Days Gone By In Staunton

Thursday, Oct. 4, 1923 -- GRADE SCHOOL NEWS -- The enrollment in the Staunton grade schools on October 1 was 1106 with 621 at the North school and 685 at the South. An interesting fact is that there are more boys than girls, there being 559 boys and only 547 girls.

Attendance this month was fair, though it might have been better. The average percentage for the whole school was 95.77, that of the North school 95.45 and that of the South school 96.1. The room with the highest percentage is 8A, of which Miss Howell's is the teacher. Their percentage this month was 98.48. Miss Picton's room was second with 98.37 and Miss Morgan's third with 98.04. At the North school Miss Patterson's room had the highest average, 97.66.

This year attendance is going to be an important factor, for the State School Fund will be distributed partly on the basis of attendance. Every time a pupil is absent one day the district loses about four and one-half cents of its share of the distributable fund. Let us work together, parents, pupils and teachers, to make the attendance averages of the Staunton schools the best in Illinois.

GREAT SHOOTER COMING HERE -- Through the initiative of the local Winchester dealer, Geo. H. Luker, the hardware man, arrangements have been made with Benny Meents, crack Winchester professional shooter, for a little shooting program and gun talks, on Wednesday, October 10.

Mr. Meents will meet local sportsmen in the morning at the store to discuss guns and ammunition, their manufacture and uses, the right lead on targets and birds, etc, and all other things connected with the sport of shooting. In the afternoon on the Staunton Gun Club Grounds east of town, Mr. Meents will give individual instructions at the traps and will also shoot with the local men. Every one who is interested in shooting is invited to come to this shoot, for it will be well worth while. It isn't often that a shooter of Meent's caliber comes here and when he does and for the sake of shooting, it is up to every one to turn out and greet him. He is sent here by the Shooting Promotion Division of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company at the request of the Winchester Store.

On the 525 targets that Meents shot at in 1918 he averaged .8438. In 1919 Meents shot 2125 for an average of .9294 and improved so much that he tied for the class B championship in the Grand American Handicap, breaking 99x100. In 1920 he averaged .9598 on 4760 targets and had a high run of 218. In 1921 Meents had a wonderful season, averaging .9729 on 4250 targets, winning the Jefferson Hotel Cup with 50 straight in the Illinois State Tournament, and in the 18 yards amateur championship in the Grand American he tied for second with 197x200. In the shoot off he was opposed by C.A. Gunning of Longmont, Colo., S.M. Crothers of Philadelphia and E.W. Daniels of Lynchburg, Va. Seven shoot offs were necessary for Meents to win. He missed his fourth target and then continued until he won, breaking 171 straight, thereby winning the longest shoot off in the history of the Grand American Handicap Tournament.

MET WITH ACCIDENT -- John Simon and Albert Goeckel, both of our city, Saturday night at about midnight met with an accident near Mitchell. According to reports their machine was struck by another car, the impact knocking the Simon car from the road. Passing motorists found the two occupants in an unconscious condition and took them to the Granite City Hospital. Simon sustained a severe cut on his forehead requiring eight stitches to dress, while Goeckel had one of the arteries in his arm cut. While the men were being given medical attention at the hospital, someone robbed their car of the tires and a number of other valuable accessories.

INQUEST DISCLOSES NOTHING -- The mystery connected with the shooting of M. Fleischman of our city early Tuesday morning of the past week is still unsolved and indications are that it will never be solved. An inquest was held over the remains Thursday at the Carroll & Sons undertaking parlors at Litchfield, but no light was thrown on the shooting. Mrs. Frieda Fleischman, wife of the murdered man, was too ill to appear before the coroner's jury and testify, but her testimony was written at the Litchfield Hotel where she was staying. She stated that she saw her husband shot, that he attempted to protect himself and one of the two men in the kitchen shot him. The third man was outside. She testified that her husband did not fall when shot, but continued his fight, chasing his assailants out into the yard, where he called for help. The coroner's jury returned a verdict that "he came to his death from a gun shot wound fired by an unknown person." The remains were taken to St. Louis Thursday evening for burial.

HAD LEG CUT OFF -- Henry Ulrich of Williamson on Friday afternoon while employed at No. 2 mine of the Mt. Olive & Staunton Coal Co. met with a severe accident. The unfortunate man had his right leg cut off just below the knee. He was immediately taken to the St. Francis hospital, where he is getting along as well as may be expected under the circumstances.

PAID LARGE SUM -- Those indicted from Staunton and vicinity for the operation of slot machines, on Thursday of the past week paid into the county treasury, fines totalling $1266.65. These were the cases on which the grand jury returned indictments and which were certified to Judge Wood's court.

big dirigible passed here tuesday morning -- The giant dirigible ZR-1 of the U.S. Navy passed over Staunton, headed in a northerly direction, yesterday morning at about 10:30 o'clock. Although at a considerable height, many of the details of the big ship were plainly visible. Three propellers were in action driving the ship while two smaller propellers, one on each side, were evidently used for steering purposes. This is the ship which left Longhurst, N. J., Monday morning at 6:59 o'clock for St. Louis and arrived there at daylight Tuesday. Shortly after 9 o'clock the big ship again started on its homeward journey and was enroute to Chicago and Detroit when seen passing over Staunton.

BARN BURNED -- A barn on premises occupied by a family of foreigners, near No. 14 mine. Tuesday morning shortly before 10 o'clock, was discovered afire. The structure was a complete loss, as were the contents which consisted of a large quantity of hay and a truck load of grapes. It is said that a still was also found in the building and this probably caused the fire.