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About La Grande observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1959-1968 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 24, 1959)
S&indh LiVpyuie, $:, -fours.., tk auS PQ 10 O . &Man Ch icf TcC Chrisfrndr ' (EDITORS HOTS'. Ujrittd " Press lnwnatinal rectlv ask ed FBI crV J. Easar Her ' I writ a year-end reaerf I th people on crime, especial ly uvcnilt delinquency. Th No. 1 G-man responded with th fol ' lowing unusual Christmas story.) Tale Batwatn Cities By JOHN EDGAR rM T WASHINGTON i IT l - Christ !mas stories traditionally .include tinsel Ihh'J, p'um pudding, holly ' iind mistletoe. This slury has nunc: o. tlio.sc things, but it dors ! have giving and Krutitudc and an ending that miikos it, I think, u most ratifying story of that ! wonderful season when every j rnvmbvr of every family longi to ba at home. J This story hcsai about 10 days ; befo e Christmas eight years at!i. At Chambersburg, I'a., an FIJI agent, on leave from our New York office, was asked to provide Ltransoortation to the next large .-city o.i his route for a youth who had been ill and who was hope ) ful of securing a job on his ar ; rival in a distant city. The agent willingly agreed to take the boy as far as Winches ' tor, Va. Noting that his passen- ! tXT appeared to oo cxtremcfy I - young to be seeking a full-time i jtb. the agent, genuinely interest-' ed. began drawing him out, Kit ' by bit the story developed. ! The youth hud left his New Jer ; key heme, but his reasons for ) leaving proved to be very differ- ent from those of the usual run ' away. A junior in high school, ', this boy had just come out of the hospital where he had been '- confiied for a three-week pcrioJ .with a glandular ailment. His ' mother, a registered nurse by pro- fession, was widowed, the father having died before the youth was J born. The mother bore the bir- den of rearing the lad and his ' sister, and caring for her own I aged mother as well. The sis- tor had completed high school and ' secured a job. The youth felt that i he also should seek a job and thereby ease his mother's heavy J burden. So he had left his home. ' Once he had learned the boy's 1 story, the speciul agent sought to J convince the youth that his ac i tton would in no sense ease the ' mother's problems, but would add , to them, and that it would bp i -much better for all concerned if ,-he were to return to his home, i The agent, meanwhile, had learned the boy had only 20 cents, J and that he had spent the pre- vious night in a Salvation Army J barracks. i Using all his powers of persua i rlon, the young special agent at i last succeeded in convincing the youth that he should go home. As J soon as they arrived in Winches i ter, the agent purchased a bus ticket to the point nearest the , boy's New Jersey home, gave the youngster $5. wished him well ' and bade him Rood by. Thar ft uftnSjM the' end of the story. The f 81 agent drove to his home. Ila m the boy Christ mas, curd and ' wrote a. note to the mother indicating he was hap py to have been Abie to help her son. He stated that the boy's at litude, uppeard to be, commendable,- and he expressed his , hope that tho youth had arrived home sufoly, , . c'- ..' On his return to New York, the agent received a Christmas card. In it; the youth (who had run away expressed his appreciation for what had been dono for him. He would, the boy wrote, never forget tho agent or ever regret followed by a telephone call from the youth's sister, expressing gratilvtle in behalf of her mother and herself. Tho young woman advised that her brother had reached home sufely, had re turned to school, and was doing well. That ie the end of a Christmas story of a few years ago or perhaps it isn't, because an act of kindness may have wholly changed the course of a life. But aside from that, the story itaelt shines, as Shakespeare, said, "in a naughty world." And tho light from enough such can-Jlos can make a Christmas season returning home. The card was throughout tho wMo year. ' AGREE TO DELAY NEW YOHK IL'PI" The fed eral government has agreed to a , 30-day postponement of Rep. Adorn Clayton Powell's income J tax evasion trial. Assistant U. S. Atty. Morton Robson accepted the ' plea of Powell's attorney that the , celenre case could not be pre- pared by Jan. 7, the day the trial ' is scheduled to start. SEASON'S GREETINGS st to you and yours from our entire staff Union County .Grange Supply OUR WISH FOR YOU ' . PV'Chrlstmaa expecta tions happily- fulfilled! ; ' Pepsi-Cola ! Bottling Co. . .'uv, ..I. ii J. i. . We pray that the , t. . ' Spirit of Christrru may( . , : i.i i .. f stay with you forever. ' CORNER LUNCH J-Wally SILENT NIGHtli May you -fin the eace ; and calm of a dear i winter night. OREGON TRAIL GARAGE - : t Vlnion, Oregon tTi. iifv irk It f It 1 '. ' i i .' ! ' ' y : ' May each of you t have a holiday i. 4 - full of cheer, t . ' enough to latt all through .'11 the year! . ti t- , ' GENE AND THE STAFF IIYDTS SUPER I1AT1IET 'Tis the season to be merry and to voice bur sincerest wishes that this Christmas be a joyous one for you and yours ! OUR CIRCULATION FORCE WISHES YCU THE SEASON'S VERY REST! Your City Carriers John Bates Steven Vess Alan Beickel Mike Rudd David Beickel Darrell Dunham Mike Grimes Verl Anderson David Dodson UNION Dickie Puis Danny Elliott Jim Parks Kenneth Johnson Delbert Brown Thurman Elliott Street Salesmen Wesley Allen - Stan Taylor Merlin Baldwin Arthur Trice Dwayne Milliard Lafayette Trice Jr. 'Billy 1UU Craig Battrick Danny Shurtliff Douglas Trice David Trice ' Donald Kilgore Steve Nebeker . Alan Strong Dan Eldridge Frank Slyter Rod Lilly Herkie Maldonado Donald McKay Dan Sullivan Tim Dodson James Lilly John Craig David Dodge Vernon Jennings Lionel Nebeker Mike Brasure James Zeigler Bruce Peterson Your Suburban Carriers ELGIN Duane Wise Richard Wise Kathy Moles David Kennedy Shirley Wise Jim Cummings Motor Route Drivers Kenneth Leavitt Dorothy Halladay Dorothy Mattix Bill Kennedy Mailing . Room Clerks Rileji L. Allen Dennis Slyter Jean Marshall Joe Roe. Robin Pannell Mike Pannell Stephen Wylde Billy Lovan Bobby Noble Rita Sue Chaney Floyd Shenfield WALLOWA Rocky Wilson David Martin NORTH POWDER Lee Rav Flower PERRY Bobby Greninger TOM HUMES, Circulation Manager BETTY BLAKENEY. Assistant " LA GRANDE OBSERVER