BLUFFTON A Good Place to Trade VOLUME LXXm NEW TURBINE UNIT ON LINE AT LIGHT PLANT THIS MONTH Installation of 2,000 KW Gener ator Virtually Finished, Supt. Swisher Reports Additional Boiler Being Install ed At Mur^ipal Plant Will Be Completed In Spring Installation of a 2,000 KW turbine generator is practically completed at the Bluffton municipal light plant and the new unit will be put on the line sometime the latter part of March, Supt. John Swisher announc ed this week. With the additional turbine in operation, Bluffton’s peak load troubles experienced over the last 18 months will be eliminated, the super intendent said, and the plant will have two generators capable of ade quately supplying demands of patrons. Present peak load demands at the plant range from 1,000 to 1,100 KW, Supt. Swisher pointed out, and only one of the plant’s two present operat ing turbines can carry the load. The larger turbine in the exist ing installation has a 1250 KW rating, but the smaller has a rated output of only 750 KW. As long as the larger unit is on the line, the local plant experiences no difficulties, but when it is necessary to shut it down for repairs or cleaning, the smaller turbine cannot carry peak loads, and it has been necessary at times to pull the switches on lines supplying Bluffton industries. Surplus Purchase With the additional 2,000 KW turbine on the line, the plant will have adequate generating capacity for all demands, Supt. Swisher said. The turbine was purchased early in 1947 as navy surplus removed from a destroyer, and after its installation here was rewound to make it suit able for use in the Bluffton plant. Additional boiler facilities required at the plant will not be available until in the spring, Supt. Swisher said, for a new 600 HP boiler being installed will not be completed until that time. When the boiler is put in use the plant will have adequate steam power to handle its increased load now kicking when it is necessary to shut down the one plant boiler, with sufficient output for needs. Standby power is not available in sufficient volume at present because the two older standby boilers do not have adequate output for today’s higher demand loads. Letter Protests Gara Prosecution A letter protesting Selective Serv ice Act violation prosecution of Lary Gara, Bluffton college instructor, has been sent to Attorney General Tom Clark by the Peacemakers, a national organization with head quarters in New York City. Gara was indicted in Toledo fed eral court Jan. 5 on a charge of advising draft-age men to refuse to register for the draft. Gara has pleaded innocent to- the charge and trial has been set for March 9. Thirty-four citizens, most of them clergymen, signed the Peacemaker letter, which protests prosecution of Gara on the grounds that it is against the public interest to im prison persons who under compul sion of their conscience refuse to cooperate in military conscription. Bluffton Youth Will Graduate With Honors James Gilbert, Bluffton rural route, will be the only one of 38| seniors to graduate with distinction i at winter quarter commencement ex ercises at Ohio Northern university this week. Gilbert will receive a B. S. in Education degree. Called Home By Mother's Death Miss Ocie Anderson, Bluffton pub lic librarian, was called to Cameron, West Virginia, Sunday, following the death of her mother at that place. During Miss Anderson’s ab sence the library here will be in charge of two assistants. Addresses Lions In Mt. Blanchard Dr. Gordon Bixel, Bluffton optome trist, addressed the dinner meeting of the Mt. Blanchard Lions club, Thursday night. His subject “How We See”, gave particular attention to children’s eyesight troubles. Dollar Days Success For All Concerned Dollar Days in Bluffton last Fri day and Saturday left everybody happy. Wearing smiles at the close of the big sales event were shoppers who found shops jammed with bargains merchants who did a record volume of business, and some 750 kiddies who saw a free movie at the Carma theatre. With the town jammed with shop pers last Saturday afternoon, two packed houses saw a free movie screened at the Carma theatre for children who could be left there while their parents looked over the bargain offerings. The enthusiastic response to the Dollar Days sale here came at a time when many cities were report ing lagging retail sales, and helped local merchants establish volumes comparable with any February per iod in history. ANNUAL RED CROSS DRIVE IS UNDER WAY IN BLUFFTON Mrs. J. S. Steiner Directs Drive To Raise $1,000 In Soli citation Locally Attempts Being Made To Com pete Campaign During First Two Weeks of March Joining others in a nation-wide drive, Bluffton Red Cross workers this week began their solicitation in the annual Red Cross campaign to raise funds for the many phases of the organization’s relief activities. Bluffton’s quota in the campaign has been set at a mark of $1,000 and Allen county as a whole is ex pected to raise $27,585. The nation al goal is $60,000,000. Mrs. J. S. Steiner, veteran Bluffton Red Cross worker, is in charge of the Bluffton solicitiation, which as in past years will include house-to house canvassing. Altho the entire month of March has been designated by the National Red Cross for campaigns, a concen trated effort is being made to com plete the Allen county drive in the first two weeks. J. W. Schoonover is chairman of the county solicitation effort. The American Red Cross attempts to forsee the needs of local and national chapters, and seeks funds for the work thru contributions received in the annual campaign. Lt. Elias Augsburger In Air Force School Lt. Elias R. Augsburger, husband of Mrs. Mary Jane Augsburger, 212 Jackson street, was a member of a group of aviation students who graduated last Friday from the USAF advanced multi-engine school at Barksdale, La. Lt. Augsburger began pilot train ing in February of 1948. He orig inally was commissioned in the air force as an aerial navigator in Octo ber, 1944, and served overseas until the end of the war. Opening of the Lenten season, in preparation for Easter, began this Wednesday in an observance know-n in the religious world as Ash Wed nesday. The Lenten period is a fast of 40 week days observed by the Roman Catholic church and many of the Protestant denominations. It was not until 1840 that the date was fixed for the fast to start on Ash Wednesday and to continue through Holy Saturday. The name Ash Wednesday has a general reference to the penitential sackcloth and ashes so frequently spoken of in the Old Testament. In the Roman church there is a rite observed on this day in which the priest places ashes on the forehead of the communicants as they kneel at the altar rail. As he does this he says, “Me mento, homo, quiva pulvis es, et in puferem reverteris” (Remember, man thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return.) The ashes are obtained by burning palm branches consecrat ed in the church on the Palm Sun day of the year previous. March Weather Holds Key To Vitally Important Farm Outlook For This Year Lenten Season In Preparation For Easter Begins This Ash Wednesday Continued Mild Weather Would Set Stage for Bumper Grain and Livestock Mortality Rate for Pigs, Lambs and Chicks Drops Sharply This Spring Continuation of mild winter weath er thruout March will create as favorable a spring farm outlook as this century ever has produced local ly veteran farm observers were predicting here this week. Monday’s cold snap when the temperature dropped to a minimum of 13 degrees is not regarded as having any long range detrimental effect since it was followed by moderating temperatures. Absence of severe weather so far this winter already has created con ditions favorable to the raising of hogs and lambs for the mortality rate has dropped sharply as mild weather continues. Less difficulty than usual also has been experienced by raisers of early chicks, who have not had the usual mid-winter worries occasioned by zero weather and howling blizzards. Ease of starting early chicks, togeth er with an increase in the number of farmers raising chickens, will vastly expand the volume of poultry produced here this coming summer, perhaps nearing record proportions." If mild winter continues thru the month of March, farm observers say conditions will be favorable to bump er yields of farm products, including crops. Wheat Prospect Good Wheat so far has come thru the winter with every indication of at least average prospects, for altho there has been virtually no snow to provide a protective covering the mild winter made protection largely unnecessary. Thus the month of March, always a critical season so far as wheat is concerned, looms more important than ever this year, for a turn to zero weather would find the stand without protection. All in all, early farm prospects have not been as favorable in many a year and suitable breaks in the weather will be conducive to large volume production. Everything hinges on March weather, however, for severe cold which accounts for the principal mortality in spring hog, lamb and chick output still cannot be ruled out of the realm of possibility. Unfavor able weather this month, particularly if it provides a combination of cold and wet conditions, could change the picture to a point where livestock and wheat prospects would be reduc ed at least to average. World Day Of Prayer Service On Friday World Day of Prayer will be ob served in a union service at St. John’s Evangelical and Reformed church, Friday afternoon at 2 o’clock. The program is sponsored by women of Bluffton churches. PLAN SOFTBALL SEASON The Triplett softball team will meet in the Triplett office this Wed nesday night at 8 o’clock to make plans for the coming season. All interested are welcome. Gradually it came to be the cus tom of friends and relatives to man ifest their humility by joining the penitents, expressing a similar con tribution in their outward guise and offering their foreheads for the ashes. In time the number grew so large that it was made necessary to ad minister the ashes to the whole con gregation in a single rite, the form used at the present time. Ash Wednesday was not alw-ays included within the Lenten period. In the fifth and sixth centuries Lent began with the succeeding Sunday and lasted six weeks. Omitting Sunday this would be 36 days. The addition of four days to this period makes the fast exactly 40 days in duration and therefore accords with the fast of Jesus as well as the fasts of Moses and Elias. The use of ashes in the ceremony has generally been discontinued since the reformation. The entire Chris tion world, however, starts the Len ten celebration on this Ash Wed nesday even though the form of the celebration varies in the different religious groups. THE BLUFFTON NEWS A NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF BLUFFTON AND VICINITY BLUFFTON, OHIO, THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 1949 ROBBER MAY HAVE TRIES TO CRACK SCHOOL SAFE HERE Ex-Convict Who Looted 38 High Schools May be Implicated In Local “Job” Authorities Study Operations To Link Zanesville Man With B. H. S. Job Last Fall Authorities this week are investi gating the possibility that a captured ex-convict who has confessed to loot ing 38 high school safes in Ohio and Indiana may have been the key man in an attempted robbery of the safe in the Bluffton High school office, late last October. The ex-convict, held by authorities at Zanesville, where he was captured, is 51-year-old Dwight Cherry, who estimates his loot was between $75,000 to $100,000 in the 38 rob beries. Cherry is linked with the attempt to crack the Bluffton High school safe last October 28 both because of a similiarity of methods of robbery, and because he often operated in this area. Admits Nearby “Jobs” Safe robberies in nearby high schools at Leipsic, Lakeview, Criders ville, Roundhead, McGuffey and Ada were admitted by the ex-convict. In describing his safe-cracking forays, Cherry said watched newspapers for notices of revenue producing high school entertain ments and athletic events, then loot ed office strong boxes following the affairs. His description of activity fits the attempt here last fall, which was made on the same night the Bluffton High school grid team played Wapakoneta here. Receipts from the football game were not in the office safe, but the thieves didn’t learn that fact in their visit here, for altho they knocked the combination off the safe and jimmied the handle, they never ucceeded in opening the strong btrtT In the safe at the time of the at tempted burglary were approximately $85 in cafeteria receipts. The Bluffton robbery was one of three attempted in Allen county on the same night, when safe crackers also broke into buildings at Spencer ville and Shawnee. Stage High School Operetta March 8-9 “The Mocking Bird,” tuneful op eretta will be staged in a two night run in the high school gymnasium next Tuesday and Wednesday nights at 8 o’clock, by the high school mu sic department. Scene of the operetta is laid in New Orleans about 1760 when France and Spain were vying for domination in the New World and the action is complicated by incur sions of a daring pirate sea captain. Appearing in leading roles are Ada May Oyer and Roger Linden with a supporting student cast and orchestra. Earl Lehman, instructor in public school music directs the production and Ruth Diller is ac companist. Couple Injured In Auto Crash Sunday Ed Williams, coloied and Miss Kathleen Maupin .colored, both of Richmond, Ind., were injured in an accident on Rt. 25 at the south corporation limits of Beaverdam Sunday morning at 5:30 o’clock when their car left the road and overturned. They were traveling north at the time. They were removed to Bluffton hospital in the Paul Diller ambu lance where Williams was found to have sustained a dislocated hip. Miss Maupin received facial cuts. The car was w-recked. With The Sick Mrs. Alice Lantz of Muncie, Ind., is a patient in Bluffton hospital as the result of a fall sustained at the home' of her son, R. A. Lantz of Campus Drive. Mrs. Idessa Henry of East Kibler street is recovering from a four weeks’ illness of pneumonia. Her son Wm. Henry of Detroit, visited her recently. Mrs. Gideon Burkholder of East College avenue is ill at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Cal Steiner of Poplar street. Mrs. Ernest Gratz is a surgical patient at Lima Memorial hospital. Her condition is reported fair. Mrs. Charles Stratton, ill at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Paul Marquart is somewhat improved. Multiplying Factor of Electrical Helps Results in Greater Demand For Current Bluffton Homemakers Depend More and More on Electricity In Daily Life A steadily expanding demand for more electrical conveniences in mod ern housekeeping is reflected in a 1,000 KW daily increase in output of the Bluffton municipal light plant over the volume of current generat ed a year ago. In commenting on the increased demands for electricity from the municipal plant, Supt. John Swisher said this week that at least half of the 1,000 KW boost comes from the use of more electrical appliances in Bluffton homes. Electrical housekeeping convenien ces each year create expanded de mands on the local plant, and such things as the weekly washings and ironings mount to a total current consumption which must be reckon ed with in plant operations, the superintendent said Peak on Supt. Swisher estimated that ap proximately 25- eent of the town’s homes now have either oil furnaces or stokers. The trend in Bluffton is reflected throughout the United States as a whole, for although this country has only seven per cent of the world’s population we generate as much electricity as all the rest of the world combined. Home Use Doubles Figures show that urban home owners and apartment dwellers have almost doubled their per-family use of electricity in the last decade. Over that period the average yearly use of electric current for a single residence increased from a modest 853 KW in 1938 to 1,560 KW in 1948. In the next five or six years, use is expected to climb to as high as 2,000 KW. Behind this increase in current consumption is the multiplying fac tor of electrical gadgets for the home and their woder use. Bluffton Student In Senior Piano Recital Miss Jesn Ann Steinman, student in the E&ldwin Wallace conservatory of music at Berea will present her senior piano recital at that place on Friday evening. Her program will include compositions of Mozart, Brahms, Griffes, Debussy, Ravel and Schumann. Miss Steinman, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Forrest Steinman of South Lawn avenue will graduate in June with the degree of Bachelor of Music. She has been a student in Baldwin W’allace conservatory for the past three years and is president of the local chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon, national honorary music sorority. Clothing Collection For European Relief Door-to-door collection of clothing for European relief will be made here Saturday afternoon in a pro ject directed by the Relief commit tee of the Women’s Missionary so ciety of the First Mennonite church and Bluffton college. Shoes top the list of needs. Cloth ing, new or used, should be clean and mended. Apparel is needed for men, women and children of all ages. “The need for relief this winter is almost beyond comprehension/’ said Herta Van Delden, German stu dent at the college here. “A slip of paper bearing your name, address and perhaps some friendly message pinned on the cloth ing is always appreciated by these people who wish to express personal ly their gratefulness for this aid,” she said. Electric Housekeeping Conveniences Boost Demand On Light Plant Here Washday Peak demands on current generat ing facilities of the plant come on Monday and Tuesday mornings, Supt. Swisher pointed out, largely because of the family washing on Monday, followed by ironing on Tuesday. On those two days, the peak load will climb to 1200 KW in compari son with an average of from 1,000 to 1,100 KW the rest of the week. More and more electrical appli-1 ances are being added to the aver age Bluffton household, covering a broad field embracing ranges, refrig erators, radios, home freezers, dish washers, washing machines, air con ditioning, water heaters, irons, toasters, electric heaters, etc. Many Angles Electric consumption further is boosted in the home by the increas ing use of oil-burning furnaces and coal stokers, both of which are elec trically controlled and operated. Mt. Cory Basketeers Lose In Tournament Mt. Cory high school basketball team, Hancock county tournament champions, were eliminated by Syca more from the Class sectional play at Bucyrus Tuesday night by a one-point margin. In the last two seconds of the game, Lundy of Sycamore got two foul shots and made both to give his team a 36 to 35 decision over the Hancock county team. Mt. Cory led at the half 17 to 14 and held a 35 to 34 margin with only 30 seconds left to play, when Lundy was fouled in the act of shooting. Each team made 14 field goals. Sycamore converted eight of 16 free throws and Mt. Cory seven of 14. Bell of Sycamore was high point man with a score of 14. Robert Warren tossed in 10 and Dick Mar quart nine for Mt. Cory. BY HARRY U HAlt Editor’s Note—This is one of a series of articles to appear tn the Bluffton News dealing with early Ohio history. Others will appear in forthcoming issues. The New spaper Ladder To Fame Not even half a brick bulges the Pennsylvania Railroad roadbed to put an extra click or bobble into the smooth movement of ultra-modem passenger trains through Martins Ferry, Belmont County. But the track runs right over a pretty big bump on the journalistic surface of Ohio nevertheless—the birth place of William Dean Howells, termed “America’s Leading Writer of Fic i tion.” Howells was born in a little one story,* two-room Brick f5ttage there March 1, 1837, built by his father. It was pulled down to make way for the Cleveland-Pittsburgh railroad right of way. When the hall of fame, giving recognition to distinguished Ohio journalists was established at Ohio State University, Columbus, in 1928, William Dean Howells was given one of the most prominent places in it. The beginning of his newspaper life was most humble. Of Welsh Quaker stock, the Ho wells always had possessed a literary strain but William’s newspaper life began when his father moved to Butler County and published a news paper named “The Hamilton Intelli gencer.” The boy then was three years old but learned to set type just the same. News Boy- Then the family moved to Dayton, where the father bought the “Dayton Transcript” and changed it to a daily. William used to work till midnight on that paper and then get up at 4 a. m. and deliver it to subscribers. It took that paper just two years to flop. William Dean Howell's father too, was a news paperman and knew the ups and downs. In 1851, at 14, William Dean Howells got a job setting type on the still existent “Ohio State Journ al,” Columbus. His pay was four dollars a week—the first money he ever earned and received of his own. That he turned into the family purse to keep starvation away. It did not take Howells long to become news editor of he Journal and from 1856 to 1861 he was an editorial writer on it. During thd* tight Presidential cam paign of 1860 Howells wrote a political biography of Abraham Lincoln which so benefitted and pleased the President that he sent the young writer to Venice as consul there. When he came back from Italy in 1864 Howells got a job on the staff of “The Nation,” contributed to “The Atlantic Monthly” and in 1872 be came that magazine’s editor. By 1881 he was editor in chief. Recognized As Poet Howells’ first poetry was written when he worked on the Ohio State Journal as a type-setter. There he and another compositor, John J. Piatt, put out a whole volume of poems. Later in New "England, he was recognized by Lowell, Longfellow, Emerson and Hawthorne. Hie connection with Atlantic Mon thly brought him national fame and every- book he wrote was gobbled up avidly by Ohioans, who rightfully and proudly considered the journalist the state’s own eminent son. (Continued on page 5) BLUFFTON A Good Place to Live NUMBER 47 CONTINUATION OF SEWER WORK BIG PROBLEM FOR CITY Cherry Street Sewer Done Funds For More Work This Year Are Unlikely Replacement Sewer Program Will Take Years Unless Ad ditional Funds Come Installation of the new storm water sewer covering a two-block stretch on Cherry street virtually was completed this week, but when funds will be available for addition al sewer work is a question which stumps even the most optimistic members of the city- government. Cost of the Cherry street replace ment sewer will run in excess of $3,000, an expenditure which will cut a huge slice from the city’s operating funds. Funds Are Low Councilmen, in laying plans for an expanded street repair program this summer, announced at the time that there likely would be little or no ad ditional funds available this year for a continuation of sewer replace ments badly needed in all sections of the town. A survey made a year ago by municipal officials showed 69 com plaints regarding inadequate storm water sewer facilities in many dif ferent sections of the village. With insufficient funds for full scale sewer replacements, councilmen set to work on a program of piece meal sewer installation which could be continued whenever money could be made available for the work. Replaces Flagstone Sewer In construction of the new Cherry street sewer from Mound avenue to the Big Riley- creek, the town re placed one of the village’s oldest ex isting sewers. For most of the dist ance involved, the drain was an old i flagstone sewer, built with slab walls and bottom and a fence-rail top. Excavating and laying of tile was completed Tuesday by’ the Charles Kohl contracting firm of Lima, and the only remaining work is in con structing a manhole and laying tile thru a netw-ork of Buckeye Pipe Line oil mains just east of the Farmer's Grain Co. elevator building. Bluffton Native Dies In Oregon Mrs. Milton L. Myers, 75, native of Bluffton, died at her home in Salem, Oregon, on Tuesday of last week, following a cerebral hem orrhage. Mrs. Myers is the former Alice Steiner, born in Bluffton, April 21, 1873, the daughter of Gideon and Elizabeth Steiner, pioneer residents here. The family moved to Oregon in 1887. Mrs. Myers was for many years prominent in civic affairs of Salem, being a charter member and past matron of the Eastern Star chapter of that city and was director of the Red Cross surgical dressing depart ment during the first world war. As a young woman she was one of the two first “telephone girls” at the Salem exchange. Surviving besides her husband are two nieces and a nephew. Funeral services were held last Thursday morning after which the body was placed in a mausoleum. Two Drivers Hurt In Headon Crash Bernard Davies, 20, Pandora, and Hugo Basinger, 74, near Ottawa, suffered minor injuries last Wed nesday when their cars collided headon on what was formerly Route 224, near Ottawa. Both automobiles were damaged. BLUFFTON MARKETS Wednesday Morning Grain—Wheat $2.13 corn $1.20 oats 72c soys $2.21. Poultry—Heavy hens 34c leghorn hens 27c: heavy springers 35c. Eggs—Large white 40c large brown 39c medium white 36c medium brown 35c. Butterfat—62c. Births The following births at Bluffton hospital: Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Cook, Jenera, a boy, Keith Eugene, Thurs day. Mr. and Mrs. Francis Walter, Up per Sandusky, a boy, Joe David, Saturday. Mr. and Mrs. John Herron, Co lumbus Grove, a boy, Tuesday.