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4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL September 16, 2015 O PINION LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Trump's still in debt Donald Trump has become wealthy by playing to the base instincts of people. His gambling casinos in Vegas and Atlantic City leave most people poorer and appeal to people who don't do the math. For his highly leveraged building projects, four times his businesses fi led bankruptcy instead of repaying the people who loaned him money. Even though the court ruled that he did not need to fulfi ll his promises to repay company debt, morally he still owes the debt and should pay off the people who bought his bonds and his lies. Those American retirees who were charmed and scammed by this 69 year-old Music Man would welcome the return of their investment in Trump Inc. Seeing his record, voters can guess he would push to default on US bonds to wipe out the fed- eral debt doubled by Obama. His latest bankrupt- cy was only six years ago. With net worth of $4 billion, let him make a real blessing in America by paying back the people he still owes. Larry Bottemiller, Certifi ed Financial Planner Cottage Grove Offbeat Oregon History Private manhunt ended with cold-blooded, jury-approved murder BY FINN J.D. JOHN For the Sentinel The Unwritten Law Files This column is one of a series of case studies of the early-20th-century mania for honor killings. It was popularly known as “The Unwritten Law,” and it was a social convention that permitted and/or ob- ligated a man to murder anyone whom he knew to be working to seduce his wife or sister. Unwritten Law cases arose around the country in the 1890s and were alarmingly com- mon until around the time of the First World War. Today’s column discusses one such case, which took place in Astoria in 1907. I t was a little after 6 a.m. on June 14, 1907. Dawn was just brightening the decks of the passenger steamer Alliance, docked at the pier in Astoria, when John Bowlsby saw his prey step aboard. He fi ngered the .44 revolver in his pocket and tried to stay out of sight, waiting for a chance to make his move. His chance came almost immediately. The marked man was moving away from the crowd of people, and soon he stood in a spot where Bowlsby felt he could get in a good shot without risking hitting any bystanders. Carefully he steadied the big .44 against the side of a deckhouse – and pulled the trigger. owlsby’s target, a fellow North Bend man named Cleve Jennings, died in a hospital eight hours later. Meanwhile, with his head held high, a triumphant John Bowlsby quietly submitted to arrest and handed over his revolver. Hard as it is for a modern person to believe, this cold-blooded assassination met with widespread approval. It was about as close to a pure example of “The Unwritten Law” in action as Oregon would ever see. “It was the outcome of one man alien- ating the affections of another man’s wife and was the result of a manhunt in which the hunter fi nally found his game,” wrote the Morning Oregonian’s Astoria correspondent the next day. Bowlsby was, or at least considered himself to be, a wronged husband. The man he had stalked and gunned down was Cleve Jennings, a former co-worker of Bowlsby’s wife; Jennings and Mrs. Bowlsby had both worked in a cheese factory in North Bend for a time. Bowls- by had grown suspicious of Jennings and determined to run him out of town. This he apparently did; Jennings left North Bend sometime in early 1907. Some time later, Mrs. Bowlsby (the newspaper never mentions her name) had journeyed to Astoria to visit her broth- ers; after her departure, Mr. Bowlsby had somehow heard a report that she had secretly met up with Jennings at a lodg- ing house in Astoria prior to going to her brother’s house. Immediately Bowlsby had journeyed north to pursue – and, of course, to avenge. He found his wife easily enough; but Jennings, he learned, had traveled on to Portland. Bowlsby followed but was un- able to fi nd his rival in Portland after sev- eral days’ search, so he booked a ticket back home to North Bend – via Astoria – on the steamer Alliance. It had been during the passenger load- ing at Astoria that Bowlsby had spotted his rival, who apparently was also jour- neying home to North Bend. And that is how the two of them came to be on the deck of the steamer Alliance that morning, taking part in a dramatic tableau of assassination and revenge. From the very start, Bowlsby based his defense on The Unwritten Law. He told reporters he regretted nothing. “I believe I did no more than any other man would do under similar circum- stances, as there appears to be no law to protect a man’s home and family unless he does it himself,” the unrepentant as- sassin told the Oregonian’s correspon- dent the next day. “The only regret I have is the disgrace to my son and daughter. For myself I do not care.” He blamed the affair on Cleve Jen- nings’ aged mother, who, he claimed, encouraged the affair, and on another “meddlesome old woman”; both of them, he said, “were constantly urging my wife to leave me.” The picture Bowlsby painted clearly resonated with the coroner’s jury, which not only ruled the killing justifi ed, but excoriated its victim at the same time. “The evidence shows that the defen- dant and his wife had lived together in peace and happiness for a period of over 15 years until the serpent entered their household in the shape of Cleve Jen- nings and destroyed their home,” the jurors wrote. “We are furthermore of the opinion, on account of the lack of stat- utes covering crimes of this character, that said Bowlsby was fully justifi ed in shooting the said Jennings.” The district attorney nonetheless fi led charges against him; but one gets the distinct impression that this was done as a courtesy, to secure for him a record- clearing acquittal and an offi cial declara- tion of innocence. Certainly the outcome was never for a moment in doubt. Mrs. Bowlsby had confessed to having been intimate with Jennings, and although it’s possible that she was lying to keep her husband out of prison, that seems fairly unlikely. To that jury in 1907, the case for acquittal seemed as clear and obvious as the case for conviction would be to a jury today. Please see OFFBEAT, Page 5A New information to sleep on BY JOEL FUHRMAN, MD For the Sentinel W e often fail to recog- nize or acknowledge its importance, but sleep, like a high-nutrient diet and exercise, is a crucial component of excel- lent health. As our lives become in- creasingly busy, we are sacrifi c- ing sleep: in 1942, mean reported sleep time for adults was 7.6 hours, and by 2001, the average was down to 6.7 hours. According to a poll by the National Sleep Founda- tion, 63 percent of American adults report that their sleep needs are not being met, and 43 percent report that on week- nights they rarely or never get a good night’s sleep. But we need adequate sleep to work optimal- ly in our daily activities. Why do we need sleep? Our brains work best when we are well-rested: during sleep, our brains stabilize newly formed memories, and adequate sleep promotes learning and cog- nitive performance the next day. Sleep is also essential for proper immune function. Get- ting adequate sleep regularly may reduce the severity of cold symptoms and also may main- $ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM 116 N. Sixth Street · P.O. Box 35 · Cottage Grove, OR 97424 ADMINISTRATION: JOHN BARTLETT, Regional Publisher.............................. GARY MANLY, General Manager................942-3325 Ext. 207 • publisher@cgsentinel.com ROBIN REISER, Sales Repersentative...............942-3325 Ext. 203 • robin@cgsentinel.com E. 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No subscription for less than Ten Weeks. Subscription rates are subject to change upon 30 days’ notice. All subscritptions must be paid prior to beginning the subscription and are non-refundable. Periodicals postage paid at Cottage Grove, Oregon. Postmaster: Send address changes to P.O. Box 35, Cottage Grove, OR 97424. Local Mail Service: If you don’t receive your Cottage Grove Sentinel on the Wednesday of publication, please let us know. Call 942-3325 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Advertising ownership: All advertising copy and illustrations prepared by the Cottage Grove Sentinel become the property of the Cottage Grove Sentinel and may not be reproduced for any other use without explicit written prior approval. Copyright Notice: Entire contents ©2015 Cottage Grove Sentinel. tain suffi cient numbers of natu- ral killer cells. In fact, there is some evidence that poor sleep could impair the immune sys- tem’s ability to eliminate, small, newly established tumors before they become dangerous. In ad- dition, melatonin, which is a hormone produced in response to darkness and during sleep, is an antioxidant and an inhibitor of cancer cell growth. Allowing the body to produce suffi cient melatonin is essential. Inad- equate sleep is associated with impaired learning ability, faster aging of the brain, impaired driving and work performance, overeating, obesity, elevated cholesterol, and increased risk of diabetes, hypertension and death from all causes. Plus, lack of sleep negatively affects our appearance and emotional state. Are you getting enough good-quality sleep? The precise amount of sleep required for adults has been debated and dif- fers between individuals. But, if you wake up to an alarm clock you are most likely sleep-de- prived. Here are some strategies to consider if you’d like to im- prove the quality of your sleep: you wake in the middle of the night, don’t turn on your TV, smartphone or computer; the light will turn off melatonin and cause you to feel more alert. Instead, relax, read under low light or meditate until you feel sleepy again. Minimize electronic device use at night. Smartphones, com- puter screens, televisions and tablets emit blue light, which suppresses melatonin produc- tion. Using these devices close to bedtime can disrupt sleep. If Sleep on a consistent sched- ule, going to bed at the same time every night, and waking up at the same time every morn- ing. Don’t wake up to an alarm clock if possible; the alarm Make your sleep environment as dark as possible. Don’t keep clocks that emit light or night lights in the bedroom; light- blocking curtains or a sleep mask can reduce exposure to outside light and enhance your sleep quality. Light exposure regulates our internal clock: bright light makes us alert in the morning, and a dark room at night promotes melatonin pro- duction and good sleep. Expo- sure to light soon before bed or during sleep reduces the depth and quality of sleep. Even a low level of light exposure through closed eyelids (such as a night light) can reduce melatonin production, and this disruption of our natural rhythms has ill health effects. Light exposure at night is associated with an increased risk of cancer, most strongly with breast cancer. clock wakes you abruptly and use of the snooze button can rob you of valuable REM sleep. When you wake naturally, your body prepares you during the fi nal sleep cycles by shifting hormone production—reducing melatonin and increasing corti- sol, which helps you to become alert. Minimize noise. How noise affects one’s sleep is somewhat individual, based on what is familiar and typical. Earplugs or “white noise” (for example from a fan) may help to prevent noises from disrupting sleep. Avoid alcohol and caffeine. Although alcohol may cause you to fall asleep more quickly, it reduces the quality of sleep. Caffeine also disrupts sleep, es- pecially when consumed in the evening. Exercise. Exercising regu- larly (especially vigorous ex- ercise) promotes healthy sleep, but exercise close to bedtime is usually not recommended. Sleep at a comfortable, but cooler temperature. Body tem- perature naturally drops during sleep. Sleeping in a warm room (above 75°F) or trapping in ex- cessive heat with extra blankets may disrupt sleep. Follow a high-nutrient diet. A low intake of vegetables is as- sociated with poor sleep. Those following a Nutritarian (high- nutrient) diet may get better quality sleep than people eating poorly, and therefore may re- quire fewer hours of sleep. For those who experience diffi culty sleeping, morning light exposure (or light therapy) helps normalize melatonin cy- cling as a means of establishing better sleep patterns and resolv- ing insomnia. In the mornings open the shades wide and get in a sun lit room, go outside or use a therapeutic light. Tart cherry juice, a natural dietary source of melatonin, may be an effec- tive addition. Supplementing to achieve adequate omega-3 fatty acids and zinc may also benefi t sleep. These natural methods are preferable to prescription sleep drugs, which are linked to serious problems including an increased risk of death. Dr. Fuhrman is a #1 New York Times best-selling author and a family physician specializing in lifestyle and nutritional medi- cine. Visit his informative web- site at DrFuhrman.com. Submit your questions and comments about this column directly to newsquestions@drfuhrman. com. The full reference list for this article can be found at DrFuhrman.com. 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