Days Gone By In Staunton

Thursday, Nov. 8, 1923 -- NO. 14 MINE IS CLOSED DOWN -- Work of Cleaning Up Started Monday and Shut-down is Indefinite -- Orders were given Monday to the men employed at No. 14 mine of the Consolidated Coal Co. to clean up all coal that had been cut and to do other necessary work preparatory to a complete shut-down. As soon as this work is completed the mules will be brought to the surface and the mine closed.

At the local offices of the Consolidated Coal Co. on Monday morning Mr. Jasper informed us that the shut down was for an indefinite period and was due to no other cause than the inability of the company to find a market for their product. Oil is being used in much greater quantities now than formerly for fuel purposes and then, too, many industries which formerly operated with steam have electrified their plants. In addition to this the production facilities at most mines were greatly increased during the war period and a large number of new mines were sunk, with the result that there is now an overproduction of coal and none of the mines can operate more than a portion of the time. It is possible that the shut down at No. 14 may increase the working time at Nos 7 and 15 somewhat, although this will probably not amount to a great deal as No. 14 has done very little in the past.

For the time being the shut down at No. 14 may have a depressing effect on our city, although the work there has been so poor that its loss can have but little effect. Chances are that it will really prove to be a benefit, for the men now know that they need look for no work there and as a result will seek employment elsewhere and thus probably earn much more than they have in the past.

STOLE PARTS OFF SAW MILL -- An unknown person or persons sometime between Thursday and Sunday morning visited the Kupisch place east of Staunton and stole a number of parts off of a saw mill operated by members of the family. All of the tools were taken and practically all of the parts off of the machinery, of such size as to be easily transportable, were taken. The loss amounts to several hundred dollars. The theft was reported to Chief of Police Monday morning and an effort is being made to locate the guilty parties.

FIRED FIVE SHOTS AT MAN -- Tuesday morning, at about 2 o'clock an unknown man fired five shots at John Novak while he was lying asleep in his bed at the home of Mike Pusich where he boards. The bullets were fired through the window and three of them lodged in the pillow on which the man was sleeping. One of them struck his body, but did not inflict a wound. The bullets appeared to be .38 shorts and apparently did not have much force behind them. Up to the present no clue has been secured to the identity of the man who fired the shots.

WATCH YOUR DOG -- About ten days ago a stray dog was noticed running at large in our community and the animal gave signs of being afflicted with hydrophobia. The cur was of a rather quarrelsome nature and bit other dogs, some of which have since acted peculiarly and as a precautionary method several dogs have been shot. There is no reason to become unduly alarmed, but as a "safety first" measure it might be well for owners of dogs to watch them and if they show any symptoms of being afflicted, to have them killed.

A LETTER FROM C.A. LAMBERT -- G. V. Clementz of our city last week received a letter from C. A. Lambert, formerly of Staunton and now residing at San Bernardino, Cal. The letter was dated October 25 and says in part:

"We arrived here o.k. Sunday evening, Oct. 21, and had a nice trip although we encountered a lot of rough and muddy roads. The roads through Missouri and as far as Topeka, Kan., were good. From Manhattan, Kan., to the Colorado line we traveled in mud. Through Colorado the roads were good, except in the southern portion, where they were bad and we ran into lots of snow, from 3 to 9 inches deep. We were snowbound in the mountains, but soon got out again. We took a short cut in northern New Mexico and traveled six hours and all we saw was a jack rabbit. We went through a pass with an altitude of 9045 feet above sea level and here we had 9 inches of snow and the ground was frozen hard enough to hold up our machine.

Our Studebaker never caused a bit of trouble. Never touched the machine parts, except for oil, gas and tires. Had one puncture and one blowout. We used 4 1/2 gallons of oil, including changing of oil in crank case, and used 119 gallons of gas. We drove 2446 miles, which averages about 20 1/2 miles a gallon. We had about 500 miles of bad roads and through parts of California we had stony roads, heavy rains having washed away everything but the big rocks. The bridges were gone and we had to ford streams. We drove out here in 17 1/2 days and averaged about 140 miles per day.

"Well this a fine place to live, never cold and lots of sunshine. The nights are cool and during the day it is warm. This city is located just south of a big mountain and they have a big orange and lemon crop, the picking of which will start in about four to six weeks. A fellow who had been here several years and came here from Robinson, Ill., told me at Los Angeles yesterday that the largest crop they had here was suckers and they picked them green. They sure stick a lot of guys from the East.

SCHOOL NOTES -- Attendance figures show that the North School attended just a very little bit more regularly than the South School during October. The record for highest percentage of attendance goes to Miss Margaret Mize's room with an average of 98.34; Miss Daisy Patterson's room is a very close second with 98.31; while the champions of last month, Miss Howel's room again made an excellent showing by coming in third with an average of 86.12.

Average figures for the North and South schools are 96 and 95.81 respectively. Were it not for the bad record of a few irregulars, these percentages would be much higher. Sickness is really the only legitimate excuse for absence from school.

The First National Bank has distributed an advertising blotter among the pupils of the schools of Staunton that is unique in several respects. It is not only a useful article with a very interesting bit of copy printed on it but the message that it carries has high educational value as a lesson in thrift.