4.
EEntered at the Post Office at. Athena, Oreeon. as Second-Claas Mail Matter
VOLUME 49.
ATHENA, UMATILLA COUNTY, OREGON. FRIDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 14. 1928
NUMBER 50
MASKED
NTRUDER
MURDERS ATTORNEY
Walla Walla Hosuekeeper Is
Witness To Shooting
In Home.
Walla Walla. John W. Brooks, at
torney of Walla Walla, was shot to
.i death at 5:30 Sunday by an unidenti
fied masked man, and from an un
determined motive. Brooks house
keeper, Gertrude Burshaw, was the
only ; witness. She assumed her
duties yesterday and had no infor
mation as to Brooks' enemies or
acquaintances which would give the
officers any clew.
According to her story to Prose-
cuting Attorney Coleman, she and
Brooks were playing cards when
someone rapped on the door. Brooks
rose and moved to the door, saying
"Come in."
A masked man entered revolver in
hand. He had a red bandana hand
,kerchief over his face; two holes be
ing cut for the eyes.
Brooks held up his hands and said,
"You can have anything I have.
The intruder made no statement,
but fired twice, both shots entering
Brooks' chest. Brooks fell over on
the davenport moaning and then to
the floor.
t)r. James T. Rooks, a neighbor,
heard the shots and the screams of
Mrs. Burshaw, but thought it was
nothing serious. Then Mrs. Burshaw
called him, saying Brooks was shot,
and he hurried over. '
Officers immediately were called.
Brooks had lived alone since the
death of his wife, a member of the
pioneer Singleton family. Last year
the home of Miss Jane Singleton, his
sister-in-law, was burned to the
ground mysteriously. Brooks had de
fended many accused of liquor viola
tions, but officers say they do not be
lieve this had anything to do wich
the shooting.
Brooks was born in Ashville, N-. C.
September 9,1870, was admitted to
the bar in 1692 and came to Walla
Walla in 1893.
School Principals
Plan for Contests
Pendleton. Tentative plans for a
county declamatory contest and for
a county track meet were drawn up
Saturday morning when sixteen
principals and superintendents from
the schools in Umatilla county hav
ing three rooms or more, met with
county school superintendent J. A.
Yeager,
J. M. Burgess, superintendent of
schools in Morrow county and Harold
Brownson, principal of the McLaugh
lin high school at Milton-Freewater,
were named on a committee to organ
ize a principal's and superintendent's
club for Morrow and Umatilla coun
ties. The first meeting of this club
will probably be held in January.
It is planned to have the winners
of the declamatory contest meet win
. ners of contests in Union and Mor
row counties, superintendent Yeager
announced this afternoon.
The track meet will be held the
first Saturday in May, the principals
and superintendents decided.
Three persons represented the Pen
dleton schools at the meeting, two
the Milton-Freewater schools and
two the Umapine schools and there
was one representative here from
Athena, Adams, Weston, Helix, Forks
school, Echo, Fruitdale, Pleasant
View, and Ferndale. Hermiston, Stan
field and Umatilla were not represent
ed at the meeting.
County Agent Returns
County Agent Holt has returned
from Chicago, where he attended the
International Livestock exposition.
Agent Holt also attended the nation-'
al potato grower's conference, where
it was proposed to start a campaign
with the view to decreasing the acre
age of potatoes.
Wheat v Conference
At Arlington Is For
Water Transportation
Oregon State College. A second
general Columbia Basin Wheat Out
look conference, somewhat on the
order of the one held at Moro three
years ago but with more emphasis on
transportation by water, has been
called for Arlington, February 11-13.
This conference has been called by
the Eastern Oregon Wheat league of
which Charles B. Cox of Heppner is
president and H. B. Pinkerton, Moro,
is secretary.. The league has asked
the cooperation of the Oregon Ex
tension service in conducting the con
ference and has asked G. R. Hyslop,
head of the farm crops department
of the state college, to act as gener
al, secretary.
Discussion of a barge line down
the Columbia river with truck feeder
lines into the interior will be one of
the principal topics for discussion of
the conference. A special committee
on transportation, consisting largely
of the directors of the wheat league,
has been announced and will gather
data in advance of the conference.
Seven other committees have been
appointed with representatives on
them from the 11 counties of eastern
Oregon most directly concerned with
wheat production. The chairman and
secretaries , of committees, who will
be responsible for gathering informa
tion for consideration by the con
ference follows:
Transportation, W. H. Harrah,
Pendleton, chairman; F. L. Ballard
Corvallis, secretary, Production, til
lage and seed supply, H. B. Pinker
ton, Moro, chairman and D... C.
Stephens, Moro, secretary. Ware
housing and intermediate credit, Sam
Thompson, Pendleton, chairman, and
Dr. M. N. Nelson, ' Corvallis, secre
tary. Crop insurance, J. B. Adams,
Moro, and W. A. Holt, Pendleton.
Weed control, Perry Johnston, Con
don, and D. C. Smith, Corvallis.
Grain inspection and market news
service, Roy Ritner, - Pendleton, and
Roger Morse, Baker. Legislation,
Charles "A. Harth, The Dalles, and
Charles W. Smith, Heppner.
Journalism Contest By
High School Pupils
University of Oregon. All high
schools of the state where a school
paper is published or where the high
school students supply news to local
papers will be eligible to compete in
the uregon High bchool Press As
sociation journalism contest, foster
ed by the school of journalism -of the
University of Oregon, it is announced
by George H. , Godfrey, assistant
professor of journalism, who is in
charge of contest arrangements.
A committee consisting of Mr. God
frey,. David Wilson, Portland, presi
dent of the press conference last
year and Estil Phipps, Medford,
president this year, has worked out
details, .
Judges for the contest will be
named soon. All entries for the con
test must be sent in to the school of
journalism, at the university in
Eugene, not later than January 9.
Two or more copies of the high
school paper published this school
year, or two issues of the local paper
with school news will be required for
entry.
Announcement of winners will be
made at the annual conference ban
quet, January 12, Information and
details about the contest may be ob
tained from the school of journalism,
of the university.
ARMED FOR fTHE FIGHT
o
BUY CHRISTMAS SEALS
"Old Ironsides" Coming
To Standard Theatre
For its Christmas night program
the Standard Theatre is pleased to
offer its patrons "Old ; Ironsides,'.'
Paramount s great spectacular ver
sion of Oliver Wendell Holmes poem.
A beautiful story in which the lead
ing characters are Esther Ralston,
Charles Farrel and Wallace Berry,
appeals to the audience like a mighty
chord played to a stirring memory of
the guns of the old battleship as they
thunder again. A photoplay you will
long remember.
Tomorrow night Ken Maynard
stars in a clean Western play, "The
Canyon of Adventure," in which his
famous horse, Tarzan, has a very
-important part. Virginia Brown
Faire plays, the principal feminine
role opposite the popular Western
star, and the director is Al. Rogell,
the man who made "The Shepherd of
the Hills."
Sunday night the Standard will
feature Richard Dix and Jean Arthur
in "Warming Up" a splendid photo
play based on a thrilling baseball
story, which has been synchronized
with sound for the larger theatres.
The usual , comedies, news and
sports reels are offered in connection
with the feature programs.
Pioneer Indian Fighter
Ends Life With Gun
Storm Lashes High Tide
Lashed by the fury of reaction
' from a terrific storm at sea off the
coast Tuesday night waves and surf
from an eight and one half foot tide
presented an unusual spectacle at
Seaside. For the first time in many
years waves swept over the concrete
promenade along the ocean front for
two miles. ,
Hermiston Turkeys
Three carloads of turkeys, 8,000
birds, were shipped from Hermiston
last week to mid-west and eastern
markets. Turkey raisers from
Boardman,- Irrigon, Butter creek,
Stanfield and Echo contributed tp the
shipment.
Oldest Resident Dead
Mrs. Mary Puckett, who for a long
time has had the distinction of being
the oldest resident . of Walla Walla,
is dead at the" age of 101 years.
Murder and Suicide
Mrs. Frank Williams shot by her
husband, who afterward killed him
self, died last week at Toppenish,
Washington. The remains were
brought to Pendleton for interment.
Lured to the cellar of their home by
Williams, the wife was shot in the
abdoman. Williams went into the
yard, took a dose of strychnine, shot
himself in the head and died instant
ly. Mrs. Williams lived two davs
after the shooting. She was a
daughter of the late Gus Cornover.
Before her marriage to Williams she
was Mrs. Bellinger. She is survived
by five children, the eldest 17 and
the youngest four years of age.
Officers Ask For Reward
Tom Gurdane and C. L. Lleuallen,
officers who arrested William Edward
Hickman following a wide-flung
manhunt last year, filed a petition in
superior court at Los Angeles, seek
ing $5000 reward offered by the Los
Angeles county board of supervisors.
The petitions were an outgrowth
of an action by Los Angeles county
which asked the court to adjudicate
among the claimants and award the
money. The officers asked that they
be allowed the full amount.
Mrs. Piper In Wreck
Grandma Piper and the Kern
family of Helix, who recently left
for Long Beach, California, by motor
were In a wreck at Red Bluff, when
a truck driven by a Chinese, collided
with the Kern car at a street inter
section. Fortunately Mrs. Piper es
caped iniury; and others of the party
sustained only minor injuries.
Nehemiah McDannald, Indian
fighter and pioneer of the Walla Wal
la valley killed himself Sunday in
his log cabin home near Fruitdale by
blowing his brains out with" a shot
gun. Mr. McDannald, who was a
bachelor and lived by himself, re
cently fractured his collar bone in
a fall and refused to have medical
attention. It is believed by neighbors
that this was the cause of his self
destruction as he had declared his in
tention to commit suicide in the event
of becoming helpless.
McDannald was born in Illinois
January 24, 1849 and crossed the
plains with his parents in 1865. The
family settled in the Walla Walla val
ley and in 1866 his father built the
log cabin in which the tragedy oc-cured.
4 Influenza Epidemic
Influenza is 'epidemic in Athena and
vicinity, but as yet it has not ap
peared in virulent form, although
a number of cases have been serious.
The Floyd Pinkerton family were all
ill the fore part of the week, but are
on the way to recovery now. Mem
bers of the E. A. Dudley family were
seriously ill, especially Mr. Dudley,
for a time was threatened with
pneumonia. The Louis Stewart
family are recovering, and also
many others, though new cases are
constantly being reported.
"Honker" Dinners for Friends
Athena relatives and friends of
Harry Keller enjoyed wild goose din
ners, Sunday. Harry, who in com
pany with his friend, Charles .Tavlor
at Bend, went hunting provided the
"honkers" for the festive boards; The
birds were genuine wild geese, not
Canadian brants, and tipped the I
scaies at oMt pounas, dreg&Sd.
Uses For Christmas'
Seal Money; Locally
Umatilla County has in 1928 re
ceived the benefit of $4000.00 health
service through the cooperation of
the County Court and the County
Health Association. $2200.00 is in
the; County Budget, with which the
salary of County Nurse is paid
?4uu.uu ol this amount is for ex
penses. The remaining $1800.00 is
contributed by the County Health
Association. A large part of this
amount is money from the sale of
Christmas Seals.
This year more than 4000 examina
tions have been made among the
children of school and pre-school age.
More then 900 children are having
goiter prevention measures administ
ered in the schools in the East end
of the county as a result of the goiter
survey made by the county nurse and
a practicing physician.
Many needed corrections for the
ears, eyes, nose, throat, and teeth
have been cared for by parents fol
lowing the nurses visits into the
schools.' 23 of these corrections have
been financed by the Health Associa
tion. The Christmas Seal has been called
"America's Great Yuletide Gift to
Her Children."
Children Drown In
A Columbia Slough
A heartrending tragedy occured
across the river from 'Umatilla, on
the Washington side of the Columbia
river, Sunday afternoon when two
children, Wolfton aged 7 and Tiny
aged 5, little son and daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. 'Clyde Wilson, lost their
lives by drowning in an ice covered
slough.
The little ones had attended Sunday
school in Umatilla, and crossed over
on the ferry on which their father
is employed, and as he thought pro
ceeded on homeward. Instead of go
ing home, the little ones loitered to
skate on the slough. The mother
thought that the children were with
their father, and he supposed . they
were at home. In the evening when
he went home, search was immediate
ly made for the children.
Just as darkness was creeping on,
the searching party found the chil
dren in the slough, waist-deep in the
ice. Their little bodies side by side,
and their faces in the water.. Their
hands showed that they clutched the
broken ice which went under with
their weight.
Athena Hi Splits 50-50
With Adams High In
Season's First Game
The boys and girls' teams of Ath
ena high school split 50-50 with
Adams high school in the first games
of the season on the local gym floor,
Friday evening.
Athena girls lost to Adams by the
narrow margin of one point, 18 to 19,
The boys won over the Adams con
testants in a closely played game by
the score of 21 to 18
The Adams girls took the lead in
the first quarter, but gradually Ath
ena, through the effective work of
Francis Cannon, ' forward, steadily
gained Until only one point divided
the teams at the end of the fourth
period.
mi l i m i ,
xne Adams Doys displayed some
clever team work in the first half.
demonstrating the result of early
season practice, which the Athena
team did not have advantage of. In
the second half Athena began to
steam up and for awhile the score
seesawed back and forth in each
others favor. Finally a couple of
lucky throws in the last few minutes
of play cinched the game for Athena.
Tonight on the home floor. Athena
plays a double header with the
Eagles and the Jokers, two teams
from Walla Walla. The Touchet high
school boys and girls teams are
scheduled to play Athena in the home
gym next Wednesday evening. The
first game of all double headers is
scheduled to begin promptly at 7:30.
Eddie Buck of Walla Walla, will
referee the games and the general
admission price of 35 cents will prevail.
Oregon State College
. arm Market Review
The general wheat situation did
not change much last week. Pacific
coast markets were . fairly steady.
Wheat exuorters were renorted Iash
active buyers, but export millers
continued to take wheat to supply a
good Oriental flour demand. Cali
fornia white wheat was ouoted un to
$1.35 at Los Angeles. Japanese
flour mills are also taking more
wheat because of inmroved demand
in China, and prices for wheat and
flour advanced there during Novem
ber. ,
Japanese wheat imnorts. from nil
sources, from July 1 to October 30,
total 5,047.000 bushels comDared to
3,481,000 last year in the same
period. Domestic soft red winter
wheat markets were about steady.
Good- milling hard red winter, hard
red spring and durum, generally held
steady but premiums on higher pro
tein were not auite so firm and nonr
grades of these wheats weakened
somewhat.
The new United States winter
wheat crop is unofficially reported to
oe aDove average in condition but
nearly 3 per cent less in acreage
than last year. Excent in the Pa-
cific northwest, winter wheat is re
ported to be in very good condition
generally.
Preliminary renorts from Russia
indicate an average acreage of win
ter cereals with condition above aver
age. Estimates on the new south
ern hemisphere production indicate
smaller crops than the early unofficial
reports. Drought in narts nf Ann.
tralia appears to have cut down the
yieia materially and since holdover
stocks were very small, it seems that
the Australian exportable surplus
may not be greatly in excess of last
year.
Stocks of wheat in North A
terminal markets continue heavy
about 330,000,000 bushels. Although
Canadian exports have been heavy,
United States exports have been
light, and the total exports from
North America are not quite up with
last year's record.
Acreage Signed Up
t A large number of bench land
fanners attended the seed pea meet
ing held Saturday afternoon in Wes
ton. Considerable acreage was sign
ed up at the meeting, but the total
is still short of the two thousand
acres desired. The visit of a repre
sentative of the Washington-Idaho
Seed company of Spokane is expect
ed daily.
Leg Is Cruxhed
Nelson St. Dennis is at St.
Anthony's hospital in Pendleton h
cause of a crushed leg as the result
of a team running away on the ranch
where he was employed.
Is Non-Committal
Miss Cornelia Marvin otofo n.
- - J MVWVt
brarian, is non-committal towards the
rumor that she is to be married to
Ex-Governor Walter M. Pierce. "I
have nothing whatever to say in re
gard to the matter," Miss Marvin
said, "and I do not see whv nnvth!nr
should be said. Any matter that
deals with my affairs as state li
brarian in a public capacity may be
of interest to the public. As to any
thing dealing with my personal af
fairs, that is purely personal and I
iau to see where the public should
be interested in it." .
High Wind Storm
A wind storm of high velocity pre
vailed in this section Sunday night,
filling houses with ' dust, tearing
limbs from trees and tumbling loose
articles about indiscriminately. At
the W. J. Crabill home in the north
part of town, the chicken house was
blown down and completely wrecked.
Umapine Hall Burns
The Pastime pool hall at Umapine
was totally destroyed by fire recently.
The building and fixtures were own
ed by Paul Nack of Walla Walla.
Guy Bechtel, the proprietor of the
place, lost his barber chair and tools.
There was an insurance of $1C00 on
the building and fixfuc's.
BUSIER IS AFTER
THE VANDAL JOB
Former Athena Coach May
Become the Mentor
For Idaho.
Boise, Idaho. Loren H. Basler, ex
center at Willamette university and
now coach at Boise high school, is
one of four coaches mentioned as the
next tutor at University of Idaho.
Vandal alumni here who have been
watching Basler's eleven win cham
pionship honors the last two seasons,
winning 18 straight victories and
running up a total of 607 points
against 40 by opponents, are behind
him to succeed Charles Erb, present
Idaho coach, who is expected to re-
sign this year.
Robert L, Mathews, ex-Vandal and
Willamette coach, and who was at
the Bearcat institution when Basler
was playing; Henry Trotter head
track and field coach at University
of California at Los Angeles, Anse
Cornell, present coach at College of
Idaho, and Basler are the four
names appearing as possible Idaho
coaches to replace Erb. The resigna
tion of Erb though, hasn't as yet
been received.
Anse Cornell, ex-quarterback star
at the University, of Oregon and who
tutored the College of Idaho eleven
to the Northwest conference, seems
to have an inside edge for the Van
dal position, according to alumni.
However, there are plenty to support
Basler, especially alumni who live
here. Basler has been at Boise four
years, spending the first two build
ing his machine, which has rolled un-
defeated in the last 18 games. Bas
ler entered his coaching career at
Athena high school, Athena, Or., and
while there won the eastern Oregon
football and basketball championship,
an attainment which Athena never
before had reached. He then went to
Lewiston, Idaho, and in two years he
placed his team in a game for the
state championship only to see it
lose in the last 20 seconds of play.
Basler played at Willamette from
1918 to 1921 and was heralded at
that time by Mathews as being the
greatest roving center he had ever
coached.
Turkey Shcot Sunday
py Athena Gun Club
The Athena Gun Club will sponsor
a turkey shoot on the local grounds,
Sunday, beginning at 10 o clock, a. m.
The traps have been put in fine con
dition for the occasion and shells
may be purchased on the grounds.
The scatter guns will begin crack
ing promptly at 10 o'clock. A
choice coljection of birds have been
secured for the event, and prime mut
ton will also be available for those
who desire to shoot for it.
Bert Ramsay is chairman of the
fuel committee and will see to it that
a big supply of old railroad ties are
on hand to keep a rousing fire going
at all times to keep the gang warm
and in good humor.
Iodine Tablets In Schools
Miss Edna Flanagan, county
health nurse, reports that through the
interest of the teacher at Cayuse, the
nutritive iodine tablets were put in
the schools to be given on the con
sent of the parents, the school
board paying for the tablets. There
are now in this county 14 schools
that are using the nutritive iodine
tablets. These are given to children
with normal thyroids as a prevention
of goiter oniy. In each school, the
school board is paying for the tablets
and they are given only on consent
of the parents.
A Big Land Deal
A land deal involving over $200..
000 and representing one of the larg
est transactions completed for some
time in this county, is announced in
the sale of the Karl Kupers 740 acre
rancn near Helix to Mrs. Carrie B.
Rogers of Pendleton, who in turn
has sold a half section of reservation
land to S. R. Thompson, a quarter
section to Harold Barnett and nnH en
tirely disposed of her reservation
holdings.
I'arent-Son Banquet
Arrangements arc comnlnU-d for
the parent-son banqaet to be held
rtday evening, December 21 at the
Athena Hotel. This bannuet is in
the form of a get-together meeting
ior tne community and to get a
representative eroun nf men Viohlnd
the troop for the coming year, and to
discuss scout problems in general.
Pussy-Willows Found
F, A. Hartzer; state forest ranger,
came to Walla Walla . from Lewis
peak, not far from Toll Gate, report
ing practically no snow and brought
with him some pussy-willows in
blobm. .