The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-12-17
B|LL|KEN FUND IS
 STARTED FOR GIRL Creator of Grinning God Will Be Substantially Aided 5000 WILL BE RAISED Pioneer Threshernan, Who Lives West of Spokane, Has Threshed Near
 iy 100000 Bushels of Grain
 In Ills Lifetime.

Spokane, Wash, December 16-(Spe- cial l)-Pretty Florence Pretz, creator of billilken, "God-of-T Things -As-They-O Ought To-Be,'', little dreams that the idol she banished from her modest home at Kan sas City because he proved an ungrateful wretch to his maker, meanwhile bringing luck to scores of thousands of worshippers at his shrine, has pleasant surprise in store for her. The ridiculous, grinning fetish will bring recognition of substan- tial kind for her. if the movement to be launched in Spokane is as successful as It's promoters expect 1t to be.
 Arthur W. Jones. secretary of the One Hundrey and Fifty Thousand club of organized as the Quarter Million club on the evening of January IS. is planning a , small assessment on the BOO members of the organization, also 1000 candidates to be initiated that night, as a nucleus of a billiken fund. A committee of 25o will then make canvass of the homes and offices of lumbermen, mine operators, railroad builders, bonanza wheat ranch CTS, apple growers, land owiers and oth-
 
 than cents for every clay idol found on the premises.
 We expect to raise not less than 5000 before the close of the campaign" said MT. Jones in outlining the plan. land every penny of 1t will be forwarded to Miss Pretx, in the event she desires to re- sume her art studies. The brave girl belongs to us as much as if she were a native daughter of the City Beautiful and we hope to be able to change her keen disappointment over losing control of her creation to joyful realization of things as they should be. and prove that after all billiken, now repudiated,. is in deed her god of good fortune"
 Pioneer Thresherman.
 Statistics compiled from personal diary kept by A w. Busby, pioneer thresher- man and rancher in Kittitas county, Washington. west of Spokane, show that he has threshed a total Of 1.o2o.0s3 bush- els of grain since 1872, as follows: Wheat. so4752; oats, b17.o0; barley, 8pe. .257. His earnings are placed as $75s22 .se. with ex- penses at $47. .4s5.72, leaving a profit of ga. | three threshing machines since 1908. and in that time threshed 2e6,ss4 bushels of 1 grain, or an average f44ss4 a year. The machines were operated 226 days dur ing the six years. the average profit be- ing more than $76o for . season of S7A 1 days. It Is estimated that Busby has threshed approximately 60 per cent of the grain grown in the Kittitas valley during the last 87 years, since which time, he re. ports, there has never been a crop fail l uro. He Is preparing to increase his forces in 1910, when he expects to do com mercial threshing in the districts adjoin- ing Kittitas county.
 Great Apple Show.
 Preliminary arrangements have beer completed by the Spokane chamber ol I commerce to finance the third Nationa Apple show in this city the middle of No vember or early in December, 1910, whef 1t Is purposed to make a larger and bet ter exhibition than ever before, with from ss5.0Oo and $60,000 in premiums. The sec ond show cost $44.000 or $100o less than tn, total fund appropriated by the people O.
 Spokane. That 1t was not money-mak ing enterprise Is evidenced by the state ment that the expenses of the show wer, no more than $22.0o0 above the receiptl from admissions and concessions. N charge was made for entries in the varl ous competitions ranging from the car
 load sweepstake of $1500 to prizes of s
 for single plates of apples, nor were com
 petitors required to pay for exhibition space. R. H. Rice, secretary-managsr
 will leave for Denver early in Januar, to attend the Colorado show, afterwart making an extended tour of the orchard districts in easterns southern and middle | western states