Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1921-12-14


place of business. and what i
more CALLING to them. no longer
can they take home a nice. Juicy
steak box of groceries or some
thing else they may want in a
hurry. Now there is no store in
town that carries what they are
constantly in need Of. They must
have them sent from the neigh
boring communities and they are
compelled TO content themselves
with smoked meats, and what is
more monotonous than smoked
meat all the year around?
Sheldon is no longer the Mecca
Of the manufacturers of nation
ally advertised goods, even if
conditions for handling inexpens-
we goods are ideal. They have
learned that Sheldon contains a
lot of non-progressive, shortsigh'ed
inhabitants and, therefore, feel
that they are not worth catering
%. No live wire will ndertake to
run a business of any kind in the
place, knowing full we'll the fate
Of Barnes, Morgan and Holiday,
TO say nothing of numerous 9TH
ers.
And the townspeople are now
bitterly complaining because they
have TO buy everything out of
their community-wait for snail
ike deliveries and, as they say,
Use goods all the time that we
haven't had a chance TO see be-
fore handing over our money"
Now they also have a beastly lit
tie schooihouse, where il is diff
cult TO secure a teacher with the
necessary qualifications for teach
ing; a pitiful looking 2x4 church
instead of a handsome, solidly-
constructed one, disgraces the
village and ministers come and
ministers 90, each one, in his
turn, wishing TO get himself out
of such a depressing environ
ment. The town has just natur-
ally gone TO pot, or, gone to seed,
if that is a more expressive way
of putting it. There isn't a live
wire business man in the town,
civic improvements of all kinds
are conspicuous by their absence,
Sheldon is a 'has-been," broken
down old good-for-nothing COM
munity, where the people no long
er live, but merely exist. What
once gave evidence of some day
being an up-to-the-minute, pro-
gressive, prosperous city now lies
desolate. wasted and crumbled.
Oh, there are none so blind as
those who will not see-until too
late! Who brought about the
downfall of Sheldon? Surely not
standing old Holiday, who was
literally driven out of town by
the hypocritical scandalous, rob
bing, cheating and scurrilous
Holiday who so literally gave
credit to the home folks, who
was a civic factor for good in
every movement designed TO help
the town, who brought outside
capital to Sheldon-who in fact,
did everything for the good of his
town-the kind of a citizen whose
every move is made with a view
TO benefiting the community he
loves. Whose fault was 1t, then!
Ii was the fault of the short
sighted, grasping, ungratefui
townspeople, who in their pen
ny-wise, pound-foolish way, took
TO buying their merchandise from
the metropolitan mail-order rep
tiles. All the blame rests on
them. and on them falls the pun
ishment-the punishment of see
ing their children growing up IN
unhealthful and undesirable en-
vironments.
What a lesson there is for 9th
or towns in the downfall of Shell
don, The end is inevitable any
where and at any time, if the
home folks quit patronizing their
home merchants-if they take to
falling for the hot air, bnk' blus-
ter and billingsgate handed out
to them by the willy, shrewd and
unprincipled business-Huns who
oppress small towns-take all
give nothing, and operate in a
fashion detrimental to the inter
ests of not only the communities
into which go their goods, but
the nation itself, for all we know
that a nation can be no stronger
than its weakest section, and 1t
H.. alarms rs TO note the