Adams County Makes the News - Council Leader #29

The Adams County Leader
Published Every Friday by the Council Publishing Company. 
Eighty-nine per cent of the stock of the above company
is owned by F.H. Michaelson.
F. H. Michaelson Editor and Manager

CONCERNING A PLACE NAMED HELL

Last week in hurriedly scribbling some comment relative to itch, we used the word “hell,” and one of our readers has mentioned to us that to use the word seemed rough.  Neighbor, so is the itch; and this being thus, the word served the exact purpose of emphasis for which we intended it.  In its use we had no thought of profanity.  We doubt that there is anything in scripture that even remotely infers that one should deify either the devil or his place of abode.  To us, hell is just a place; and we used the word in the same sense that one might mention Boise, or perhaps, to be more exact, Weiser, for instance.  Unless we insist upon our right to a use of fitting words, the time may come when one will be asked to speak of Council, too, with bated breath.  So far as we can determine, there is not particular reason why we should evade familiarity with the word “hell.”  Any institution that can stand the test of time and, according to much well-grounded opinion, is enjoying a near-monopoly of business is worthy of consideration.

If a lot of “us folks” had reason to believe that we would eventually reside in California, there to participate in a great and perpetual reunion of old-time friends, we might even be expected to write for advance information in regard to climate and hotel accommodations.  Somehow, we would rather like to know whether trout caught from the river Styx come ready-cooked from the stream and if it is necessary for one to use asbestos gloves when baiting a hook.  Not that we are especially interested or expect to move from Council at any near date, but because we believe that, with ourself as well as many of our fellows, a degree of precautionary familiarity is not altogether inadvisable.  Anyway, fellers, let’s not worry.  Perhaps, after all, the first thousand years will be the hottest.

February 10, 1922
A FARMER’S OPINION

Friend Editor:
There is quite a bit of discussion going the rounds, not only here in Council but all over the country, concerning the subject of supplying something warm for the school children at the noon lunch.  I have six children going to the Council school and they have a mile and a half to go.  They must take their lunches or go without.  Several times this winter their lunches have been frozen as hard as bricks before the children reached the schoolhouse.  Then the lunches were placed in the hall until dinnertime.  This did not improve them any.

Now, some persons will say that they didn’t have a warm lunch when they went to school—and that they didn’t starve, either.  Neither did I have warm lunches when I went to school, and I am surely none the better for it.  Education is not made up entirely of book learning.  The children could be taught to serve a cup of hot soup respectfully, and the knowledge would not come amiss to them in later years.

This serving of a cup of hot soup at the noon hour could be done at little cost to parents.  All material could be donated in small quantities.  Say that on each week those who are interested send in their supplies so there may be a stock on hand from which to draw.  Some can spare one thing, some another.  Even a bucket of water and an onion will make hot soup that is better than nothing.
Yours for school lunches,
H. M. Purnell

February 17, 1922
REAL WEALTH

After all, perhaps real wealth may be best measured by the amount of wholesome joy one is able to get out of life—his friends and all else that he likes constitute his riches; his malice and all he hates bespeak his poverty.  On this basis of reasoning one should be more rich and happy living in Council than if he lived in on Broadway and owned three silk-lined limousines; for there, according to our observation, the world is largely artificial—and, what is more, a holiday is mostly racket rather than peaceful mountain streams with an occasional trout to bid one welcome to the wilds.  Gee whiz, June, hurry on your way.

February 17, 1922
THOUGHTS ON THINGS

The world is much more interested in people who try to do things worth while than it is in people who content themselves with merely trying to explain why things worth while can not be done.  Perhaps every step of progress since the time when man swung from the limbs of trees and gathered his wives with a war club was made over the carping criticism of unthinking pessimists.

As an illustration, we can recall the time when to quite a number of persons, the Mesa and Council orchards, now the county’s greatest individual asset, were considered a joke.  It is safe to assume that an attempted advancement of any other project of equal merit would meet with an equal amount of skepticism on the part of persons who pass judgment without first informing themselves. Somehow we can imagine that even the tallest pine on Council Mountain once had its troubles.  One can draw a mental picture of it when it was but a shrub, and the chipmunk, hopping from bush to bush, looked down upon it with contempt for its effort at trying to become a tree.

August 18, 1922
NOTICE TO SCHOOL DIRECTORS OF ADAMS COUNTY
All schoolhouses, before school opens in the autumn, shall be entirely cleansed.  The cleansing shall consist of scrubbing the floors, and thoroughly washing windows and woodwork, including desks and seats, dry sweeping being absolutely prohibited.

Schoolhouses and outhouses should be rendered free from all defacing and obscene marks, and kept clean and sanitary at all times.  Inside toilets, when provided, shall be efficient in every particular; when these are not available, good fly-tight well-ventilated outhouses for the sexes, placed at least fifty feet apart, with screens or shields in front of each, shall be provided.  All schoolhouses shall be supplied with pure drinking water and the water supply shall be from driven well or other approved sources.  Whenever it is practicable, sanitary drinking fountains shall be provided; if not, covered tanks or coolers shall be furnished—buckets and all open water receptacles, common drinking cups being condemned and forbidden.  The above is taken from Sections VI and VII of State Board of Regulations.

Respectfully,
O. M. Hubbard, County Superintendent

compiled by Eberle Umbach