Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1920-09-21
AUTOS, PHONES AND MOVIES
BRING OUT COUNTRY TOWN
PHILOSOPHERS.
NO TRICK TO HURRIEDLY
ASSEMBLE IMMENSE CROWDS
Town Barber Says Lower Prices Will
Come Back When People Go Back
to Horse Vehicles and Discard
TeIephones-Heaiers and Newspa-
per Stores-Wilson's Observations.
[By C. E. wilson,.

Traer, Sept. 21.-The principal
business street of the town presented
the usual late afternoon spectacle;
half dozen cars parked in the space
-.llotted to them. two or three others
in motion, a horse drawn vehicle or
two and a few people on the side
walks or resting on benches or chairs
I set out in front of business houses or
offices-just the usual early eventn.
scene.
! Ninety minutes later it was differ
ent. A full house had attended a
moving picture show and was max
ing way for another gathering equal
ly large. The long block extending
from the electric lighted arch at the
east intersection to the other one at
the west was literally damned with
/ automobiles on both sides of the
street. Farther on a pavement
dance was in progress. The town
was full of cars and people and the
next day it was explained that all
this resulted from a plan that was
not originated until the morning OF
the day in which it was carried out.
A telephone call sent broadcast told
| the entire tributary territory of the
arrangement and they came from
miles away and nothing unusual was
thought of II. evidently except by the
outside spectator.
The same thing might happen in
most any Iowa town on equally short
/ notice, thousand or more people in
a million dollars worth or more of
automomobiles caused to assemble
with very little effort and without
any striking attraction.
"A manifestation of human pro-
gress,' said professional man the
next day after the Trear gathering.
and then he commented on the
wealth OF this country, too great for
the human mind to begin to COM
| prehend. and the impossibility of
such thing happening only few
years ago. The barber put it in a
concrete illustration when he told
how a customer asked him il his old
rates for services rendered ever
would be restored and he answered
yes, when people go back to horses
|
phones, when farm land sells for SIS
an acre and good town residences
can be built for $4,000, when SO day
is considered good money for most
skilled labor, then the old rates will
come back" The section man on his
way home after a days work put 1t
in still different language when he
said, Mister. when anything Hike
this automobile or telephone bust
ness gets started in this world it's
hell to stop"
Every now and then newspaper
story is started detailing the wonder
full healing powers Of some individual
endowed with apparently supernat-
ural ability in his line and the reader
wonders how such a thing originated
and II there is any truth at all in the
| matter. One of these is now cur
rent and concerns the alleged doings
of man living in little town which
the writer OF this visits regularly.
The description of the healer" and
his humble home is absolutely cor
rect The statement that patients
from everywhere stop there for
treatment is partially true at least.
I AS to the powers of the healer ac-
counts differ. The newspaper spec
iar gave the reader the impression
that human ailments Of the various
kinds were treated and cured, where
as the healer" makes no pretensions
of treating any other than certain
| lii -
to perhaps half a dozen. Residents
of the little town when questioned
regarding the matter generally be-
gan by denying the truthfulness of a
part of the story and later on admit
ting the rest as fact and the perplex-
ing part of it all was that no two
of those questioned agreed as to
| what was true and what was not.
| The "story" in question is that Of
the Shafstal family of Morrison,
Iowa which was published in this
paper one day last week.
The station agent In certain Iowa
town is an elderly man of quiet dis
position. not "grouchy,. but yet not
at all loquacious. He was standing
by. checking way freight as it was
being unloaded from the car. This
box is Short, remarked the train
man, lit is box of rolling pins and
two Of them are gone" "Mr. Jiggs
must have been into this boxY in
stantly replied the agent without the
| semblance even of a smile.
Two men Of mature years recently
were heard talking to each other for
at least twenty minutes the sole sub
ject being the portrayal Of the var
ious domestic troubles Of the much
abused Mr.. Jiggs.
l. Even in Iowa the farmer who
seeds down" his land expects to
have to wait until the succeeding
year for his first resulting hay crop;
not So however, in the case of q
man who farms the John E. John
son place a few miles east Of Rein
beck. A tract of this land had been
in corn for six successive years and
needed a change. An oats crop was
put in in the usual manner last
spring and clover seed sowed with
the grain. Since harvest the grass
has made such a growth that Mr..
Johnson deemed it advisable to have
fifteen acres Of it cut for hay and
it is estimated that neari y two tons
of fine clover hay per acre is being
taken off the land. This is said to
he the only instance of such thing
as first season haying in this part
of the country.
Chaplin News Notes.
Special to Times Republican.
Cha min Cent 81 Miss liz, Schina