Newport daily independent., 1918-01-17
SWIFTON


 turned from a months stay at Lake land, Florida.
 ! J. w. Nicholson has moved to his farm and Grover c. Coleman has rented the Nicholson home. Mrs. Frank Weddle returned to Little Rock Tuesday ofter a few days visit with her parents, MT. and Mrs. J. l.. Johnson.
 The public schools were closed this week because of the heavy snow fall and the severe weather.
 Sheriff J. M. Ivy was here on court matter Tuesday.
 F. M. Parsons has moved to his farm and Dr. G. w. Montell and fam fly will occupy the Parson home.
 Rev. M. A. Fry, pastor of the Meth odist church, has had bad attack of neuralgia for week.
 E. w. Hulen, Sr., J. L. Johnson and J. w. Winemiller have each pur- chased a tract of land in the New Home neighborhoo from Ferdinand Tonney.
 Tax collector will be at the Swifton Mercantile Company Friday and Sat- urday, January 25 and 26, to collect taxes for Glass Township.
 The so-called snowball prayer is Ia Il To ntx, and number of the letters have been received by residents of Swifton These letters are waste in postage and burden to the mails. The time and money spent by the writers ot these letters could be devoted to g better cause.-the Red Cross or Y. M c. A. for instance.
 Ernest J. Powell gave a splendid lecture at the Methodist church Fri day evening. His was the fourth number of the Lyceum Course. Ow- ing to the bad weather only a small but appreciative audience was pres ent Many of those present declared MT Powell's lecture to have been the best number of the course.
 c. c. Hawley, of Cape Girardeau, Mo-, a dredge contractor, who is work ing on the Little River drainage dis trict has taken over the digging of the main Maple Slough ditch. Stan ley Dees, who had the contract was unable to begin the work immediately owing to delays incident to war con- ditions. Several miles of the right of-way for the big ditch have beeen cut and the excavation has been made for the dredge boat Henry J. Cox who has the contract for the lateral, is making such progress as is possible under the trying conditions as have existed for some time. Between four and five miles of the lateral ditches have been cut in the upper end of the district. MT Hawley advises the commissioners that he will ship his dredging machine as soon as the rail- road company will furnish car. A committee consisting of J. W. Sallee, w. T. Altman, c. W. Price and | N. J. Moon, Jr., have taken up the matter of the Lyceum Course for next winter and are working on a plan heretofore not in practice. These public spirited young men believe that much would come to the community if the general public could be induced to attend these lectures and entertain ments and to that end they propose to raise fund by subscription suf- ficient to pay for the entire course and charge no admission. The suc- cess which has attended their efforts in this direction has been gratifying and it is to be hoped that it will be possible to have such high class en- tertainments within the reach of every man, woman and child in Glass township.
 A temperature of fourteen degrees below zero Saturday morning made new record not only for this winter but for twenty years according to many old residents. Black river was frozen from bank to bank for the first time since 1899 The heavy snow of Friday was followed by downpour of rain and sleet Sunday night The melting snow caused the roofs of nearly every business house in Swif-