Days Gone By In Staunton

Thursday, April 5 , 1923 -- ONLY ONE DELIVERY AT PRESENT -- Owing to the fact that Al Davis, one of the efficient city mail carriers at the local post office, is at present a patient at the St. Francis Hospital where he underwent an operation for appendicitis on Friday, only one delivery of mail is being made daily in the residence district. Until Mr. Davis recuperates sufficiently to permit him to resume his duties it will be necessary to continue this method of handling the work and it is probable that later on, when the vacation season starts, only one delivery will be made for a period of several weeks. This curtailment in service is made necessary by reason of the fact that the postal appropriations are exhausted and there is not sufficient money on hand to employ extra help. No relief can be gotten before July 1, the close of the present fiscal year.

FORDS COLLIDE -- A Ford sedan owned by John Zelick of Benld, collided Tuesday at !:15 a.m. with a Ford truck owned by the Brubaker & Smith Garage on the hard road just north of the Staunton city limits.

The Brubaker car was towing in a Ford roadster and the sedan pushed the truck to one side of the road and the roadster to the other. Claims of glaring headlights and driving on the wrong side of the road are given as the cause of the accident. All three cars were damaged to a greater or lesser extent.

CLEANUP THE ISSUE AT BENLD --The coming village election at Benld promises to be a lively affair as there are at present three candidates in the field for the office of mayor. A clean-up of the town's morals is the chief issue and two of the candidates are known to favor such a procedure, while the third is understood to be willing to let things ride as they have in the past. From what one has heard of Benld in the past it would appear that a clean-up would be in order. Whether it will be forthcoming depends upon the kind of voters who go to the polls on election day.

LADIES RUN FOR SCHOOL OFFICES -- Present indications are that the election for members of the grade school hoard Saturday afternoon will not be as tame as had been expected, a number of ladies having gotten into the race. The ladies came out too late to file their petitions with the clerk and have had a number stickers printed which they are passing out among their friends. The candidates are Mrs. John Lancaster for president; and Mrs. Fred Allen and Miss Laura Piper for board members.

FIRE DEPARTMENT IS MAKING PROGRESS -- The regular monthly meeting of the Staunton Volunteer Fire Department was held at the City Hall on Wednesday evening of the past week. At this time six new members, Walter Fischer, Wm. B. Mueller, Max Ott, Wm. and Adolph Niedernhofer and P.J. Morrissey were admitted and other matters of general interest taken up.

The Ordinance Committee of the City Council is at present working on an ordinance to cover various regulations at times when a fire breaks out.

The ordinance will provide among other things that no automobile shall be parked nearer than 10 feet to a fire plug, that drivers of automobiles and vehicles, upon hearing the gong of the fire truck shall pull up to the curb and wait until the engine has passed and also that people shall not drive their automobiles nearer than a stipulated distance from a fire.

In future an alarm of fires will be sounded by means of the whistle at the electric light plant as formerly, but the public in general is asked not to rush to the telephones and inquire where the fire is. The operator at Central is expected to call the different members of the fire department and with this work to do the general public should make it a point not to disturb her at that time.

Application for membership in the Illinois Firemen's Association has been made and the local department will affiliate with the state organization just as soon as possible.

A committee from the fire department is at present conferring with the Building and Grounds Committee of the City Council in regard to the changes proposed at the City Hall building to accommodate the new fire engine and the headquarters for the volunteer department. Plans are to move the library to the second floor and the city clerk's office into the room now used by the library, giving the fire department the present clerk's office in which to house the engine and other paraphernalia.