did: that’s what you get for being so stubborn. ---   A milk war in Minneapolis last week cut mil prices 3 cents the half gallon. Those price wars are about as silly a way to settle anything as one can imagine. Remember the gas wars in your home town: they lasted a few days and what was the answer. Some fellows living 40 miles away would drive in for a tankful, and the gas used would be more than the money saved. And the next day the dealers got together and raised the price enough so you could pay the check: and remember too often competition is the death of trade. ---   Can’t see eye to eye with Gov. Freeman in his plan to let the regents of the Minnesota University take over the control of the five teachers colleges. Some of the business men on the board of regents have more business than they can do now. Anyway Governor, why this concentration of power? Time was when your war cry was “Let the People Rule.” ---   The Big Day for villages is getting to be a thing of the past. Springfield gave up its “Sauer Kraut Day” and now Sanborn is offering its Watermelon Day to anyone that wants. it. We just want to predict that one of the last of the “Days” to go will be the Box Car Day at Tracy, which Jack O’Brien, a former Slayton man, did so much to get in the groove. ---   Four red, white and blue traveling Post Office buses and two big trucks colored the same are taking the place of the once-proud mail train on the Omaha Railroad. ---   Do you know the difference between an infirmary and a hospital? We did not know for sure until last week. An infirmary is a hospital where no operations are performed. At the Masonic Home where we now live there is an infirmary, a fair-sized one. It has more patients than the Murray County Memorial hospital. Operations are performed at hospitals in nearby towns. The doctor in charge of the sick and ailing is Dr. F. H. Buck. He is a doctor “of the old school” who has kept apace with modern medicine. He is also blessed with a pleasing personality and besides looking after the patients here he also has charge of some (not all of them) of the Incorrigible Women of Minnesota who are detained at the “Penthouse” at Shakopee. HE also has charge of a group of mentally retarded children: quite a diversity in groups. The doctor lives next door to Frank Christie who is an old friend of mine. He was depot agent at Hadley many years ago and the doctor seemed too well-informed of my evil propensities. Mrs. Lou Ann Brownell, a Northwestern graduate, is in charge of the infirmary, which yesterday had sixty patients. She is assisted by sixteen registered nurses and ten aides who plan to be in a year or two. There is one patient who has been in the infirmary for nearly ten years. Back to the Christies. Frank married a sister of the late Axel Fresk of Slayton. The Christies left last week for a month’s visit in Florida. ---   Hungry for tax money the city of Chattanooga, Tenn. passed an ordinance requiring car owners to buy a $5 sticker each year they drive their car inside the city more than 30 times. Did you ever hear of a better plan to drive away business? A judge came to their relief and threw out the ordinance. Said it was unconstitutional. ---   Some auto insurance companies are giving their rates a healthy boost this year. The Sears Roebuck company, the All State, is going up 21 per cent. Somebody has to pay for all this killing and maiming. ---   Good news for the egg retailers. The government will start buying eggs for school lunches, etc. ---   Mink pelts are going down and Murray county trappers will get about 25 percent less, which will be bad news for the trapper but good news for the trapped. ---   The Orchid Inn over at Sleepy Eye was raided one night last week. We used to call them blind pigs. Five special U.S. agents swooped down and closed the place when it was going good. They got enough bottles to hold the proprietor, Don Stimpert. Odd thing was that the Minnesota Liquor Commission was not in there helping. It should have known at least if the joint was selling booze at Minnesota trust prices. ---   While it is obnoxious to many auto drivers it looks as if the trucks will be longer after this session. Senator Zwach and Rep. Dirlam, two of the most powerful members from the rural districts are strongly in favor of placing the length at 50 feet. This is one time when two unions disagree: the railroad unions and the truck men, but it’s going to be a battle. ========================

February 21, 1957

  The Minnesota Regents want to up the price of tickets for football games to four dollars. Let them raise the price of tickets, providing all home games be televised. They surely could get advertisers enough to take up the slack. ---   Vice President Nixon is going to pay a visit to Liberia soon. Better watch your step, Richard. This negro republic, founded largely by U.S. dollars and freed slaves, does not have a high regard for white skinned folks. No white man can vote in Liberia, nor can he own real estate. ---   Was invited to a birthday party Sunday and consequently missed seeing H. J. Carlson of Slayton and Goodman Carlson of Minneapolis. Hjalmer is an old friend of ours and gave Murray County splendid service as commissioner of many years. Another visitor we missed was Harold Johnson of Shakopee, a former depot agent at Lake Wilson and an old time Leech Lake fishing pal of ours. Harold is only seven miles from here. Sorry, boys, if we had “knowed” you were coming we’d a baked a cake. ---   See where Queen Elizabeth and her goodlooking husband are enjoying a spat. Why can’t they have spats like most human beings. Life without spats is like apple pie without the cheese. When a couple say they have never had a spat during their married life, one of them is a sap: probably both. Philip no doubt got irked and irritated playing the second fiddle and he took a walk out. You men know what we mean. Lots of men in Minnesota married “Queens.” ---   In the Winnebago Enterprise last week was the following item, which we don’t “get.” “Trimont is the latest town to get the cold shoulder from the March of Dimes, which returned a check for $300 sent by their Community Chest to help fight Polio.” Looks like poor business to us. If we lived in Trimont we would direct our charity efforts elsewhere. ---   And talking about Polio reminds us of the debt we Murray county folks owe Big Jim Budde, who has given his time and efforts unselfishly with a heart in keeping with his big body, and then there is “Krumm”, pardon Miss Krumm. Dorothy is one worker who has given her best years for the sick and afflicted, and still has had time to devote her spare days to charity. We never forget that Sunday afternoon when the services rendered me when we were critically ill were beyond the line of duty. We need more career women like Dorothy Krumm. ---   Well, we had an experience last week and learned something. We attended or rather were inveigled to attend a high class gambling party. It was held in the beautiful dining room in the Home and we were all seated at the tables at two o’clock when in bounced 100 St. Paul ladies, all members of the forty Chapters in that city. They brought waves of cheer, happiness and sunshine and with that, Bingo cards, which they quickly dealt to every person. That meant about a hundred and fifty of the folks at the Home. The St. Paul ladies also brought over 500 prizes with them: clever little knick-knacks, toilet articles, handkerchiefs, etc. Katie won five prizes. We did not win one: when you’re deaf, don’t play Bingo. After an hour of Bingo they brought out their lunch. There were sandwiches of every kind of flavor, and the list was far as Beersheba to Dan. Then followed the home made cookies. The way they went must have gladdened many a St. Paul woman’s heart.
  After the show was over we reached to pay our share and was told “You don’t owe a cent.” That’s when we learned something: Bingo did not originate in Scotland. ---   The federal revenue dept. saved or rather saves $300,000 by cutting down the size of the revenue stamps. Hard to believe that this department now uses 14 fewer carloads of paper each year. Somebody ought to tell the post office dept. about it, so they can cut down the size of a lot of the commemorative stamps. If you are not one of the those nuts that collect stamps. And never forget that the air mail stamp is only one third the size of most of the 3-cent stamps, but it gets there just the same. ---   Got a letter the first of the week from Mrs. Florence Husted of Las Animas, Colo. Unless you are a real old timer in Western Murray county you won’t know these folks. Mrs. Husted is a daughter of the late Same Webster, the first carpenter in Western Murray county. He had his shop across the street from the phone office in Lake Wilson. He built a lot of buildings here. Among them being the Dave Reese house, this was the first store building in town., also the first school house, and the W. Davis house. Dolly, we used to call her many years ago, asks, “Are you the same Bob Forrest that lived in Lake Wilson then?” Yea, but not quite so skinny. She said her brother Herb of Sioux Falls had sent her a copy of the Murray County Herald that she read and re-read. ---   Drouth conditions in the south have turned up new sources of feed for the livestock. You remember those acres or rather miles of mesquite, that thorny bush that held down the development of Texas? A scientist was down there a year ago and got interested in mesquite, found that the branches had large quantities of protein and minerals. Got a rancher interested. The branches were ground into a flour and has wonderful results: these scientists do amount to something after all. ---   Another attempt will be made at this session of congress to raise the rate of postage on letters to four cents. The post office dept. is running millions behind every day. We’re sort of a nutty people anyway. A few years back coke was raised from five cents to ten cents a bottle, and nobody said a word. Congress could also help out a little by refraining from sending out only 10 percent of its speeches to a public that seldom opens the envelopes. ---   Missouri is reaching high for more tax money. She’s going to charge each plane so much for using her sky. Going to charge so much a mile. If she makes it stick, the passenger air rates in the U.S. will hit a new high level. ---   You folks that smoke seem to be agreed on one thing: the smoker’s lung is a thing of the past. The Reynolds Tobacco company, the biggest tobacco company in the business said that its sales were up 16 percent last year. That Camels were still the U.S. biggest seller and Winston (Either with the “like” or the “as”) is still the biggest filter seller. Sales on smoking and chewing tobacco are down. Biggest smoking sellers were Prince Albert and Days Work. It never mentioned cigars, and never said a word about SNUSE. ---   The American Motors Co. continues with its streak of bad luck. In the three months ending Dec. 31st, the company went three million in the hole. Dissatisfied share holders want to drop the Hudson and Nash units. Others wanted to take in the Studebaker and Packard. It looks like they had their backs to the wall. ========================

February 28, 1957

  Bloomington, the township we live in, seems to have a lot of domestic trouble. In the village of Bloomington a while back the village council was planning on getting a tape recorder so the tax payer could hear everything that was going on. It changed face of late and asked the attorney general if it could not hold “executive sessions” so the public could not listen, and darned if Lord did not tell them they could, so the folks are mad. The council must be a sort of a queer outfit. Ever since we can remember the party in power has had executive sessions of its own and had things well in hand before the meeting started. ---   What dumb clucks we really are! Out in Murray county last summer there were the darndest lot of meetings, all about the poverty of the farmer and how they would soon be serfs and slaves, and how George Nelson would be around with a hammer in his hand, a mouthful of tacks and a mortgage foreclosure sale in the other had, and how we would drive black automobiles and all the while the seventh congressional district in which we lived was the 14th. Best producing congressional district in the United States. ---   And when you’re talking about the seventh district, don’t forget to take off your hat to Renville County. This county of Renville produces more soy beans than any other county in the world. ---   So we’re going to have pens at the next election, one for the republicans and one for the democrat-farm laborites. It’s a grand idea but each party will need to be divided into several compartments. You could expect the Roy Dunn outfit to sit down at the same table as the Ertzel group. The Democrats have just as many factions. Who’s going to decide what a republican looks like. The republican party of today little resembles the Grand Old Party of McKinley, less than a sturdy oak does a weeping willow. The same is true of the Grover Cleveland party and the group today. Grover called out the regular Army to put down a union labor strike. Know of any democrat president that would do that today? ---   Carl T. Rowan is doing a splendid job in the Mpls. Tribune in disclosing the conditions of the American Indian today. It is almost inhuman the way we have treated the Indian while we have lavished everything on the poor in Europe. Our policy has been to starve the Indian to death, instead of giving him something. Wonder if Carl will get anywhere? Anything about the Indian has generally been swept under the rug. ---   That story of the Duke of Edinburgh coming out of a second honeymoon with a dab of lipstick on his face don’t ring true. If it had been a real get-together he should have had lipstick smeared all over his face and ears, and what woman would go into a free for all like that wearing lipstick, when no holds were barred? ---   Got a kind invitation the other day to become one of “Minnesota’s Famous,” by becoming a member of the “Who’s Who in Minnesota,” a book to be published soon. We’ve had our share of that class of decoration and as the cost of the book including picture would be around $27.50 we will have to go down to the dreamless dust unhonored, unwept and unsung. ---   Had a visit from A. B. Hagen one day last week. Arvid was county agent in Murray county for quite a while and we can never forget the fine work he and Myrna Ballinger did for the 4-H Clubs in Murray County: they did not specialize on any one or two members. They worked to give every boy and girl and opportunity and Murray county had the largest number of 4-H’ers of any county its size in Minnesota. Arvid is not district county supervisor of county agents. He is now in charge of over 150 members of the organization, and his work keeps him pretty busy. The Hagens now live in St. Paul. ---   Among our mail yesterday were cards from the Delia Nepps of Pipestone and the Effie Ericksons, formerly of Lake Wilson. The Nepps, Delia and Bill, are visiting Mrs. Elsie Abel formerly Miss Elsie Harmsen of Cameron twp. She lives at Orlando, Fla. Effie said that John was busy on a new development project. He has bought several acres of land and is putting it into lots.. The Ericksons live at Arlington, Calif. The John Robert family lives with them. And then there was a letter from an old and valued friend of mine, Geo. Leebens. Sorry to hear that it is harder for him to get around. There’s one guy that Murray can point to with a lot of pride. ---   Coffee they say is on the way down and nobody seems to care. Two years ago indignation meetings were held on the coffee problem. We seem to get used to these things. The bitter war between the instant coffee people is bound to have its effect on the market. ---   There’s a bill before the legislature to prevent minors from driving cars in Minnesota at night. The state of New Hampshire found out last year that the driver of the auto death car was 27 years old, and that most accidents occurred on Sunday afternoons. Why not find out when accidents occur in Minnesota and the age of the driver of the death car? ---   We are glad to see that Ike agrees with us when we said the U.N. needed more snap in its cracker. ---   The Jesse James movies will hold a lot of interest for some Murray county folks, as the story of their visit here on their escape from Madelia does not die down. After the battle near Madelia they deserted their comrades and struck out for home, following a route away from the railroads, on account of the telegraph stations. They followed the route between Tracy and Worthington where there were no railroads. They skirted the south side of Lake Shetek. They saw two young girls, Dosy Drew and Sue Sabin, herding cattle. The James Bros. rode over and asked the way to Lost Timber, where they stayed for two days in a cave resting up, and finally made their escape one night into Iowa and from there to Missouri. Eighty years later the Swank magazine of New York had an article on buried treasures in the nation, and mentioned one near Pipestone, giving the date 1876. There was no Pipestone in 1876. The late John Lang of Chandler told us several times that he could remember when there were caves in the ravines of Lost Timber. There were also springs. Lost Timber was known as the “Bois Cache” during the French occupation around 1750. Dosey Drew who told me her version of the story later married M. E. Lang. Sue Sabin married George R. Stevens. ---   The snap on the cracker on the Minnesota legislative ship seems to have more potency than the one on the U.N. ========================

March 7, 1957

  Had an interesting visitor one day last week. She was Mrs. Edith Zimmerman of Kasota, a grand daughter of the late C. W. Slayton who founded Slayton in 1879. Mr. Slayton’s daughter Lena married Ted Humble who operated the first lumber yard in Lake Wilson. Mrs. Zimmerman is a daughter of the Humbles. The Humbles built the house now owned by the Breyfogels in Lake Wilson. Mr. Slayton who was a land agent lived in Lake Wilson for a year. He built the home now owned by Knute Mostrom. Ted Humble after he left Lake Wilson was depot agent at Dundee and Kasota. Mr. Slayton made a slight change in Murray county history. The township of Slayton was originally named Center by the county commissioners in 1879, but in honor to Mr. Slayton the name was changed from Center to Slayton. ---   Another thing we can’t understand is why the city county or state did not know there were gambling dens in Minneapolis. Surely they all must have known. After testifying before the Hennepin grand jury, the top gambler flew the coop, leaving the small fry to take the rap. Justice is supposed to be blind, but the Law seems to be deaf, dumb and dead in the Mill city. ---   Was glad to see the U.S. supreme court speak out on professional football. Like professional baseball it is a sort of slavery. Players are moved across the board like chessmen. They are sold either up or down the river. If they don’t go they are out of the game. ---   With the Women’s Home Companion out of the road, the Ladies Home Journal is upping its rates 15 percent. A page in four colors, if you plan on advertising, will now cost you $26,950. A line or rather the line has been raised to $31.60, don’t make your locals too long. ---   Someone sent me a copy of the “Queen” published in London, England. It is the Court and society magazine. One of the full page colored ads interested us. It was an ad for the Silver Cross, the world’s most exclusive baby coach. It was a beautiful baby buggy, the mother looked exclusive and so did the youngster. Can you ever remember seeing a baby buggy taking a page ad in this country. ---   There are bad days ahead for the United States. Pipe smoking has been declining each year. Pipesmokers are generally conservative and we need a lot of that type of men. A good pipe means, “Thought in the early morning, Solace in time of woe, Peace in the hush of the twilight, Balm ere my eyelids close.” ---   The Greyhound bus company which keeps the small towns in Minnesota in touch with the outside world is buying 500 busses this year--and we used to ponder over the acorn and oak story: those Hibbing men built better than they knew. ---   Seems as if this state is never going to start growing its own pines. Tracts of land in northern Minnesota should be planted in rows as corn is and as is done in Germany. A good looking pine tree is scarcer than a coal burning locomotive. ---   The colored TV pictures reminds one of the colored pictures in the daily press. They are not as clear and legible as black and white. Too much tendency to blur. ---   Being Scotch we certainly were interested in an item in the Kittson County Enterprise at Hallock. It told of the Women’s Curling Club having a “Bonspiel.” Curling is played with bound blocks of granite on ice. The stones weigh from 15 to 20 lbs. The game resembles bowling, only it is played on ice and the object in view is to knock your opponents’ “stones” out of the charmed circle. We remember watching our dad play on the river Forth in Scotland in 1881. And it was cold. All kilt wearers had longies, a “besom” and ofttimes a “Wee Doch and Doris.” Never heard of a women’s curling team in the old country, but in our north country the women seem to have what it takes. There were 80 players entered in the Women’s Bonspiel: all power to them and a warm place to sit. “Besom” in Scotch means a broom and a “Wee Doch and Doris” means something added to the water to make it more palatable. ---   The first election in Murray county was held 85 years ago this month. It was held on Mar. 14th at the Dr. Shephard house in Currie. At this election, every voter in the county was eligible. There were no citizenship papers required. Lewis Low, Samuel Armstrong and W. S. French were elected county commissioners to organize the county. Lewis Low was an uncle of Marshall Low of Lowville twp. and W. S. French an uncle of Ada Wise. The voters at the meeting, some of which had come with oxen and did not want to make another trip to vote for county officers, took a straw vote that day and the winners were selected by the board when election time rolled round. The three newly elected commissioners created Holly township that day: the first township in the county. ---   With Zimmerman, Kipp and Hoffmann on the state highway commission, Minnesota has a real big league team all ready for the coming highway development. Very few states can equal our big three in years of experience and service. ---   Once upon a time, back in the good old days, a bunch of the boys were whooping it up in a Minnesota blind pig. Ole got his snuse and his alcohol mixed, and wanted to fight. He shouted, “I can lick any Svensk in the house!” There was no answer so Ole included Scotch, Irish, English and still there was no answer. Finally after another consultation with his S and A, he shouted “Ay can lick any man in the house!” At this, a big guy who had been sitting back of the big bellied stove got up, took a couple of punches and then sat down. Ole got up dazedly. Someone said, “What happened to you, Ole?” He said, “Ay guess I took in too much territory.” That’s what evidently happened to Milton Rosen, St. Paul’s public utilities commissioner after a short trip to the south, who said there was not much in the racial troubles in the south. The A.P. said he said “It was mostly rabble rousers that did the talking.” Milt says he did not say it. The colored folks in St. Paul are mad and one organization asks him to resign his position. If a public official should be compelled to resign every time he exaggerates there would not be a public office that would not be vacant. That goes from the president down. By the way, Milt is well known around Slayton, having hunted pheasants here for several years. ---   We dumb heads who voted for the members of the present legislature in Minnesota got put in our place last week, when a majority of that body said that we were not fit to vote for the county superintendent of schools, and decided it would be better to have somebody appoint her or him. Rep. Sally Luther of Minneapolis put in her oar and said, “School superintendent should not run on a popularity basis.” How did Sally come to be elected? Most officials get elected because the voters don’t like the other candidate. Some day Sally is going to stub her toe and the boys in the gallery will be singing “I Wonder What Became of Sally.” ---   We had a card the other day from Sylvia Kaplan with a strange stamp on it. It looked like a deer but turned out to be a long horned antelope. Sylvia is tripping in the Belgian Congo, Ethiopia and Kenya in deepest Africa, with huge hotels with palm trees three feet around. When she leaves there she goes to Japan. This is a round the world tour. There is one couple that never forgot Lake Wilson, the town where they made their start several years ago. ========================

March 14, 1957

  Here’s a ruling from the attorney general’s office that is causing consternation in several villages in Minnesota. Atty. General Lord has ruled that village councils cannot give bonuses to the liquor store employees over and above their wages, out of the liquor store profits. All of which is going to bring up some knotty problems. How far back can the bonuses be collectible, and if not, who pays the bill? ---   We’ve been reading about Israel in the daily pages of late, and its action on the Suez Canal. Israel is a Jewish republic comprising a part of Palestine. Its population is about that of Minneapolis and St. Paul combined. In size it is a little over half the size of Minnesota: small, but it had the world on its tiptoes for a while. ---   The story of the state of Mississippi is a sordid one. Since 1882 Mississippi has lynched 537 negroes and 40 whites, the top record in the United States. Minnesota in that same length of time lynched 5 whites and 4 negroes. South Dakota is a real haven for the negroes. Twenty-seven whites have been lynched but nary a colored man since 1882. ---   Saw a pretty good minstrel show one night last week. It was the first one we had seen for a long, long time. It brought back memories of fifty years ago when we used to drive down to Slayton to see the West Bros. Minstrel show in the Woodgate Hall. We stabled our horse at the Joe Ford livery barn and had a sandwich at old Ripon’s restaurant on the west side of the street. One of the jokes is still with us. The interlocutor said to the end man, “What time is it, Washington Brown?” The end man barked back, “How did you know my name was Washington Brown?” “Just guessed it.” “Well,” the end man shot back, “Just guess the time.” Great applause fifty years ago, same amount last Saturday night. ---   The Methodists at Jeffers are going to have a new church. The vote for the $121,000 was 51 to 3. They sure must have religion down there. ---   In case you wanted to know, there are 1210 inmates at the state pen at Stillwater. Since the prison started, 19,348 have been admitted. ---   Cleverest thing we heard for some time: try to make everybody happy even if you have to leave them alone to do it. ---   Justice slept in St. Paul last week. Inspectors found three minor clerks had been juggling their city gas allowance. The grand jury started on the case. As the investigation went on, the next higher grade of officials became involved, and so on, until top officials were in the bag. There were too many higher ups and the jurymen decided it must have become a habit unknowingly. The jurymen came to the conclusion that discretion was better than getting writer’s cramp from writing indictments, and the men were set free. If only three men were involved, would the grand jury have reached the same conclusion? And what about the honest guys working for the city, they will be under a cloud, and remember the old saying: “Ignorance of the law excuses no one.” ---   Notice where a newspaper is offering a prize for the best definition of the word “friend.” A good definition of the word is: they guy that says good things about you when you’re not there. ---   If you want to draw a crowd, give something away or have an extra big door prize. Up at Glenwood over 3,000 people attended the Free Pancake Day. We love things that are free and we also love to take a chance. ---   We get a lot our mail by freight these days. Harold Johnson, depot agent at Shakopee, who with his wife was visiting us one night last week, said that six carloads of mail leave Minneapolis every night on the Omaha fast freight, to be distributed at key points such as Mankato, Heron Lake, etc. His son Robert who formerly worked in the bank at Lake Wilson is now head bookkeeper for the Merickle Lumber Company at Wadena. ---   There’s a real battle on the trading stamp proposition in the Minnesota legislature. Why not let the buyer take her choice? In some spots anti-stamp merchants offered 2 percent discount on their sale tickets, but could not lure the average shopper away from the stamps. ---   In spite of the apparent trend toward electric razors, the Gillette people hold top place in sales. Gillette plays largely towards men that are sports inclined, and the fans use more and more the blades each year. Last year was a top year for Gillette, breaking 1956 sales by 13 percent. Gillette also owns the Toni Company and the Paper-Mate pen company. Net sales in 1956 were two hundred million. ---   If you’re not satisfied with where you live, try New York. Besides having state and county taxes there is a three cents city sales tax on everything you buy in the City. ---   The Omnibook, another of the decenter type of magazine, passed out of existence last week. Too bad so many good magazines are passing and there does not seem to be any in the offing to take their place. ---   Haven’t heard of a flying saucer for a couple of months: they must be a warm blooded beast. ---   Got a whisper of the old days last week when we ran across a copy of the Pipestone Republican of March 4th, 1887, edited by Frank C. Culley. In it was this item, “The Currie Minnesotan says Senator Brown of this district has introduced a bill requiring persons engaged as abstractors to give a bond of $5,000.” ---   Little girls were just as smart then as they are now, according to an item in the same paper. A six year old girl was walking down the street with her dad. She saw a feather on the sidewalk, looked up at her dad and said, “Angel or turkey?” ---   There’s a real hoss race between Ford and the Chevrolet. At the end of last month Ford had made 294,306 cars and there were only 263,125 made by the Chevrolet people in the same period. Nash has not been doing so well. Last year up to this time 5,250, this year only 1,121 to date. The Hudson had another bad slump. It made 2,414 up to March 1st. This year the figures were down to 454. ---   “Attorney General Lord Says His Bill Will Kill All Vice,” screams a headline in the daily paper. Mr. Lord, did you ever hear of the Ten Commandments? ========================

March 21, 1957

  The greatest problem before the various state legislatures today is how to raise more tax money. Thirteen of the states are going for higher taxes on gasoline and some states are going after parimutuel horse and dog racing. The Minnesota people have turned thumbs down on parimutuel horse racing, yet 24 states have it. In New York state they took in a profit on harness parimutuels of $25,635,000. Over in Nebraska they got the bill through the legislature by dividing all profits on parimutuels among the county fairs for agricultural purposes. The take last year was $66,821. The total amount of revenue received by the various states was $186,989,586 in 1955. If Wall St. had paid the same amount pro rata we could have paid for two budgets a year. After all, what’s the difference on betting that your stocks will go up or your horse will come in first? ---   Studebaker is making or rather putting a rear seat on some of its station wagons, making it an eight passenger car. Studebaker has not been doing so well this season: so far, it has only made half the cars it did in 1956. ---   When you talk about big things, how about this one? Stavros Niarchos, the Greek financial wizard, has ordered an oil tanker to head his huge fleet of tankers. She will be 940 feet long, be built at Quincy, Mass. and will be the largest ship to ever fly the American flag. She will have a dead weight of 105,000 tons and listen to this--will carry 34,500,000 gallons of oil. Enough if the ship broke up to calm the political waters of the whole Mediterranean Sea, from Gibraltar to the Suez Canal. ---   Auto tastes seem to change like everything else. For years the Buick car has been one of the leaders. Only the best type of auto drivers had them. They were a staple. Last year the GM changed everything on the frame and proudly presented this spring car the best Buick ever made. The fickle public had a change of taste and the Buick is running twenty per cent below last year. The Chrysler seems to have the call this year. ---   Representative Coya Knutson, who sparked the Senator Kefauver campaign a year ago, wants to put a floor price on potatoes: last year when we were paying 15 cents a pound for potatoes she never heard of potatoes. These politicians have wonderful memories. ---   Had a letter from Don Pattinson last Friday. Don is spending his vacation in Lakeland, Florida, said that last Christmas was the first Christmas he ever spent out of Murray county. He tells of the Doug Welds visiting him and that George Pipgras and his wife had dinner with him a while back, and Bill Nepp and his wife were over from Orlando to see the H. Carlsons. Don had Christmas dinner with Ihla Reaney and family. The Reaneys formerly lived in Chandler, Lake Wilson and Slayton. Don is getting ready to come back to Murray County which, in spite of its blizzards and droughts, he still loves. He thinks Minnesota is missing a bet not doing a little advertising down there: he saw the name of nearly every state but Minnesota, with its rich summer vacation opportunities. ---   They’re getting up a new pill bill in the legislature. It’s about time. The present law is a joke. Six weeks ago we went into a general store in Lake Wilson. Went to the medicine dept. and asked for some aspirin. The clerk started across the store. She said, “We’re not allowed to keep aspirin where they can be seen.” Right in front of me were Anacin and Bufferin, but aspirin was different. We then asked for Milk of Magnesia tablets. They were also hidden in a dark place, while everything from Saltpeter to Carter’s Little Liver pills stared you in the face. The new law should permit every country store to sell any kind of a pill or tablet that can be found in a mail order catalog. ---   Here’s some news that will add fuel to the fire on the trading stamp fight in Minnesota. Down in Tennessee the governor signed a bill imposing a 2 percent gross receipt tax on stores issuing them, and they must pay a $600 yearly tax. Over in New Mexico the anti-trading stamp lost out. ---   There’s one important group that does not seem to be against the Budget. They are the union labor organizations. In order to be inconsistent the senate Public Works committee voted to boost by three million dollars the cost of the new Senate building. ---   Peter M. Brown of Washington, D.C. wrote the village council of Slayton asking them for information about Chas. W. Slayton. Someone had told him that Mr. Slayton was related to him and he wanted to know if he came from Pennsylvania. Curtie Kasa, the village clerk, forwarded the letter to me. We contacted Mrs. Zimmerman last week. She told me that she thought her grandfather was of English extraction and was born in New York. She also told me of a visit she had with Judge Harold Flynn of Shakopee, who was born in Slayton. She said Harold had told her that there was a man by the name of “Slayton” still living in Slayton. He might have got the name mixed up with Dayton. We are trying to get a photo of the late Mr. Slayton, have it enlarged and hung in the new village council room. Mrs. Zimmerman has an only sister, she is writing to her. ---   We notice that the states of Mississippi and Georgia are trying to live down their past. All towns and states do not follow the idea. Take Mankato, for instance. It is the most notorious town, not only in Minnesota but in the U.S., in one respect. On Dec. 26, 1862, thirty-eight Indians were hung in Mankato. It was the largest mass hanging in the United States. Instead of trying to forget it, they still advertise the big day. On a good sized slab of granite there is this inscription, “Here were Hanged 38 Indians.” A Murray county man sprung the trap that sent the 38 Indians, some of them guilty, to their happy hunting grounds. ---   Gov. Freeman is as inconsistent as the average politician. Remember when he arose to full height, stretched up his right arm and said solemnly, “I will never sign a sales tax for Minnesota,” and last week in his own pet measure, said “We must raise the tax on smoking tobacco from 15 to 20 percent.” Isn’t that a pretty stiff sales tax under another name? Outside of booze do you know of anything that carries as high a sales tax? And as you old men sit in the twilight of life with your friendly pipe in your hand watching the blend of purple and gray end your day, you can murmur to yourself, “I might had had another pipeful had it not been for Freeman’s 20 percent tax.” ========================

March 28, 1957

  The question of fixing up the state constitution is going to be left to the people. Good idea. Only thing we’d like to see that it was placed at the head of the ballot. Too many pencils get tired before they get down to the end of the ticket. ---   Twin city auto dealer got into so many jams selling cars on Sundays that they agreed to stop selling cars on the Sabbath Day. Now they want a law that will stop the sale of autos and tractors anywhere in the state. There seems to be more hypocrisy back of the bill than religion. Half the stores in Minneapolis and St. Paul are open for business on Sundays: why not close them up? ---   Last Sunday was Old Friends Day at our house. Coming to visit us were Dr. and Mrs. (Beatrice Balcom) J. T. Larson of South St. Paul, Mr. and Mrs. (Eunice Osborne) A. E. Reha of St. Peter, and Mr. and Mrs. (Mildred Hanstrum) Pete Kramer of Minneapolis. Are they old timers? Well, one of the girls was a teacher, went through the ice while skating on the slough which is now the football field in Lake Wilson. The water was three and a half feet deep. Three of the others were there years before. We certainly had an enjoyable afternoon. ---   In a township election in a precinct in Faribault county only 12 voters turned out. They voted taxes amounting to $12,000. We’ll bet there are forty voters in that township that cuss the national and state budgets, but they just did not have the time to go and vote on their own budget. ---   When you see all those adults attending the TV shows, one wonders, where are the youngsters? ---   Something new for the gardeners this year. Comes from Japan. Guaranteed to almost double the yield of vegetables and to improve the quality. It is called gibberellin, with a name like that it ought to do something. ---   The farmers can’t blame the republicans if they don’t get a suitable corn bill. The democrats have a majority in both houses. Why don’t those spielers that were ranting all over the state last fall hike to Washington and demand a suitable law. ---   Many folks think the Irish are the most intolerant folks on earth. We don’t, we know better. Last Sunday the Irish and nearly everybody else helped celebrate the birth of St. Patrick, a Scotchman. Two weeks ago, the Irish elected De Valera, a Yankee, as president for seven years, and the Lord Mayor of Dublin is a full-blooded Jew. St. Patrick was born at Dumbarton, Scotland in 396. At the age of nine he was captured by Irish pirates and taken to Ireland where he started his work which made him the most popular man on earth. At the home here, members of Harmony Eastern Star Chapter No. 8 of Minneapolis helped us celebrate the day by bringing over clever dinner-table favors for everybody. They were cute little baskets of green; snuggled in between layers of crepe paper were shamrocks gleaming, and the ice cream that meal was the color of the Emerald Isle. ---   Just a hint to some business men, the tobacco company that spent the most money to advertising last year sold the most cigarets. ---   Gov. Freeman asks the public to write in about his bill. If this helps any, Governor, you can have it. At the last meeting of the Aged Pipe Smokers of Minnesota, a resolution was passed asking you in all sincerity to not raise the price of smoking tobacco. Why not take a shot at the $5,000 mink coat, the $5,000 auto, nylon stockings and the slop that women put on their faces? Yes, you could put some of it on expensive shotguns and fishing reels. They give some men as much pleasure as smoking tobacco does to others at the close of the day. Don’t take away every fifth pipeful, governor. We are not to blame because we are old. ---   Coming over on Thursday forenoon were Jay York and Kenneth Gunderson of my home town. They were attending the annual meeting in St. Paul. We took them over the building from stem to stern. They came, they saw, they were amazed. In the afternoon P. P. Plowman and E. H. Nave of Pipestone called. They had never been through the place and they also were pleased and impressed. Nave is the Pipestone bread man that makes most of the towns in Murray county. ---   “They” say that the New Republic will fold up this month and that the two top Army magazines are pretty wobbly. Has the high price of pulp wood and the labor unions killed the goose that lays the golden eggs? ---   Pleased to have three Murray county officials visit us last week. They had been up to attend a state welfare board meeting. Calling on us were Mrs. Herman Koranski; we’ve known her since she was so high. A woman with a lot of civic ability. Then there was Chairman Qualey of the board of county commissioners and Gilbert Carlson, commissioner from our old district. We knew Qualey’s dad before the commissioner was born, and we used to work with Gilbert’s father and Alex Lowe in the harvest field for Johnny Mihin. We “got a workout.” We also worked for Gilbert’s father when he owned a store in Lake Wilson. We took them through every part of the buildings here. We were glad to know that the Murray county memorial hospital is in the black, most of the credit must go to the members of the county board. Thanks for a nice afternoon, boys. ---   After reading about the Fifth Amendment and how it is being used at Washington, D.C. we decided that those crooks are a real blessing to married men. After this, when get home pretty late and dead tired and your bitter half who has been nursing her wrath for two hours to get at you and she faces you with that interested look, like a cat watching a mouse hole. She purrs a little, then barks out, “Where have you been?” Just slouch back in your easy chair, look her in the eye and answer, “I refuse to answer on the advice of counsel.” She’ll come back with another and right there is where you spring the Fifth Amendment. That will end it. Any live printer can buy this copyrighted idea and print 100,000 copies of the Fifth Amendment as a starter. Put them up 50 in a bunch for a dollar. Men who come in late with a little powder on their shoulder will just flip off a Fifth Amendment and give it to the little woman. Take off their shoes and stick their feet up on the sofa and hum to themselves, “Happy Days are Here Again.” When he gets through singing he had better hunt up an insurance policy. Not an “accident” one--it won’t be any accident. ---   The Minnesota legislature will soon be on its last lap and we’ve never heard a word about the state taking over the buildings at the Indian School at Pipestone. Surely the state can make use of those buildings. ========================

April 4, 1957

  If the editor of your local paper offers to let you have the paper for another year at the present prices, better take him up. We notice that two New York papers, the New York World-Telegram and Sun and the New York Journal-American have raised the price of their papers at newsstands from five to ten cents. That’s some raise. Increasing costs on labor and newsprint are the cause. Paper, the kind that you are looking at just now, raised $4 a ton last week. ---   John Harmsen and his wife Ruth of Lowville twp. visited us last Wednesday. They were accompanied by Don Myers, Mrs. Harmsen’s brother. His father was Gene Myers, well known business man of Woodstock. On the Harmsen farm is the oldest house in Murray county that has been lived in continuously. It was built by John Low in 1866. With the folks were A. M. Hagen, was nice to see you. ---   It will be a long time before coffee gets higher in price. Africa is raising coffee now and that’s what’s upsetting the market. Its coffee is a poorer kind and sells for 34 cents a pound. Brazilian coffee is bringing 59 cents and Columbian, the top grade, is 68 cents. The Africa crop has been ground up and mixed with the instant coffee and that is where the war started. We remember when coffee used to retail in Murray county for 10 cents a pound. Remember Arbuckle, Lion and McLaughlin. Even then we used to use chicory to make it cheaper. ---   San Francisco newspaper men don’t play up earthquakes like our newspaper men do our blizzards. The hush-hush is on. After the big quake of Friday, March 22nd there has been 126 slight shocks. According to scientists San Francisco will not have another shock for several years. The folks down there must live like Sam McGee in Robert Service’s poem, “He was not afraid of being dead but it was the awful dread that got him down.” ---   Every once in a while there comes a D.Sc. He’s one of those men that you go to see and have to lie on the sofy while you tell him your life history at $3 a five minutes. One of the most brilliant was asked whether men or women started the most quarrels. He said women, which most men were willing to admit. He also said that females among animals were just as bad. Didn’t mention fish. We remember years ago the male bass on Long Lake near Longville guarding the nest while Ma bass was attending psychology meetings at the Koenig place up the lake. The worst point of all was that pa bass was a real fighter for his fry, and every time he saw a read and white Bass Oreno he struck and was gone: that’s where the saying, “poor fish” came from. ---   Beck and Hoffa are bring shame to the honest members of their labor unions. Let’s not be too hard on those groups. Remember how republicans stood with bent heads when they read of the Tea Pot Dome and how chagrined Democrats were every time they heard the name Pendergast. There’s always been a rotten apple or two in every barrel: there always will be. ---   Had a letter from Stanley Swan, a former Skandia twp. resident the other day. We always admired Stanley. When he was a boy of nine he lost his eyesight and afterwards attended the school for the Blind at Faribault. When he became of age he started out for himself and took up an odd occupation for a blind man: that of a traveling salesman, and had a list of fifty towns that he visited. After the first visit he did not need any help. He had them all photographed in his memory and knew every step and bad place on his route. His hearing was marvelous. He must have been able to distinguish 50 voices. Stanley married a St. Paul lady over a year ago. He quit the road and the two of them are now operating the hotel at Dawson, Minn. and they are doing real well. His father Charles lives in Balaton. When he came to Murray county he worked for $5 a month for George Wilkinson. Before he retired he had at one time over 3,000 acres of land. Most of his sons have farms in Lowville twp. ---   Over at Blue Earth, the big election fight was for assessor. One man coveted the job, said the present assessor was responsible for the increase in taxes, etc. Strange to say, that is one of those old old stories that is not true. When the assessor gets through with his work every taxpayer is invited to attend the village equalization meeting and if he has any grievance he should state it to that board. Sometimes if he knows what he is talking about he can kick about his neighbor’s taxes being too low. After the village board gets through with their work, the tax list goes to the county board where said taxpayer can apply for aid: so don’t blame the assessor. In the final analysis, he is only a clerk. The candidates threw quarter page ads at one another, which must have gladdened Th. editor’s heart. ---   The Cliff Schraders and A. M. Hagen of St. Paul and T. Heming of Minneapolis called on us last Sunday afternoon but unfortunately it was our Sunday out. We’re sorry but we get asked out nearly every other Sunday and we really grab at the chance. Come again. Our phone number is Tv 1-6417 and our room number is 235. ---   The outlook for the turkey raisers is not very bright this year. Too many frozen turkeys being carried over, and the price is nine cents below that of last year. ---   Just received a letter from our daughter Nola who lives in San Francisco. “We’ve really had a rugged time out here, about 116 shakes. Only ten or twelve were bad ones. The Friday one was the worst of all. I was up at Cathedral House on a committee meeting and we all scurried to a door frame for shelter. The place was creaking, the chandeliers swinging crazily and we all bounced around. It was worse where my friends live in Park Merced. They were really shaken up. Dishes and bricabrac were thrown on the floor. I talked to them on the phone several times and they would scream, “Here’s another one.” Sunday there were more and as I write, the curtains and drapes are swaying,” and like a good San Franciscan ended her letter with, “I’m going out to dinner and bridge.” ---   Big snowstorm swept the country from south to north last week, covering 21 states. Minnesota papers kept calling it a “blizzard.” No word has been more abused. It is strictly a midwestern word. The first time the word was ever seen in print was in the Estherville, Iowa Vindicator in 1870. The next time it was seen in print was in the Marshall Lyon County News in 1873. Dictionaries began using the word and the definition is “A violent wind storm, with dry driving snow and intense cold.” There were about 30 lives lost in the 21 states from the storm. On the afternoon of Jan. 12, 1888 a blizzard hit sparsely settled southwestern Minnesota and it took 109 lives: that was a blizzard. ========================

April 11, 1957

  The Minneapolis Journal came out editorially for a saloon at the Chamberlain Wold air field, yet it refuses to accept liquor ads: doesn’t seem very consistent, does it? ---   The state of Louisiana refuses to let colored boxers fight in that state. If Louisiana is sincere and honest, which it is not, it would pass a law forbidding colored men to enter the Army or navy service. ---   And when you talk about blizzards, many of you old timers will remember when South Dakota was nicknamed the “Blizzard State.” ---   Petty pilfering in the stores in Minnesota will get a set-back in a law signed by Gov. Freeman last week. Merchants under this law can detain suspects until an officer arrives. Every store with its open counters of small articles is a breeding place for crime for the youngsters, who boast with pride of their take, and there are some “kleptomaniacs” who need checking on their habits. ---   Got a letter yesterday that must be from that land of milk and honey you’ve heard about, as it tells of the apricot trees being in full bloom, the young figs popping on the trees and the gardens full of big red roses and other kinds of flowers. It was from Genevieve Berreau Gilfilan who now lives in Canoga Park, Calif. The D. Gilfilans formerly lived at Racine, Wis. and Genevieve said there were Slaytons there that claimed relationship to the late C. W. Slayton of Slayton. She adds, “We are close neighbors of Dale and Lorraine Grone. I see Mary Ellen Garrison occasionally and Vernal Vihlen isn’t too far away. Thanks, Gen, for the info. ---   The Windom folks have named their new Good Samaritan home for the Aged “The Sogge Memorial Home,” a fitting tribute to Dr. L. L. Sogge who has devoted his life to making others happier and healthier. When you talk about grand old men, he’s in the front row. ---   If you want to take a fling at chicken raising, write General Mills and Betty Crocker at Minneapolis. They have already installed their chicken plan on 200 Kansas farms. First of all you must have $3,000 in cash. If you haven’t got it, forget the chicken business. If you have, General Mills will build you a complete raising outfit for $10,300 and guarantee 37c a dozen for your eggs. ---   Old age and a misty forenoon bring more keenly to the mind that your circle of friends gets smaller each year. Got to thinking Sunday and Jim Davey Lowe came to mind. A well friend of ours for many years with a smile and heart bigger than the drum he beat. Jim Davey belonged to the Slayton band during its peak in fame. Another member of that famous organization that passed away recently was Richard Peterson. Dick used to work for us on the Lake Wilson Pilot before he went to the Murray County Herald. We always found him honest, sincere and efficient. We got to know the Slayton band pretty well when we were with the Murray county fair group. On the evening of one of our birthdays of the long ago we heard a noise out in front of the house and there was the Slayton band unloading their band instruments. They played a bunch of the tunes we loved. Then took a can of ice cream from one of the cars, came up on the porch and we spent a very pleasant evening. Jim Davey and Dick Peterson played in the band that night--there are some things that one can’t forget. ---   A Minnesota senator has introduced a bill calling for a five cents tax on every meal served in a restaurant or hotel. This includes Skid Row offerings at 25 and 35 cents, the rural communities where sometimes you can eat for 85 cents, up to Charley’s and Murrays in Minneapolis where you get a good steak dinner for 6 dollars, you will have to pay your nickel. Seems unfair to charge a nickel tax after a guy has paid so much for a meal: what wonderful brains, genius, etc. are going to waste in the Minnesota legislature. ---   And Gov. Freeman, here’s an opening for more tax money. Put a cent on every deck of cards. Then place 1 cent a game on euchre and seven up, 5 cents on pinochle--that’s a money game--and 5 cents on bridge and canasta. “Authors” free, some say they are educational: so was poker forty years ago. ---   Here’s the way the auto horse race ended last week. Ford still ahead of Chevrolet. Plymouth and Mercury put out more cars this season, that is up to date, than last year. Dodge has made the biggest splurge, making almost a third more than it did last year. De Soto and Chrysler doing well. Bringing up the rear are Nash that only made 130 cars and Hudson fifty. ---   The earliest tornado in the history of Minnesota hit Stearns, Benton and Morrison counties on April 14, 1886. The storm took 79 lives. ---   To us up here this is an odd item, and it will be interesting to many a Lake Shetek fisherman. Down in Arkansas farmers raise a lot of rice, which is raised in fields partly covered by water during the season. Rice crops began to dwindle, so the rice farmer decided to fallow his fields, but not the same way as they do in Murray county. They first of all raise their dikes and locks and let in water up to three feet in depth. Then turn in buffalo fish, carp and a few catfish. They start rooting among the old rice roots and keep it up for two years. W. M. Dickson of Brinkley, Ark. said that it raised his rice crop from 15 bushels an acre in 1953 to 110 bushels in 1956 by this method.
  Mr. Dickson had “herded” some 14,000 fish in his field for the two years, including 10,000 buffalo, which cost him $1,000 and 4,000 carp and channel catfish which he collected himself. Additional costs, he figures amounted to about $11,000 for building his three-to-four-foot levees, installing pipe and water pumping equipment.
  When he harvested his fish last March, the crop totaled 717 pounds of saleable fish to the acre, which netted him an average of 30 cents a pound, for a gross return in excess of $15,000. In addition, he raised 160,000 fingerlings from 80 pair of buffalo fish, selling 145,000 of these at $50 a thousand. This brought him another $7,250 for a total gross income from fish of about $22,250.
  The general procedure is to stock the fish-rice paddies in the spring of the year with three-inch fingerlings--at the rate of about 150 to an acre in the case of buffalo fish, which is the most widely grown species in Arkansas. When the fish are harvested two years later--the recommended length of time--they weigh around 8 pounds and sell for 15 cents to 18 cents a pound. Channel catfish and bass will weigh less but bring a better price per pound.
  And besides the amount of fish taken, the government also paid Mr. Dickson for every acre of ground taken out of cultivation. The amount of fish taken from the 70 acres looks large, yet Chas. Durgin, according to records, has taken twice as many fish in Lake Shetek in one haul. ========================

April 18, 1957

  Listened the other day to two elderly men talk about the depressions on the farm in the early days. They little realized that this country is in the midst of its worst agricultural depression in its history. What makes the difference is your Uncle Sam. Last year he bought one billion, 115 million pounds of dairy products. If he had not bought them, where would the dairy products have been on the market today? The same is true with everything raised on the farm. If the farmers in the ‘80’s who got 6 cents for their butter and 30 cents a bushel for wheat had received one tenth of the subsidies of today, there would have been more nickel plate on the hard coal stove and the Saturday night tub would have been of wood instead of that cold clammy galvanized iron. During the last eight years your government has lost $1 billion, 161 million on the dairy products it bought, and yet there are some folks that talk about the budget. ---   A 15 year old New Ulm boy was sentenced to the YCC for thefts. This sentence was timely. He had been mixed up in several scrapes. We all can look back and remember even when we were five or six years old, that if we did something wrong we’d get a licking. This youth knew that, too. Why disappoint his logic? ---   Good-bye Nettie Wunderlich, you’ve given the county wonderful service in one of the most controversial jobs. There was always two sides of your problem, but you gave the county the service, at its best. May your vacation be a healthy one. ---   From the way the midwest railroads are letting the weeds grow on their tracks, you’d think railroads were a thing of the past. Ever hear of the Pennsy road. It’s the biggest thing in the world on wheels and runs 2,500 trains daily on its 10,000 miles of tracks. Here’s real news. The Pennsylvania Railroad is bigger than the Ford Motor Co. The Pennsy totals are over three billion while Ford has two billion seven hundred million. The US Steel is bigger with three billion, 60 million. Railroading is not dead yet. ---   Glad to see that Murray county joined up with the Rock River Watershed association. This is a movement to investigate the probabilities of improving water conditions in this section. Western Murray county has been on the border line for several years, and the loss of one or two of those showers would have been a tragedy. We notice that two of our most aggressive young farmers, Art Warren and Brent McBeth, are on the board: there’s two men you can get a lot of work out of. Water, the nation’s most abundant mineral, is becoming costlier every year and while many farms suffer so do towns and villages, which in July at least 10,000 of them will have notices, “Don’t water your lawn.” In the rural areas we don’t have far to go for water, if we hit it. Denver has to go 70 miles, New York 125 and California 500 miles. The day may come in Minnesota that all ditches will be plugged up and the farmers allowed remuneration from the US government for each acre of land. Keep the plugs in for a number of years so the ground will be thoroughly saturated. All creeks and rivers should be dammed: spread the water on the face of the earth. ---   A movement is on foot to get the US to return $500,000 to Germany and Japan, which was seized here during World War II. Some fat gravy men we’ll bet are back of the movement. Instead of sending it back we are in favor of dividing it pro rata among the men who fought in the war and the widows. Why send it back to a country that will fight us as soon as they are ready. Remember Pearl Harbor. ---   Remember oily Kefauver who caused such a furor to Minnesota last year, and what he was going to do for the farmer. Has the cat got his tongue? ---   Baseball will soon be with us. The attendance in the two major leagues is not very encouraging. It dropped from $21 million in 1943 to $16 million in 1956. But prices are high for players. The Cleveland Indians were offered $1,000,000 for pitcher Herb Score. The Milwaukee Braves use 10,000 baseballs and 200 lbs. of rosin a year, and is slated to win the pennant this season. TV has been blamed for poor attendance, but the TV and radio are a real life preserver. For the next five years the leagues will get $12,500,000 for broadcasting rights of the World Series and the All Star game and then the admissions for the games should help keep the wolf from the door. ---   The potato market seems to be shot and there will be 15 cent potatoes this spring. Notice where some stores were selling them at 25 pounds for a quarter. All of which spells trouble for the Red River growers. Florida has a bumper crop. ---   Most of the people think that anyone that overworks the Fifth Amendment as Beck has, has two strikes on him, no balls and Don Larson pitching. ---   The carp and rice farmers of Arkansas have raised so many carp that local markets are flooded. They now plan on building a factory that will grind the fish into powder. The powder will be used in cat foods and fertilizer. Remember the Indians used to place a dead fish at every hill of corn. ---   This man Nasser looks like an evil power in the world. He is in a position to decide the next big conflict. When the west has the Mediterranean filled with loaded ships all Nasser has to do is to sink a couple of ships in the canal. ---   Folks continue to go to the meat market and pick up a bunch of spareribs for dinner or supper, thinking we were getting something cheap, while all the while we were eating the highest price meat on the hog. When pork is selling, say, at 70 cents a lb. the lean meat you get from the spare ribs costs you $1.19 a pound, while roasts and chops cost you $1.05, but the flavor in the spare ribs is worth the difference in price: that’s where they got the old saying the nearer the bone the sweeter the meat. When it comes to smoked meat, bacon tops them all with the meat costing you $1.56 the pound. ---   The drilling for new oil wells never stops. Today there are 3,610 drills working in twenty-eight states and western Canada. There are drills working in North and South Dakota and some in Iowa, but none in Minnesota or Wisconsin. ---   Big outcry over the national budget and we know so little about it that it is tough to write anything about it, but we do know that 80 percent of the amount goes for national defense, and hold your breath now, out of it comes seven billion four hundred thousand million interest on the public debt. Here’s what a billion is. If you had been born three hundred and twenty-seven years B.C. and you started to give away $100 and hour, working 12 hours a day, 365 days a year ‘til yesterday, you’d still have money left for breakfast. ========================

April 25, 1957

  Without any drives, any ringing of door bells, etc., the number of deaths caused by appendicitis operations has dropped to almost nil. It used to be 17.08 per hundred thousand. Last year it was 1.1. For all of this, we should gladly thank the medical men. ---   Score one for Sec. Benson. His department has just developed an insect repellent that’s a knockout. It kills everything from king sized mosquitoes to bugs you can’t even see and does not soil clothing or your lily white hands: it seems too good to be true. ---   A woman who saw the Ice Follies in Minneapolis last week said the most pleasing act was the chorus dressed in Scotch Highland costumes. She said it had everything: Scotch and ice always had something about them that kept some folks from sinking. ---   Coffee dropped three cents a pound here last week. It will soon be down to a nickel. Africa helped a lot to bring down the price. Their coffee is not so hot but just good enough to put a dent in the market. ---   Well, the post office is back in running order. No doubt there was a lot of personal animosity in Senator Cannon. Taking away a group of hard working politically and free-giving postmasters in his state and replacing them with black republicans: does make an old time politico real sore. ---   Well, now we know how the name of a lake, stream, or island can be changed in the state of Minnesota. We heard that the Minnesota Geographic Society was in charge, so we wrote them. Got a blank petition so that the folks on Keeley Cure Island in Lake Shetek can change the name back to Maple Island if they want to. First, get a petition signed by 15 legal voters in the county, present it to the Board of County Commissioners, and if they approve send it to the State Geographic Board at St. Paul, Minn. If they approve, the name will be changed.
  The name has been changed before. The Commissioners first named the township in which it is located, “Okacheeda,” but half the voters could not pronounce it, the other half could not spell it, as it was spelled in three different ways. At an early meeting it was changed to Mason Township in honor of Lo Mason who later was sheriff from 1879-1885. We are forwarding the petition to Chas. Durgin, the oldest resident of the island. ---   The school houses at Storden, Walnut Grove, Jeffers, and Lamberton were broken into last week. Solomon was an old man but he said one trite thing: “Spare the rod and spoil the child.” There is one thing that would stop all this young devilry: a public whipping of some of them, as they did some years ago. Hardened criminals feared the lash more than they did five years in jail. ---   We had an item in the column a week or so ago about General Mills going into the chicken business in Kansas. A Mr. K. Billat of that company drove out to see us Tuesday. He said that they planned on supplying folks in Minnesota who were interested in the chicken business with building and equipment. You pay $3,000.00 down and General Mills will give you ample time on the balance. You buy any type of chicken that you like. The only difference is that they will not guarantee any set price in the north. We did not tell him that a chicken farm being opened in Skandia Township was doing real well in spite of climatic conditions. ---   You folks in the rural districts will have to get up an hour earlier now if you want to get up here in time for dinner. Can’t see why the legislature did not start the days two hours earlier, and then we could have called the forenoon the day and fished every afternoon. ---   Congratulations to Chandler and the folks of that community on their new school. It means that a larger opportunity will be given the boys and girls to broaden their views and enrich their ideals. Chandler showed its true spirit when it went out and bought uniforms for the band; every one was for it. We worked in Chandler in a store 66 years ago. A one-armed man was depot agent and Hank McKeon lived there. We also remember the splendid lifetime service given by Joe McGlashen and Ed Holmen who was postmaster. Ed is the grandfather of the present editor of the Murray County Herald. ---   The American Cancer Society and the American Heart Society came to the conclusion that others did. Cigaret smoking is responsible for most of the lung cancer deaths, but air pollution helps a lot; in fact, 31 percent of the deaths are caused by air pollution. The Committee also found out that smoking has no evil effects on the hear. The more cigarettes you smoke in a day, the quicker you will quit. Air pollution is caused by smog: fumes from factories, odors from autos, etc., but why not include halitosis in the list? There’s air pollution at its worst. By the way they smell, some folks have been dead a long time. ---   Had another old home week. Mr. and Mrs. Herb Reed of Slayton called on us on Friday. Herb used to be depot agent at Lake Wilson years ago. His father, D. V., had the grocery store in the corner of the Woodgate building in the early days. On Sunday we had Mr. and Mrs. Maynard Engle and Lois and David and Mr. and Mrs. Gene Degerselles and daughter Marian of Lake Wilson, and our daughter, Mrs. R. D. Elias, and her daughter Kae from Minneapolis. The ladies were deeply impressed with our beautiful dining room. Each of the forty tables had in the center an Easter Lily plant in full blossom. Miss Engle is now an employee of the Bell Telephone Co. What a grand bunch of good looking youngsters they are. We’re mighty proud of them as we’ve known every one of them since they were kids, some of them long before they could talk. On Tuesday, Mr. and Mrs. Reuben Rogde dropped in from California. They lived in Lake Wilson when he was cashier of the bank. Then they moved to Ruthton and finally to Princeton, where Russell now runs the bank while they soak up the California sunshine. They were accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Geo. Plagman of Minneapolis. The ladies were sisters. Last but not least, Peggy Jean, our granddaughter, spent Wednesday afternoon with us. Mr. and Mrs. Geo. Freer and Mrs. A. H. Cook of Heron Lake also came to see us. The girls were old friends of the family. They used to ask if they could take our youngsters out for a walk. That was before the days of Baby-Sitters Unions. ========================

May 2, 1957

  If you are a drinking man, don’t get arrested more than once for drunken driving. The new law says, “On the second offense, you must go to jail for ten days.” The judge must give you this sentence according to a new law. Even the legislature got tired of the suspended stunts pulled by many judges. ---   A lot of folks that look at the TV shows have felt that there was something uncanny or crooked in those big money giver away shows. “Time” blew the top off last week. It said that the smart guys back of the screen had their finger on the pulse at all times. They said that the show part with the two policemen and the bank vice president was window dressing. What were they guarding? The men that do the screening would get an applicant and go at him from all points. Three men worked on that baseball expert trying to find him wrong. They had better luck on Dale Rogers. She was not going so well with the public so they shut her off by giving her the only question she failed on in the 363 questions in the screen test. She is suing the Big Surprise for $25,000 but don’t worry. It will never come to trial. It would show how gullible we the public are. ---   Kids at Luverne broke the windows in 15 autos and another bunch turned on the water faucets in a new high school in St. Paul, causing a loss of $10,000. Some of you have sneered and jeered at every suggestion to put a lid on these raids: what do you suggest? ---   Two men over at Sleepy Eye have started making a new cushion for cars and boats. The new cushion is made to relieve pains resulting from sacral trouble. Folks with sore backs, and there are a lot of us, might find relief from our miseries. Several home folks will be given jobs, the goal of every village. ---   If Stassen can make that agreement with Russia stick over the disarmament problem, his Trendex rating would take a jump upwards. That would be one of the big things in this decade. ---   The Easter Bunny that has just left us has more trade names than any other animal in the world, 96 to be exact. It is named everything from Maemotemink to sealine. Such a pleasant little harmless beastie too. ---   The residents of Walnut Grove, it is estimated, spent $5,000 backing their basketball team that made such a creditable showing at the state meet. What could have given that village more clean sport, entertainment and education than the basketball team. It gave the town more publicity than it has had since it was born. Many towns would have spent twice as much. We have noticed a grandson of an old friend of ours, the late J. E. Baxter of Holly, had a grandson on the team, how proud he would have been. ---   Whoever invented the phrase, “The Poor Shrimp,” has another guess coming. A new breed of shrimps has been discovered at the depth of 1,200 feet. They are called the Red Royal and bring $1.10 a pound: the poor shrimp. ---   There is a new law out concerning kids driving at night. No youngsters under the age of 17 can drive a car on Minnesota highways between midnight and 5 a.m. We expected to see a bevy of Mothers Clubs strongly advocating the passage of this measure but were disappointed. Wonder why mothers would not seek some protection for the kids, perhaps they were not at home to see when the kids got in. ---   Mr. and Mrs. Carl Peick of Slayton and Mrs. William Nelson (Adah Peick) of Minneapolis were visiting us Tuesday. Mrs. Peick is a daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. S. T. Campbell, early settlers in Chanarambie township. Sam built his home there about 60 years ago. His residence was the highest in altitude in the state of Minnesota and the highest pavement in the state runs by the old Campbell farm. The Peick family is also another old timer. The late A. Peick added materially to the early development of Slayton. Although a hardware man, he surprised the natives by placing a sign in his window, “Money to Loan,” and he had it too: some well to do Iowa farmers sent it up. If we ever had a chance to present a candidate on the “I’ve Got a Secret” program we would like to put on Carl, now retired from business. This is for old timers. Carl when a youngster, rowed the boat that carried the first cable across the stretch of water from the mainland to “Wallhall” for the John Hobert ferry boat. His dad played out the cable. How many of you remember the old ferry boat run by one Norwegian H. P.? Mrs. Nelson taught school in Lake Wilson and Chandler in the early days. ---   We had a pleasant visit on Monday from Mr. and Mrs. Frank Christie of Shakopee. Mrs. Christie is the daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. A. P. Fresk who settled in Lowville township in 1886. Frank was depot agent at Hadley a long time before he took over the Shakopee job. He is now retired. The Christies spent the winter with Capt. and Mrs. Wilki (Janet Christie) in Montgomery, Ala. The captain is in the jet division in the air force. Jack Christie is with the Lockheed people at Sepulveda, Calif. Edith married J. Weiland. He is an accountant. They live in Chicago, Ill. Margaret Christie married Earl Bonstra. He is an attorney. They live in Detroit, Mich. Frank and his wife live at Shakopee and are taking things easy. They were a fine young couple when they left here and have improved with aging. Mrs. Christie used to get news for the Hadley Pilot page in the Lake Wilson Pilot years ago. ---   Did you notice how fast the action was on the Daylight Savings bill? The legislature can work when it wants to. There would be no need of extending the length of sessions if it would get in high and stay there. ---   Here’s a story about $10. Years ago when the big depression was with us and the air was full of gloom we were in the courthouse in Slayton. The commissioners were in session. The late George Hafner kidded me, saying “What’s the matter with Lake Wilson? Good houses and brick business blocks are selling for $1,000 (all of which was too true) and now here comes a big parcel of land lying next the plotted part on which the owner refuses to pay the taxes.” We talked a while. Finally we said, “It it’s not worth anything, why not give it to the village for a park. The school kids have no place to play and neither is there a place for a baseball field.” “All right,” they said, “But you must pay $10 in taxes.” We went home, told the council, sure they would take it over. It did, had the Hill boys mow the grass, Doc Larsen and Lee Morton started a golf course. The youths got a job building the stone fence. Everything was going ok when the roof fell in. We noticed in the Murray County Herald one morning that among the lands being sold for taxes was this same plot of ground. We called Mayor K. Anderson and drove down to Slayton. The commissioners told us that the village had never paid the $10. We then told them that the kids should not suffer, nor the young men lose their ball park. They agreed. Kenney, not being a newspaper man, had $10 and paid the bill. We went over and told John Stube the county auditor. He said nothing doing. ‘Twas against the law. Jay Schuluer was county attorney and the late John Lang agreed to go to St. Paul to see the attorney general. We also wrote him a letter with the story since the start, and law or no law, the notice was taken out of the Herald and Lake Wilson got the fine athletic field. Ironically this year the village of Lake Wilson has no baseball team. ========================

May 9, 1957

  A Colorado legislator complains that they can’t get any taxes out of turkey raisers in that state. He says the turkey is only an egg at assessing time and come Jan. 1st, he’s gone to market. The turkey farmers raised 1,170,000 turkeys last year. They grossed over eight million dollars. But after all is said and done, the state surely gets some tax money out of 1,170,000 turkey eggs. ---   Cities that can will soon be forced to put in underground streets. Travel is so slow in some places in Philadelphia that if you are walking on the sidewalks you can keep up with taxi cabs, etc. In one-way traffic streets the going is the worst, every one hits for them so they can go faster, but too many auto drivers have the same idea. ---   One of the good laws that was passed by the legislature was the right given the citizen to attend all official meetings and to see how the officers voted. This law includes school districts of all kinds, township boards, village and city councils, county commissioners: in fact every organization that has any public officials. The minutes of the meetings must be open for inspection. This will give every tax payer the chance to see what is going on. Wonder why the legislative committees where they say a lot of skullduggery goes on at every session are exempt from the law? ---   A North Dakota state senator bellers, “Ship Benson to Europe.” Why Benson, he does not make laws? Where are the men that were elected last fall promising to bring relief, if they were only elected? They are in Washington, D.C. and they have the power. It looks as if they will have to lean back on the 5th amendment if they run for office at the next election. ---   County fairs have been taking up space in Martin and Jackson papers of late. Over at Tri-Monterey the editor wants the county fair moved over in Ormsby where he said four counties could develop a bigger fair than the ones at Spencer, Iowa or St. Paul. At Jackson the editor of the Pilot wrote since county fairs are on their way out--all except the one at Jackson--he suggested that ten counties unite and make Jackson “The fair city.” At Fairmont, the fair is a “close in” and wants to get land for a race track. One alderman said, “If you try this, there will be a petition a mile long against it.” So the fair will probably follow Worthington’s example and move out a mile or so. August Erickson of Springfield brought up an argument a while back that’s hard to bust. He said, “Why should a county appropriate money for entertainment to only one town in the county (New Ulm)?” He insinuated that the money should be divided among all the towns that had celebrations. His town recently cancelled its famous “Sauer Kraut Day.” If this new idea jells in Minnesota, some of the Free Fairs will bring back their ticket takers, and some county commissioners heads will be gray. ---   Did you see where a married couple had a row? She had him thrown in jail, and then put up $50 bail. The man followed her with bent head until they reached the sidewalk, where she opened up her nagging reservoir and sprayed him from head to foot. He staggered back and said to the jailer, “Give her back the $50 and please lead me back to my cell.” ---   Florida also believes in segregation: the State Development Division has announced that it does not want any more farmers in that state. Come down and visit and even spend your money here, but don’t plan on starting a farm. We have too many now. ---   They tell you a penny does not amount to much in this day and age. If you give every employee in the Westinghouse concern a raise of a penny an hour it would cost the company over two million dollars a year. The company has 128,000 workers. ---   It’s hard to believe, but the most popular magazine in the United States is the TV Guide, a pocket-sized magazine. At the present time it has 5,300,000 subscribers Its black-faced ads cost you $2 per thousand readers. It does not look as if TV is losing its drawing power. ---   Before a town can attract a manufacturing plant, no matter how small, it must have a plentiful supply of water. Industry takes more water than most of us imagine. It takes 15 gallons of water to produce a gallon of gasoline, 300 gallons to produce a gallon of beer, 3,600 gallons to produce a ton of coke, 65,000 gallons to pour and roll a ton of finished steel. Synthetic rubber tops them all, using 600,000 gallons of water to produce a ton of synthetic rubber. One firm in Chicago pumps enough water out of Lake Michigan every day to make a lake the size of the one at Lake Wilson. Lakes in Minneapolis have dropped four feet and the city is putting in $40,000 to start filling them up. On the credit side is the Kennedy Star up in Kittson county. In large type under the name of the paper on the front page is this slogan, “Kennedy’s Wonderful Water is Best, Plentiful, Palatable, Purest by Test.” We will close this water business with this quaint one on the problem from Massachusetts. The law governing the Quabbin Reservoir is so strict that horses engaged in hauling wood, etc. must wear diapers. ---   Two long time friends are missing from the circle this week. They are Jack O’Brien of Tracy and Jim Hartigan of Woodstock. Knew them both for over 55 years and what grand loyal and true friends they were to me. May they rest in peace. How quickly does that circle decrease. ---   The legislature which makes laws and breaks them before they are born, ended last week. They outdid the Daylight Savings law, making one day five days long. Like every other legislature it passed some good laws and some bad ones. It also spent more money than any other in the history of Minnesota. At the start of the session the budget was “appalling.” As the days passed they changed their minds and raised the budget over twelve million dollars. Those Republican papers in Minnesota that have been razzing Ike and his budget should have seen the pot boil over at home. It was always thus. Those papers will hesitate to say a word to their home senators and representatives. Long range sniping is always popular with some writers. ---   In a recent number of the Morrell magazine we saw a three-age illustrated article about a former Slaytonite. After finishing his education John Lowe landed a job with the Morrell Packing Company at Sioux Falls, S. D. and has risen steadily until he is now manager of the purchasing department at Sioux Falls. On his way up John married Mary Mills of Hastings, acquired two children and a hobby in which Mary seems to hold about 80 percent of the stock? Before a show she trained and well groomed horses and two youngsters, Ann, 15 and Tex, 10, that love horses and you have something to be proud over. In the picture on one stand there were enough badges they had won to paper the spare bedroom and on the other stand were over fifty cups, trophies, etc. Mary, the mother, what does she do to hold so much checks the youngsters’ clothes and the horses’ equipment, washes all blankets and leather and assists in the bathing and grooming of the horses and at the shows has an eagle eye on everything. This Lowe family is one family that is not afraid of juvenile delinquency. Mr. Lowe is a son of the late John Lowe, former postmaster at Slayton. Mrs. Lowe, Sr. still makes her home at Slayton. ========================

May 16, 1957

  Did you notice the “Pictures” section of the Sunday Minneapolis Tribune that one expert outdoor cook says you should try fresh caught walleyed pike with garlic and thyme. Cooking a fresh caught walleyed pike with garlic is like trying to paint a lily with enamel: first thing you know some nut will come along and suggest you put a tablespoonful of tomato catsup on your ice cream to give it real flavor. ---   Telephone users will soon have a real common sense phone. One for quiet places like offices where you’re not supposed to shout. The other phone is one that you can use when everybody around you is shouting. Gosh, that’s all we want for: a hearing aid. ---   Some papers last week were urging regional county fairs. Would have been more sense in urging for a regional (county) jail. County and village jails have decreased of late. Murray county never had one and Pipestone jail is condemned. Over half the villages have empty jails; can’t operate them according to the state board of health and state fire marshall. Another thing about those jails is that if you lock up a drunk for the night and he burns to death, the village or county will have to pay a good sized sum of money for the one who suddenly became a leading citizen. The fewer jails seems to encourage crime. ---   Would not have stolen this item only we thought it could not be true. A married couple sitting across the table from one another after dinner. The woman was winding her wedding ring around her finger, looked up and said, “John, why don’t you wear something symbolic of our marriage?” John said, “Isn’t this sad looking face of mine enough?” ---   At long last, as a Duke once said, we are able to prove that Don Weck of Slayton is an unmitigated prevaricator. A phone call came last Wednesday from Ray Thompson who is at the Veterans Hospital. He used to live in Lowville Twp. opposite the old Vallance place sixty years ago. In the chat with my wife he said, “I never can forget Bob Forrest. He used to clerk in a grocery store in Lake Wilson. I was in there one day when I was four years old and he gave me a piece of candy.” Now Don, you and your affiliates should be ashamed of the aspersions and the insinuations that you flung at the humble and lowly Scotch. Virtue has its own reward. By the way, candy, mixed candy, came in pails in those days, about 14 pounds to the pail. ---   Iowa is going to get a lot of neighboring gas business. Citizens shouted for a cut in gas taxes: the legislature gave it to them. The tax will be cut from six cents to four cents on June 1, 1961. Be patient, brother. ---   Over at Windom the fine has been upped on drunken driving. See by the Reporter that three intoxicated drivers were handed $150 fines with no rebate. Cottonwood is a dry county and evidently is trying to keep it that way. ---   Bowling is not a cheap sport like pinochle. Up at Minneota the Legion boys are raising $12,000 to put in a four lane alley, hope they make it. ---   Winnebago has the lowest school rate in that county. The Times says “The maintenance per pupil is $200.00.” It isn’t so long ago since one school district in Murray County was paying a maintenance fee of $150 per month per pupil. ---   Fine tributes were paid Senator McCarthy last week. The tributes were sincere and honest and that he had done an enormous amount of good, but didn’t stop when he was on top. The Senator will grow as the years go by. ---   A Woman’s Birthday Club down in Missouri is quandaring whether to stop holding meetings for a while or change the name of the club. They are at the age where it always looks and tells. ---   Long Beach, Calif., once the haven of midwest residents and buxom widows, seems to be on the way out. All on account of oil. So much oil has been taken from nearby ground that the earth is settling every year. Around the harbor is the greatest shrinkage. Officials are putting up dikes like they do in Holland to keep out the sea. Three square miles of drilled land have been sinking at the rate of one foot and a half a year. Seven 100 million gallons of oil have been taken, 600 billion cubic feet of gas and millions of gallons of water. They should pump the oil wells dry and fill up the hole with the Pacific ocean. ---   The Northwestern railroad continues to cut expenses to the bone, and the difference between steam and diesel becomes more apparent as the years go by. One of the latest moves of the N.W. is to cut the division points at Waseca and Tracy, and they will become ordinary way stations, and Tracy’s Big Box Car Day may become only a memory. This Box Car Day is the one Big Day in Southwestern Minnesota. ---   How long do Murray County families live in the same township after the family originally settled? Here are a list of the names of the heads of families in Slayton township, taken by Peter Erickson, census taker in 1885. How many descendants do you know that are now heads of families in that township?
  The following is a list of heads of families residing in Slayton Township, Murray County, Minnesota, as enumerated by Peter Erickson on May 1, 1886.
  Amon Martin, E. A. Engebretson, Martha Wornuson, Ole J. Brunsett, E. Engebretson, Antone Amonson, Nils Nilson, S. Dann, Henry Hunsley, James Nickelson, M. Erickson, John J. Martin, S. W. Stevens, William Schleurer, Danil Anderson, Adolf Ziebarth, Peter Erickson, Charly Shiply, J. Burch, Edmund Browigg, Richard Westall, David Quackenbush, Frank Smith, L. W. Quaintance, Iver Peterson, Erick Starbo, James Mure, Halsey E. Lamport, James Taylor, William Plath, Olie Tallfson, Alfred Terry, Thomas Nowell, John Hinz, Adam Richardson, S. Nisbet, Richard O’Brin, Erick Erickson, Anton O. Lunder, Ole Edman, Andrew Gustafson, Henry Koranski, William Weld, John Sharp, Swan Hanson, John Shirly, W. C. Williamson, John Sivertson, Lars S. Glarum, Andrew Lind, Hommer Williamson, Peter Peterson, Maria Bjurback.
  The spelling of the names is that of the census taker. ========================

May 23, 1957

  In school district No. 10 near Dawson vandals stole the little kids’ swing chains and seats. Small schools have but little play equipment: years ago we would have said “Anyone that would do a trick like that would steal the pennies from a dead man’s eyes.” It still goes. ---   The ruling of the Minnesota Supreme Court on the sidewalk problem is the worst in history for villages. Hereafter, lot owners cannot be sued for poor sidewalks or snow on icy walks, or on materials left on sidewalks. The village is now responsible. That’s good news for lot owners, but villages are certainly in a tough spot. ---   One bright law maker in Arizona has introduced a bill making the Ten Commandments the law of the land. They’ve been the moral law for nigh on to 2,000 years and if people would only obey them we would not need any legislature. Anyway, the first thing to come up would be to decide what was the fourth or the fifth commandment, and in the end would have to cover the clock. ---   That asking you and me to decide about the budget is plain nuts. What do we know whether it is too much or too little? When congress had its first billion dollar budget we said then that’s “a helufa lot of money;” we say the same thing now. Ike erred. Instead of throwing the ball to 1st base, he should have held it. ---   Vandalism is getting so bad in Minneapolis that it may be under martial law soon. ---   Notice that Sleepy Eye is toying with mosquito control. The day will soon be here when planes will call on each village when necessary and with big sprayers will sprinkle the community so it can use the daylight hours for outdoor snack eating. ---   Did you notice last week where “General” Eisenhower and British General Montgomery had been prowling over the Gettysburg battlefield and had decided that Gen. Lee was to blame for his weak plan of battle. General Robt. E. Lee on July 4th, 1863, the day after the battle, admitted that he was to blame. But don’t forget General Longstreet, top man under Lee. When shown the plan of battle, he would not go along with it, saying it was plain murder and he didn’t, so evidently he knew it first. The charge of the Rebs that day was one of the most bloody in history. They were moving up hill, never got to the top, and lost 3,393 men out of a total of 4,500: the going was tough. ---   Jet planes are crossing over from Europe in seven hours. They can come over from Europe in time of war, bomb all our eastern cities and be home for supper; of course, we can do the same thing. The next war will be over before most people know it has started. ---   With the rest of the Murray county folks who knew him, we grieve in the passing of A. H. (Enge) Engebretson. In him we lose a first-class citizen: none better, a loyal friend and an official who spent a lifetime in giving the county a splendid network of roads, which he leaves as a monument to his efficiency and ability. The Engebretsons were one of the first families we met in Lake Wilson back in the early eighties. ---   High point for vandalism has been reached in Pipestone county. See where the Star says that two farm fires have been set by arsonists. Getting so a man can’t leave home any more. ---   Among our callers last week were two old timers: Fred Helweg and wife of Slayton and Carl Keller and wife of St. Paul. We were glad to see them. Carl used to help at the Count fair when it was in its swaddling clothes, and Fred used to sell the grocery stores in Lake Wilson in the long, long ago. Fred retired from the office of clerk of court a few years ago; something that don’t happen very often. ---   Measles have been doing extremely well this spring. Over at Westbrook 49 kids were out of school at one time; bet their ma’s were glad when they got back to school. Over at Pipestone they had to get a substitute cast ready for the annual school play; afraid that the measles would stop the show. ---   Over at Lamberton, Edwin Weber, a farmer, lost all their belongings by fire. The folks around Sanborn and Lamberton joined hands and raised $1,300 in cash and merchandise; these are the ties that bind a community together. ---   Had the pleasure of listening to the Richfield Civic Chorus the other night. They are tops. Have listened to those big glee clubs with long tail coats and black ties, but they did not come up to the Richfield group. They did not have the vibrant, harmonious tones of this Civic Chorus. Perhaps it was because there were some ladies in it that were both good singers and good looking. Anyway, it all helped to make the concert one to remember. They’ve had a lot of training and it took. Richfield is one of the bright stars in the Minneapolis Mushroom Belt. ---   One of the top sporting editors in Minneapolis denounced local firms in that city for sponsoring big league TV games the day the Millers were playing at home. Why shut out the big league TV games because two or three hundred home fans stayed at home? Think of the shutins, those who have not the means to get to the park and the elderly folks that have been interested in top big league players for years, but they keenly admire them. It may all come back to you some day; you’re not so darned young yourself. ---   While Minnesota was busy raising the length of trucks to fifty feet, the Lackawanna railroad was ordering freight cars sixty-five feet long; got to keep up with the Joneses. ---   Looks as if it will be a long time before southwestern Minnesota will have another T.V. station. Fairmont and Jackson are putting up signal towers, sort of boosting stations. Murray county is lucky to be in the KELO scope. It has a better balanced program than any one of the Twin Cities’ stations. ---   Over at Lamberton the News says that some youthful bandits are going to have time to learn a trade and do some repenting. They are spending the next two to ten years at St. Cloud. The worm finally turned. ---   Over at Lamberton the cemetery association received an “insufficient funds” check of $91.00 from somebody. At the funeral they probably bawled the loudest. ========================

May 30, 1957

  At the close of each legislative session, the state of Minnesota publishes the Legislative Manual, better known as the Blue Book, and is the official publication that gives all data concerning the state. It is widely distributed throughout the state, a copy even going to every school district. Looking over the descriptions of the various state parks was the state park at Lake Shetek and we were rather surprised to find this sentence in it:
  ”On the portion known as the east mainland is located the Lake Shetek monument which commemorates the massacre of a white family during the Indian uprising of 1862.”
  The Blue Book is under the jurisdiction of J. L. Donovan, sec’y of state, and we wrote him about the error. We also sent him a copy of a book we wrote several years ago which had the names of the 14 persons who were murdered that day. As we have it, fourteen of the settlers were killed, eight were captured and over ten made their way to New Ulm. Mr. Donovan is not responsible for the error as it has been that way for several years. He took the matter up with Mr. Hella, supt. of parks, and wrote, “He concurred that you were absolutely right. I also turned the matter over to Mr. Wangensteen who is in charge of publishing the book and he will see that the error is corrected.” Thank you, Mr. Donovan, for your assistance which is much appreciated by the folks in Murray county. ---   Bad news for the Red River potato men. California is harvesting its best crop for years. Up to this time last year 1,400 cars were shipped; so far this season, 2,500 cars have been shipped. Big long white potatoes are selling for less than $1.50 a hundred pound sack. It looks bad for Minnesota potato growers. ---   Did you see that latest idiotic question on a Gallup poll? “Which country do you think has the most atomic power?” They might better ask how many grasshoppers make a quart. If you are real interested in an atomic reactor, you can get plans how to build one for $39.78. There are 77 drawings to the set, so hop to it. ---   Congress wants to celebrate the anniversary of the Civil War in 1961-1965 and they are arguing about how much money to raise. One congressman wanted to put up $100,000, another $10,000 and one said nothing. It’s a fool idea in our opinion. There’s enough dissension between the North and the South without adding any more fuel. ---   The good old days are coming back: the days of the cradle. In days of old, many Murray county people brought their cradles with them from the homeland. It was, they said, a sort of an heirloom. But you’ll look a long time to find one now. A Texas concern has come to fill the long-felt want. They produce a cradle with an electronic control that starts rocking whenever the babe starts bawling. Don’t buy more than two: they sell at $198 each. ---   Last week we had a visit with Mrs. Rose Thorburn of Marshall and Mrs. Jane Topel of Balaton, both former Murray county residents. Editor Gavidson and wife of the Jasper Journal, and Mrs. Avis Stuckey and Mrs. Frances Johansen of Slayton. We were glad to get a chance to visit with them. ---   The visit with Mrs. Johnson brought up memories of the past. She is a granddaughter of John Anderson, one of the real early settlers. He was better known as “Badger Lake John.” He was a big rugged Skandinavian and like many others had to work in the “pineries” in the northern part of the state some winters. There were no railroads in the county then. On the way home one spring, he stopped off at Heron Lake, bough a small hog, put it in a wooden box and carried it all the way from Heron Lake to his farm on Badger Lake. He was what you would call a pioneer hog raiser. ---   If this new Archer-Daniels chemical proves successful, what a boom it will be to many a lake in southwestern Minnesota. The new liquid, which is a sort of a wax, if spread on the lake will prevent sixty percent of the evaporation, won’t hurt the fish or stop the kids from bathing: seems too good to be true. ---   Turnpike highway bonds are not always a good investment. Kentucky has one that runs 38 miles south of Louisville, cost thirty-eight million dollars. Charge is 60 cents for the 38 miles, was opened last August and has never paid its monthly interest. ---   Did you notice the plight of a good-looking lassie the other day who was lamenting because she could not keep a sweetheart because she had a funny nose? Say, Sis, try a judical ditch, they had one in Murray county some time back that stopped everything for a while. ---   See where Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt goes all out for a new hearing aid. Some years ago she was giving her all to the Zenith: she has a right to change her mind, if it pays. ---   Out in this section of the world we think that the big mail order houses carry about everything on earth in their huge catalogs. They don’t. Sears and Montgomery carry around 125,000 items while Macy’s retail store in New York carries over 400,000 articles: here’s one place you should get what you want. ---   If the U.S. Senate members are in real earnest about economy, why don’t they cut their salary ten percent or more, why don’t they shave themselves, rub their own tummy and back instead of hiring masseurs at the taxpayers’ expense and then take a look at their little restaurant which ran behind $80,000 last year, which will be footed by the taxpayers? Economy like charity should begin at home. These are the things that we the little folk can understand, not foreign affairs. ---   And as we rant and rave about juvenile delinquency among the common folks, into what section of the Delinquency book are you going to put the mob scenes staged by the students at St. Olaf at Northfield one night last week? If it goes down as a college prank, there would be no need to try and paint the kettle white. ---   Big, Bad, Bold, Buccaneer Beck is being forced to walk the plank. The labor unions are to be congratulated on doing their dirty wash by hand. ---   We know it is wrong to criticize the army, but no court martial should ever let a service man go free for shooting a peeping Tom. If this becomes common over here, many an alley way will be blocked. ---   Ingrid Bergman can hide her rage and smile at the same time about the way her husband has been cutting up. But once in a while she must remember the old, old adage, “As you sow, so shall you reap.” ---   The Murray County Herald had a scoop last week. It stated (back to Gettysburg again) that General Lee admitted he was wrong. Time, top news week magazine in the U.S. did not have it until the 30th. ========================

June 6, 1957

  Influential twin city editors, one or two U.S. senators from Minnesota, and the Governor’s office as well, lost a golden opportunity during that nationwide discussion over the Battle of Gettysburg, in which Ike and Montgomery starred, to give credit to a brave and gallant Minnesota regiment that virtually won that great battle. It was the greatest feat in the annals of the history of Minnesota or any other state in the Civil war. On July 3rd, Sickles, with 5,000 men, was coming up the slope to get the left flank. It was not well defended. General Hancock had charge of that sector the Union. He galloped up, saw there were no troops guarding that section. He saw a number of men guarding a battery that was making holes in the Sickles line. Hancock needed minutes for his reinforcements to come. He shouted to the men at the battery, “What regiment is that?” Col. Colvill replied, “The First Minnesota, Sir.” Hancock said, “Charge that line,” and the 262 men, all that was left of that gallant regiment, formed in line and charged the Confederate line containing an army over 20 times their number. Forty-seven got through the line, and by the time the Sickles’ army was back in formation, reinforcements had arrived and Gettysburg was won by the North due to the 1st Regiment from Minnesota. Out of the 262 men, 47 were able to walk: the rest dead or wounded. General Hancock said afterwards, “There is no more gallant record in history. I ordered the Minnesota regiment in there because I needed five minutes. Reinforcements were coming at the dead run. I knew that if Sickles were not halted he would attack and seize the position. It had to be done and I was glad to find men that would make the sacrifice.” The Minnesota regiment in this battle had the largest casualty list pro rata in the Civil war. You hear people talk about Frank and Jesse James, Sugar Ray Johnson, the Battle of Balaklava, etc., every so often. How many times have you heard the story of the 1st Regiment of Minnesota volunteers at the Battle of Gettysburg? An effort should be made to place an oil painting of this heroic feat in the governor’s reception room in the place of the painting of the “Signing of the Traverse Treaty.” If you knew the truth about it you’d hold your nose in your fingers every time you saw it. This treaty was the action which started the Indian Uprising in 1862. ---   See where a town in southwestern Minnesota does not believe in cash drawings, but is starting them because nearby towns that have them are getting some of their trade. We’re a rambling, gambling nation. If attendance ever gets slight at funerals, offer a door prize of $25 and there would not be standing room. Commercialism in this hectic age stifles many a conscience. ---   We like the new idea coming out of Westbrook. The Commercial club has selected a Welcoming club to greet newcomers or would-be newcomers, and make them feel at home. They got off to a bad start. All the members on the committee are men: never seen the time when two or three of those snappy women of Westbrook could not be of real help to a committee of this type. The ladies could get the newcomers’ wives installed in their new homes in no time. That’s 95 percent of the battle in this day and age. ---   Got a letter from Marshall Fowser last week. In the letter was a pamphlet. It would go inside of a common 3 cent stamped envelope. On the cover was “Premium List of the Murray County Agricultural and Mechanical Fair Association for 1899” at Slayton. The fair was started on grounds west of the village in 1883. Seems as if every one in Slayton was an officer: the late Dan Fowser and his wife were superintendents. Notice the three “main” events that were in the premium list. They never missed in the early days. P. J. Nelson of the “Big Double” store was offering a crocheted silk-lined baby’s hood for the prettiest baby, and a Longley hat to the homeliest man; and Geo. H. Woodgate of the City Drug Store was giving a croquet set to the handsomest lady, a product of Murray county. We always felt sorry for the judges. The officials that year were: C. E. Dinehart--President, Hans Madsen Vice President, S. O. Morse--Secretary, and B. I. Weld--Treasurer. W. J. McAllister was General Superintendent and Miss Orie Fowler had charge of the Floral hall. Dave Lowe was Superintendent of Stalls. The directors were W. S. French, D. F. Fowser, A. Terry, A. O. Lander and H. G. Payton. Board of Audit--C. E. Dinehart, S. O. Morse, F. D. Weck and A. Terry. ---   Slayton did not have the first fair in the county. Currie had fairs long before Slayton was born. Some of the Currie fairs were really outstanding. Remember one that had trotting races, pacing races and running races on one afternoon’s program. Avoca had only one or two fairs. ---   If we knew Bobbie Burns’ address we would ask him for permission to change two words in the couplet, “O! Would the Power the Gift to Give Us, to See Ourselves as Others See Us” to “O! Would the Power the Gift to Give Us to Smell Ourselves as Others Smell Us.” ---   Had a short visit with Arch Grahn last week. Arch is field director for the Minnesota Historical society. When the 4-H clubs of Cameron and Lowville townships, assisted by Myrna Ballinger and Ralph Rickgarn, dedicated the markers for the American Fur Company post on the Anton Nelson farm in Bear Lake Timber, Mr. Grahn delivered the address. Driving over from Slayton last Saturday were Mr. and Mrs. Al Jentz. Ada was born and raised in Lowville township. Her father, A. Oberg, was prominent in farming and business circles for many years. When the Farmers’ Elevator in Lake Wilson was tottering in the depression days, it was Albert Oberg that kept it standing straight until it weathered the storm. Her grandfather, C. L. Bangson, who lived in Leeds township, was an outstanding farmer; he shipped the first carload of hogs from western Murray county. Saturday, Dave Tutt paid us a visit. Dave, who used to farm in Ellsborough township, is a brother of John Tutt and uncle to the Tutt boys of Ellsborough township. Dave is now working for the U.S. government at Fort Snelling. We can remember well when John and Dave’s father came to western Murray county over sixty years ago and bought his farms. John came up later; a mighty fine family are the Tutts. Then one evening Miss Janet Willemssen, a nifty looking and clear thinking young lady with the Worthington Globe, came at me with “Why did you write that Box Car Day was the biggest event in southwestern Minnesota? Didn’t you ever hear of Turkey Day?” Yes ma’am, we did, but we admit we planned on putting after the Box Car Day, “For a town of its size.” It’s so hard to remember when one is old; and last, but not least, was our youngest grandson, Robert III. He is attending the U and works for the Waldorf Paper Company when he has time, to help keep the wolves from the door. He didn’t mention what sex. ========================

June 13, 1957

  In spite of all the criticism and controversy over farming, it is still one solid institution. In the last year farms and farm buildings in the U.S. have risen over five billion dollars. The members of the last Minnesota legislature boosted the two-year budget over $100 million. The members would not have raised taxes that much if they did not thin that farming was a going concern. ---   Another group of doctors and scientists brought in another anti-cigaret report. Blame everything on cigarets from bow legs to a P. bomb. No mention of smog, auto fumes or halitosis. Thing we don’t like was they tried to pull down pipe smoking to the level of the cigarets. So we went down and saw our neighbor, Fred Stearns. He used to make this territory selling harness. He smokes twenty pipefuls of tobacco a day. We asked him, “How do you stand it?” He answered, “All right, but I’m only 91.” He used to sell harness and leather goods in Slayton, driving over from Iona with Jack Haffey and his team of greys. He sold Tom Dooley and Louie Ella. He remembered Frank Pratt and C. A. Portman of Currie and Chet Thompson of Fulda. ---   The natural gas installation that was going to be so economical is following in the footsteps of the fuel oil folks. The price of oil is over twice what it was ten years ago. Electricity seems to be one of the improvements that seems to keep in due bounds with all mankind. ---   Bankers throughout the country are deploring the almost disappearance of the man and woman that saved. Not enough E. and H. savings bonds are being sold to keep up with the withdrawals. Keeping up with the Joneses keeps the pocket book pretty slim. ---   Remember the days when you would find a Canadian quarter in your pocket and how mad you were? You tried to remember where you got it so you could take it back. The post office wouldn’t take it, neither would the bans. The shoe is on the other foot now. The American dollar is worth about five cents less than the Canadian dollar and the Canadians are saying the same thing you used to say when you got a Canadian quarter. Canadian money has been at a premium ever since the Korean war. Oil wells and minerals have put the country just about tops. ---   Congress is asked for two and a half billions for the post office department. Whey not get rid of all this fuss and bother over the post office the year round. Rent the privilege to some private company, we would get better mail service and cheaper. ---   You remember the old expression, “Hotter than Hades”? Well we have it now and it is man made. The British set off an H bomb 400 miles from Christmas Island in the Pacific. The bomb created an atmosphere 2,200 times hotter than the sun, had a force equal to 5 million tons of TNT. Lots of folks were hoping when they die they would go sudden and soon; looks as if they’ll get their wish. The British seem to have the best bombs so far. They will need them when the big day comes. ---   Over at Blue Earth while one group of people were getting the graves tidied up for Memorial Day in another cemetery not so far away, a group of vandalistic ghouls were tipping over tombstones in another cemetery close by. They also picked the gravemarks from the soldiers’ graves. When human beings get so low as to take the markers from the graves of the men who gave their all for them, and then cast the markers in the Blue Earth River, where is our boasted civilization and schools? Moses said, “How Long, O Lord, How Long?” ---   After the girls get their trading stamps stuck into place they’ll soon be able to get interested in the Sun Kist orange program. The Sun Kists have not been going so good and in order to pep them up a little you can slice the word “Sun Kist” from the orange peel, send twelve of them back to the company for gifts. As far as we’re concerned, we’d rather they would make their oranges bigger and sweeter. ---   There was an error in the first Minnesota regiment article last week. The name Sickles should have been Pickett. We sent the item over to the Library for a look over. It said 1st Minn. Regiment article, O.K. ---   Three more old timers of Murray county passed away recently. They were Herb Jones, Mr. Hurd, Sr. and Julius Aspeline. Men who did their part in the development of Murray county. Mr. Jones’ history reaches back a long way. His father Evan Jones came to this territory in 1856 settling near Lake Crystal. He took part in the defense of New Ulm during the Indian uprising in 1862. He was an early postmaster in Lowville twp. ---   Just got through reading in the Post how the republican state auditor had stolen over a million dollars from the state of Illinois, when we picked up Time and here was a story of how the Democrat county treasurer of Cook county had used up half a million from the county, stealing is evidently non-partisan in Chicago. The most important news to the tax payer is, were these men bonded for enough to take up the thefts? The public would rather have the bonding companies pick up the checks. ---   While we cuss and discuss the national budget on foreign affairs we would like to know how the Reds feel over it. That should make some difference. ---   This has been a cold and rainy month up here and crops will have to start growing. We’ve had few warm days so far. ---   Mrs. Orville Otteson (formerly Marjorie Baker of Slayton) visited us one day last week. She was accompanied by her aunt, Mrs. A. M. Lattimore of Slayton who is now a resident at the Home. The Lattimores were old friends of ours. The late Rev. A. M. Lattimore baptized our two older children. When Marjorie left she said, “Bob, do you remember when I worked for you in the secy’s office during the fair?” Sure do, and what a fine smiling face you had and a willingness to work. ---   See where Mr. Benson is pushing his plan to lower parities on farm products and no one in Washington seems to care: remember Benson must have the ok of Congress before he can do anything. ---   Another bunch of college students ran amok last wee. This time it was at Mankato. They must have been connected with some laundry as they were selecting all the girls soiled linen and silks in the dormitory until police stopped them. These outbreaks make it hard on you who have been keeping your tongue working overtime on juvenile delinquents. Most of the delinquents were supposed to come from the other side of the tracks. The scene changeth. Reminds of a quote from Kipling, “For Julia O’Grady and the Colonel’s Lady are sisters under the skin.” ---   In the last four months we’ve noticed where youth gang fights between two towns have been stopped. That’s all wrong. Let them fight and if one of them loses an eye, a leg, an arm and has bad cuts about the head it might bring the parents to their senses. This stopping the youths makes them feel like they are big shots, let them fight and get it out of their systems. ---   The recent legislature was not in favor of increasing the population in Minnesota. It raised the price of a marriage license from $2 to $5.00. ========================

June 20, 1957

  Something happened to Minneapolis last week that may change the political map in Minnesota in two or three years. This man P. K. Peterson who was elected mayor of that city may be the cement the republican party has been looking for: by the way Ken, don’t forget to write Dave Beck for the help he gave you. ---   Presidents of the South Pacific and Missouri, Kansas and Texas railroads admit that the death of the passenger trains will soon be here. What will the country do in time of war? ---   The early barbers in Minnesota may not have been as skilled as the barbers of today but they were certainly more original. In 1850 one St. Paul barber told the world that “Absalom Lost His Life for Want of a Barber.” In September the same year, buffalo tongues sold at $5 the dozen, fresh beef seven cents the pound, pork at ten and bread was four cents the loaf. ---   When the village of Winnebago forbade the graduating class of ‘57 to paint the class number on the water tower, the class took its brushes and easels over to Blue Earth and on the water tank there pained the words and letters “56 Bago 57”. ---   Here’s a suggestion to Paul Rowan, well known writer for the Mpls Tribune: get the government to erect some of those galvanized iron granaries near each Indian reservation, fill them full with goods from butter to salt pork so they can be doled out each week to the needy: why send dole abroad and let Americans starve? ---   If you have a deep slough on your farm, or if you have a place that would make a good fish pond, write your Uncle Sam. Since 1938 he has paid out over a billion dollars in helping build the ponds and stocking them. He pays half the cost. After you get your pond ready comes the fertilizer. He supplies you with blue gills and big mouth bass free and -- but if you are interested why not write Mr. Compton, care of the Federal Dept. of Agriculture at Washington, D.C. When the fishing is good you’ll not be thinking ill of Mr. Benson. ---   Been reading the most recent smoking tobacco expose. This one includes everything from cigarets to pipes, and tells of the deadliness they are to the race. Was just wondering if the change in habits had something to do with it. Fifty years ago every home, hotel, legislative hall, etc. had cuspidors--’spittoons’--running from the brass ones 16 inches high in the hotels to the hand painted ones in the homes and the common boxes of sawdust in the stores and saloons. Everyone used them if they chewed or smoked. Styles changed and now no one expectorates (spits) any more. They swallow the saliva. This change might have something to do with it. ---   Another young Miss from our old home town is joining the bunch at Bell Telephone in Mpls. She is Marion Ostergard. If this keeps on much longer they won’t be able to sing “There’ll be Gals for Everybody in the Good Old Town.” Louis her dad, besides an expert fisherman, was the first horseless farmer in the western part of the county. ---   One of the most important countries in the world today is Venezuela, in N. Central America. Although it has a population only twice that of Minnesota and is only three times as large, yet it produces 2,900,000 barrels of oil daily. We read about the near east oil fields of Kuwait, Saudi and Iraq, yet Venezuela produces more oil daily than all of them put together. Foreign companies operate the oil wells and Venezuela gets half the profit. Besides that she ships sixty million lbs. of coffee to the U.S. It has $435 million in reserve in foreign banks so everything is lovely down there, but it is in the Torrid Zone. ---   Many people attended the “Breaking of Ground” ceremonies for the new Chapel at the Home here last Sunday, which will cost over $75,000 and will have pews for a hundred and seventy-five worshipers. What was interesting to us was that the inception for the Chapel came from a former Murray county girl. During her term of office as Grand Worthy Matron Mrs. Chas. Topel (June Doonan) of Balaton promoted a plan for the new building. A past worthy Grand Matron told us Sunday that the new building was due almost entirely to the efforts of Mrs. Topel. She took a prominent part in the ceremonies. ---   What a din there was in Minnesota from 1912 to 1920. Women were prancing and parading up and down the state demanding the right to vote. They promised everything if they only had the right to vote. There would be no more crime, no more saloons, no more sheriffs, and they would make Minnesota a better place to raise a family. In 1920 they got the right to vote and since that time have controlled the vote in the state. You know the answer, the sensational increase in juvenile delinquency, more women drinking louder and longer and the abnormal increase in cigaret smoking. Minnesota couldn’t be worse off if women were still on the outside looking in. ---   Three weeks ago we had an item in this column about an 1885 census of Slayton twp. There were 35 heads of families and we wondered how many heads of families from the original settlers were still left in the township. We wrote Mrs. Herman Koranski who has been interested in county history for many years. She answered, “Mrs. Carl Amundson is the only one left in the entire township.” She came to the county in 1873. This will give you an idea of how many descendants of pioneers and early settlers there are left in the county. It also shows how one how little chance there is of publishing a history of Murray County. A history should have been published fifty years ago. We notice that in two adjoining counties efforts were made to run the township histories but they soon discontinued. ---   You noticed in the daily papers last week the woeful face of 13 year old Karen Persells of Hudson, Wis. She was one of the contestants in the National Spelling contest in Washington, D.C. She went down on the word ‘litigiosity.’ The dailies did not give the meaning of the word. We didn’t know the meaning of the word either. We do now. It is about the man given to litigation: always in law suits. ---   Years and years ago we had Keeley Cure Institutes all over the country to break men and some women of the drinking habit. Today we have the Alcoholic Anonymous in an endeavor to break the habit: will the day ever come when there will be institutes for those who cannot give up smoking the deadly cigaret? ---   Had a visit from an old time friend last week. His name is Joe O’Gordon. Heck of a name for a Norwegian. He was a lawyer and quite a politician. Too much work and not enough play put him on the shelf, and like our self all he can do is to talk. Joe said his barber told him we were over here. Bill Jacobson, formerly of Slayton, was the barber. He was the top baseball fan in the county. Umpired games for years and when you went into his shop there was more talk about baseball than there was about barbering. His grandfather, Hans Jacobson, who came here in 1872, built the first frame house in western Murray county. Few families in Murray county have produced more college graduates than that of Mr. and Mrs. Hans Jacobson. ========================

June 27, 1957

  The terrible tornado that struck Fargo last Thursday night caused the death of ten persons and millions of dollars in property loss, brings to mind that Minnesota has been pretty fortunate down through the years. Take a lead pencil and start at the southwest corner of the state. Go straight east to Austin, where five lives were lost by a tornado Aug. 20th, 1928. Then with your pencil go to Rochester where 36 lives were lost on June 21st, 1883, keep on with your pencil and trace the trail to Anoka where 9 lives were lost on June 18th, 1939. North with your pencil to Sauk Rapids where 79 lives were lost in a tornado that swept through three counties. Go straight east until you hit the Wisconsin line, then north along Lake Superior and north to the Canadian border. Then following the border until you reach the northwestern corner of Minnesota, then south with your pencil until you reach Fergus Falls, a deadly one hit there on June 22nd, 1910 taking 56 lives.
  Go straight south to Tyler where 37 lives were lost Aug. 21, 1918, then to the southwest corner of the state. Inside of the pencil line there has never been a major tornado (one that takes over five lives) in an area about 7/8 of the state. There have been a number of small tornadoes in the state but there is no record. Inside this vast empire, tornadoes seem to have passed us by. The total of deaths on record from April 14, 1886 has been 226: three lives a year in 71 years. There has never been a tornado in Minnesota in July. Autos will kill three times as many people this year as tornadoes have killed in seventy-one years, but still the tornadoes strike the fear of death into many more folks than automobiles. The people that died in the Rochester tornado did not die in vain, as their deaths brought the greatest medical center in the world to Rochester. The tornado came at seven o’clock and 35 persons were killed. The local Catholic Sisters Academy was made into an emergency hospital with Dr. W. W. Mayo in charge. From this event Mother Mary Alfred Moes conceived the idea of a permanent hospital and in 1889 St. Mary’s Hospital was opened: the beginning of the famous Mayo Clinic. ---   When you hear them talk and write about Civil Rights why not include baseball and football players. They are bought and sold, just like cattle and hogs. These men are put on the block, sold for whatever they will bring, or take their baseball glove and go home and stay there, for their days with baseball are over. ---   The Williamson gang of sharpers are on the march again with furs, laces, rugs, etc., which they tell you they are able to sell you cheap because they escaped customs duties. People that buy that junk are just as guilty as the Williamsons: they would never argue a minute about buying until they learn the goods have been smuggled. You may not believe it but millions of staunch and honorable Americans like to beat the government. ---   See by the Sleepy Eye Dispatch where Hans Larson, an exchange student from Norway, was convicted of careless driving and was fined $15.00 and costs: they Americanize pretty fast. ---   Robert Schlieth of Morton started out on a trip down the primrose path last week. He did right well. He lied to get beer, drove his car off the highway, got hurt, was taken to the Sleepy Eye hospital, raised Ned, scared the nurses and the police had to take over. Total cost to the young man was $236.00. He should have ganged up with some of the Yankee ball players. ---   Does music have charm to entice the average auto buyer? Looks like it. Lawrence Welk, who used to play at Valhalla in days gone by, now brings money to the Dodge people. Up to date the Dodge people have sold 69,571 more cares than they did in 1956. The Plymouth increased 115,500 more cars in the same period and they did not have any fiddlers. The poor Packard only made 10 cars in the week of June 14th: wasn’t worth hitching up for. ---   We notice in the Prison Mirror published at the State Prison at Stillwater that the inmates sent 51 packages of cigarets to the inmates at the St. Peter Security Hospital who don’t have any money. Have we done as much? ---   Canada is really a “dear” neighbor these times. We know a man who sent a draft to Montreal for $12.75 and the draft and the exchange cost him 85 cents. Moral: buy at home, but it irks us to know that Canadian money has increased so much in value. ---   Harold Johnson drove over from Shakopee Thursday and took the Forrests over to his home for a walleyed pike dinner. When we used to go to Leech Lake with Harold he did the cooking, but it was hardly in the same class as the one Mrs. Johnson prepared. It was the first fish dinner we have had since last fall and we enjoyed every mouthful, down to the old fashioned strawberry shortcake. ---   The government is abandoning the radar station at Rochester. New devices have made the station unnecessary. We hope this new idea don’t spread. We look for the same change to be made in TV in a few years and you will get TV like you do radio today. ---   Some of the towns, Lakefield among them, are planning on driving out the mosquitoes. At least will start the job this spring. The county board of Jackson is going to furnish the spray blower, etc., at a rental price. It is estimated that it will take five years before the mosquitoes are driven out, of disgust. Not doubt the movement was started by both the old and young gals with nylon stockings who did not like them pink “polka dotted.” ---   Notice where a town is taking a vote to see whether the swimming pool should be open on Sundays. Cleanliness is next to Godliness, so the Scriptures say, and if the kids go to church in the forenoon it won’t hurt their morals very much by a dip in the afternoon. They’ll be nearer right with God than their pas and mas who dress up in their best on Sunday afternoon bothering some poor tired woman into getting them a big feed. Swimming pools are one of the best ways to fight juvenile delinquency. ---   Many towns in southwestern Minnesota such as Jackson, Fairmont, New Ulm and Mankato are raising funds to improve their TV reception. We have more faith in TV. It will be wonderfully improved through the years. ---   Two of the big county days are the days of ‘87 at Slayton. The program was changed from that of former years. Any show that can draw a crowd of 3,000 must have been a success, especially with Jay Gould who has the reputation of being one of the finest showmen in the business. Then there was the annual Saddle Horse meet at Lake Wilson. It is always good. Furnishes entertainment for young and old. Paw, maw and the kids have oceans of fun. It’s the best detriment to juvenile delinquency that we know of. ===========================

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