A Sn”
a
“gu
FROM
PILLAR TO POST
By MRS. T. M. B. HICKS
Se
We've had a number of mice as house guests during the past winter.
There was the occasion when a young mother mouse was careless enough,
FRIDAY, JULY 25, 1952
BOX SCORE
Back Mountain Highway Deaths and
Serious Accidents Since V-J Day
Hospitalized Killed
DALLAS 10 | 38
J DALLAS TOWNSHIP E15 [| 8
: : LEHMAN 1 | 1
E KINGSTON TOWNSHIP i & | 5
: : JACKSON TOWNSHIP 2
MONROE TOWNGHIP 3 1
ROSS TOWNSHIP BE)
MORE THAN A NEWSPAPER, A COMMUNITY INSTITUTION LAKE TOWNSHIP 12 1
2 FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP 2
TOTAL 76 26
VOL. 62, No. 30 8 Cents per Copy—Twelve Pages
to get caught in the trap instead of licking off the bacon fat and leaving
1
the trap unsprung, as he **
Dallas Exchange
Is Cut To Dial
A. J. Sordoni Makes
First Call To Governor
Dia] telephone service became a
reality in Dallas and the Back Moun-
tain area Monday night at 11 when
Andrew J. Sordoni, Sr., board chair-
man, Commonwealth Telephone
Company, and State Secretary of
Commerce, made the cut-over to
automatic service in a brief cere-
mony witnessed by approximately
250 officials of other Pennsylvania
telephone companies, community re-
presentatives and executives of as-
sociated companies,
The first call over the new System
was made by Mr. ‘Sordoni to Gover-
nor Fine in Harrisburg.
The cut-over to automatic service
effected more than ‘3,000 subscribers
of [Commonwealth’s Dallas Ex-
change.
The actual cut-over was pre-
ceeded earlier with a dinner at
Hotel Sterling for out-of-town
guests. Seated at the speakers’ table
were Andrew J. Sordoni, Jr., presi-
dent, Commonwealth Telephone
Company; Wilfred Gillen, president,
Bell Telephone Company of Penn-
sylvania; Henry T. Inman, vice pre-
sident and general manager, The
Bell Telephone Company; Harold
Scott, vice president, Pennsylvania
Company for Banking and Trusts;
Harold H. Young, R. L. Bennett, A.
F. Snyder, W. M. Wakefield, W. B.
Jeter, Attorney William ‘A. Valen-
tine, directors, Commonwealth Tele-
phone Company; Loren M. Berry,
president, L. M. Berry Directory
Corp.; Clyde S. Bailey, executive
vice president, United States Inde-
pendent Telephone Association;
Colonel Gustav Hirsch, consulting
engineer, Columbus, Ohio; and An-
drew J. Sordoni, 'Sr., chairman of
the board, Commonwealth Tele-
phone (Company.
Chairman {Sordoni noted that the
cut-over of the Dallas Exchange to
dial service was the #limax of an
improvement program begun in the
Dallas and Back Mountain area in
December 1950 when construction
of the company’s new main and
district office was begun on [Lake
Street, Dallas.
The main office was dedicated
and formally opened last January
and work was begun immediately
for the exchange’s conversion to
automatic service. Preparation, for
dial involved installation of central
office equipment, of approximately
3,000 dial telephone sets, rewiring
of the subscribers’ premises and
construction of cable and additional
wire facilities,
Chairman Sordoni pointed out
mite
Two days after she enriched the
humus pit, baby mice came stumb-
ling: out into the open, one from the
fireplace, one from under the hot
water heater in the kitchen, a third
making it from step to step, down
the attic stairs. Almost starved, all
three of them, a mere wisp of grey
fur.
So we are accustomed to mice.
But until last Tuesday night, we
never saw one coming down the
fireplace bricks, head first.
This, we said to ourself, can’t pos-
sibly be true. (Squirrels can shin up
and down a tree, either standing on
their heads or their tails, whichever
suits them best. But mice, no. The
arrangement of thelr claws is against
it
We closed our eyes experiment-
ally. It's probably the heat, we re-
flected. And it’s been a tough week-
end, what with the auction and all.
It’s an optical illusion.
Comforted, we opened our eyes.
There hung the mouse.
He had braked to a full stop now
and was resting, his eyes fixed on
the lighted lamp.
Then, as we watched him, he
slowly extended a foreleg, unfolding
4 delicately veined black wing. He
extended the other wing, folded
both swings close to his flanks,
shuddered slightly, closed his eyes,
and went to sleep.
We went out into the kitchen and
got a ‘tea-towel, Then, remembering
that bats have sharp little teeth, we
substituted a turkish towel for the
thin striped model.
The bat quivered when shrouded,
gave a muffled squeak, and sub-
sided. Released outdoors, he flitted
off into the thin drizzle.
Wie felt better. The heat hadn't
been playing us tricks. Mice don’t
scrabble down a wall on their heads.
We didn’t have bats in the belfry,
Revived, we broke out the latest
wodunit from the Back Mountain
Library, poured :a glass of iced
tomato juice, and settled down to
catch up on our literature, neglected
during the hectic period of the an-
nual auction.
that cost of the mew main office
and conversion of the exchange to
! dial "ost mére thn $1,600,000. Siace
World War 2, Commonwealth's im-
provements, dial conversions and
service extensions program has cost
$5,000,000. The company’s plant
valuation has today reached the
$10,000,000 figure.
The Commonwealth Telephone
Company today has more than
25,000 subscribers and encompasses
the largest area in the State served
by an independent company. The
territory served is approximately
100 miles from nerth to south and
60 miles from east to west, giving
service in Luzerne, Lackawanna,
Wyoming, Bradford, Sullivan, Sus-
quehanna, Columbia and (Schuylkill
Counties.
Sports Car Road Races Start
Saturday At Newell Wood's At 11
Road maces at Senator Newel.
Wood's estate at Harveys Lake will
start tomorrow at 11 a.m. The
second is scheduled for 12:30, third
1:30, fourth and fifth concurrently
at 3, and the sixth at 4 p.m.
Each race consists of ten laps
around the 3.5 mile course.
Preferred parking space, open only
to members of Giant’s Despair Hill
Climb (Association, will be close to
the pits, dug to the right of Senator
Wiood’s home and below the starting
line.
Three other parking lots are open
to the general public, sponsored by
the Junior Chamber of Commerce.
[Caldwell McClintock, Jr., is official
time and score-keeper for both the
Giant’s Despair Hill Climb contest
and the road races.
The Hill Climb classic starts this
morning at 10, up until noon a run
for record. Second run for record is
scheduled from 1 to 5 p.m.
Trial runs took place both at
Giant's Despair and 'the road race
course 'yesterday, also techmical in-
spection for all cars entered.
Sixty-five cars are entered for the
road race, fifty-five for the Hill-
Climb. Owners of all entries are
members of the Sports Car Club of
America .Cars are small, powerful,
and acrobatic.
Membership is still open in the
non-profit (Giant’s Despair Hill-Climb
Association, entitling the holder of a
membership card to preferred park-
ing both at Giant’s Despair and at
‘Bryinfan Tyddyn’.
Cars for the Antique Auto Show
Friday and Saturday, opening in
Kingston Armory 1:30 to 10:30,
have been coming in over the road
since ‘yesterday. They are all in tip-
top driving condition, polished until
they shine like mirrors.
Tomorrow night is the big Victory
Dinner Buffet, starting at 7 p.m. at
Irem Templé Country Club Pavilion.
Awards and trophies will be pre-
sented. The dinner is open to the
public.
DON'T LOOK NOW, BUT THERE'S
SOMEBODY WHISTLING AT YOU
Don’t look now.
But if yowr young and pretty
and somebody whistles it may be
only Mrs. A. C. Devens’ mew female
parrot, Polly, aged 40.
Polly was purchased ‘a week ago
in Forty Fort as a companion for
Mrs. Deven’s bachelor parrot who
travels under the misnomer Polly
0O’Boyle, aged 43. More dignified, he
is not half as apt to whistle at the
girls as his new lady friend. She
learned the habit from her former
owner, a music teacher, who also
taught her how to sing the scale.
First indication of the problems
a Whistling parrot can cause came
last week when Mrs. Devens’ daugh-
Fort to bring Polly out to her new
home. [Polly whistled at everybody
on the street, but when they stopped
at an ice cream store, Polly whistled
so realistically that a girl on the
corner ‘took her seriously and came
right over to the car.
She was a little embarrassed, but
a good sport when she saw the fine
feathered whistler,
Polly and Polly O’Boyle are both
excellent talkers with Polly having
a little the edge in an argument.
Mrs. Devens says that at 40 they
are both relatively young, since
parrots are known to live as long as
200 years. By that time probably
Polly will no longer be interested
ter, Mildred, went down to Forty |in whistling at the girls.
Laing Firemen
Test 3 Pieces
Of Equipment
Committee Plans To
Draw Specifications
And Place Order Soon
Members of the committee to
Henry M. [Laing Fire Company
were thrilled this week with the
performance of three engines sent
here for demonstrations on the hills
surrounding Dallas,
The three engines, demonstrated
on alternate days, were a Mack,
manufactured in Allentown, and
driven here by Berwick Fire (Com-
pany; a Wand-LaFrance, manufac-
tured in Elmira, and a Central,
mounted on a (Chevrolet chassis.
All three performed beautifully,
Those who tested the apparatus were
members of the new engine com-
mittee headed by Henry Peterson
and composed of Ben Edwards, [Fred
Price, Norti Berti and Fire Chief
James Besecker,
The big white Mack truck was
given a thorough pumping test, un-
til officials of Dallas Water (Company
asked the firemen to discontinue
similar tests on all engines because
of the shortage of water. The Mack
was lequipped with a two-stage
pump land carried a 500-gallcia
booster tank. The firemen hooked
up a 2% inch line and a 1% inch
line and still had enough pressure to
keep a fog line in operation. The
truck was so equipped that firemen
could. play a stream of water ion a
fire from the booster tank while
they were hooking up their other
lihes. Then by turning a valve they
were able to tie in their other lines
without any interruption. It has
been impossible to do this with
their present equipment.
The Ward-LaFrance carried a
750-gallon pump and a 250-horse
power engine, providing tremendous
power on the hills. In every respect
if was more powerful and heavier
than any engine currently being
used in the Back Mountain region
or in rural areas.
The [Central equipment carried a
500-gallon pump and a 500-gallon
booster tank, mounted on Chevrolet
chassis.
Within, the next week ‘the com-
mittee hopes to have a demonstra-
tion of American-LaFrance equip-
ment also manufactured in Elmira.
After having first hand demon-
strations of as many pumpers as
possible, the committee will draw
up a list of specifications for an
engine best suited to meet local
needs and then select the equipment
which meets specifications.
The order for the equipment will
be placed shortly since about seven
months are required before delivery.
About $6,500 hlas been pledged
toward the purchase with $3,500 in
hand, New equipment will cost ap-
proximately $14,000. Contributions
have averaged lower than antici-
pated, the largest being $500.
The company plans to retain its
old Mack engine which has [been
in service ’ ‘almost thirty years. It
will be stripped of most of its equip-
ment so that it can carry an aux-
iliary water tank of greater capacity.
The company will meet Monday
night at the Library Building to dis-
cuss further details and to hear
reports from Harold Smith, general
chainman of solicitation,
Mr. Smith has urged all citizens
who have mot been solicited to
make their pledge or payments to
W. B. Jeter, president of [First
National Bank, who is treasurer of
the fund.
Contractor Injured
When House Collapses
David Ide’s home in Idetown, built
by pioneer ancestors over one hun-
dred years ago on one of the first
land grants in the area, collapsed
Wednesday around noon. The wreck”
age, says Mrs, Ide, will have to be
cleared away and a house built from
the foundations. Much of the original
lumber, hardened and seasoned by
years, will be usable, but the loss is
great.
Operations were being carried out
to ease tthe upper stories of the frame
structure down to a new foundation,
already built to take the load. The
weight shifted, the structure
buckled, and fell four and a half feet,
crushing the new foundation.
Ernest Fritz, Idetown, contractor,
was trapped beneath the flooring in
a shallowly excavated portion, -but
was able to make his way to the
main cellar and walk up through the
outside entrance steps. Bruised about
the back and neck, he was taken to
Nesbitt Hospital for X-Rays and
further examination.
select a new fire engine for Dr.
Circus Comes To Town .
“Saturday is Circus Day in the
Back Mountain’. This is the second
year that the Dallas Kiwanis (Club
and the Back Mountain YMICA have
sponsored Mills Bros. Three Ring
(Circus. Advance sale of tickets gives
the treasury of these two organiza-
tions the greatest incomé. Friends
are urged to secure their. tickets
= Some forty stores and offices
in the Back Mountain area are sell-
ing advance tickets. Any member
of the Dallas Kiwanis (Club or Back
Mountain YMCA has tickets to sell,
The two organizations will play
host to hundreds of special guests on
Circus Day. Invitations for delega-
tions from: (Children’s Service ICen-
ter, Crippled Children’s Association,
Georgetown Settlement House,: Old
Ladies’s Home, St. Michael's Orphan-
age, St. [Stanislaus Orphanage, Sut-
ton Home and the West [Side Settle-
ment House, have been extended.
A matinee performance takes
place at 2 p.m. with the doors open-
ing at 1 p.m. The evening perfor-
mance begins at 8 p.m. and the
doors open at 7 p.m.
LOCAL OWNERS WILL DISPLAY
THREE ANTIQUE AUTOMOBILES
Harry Ruggles, Idetown, is in
charge of the antique automobile
show today and tomorrow, Kingston
Armory. The show is being held in
connection with the Giant's Despair
Hill climb and the road races at
the “Brynfan Tyddyn” course around
State Senator T, Newell Wood's
Harveys Lake estate.
Among the cars exhibited will be
“‘America’s finest antique auomo-
biles—owned by many of America’s
ranking industrial and (business
leaders,” according to Mr, Ruggles.
Two are owned by Mr. Ruggles him-
self. One is a 1911 Buick Roadster,
white with a black top and black
leather seats, brass trim:and brass
headlights and carriage lamps.
The other is a 1908 Thomas “Lan-
daulet”, a small town car with
black and maroon coloring and brass
trimming, This car has been in Mrs.
Ruggles’ family since ‘the fall of
1908, and Mrs. Ruggles has the
letter written to the Thomas Com-
pany ordering the car. .
Mr, and Mrs. C. W. Bertels, Hunts-
ville, will have on exhibition their
1927 Packard Touring car, painted
gray with red trim and red leather
seats.
One of the most interesting cars
will be a 1910 Matheson, made in
Forty Fort, and believed to be the
only one in existance. The car is
owned thy Mr. and Mrs. Frank
Matheson, who will dive it from
Wayne, Pa. Mr. Matheson will be
one of the judges for the show.
On. July 11, Mr. and Mrs. Ruggles
drove to Ithaca in their Buick to
participate in the Show of Antique
Cars held in Cornell’s Barton Hall.
On September 24, they and Mr.
and Mrs. Bertels will drive in the
Glidden Tour of the [Antique Auto-
mobile Club, Washington, D. IC.
Where Raging Torrent Swe pt Three To
Mother And Two Children Drown
In Trucksville's Worst Tragedy
A young mother, sleeping fitfully because of the heavy
storm, mindful of the need for covering the children and
closing windows against the shifting wind, stumbled from
her bed shortly after four A. M. on Tuesday. She heard the
roar of the stream and felt water on her bare feet.
&
v
Dr. S. BR. Schooley
Is Getting Better
Specialist Advises
Three-Month Rest
The condition of Dr. Sherman
Schooley who is a patient at Wilkes-
Barre General Hospital shows con-
tinued improvement.
While still unable to sit up in bed
or have visitors, his spirits are good
and he is taking an active interest
‘| in the affairs of the community and
the Democratic Convention.
On Sunday Dr. Joseph Vander-
veer, head of the cardiology depart-
ment of the Benjamin Franklin
Clinic, Philadelphia, examined him,
and adwised that he remain quiet
for a period of six weeks and then
take a three months rest after which
he might return to office practice.
Dr. Vanderveer is assistant pro-
fessor at University of Pennsylvania
Medical Shcool and on the staff of
the Pennsylvania Hospital. Dr. and
Mrs, Schooley became acquainted
with him when he spoke before the
general practice group at Bedford
Springs last year,
During the period he has, been in
the hospital, Dr. Schooley has re-
ceived hundreds of cards and letters
from his friends and patients. One
was a cablegram from Wiliam Mac-
Intyre in London. Many others were
received from medical associates
and old friends throughout the coun-
try. 3
He takes a great interest in all
of them and can’t quite understand
why so much fuss is being made
over him,
He was especially delighted when
he received a couple of gallons of
drinking water from the spring on
the old iSchooley homestead. “That's
nectar for the Gods” was the way
he received it.
McCarty In Hospital
IChief of Police Francis McCarty,
Trucksville, is still at Mercy Hospital
undergoing extensive tests and X-
Rays, with no diagnosis up to date.
He was admitted after two severe
hemorrhages July 12. Up to date he
has had five transfusions.
Mrs. Lina Booth, 70,
Dies At Loyalville
Mrs. Lina Booth, wife of Earl
Booth, Lake Township Supervisor,
was buried in Maple Grove Ceme-
tery Thursday afternoon, following
services conducted at the Bronson
Funeral Home by Rev. Ira Button,
and Rev. Everett Lord.
Born at Pikes Creek, daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur ‘Wesley, Mrs.
Booth had lived in Loyalville ever
since marriage.
There are two sons, Walter,
Washington; and Clifford, Harris-
burg; a daughter, Mrs. Lewis B.
Thomas, Lake Silkworth; five
grandchildren and one great-grand-
child; two brothers, Ernest and
Walter Wesley, Loyalville; and a
sister, Mrs. Leona McHugh, New
Jersey.
Their Death
The spot where Snake Run, swol- | isolating Mrs, Ben, Johnson and her bridge in the left foreground, only
len with a flash flood, cut a new |two tiny children, and closing their |a few short feet away.
channel
early Tuesday morning, {only avenue of escape to the plank
Photo by Paul Bieley
A second later the cottage rocked
on its foundations as something
heavy struck the back porch a
crushing blow.
Mrs. Ben Johnson snatched up
her sleeping children, shaking them
awake, guiding their arms into their
bathrobes, belting her own robe
about her. The bridge was within a
few feet of the front door, and that
way, she thought , was safety.
She lifted sleepy little Charles in
her arms, took three-year-old Ellen
by the hand, and stepped out on the
front porch, closing the door care-
fully behind her. There was water
on the porch, and little Ellen started
to cry.
The rain came down in sheets, In
between gusts that cut off vision in
the dark of thehour and the raging
storm, the bridge could be seen.
Mrs. Johnson knew ‘that the water
was over the driveway, but she
knew she could make it. It couldn't
be over her knees, she reassured
herself,
“Hold tight to Mommie’s hand”,
she warned Ellen, “Just a minute
and we'll be on the bridge and
across.”
Mrs. Johnson stepped down into
a swirling horror of water. Instantly
Ellen was torn from her grasp. The
young mother struggled weakly to
hold baby ‘Charles above the flood,
gave one despairing shriek, and was
swept away. And with her perished
her unborn child, due in (September.
That is the picture of Tuesday
morning’s tragedy in Trucksville as
read in the mute evidence of the
deep gully cut across the yard by
the torrent. The stream had leaped
its banks, cut itself a channel along-
side the house, undermined the ap-
proach to the bridge, and washed
out a concrete abutment. ‘A heavy
plank bridge washed downstream,
had struck the kitchen porch.
When Mrs. Johnson stepped down
into her side yard she stepped into
five feet of rushing water, moving
so swiftly that it dislodged rocks
and tossed rubble around like sand.
The concrete abutment, projecting
at a sharp angle, lay in wait for
its victims. It may comfort the
family to know that the little child-
ren and their mother died at once,
that they never lived an instant to
battle the smother of the flood.
Neighbors, including Mrs. ‘G. L.
Howell and Mrs. George Parry, re-
port that they heard children crying
and then a louder scream, high over
the roar of the freshet. Mrs. Howell,
looking out over her back yard to-
ward the Johnson cottage, saw a
waste of water extending as far as
her tennis court, high above any
previous high water mark. .
Ben Johnson, on might shift at
Diamond Manufacturing (Company,
Wyoming, tried to telephone his
mother, Mrs, Catherine Johnson, at
rthe height of the storm to ask if his
amily were safe, but without
making connections. Mrs. Johnson,
awakening to the sound of water
and the terrific thunder claps of the
night-long storm, heard the child-
ren cry out, but when she investi-
gated she could see no traces of the
little family, so assumed that she
was mistaken.
Ben returned home at 7 am.
found water still running through
the house, and thought the family
had found haven with a meighbor.
Operations for recovery of the bodies
were not started until 9 am. How-
ard Woolbert set wheels in motion.
Shavertown and Trucksville vol-
unteer firemen, and many recruits
from the community kept watch
along the banks of Toby's (Creek,
Shavertown under direction of R.
W. Edmondson, Trucksville under
William Long.
At 11:20 the first body, that of
little Ellen, was recovered from
Toby’s Creek just below Shaver’s
Store, by Rev. Robert Webster, who
was carried under by the torrent,
and made the bank with difficulty,
bearing his pathetic burden.
By noon the twenty-five year old
mother had been found, having been
swept down stream and through the
conduit. Hours later, at 7:45, the
body of two-year old Charles was
found in the impounding basin at
Pringle.
State Police assisted local police
and citizens in their grim search
for victims of the worst tragedy the
area has suffered in years.
All three of the drowned will be
buried in Edge Hill Cemetery this
afternoon, following services conduc-
ted at 2 by Rev. Russell Straw and
Rev. Robert Webster from the Fred-
erick Funeral Home in Plymouth.