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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 9, 1955)
Is That So? Peaceful, placid as a snow- covered mountain slope may seem, Inherent within the piled up snowfield are tremendously destructive forces: and this com ing winter and spring tens of thousands of avalanches made of this soft yielding snow will carry trees, rocks, houses, ani mals everything before them to destruction. Against the fury of these thunderbolts of snow, man is suddenly reduced to a match stick. . TJe makings of these destruc - tive snow torrents are simple: a slope steeper than 20 degrees; an accumulation of snow, layer upon layer, heavy enough so that the force of gravity is stronger than the force of adhe sion; and an impulse. That is all and the snowfield wrinkles, slips and slides, growing in size nd speed with frightening , ra pidity. The slightest impulse can trig fir this terrible fury: the tread of a snowshoe hare, the thud of (tt, falling pine cone, the happy (ihout of a skier, a puff of wind, a. train whistle, the vibration of the steel rails, or a distant roll of thunder. Once started, nothing can hin der this sliding mass from fall . Ing with tremendous force and i burrying everything beneath it. The speed often exceeds 100 miles an hour; the mass, in some " avalanches, has been estimated to contain five million tons of snr. If the valley into which it slides is narrow, its level may be raised hundreds of feet by a single slide. The snow's swift down-rush generates its own wind a ter Vific wind, the force of which, - at its worst, may surpass that of any tropical hurricane. It is strong enough to up-root trees and blo down houses a hun dred yards beyond the avalanche itself. Such a wind has been known to topple stone church steeples and annihilate villages, like Randa in the Alps, the blast scattering houses like chaff, O even lifting stones and carrying them 00 feet up mountainsides. As to be expected, this tre- mendous force is accompanied ly sound: first, far up, as the white surface crinkles and be- jgj(ns to move, there is a whisper mg hiss which quickly grows in volume. Within seconds, as the Court Records DISTRICT COURT Frederick Ernest Krugffel. violation of the basic rule. $12.51). Howard Elliott Bush, failure to yield right of way. S10. Raymond F. Coulter, overload. $24. Ronald Mansell James, failure to top at a stop sign, $10. Jerry Ross Conner, deiective muf fler. S15. - .. - - John Colbie O'Brien, failure to op erate on the right side of the high way. S7.50. Lloyd Joseph Mynatt. failure to stop at a stop sign, $10. Coy Gibson Gunter. no operator s license. M. Ted Shimek. overload. S60.50. George Milton Mclntyre. no muffler, 910. Frances Allen Miller, overload, $263. Francis Allen Miller, failure to stop at stop sign, $10. Edmund Thomas Campbell, passing with insufficient clearance, $10. Charles William Myers, failure to top at a stop sign, $19. Alva Arron Wright, overload. $50. Jack Byrol Houghton, improper hunting license, $15. Marvin Dwayne Froche. inadequate muffler, $15. CIRCUIT COURT Carolyn J. Harnden vs. William A. n.mil.n rfivnrra pnmnlnint. Barbara Jean Shinn vs. Beryl Fay Bmnn, divorce compiaim. , Golda Elvina Upchurch vs. Glenn H. Upchurch. divorce' complaint. MARRIAGE LICENSE APPLICATIONS Edwin John Malloy. 40. Butte Falls, and Betty Jean KidwelL 27. of 536 Haven it. POLICE COURT Pearl Eileen Anderson, violation of basic rule. $10. Joy Olivia Bessonette, violation of basic rule, $10. Charles S. Stevenson, disregarding traffic signal, $5. Ralph Lincoln Lohse, violation of ' basic rule. $10. Fay Harvey Unruh, violation of bas is: rule. $10. Lloyd Edmus Dyer, failure to stop at stop light. Ernest Math Goltl. failure to stop fc at ston lisht. S3. John William Childers, violation of basic rule, $10. to DISTRICT COURT William Thomas Britt, failure disnlav PUC plates. $15. William Ralph Morgan, truck speed ing. $15. Dwain Allen Richardson, overload, $117. Glen Ames Langdale. no mud guards S15. (Bail foreiture). William Hosken Hansen, failure to operate on the right side of the "highway, $10. (Bail forfeiture). Roscae Theodore Arent. passing with insufficient clearance, sio. James Curtis Donahue, overload. $56. Wood row Wilson Coxwell. drunk on a nublic hishway. $15. Hugh Donald McClure. failure to tage venison. a.uu. Elmer Lee Gouker. no clear ance liehts. $ll. (Bail forfeiture). Delmer B. Gillispie. no emergency brake. $10. (Ban lorreiture) Ernest George Bursing, no emer gency brake. $10. Richard Klimek. overload. $27.50. Carl Adrian Nickelson. violation of basic rule. $30. CIRCUIT COURT Msrgaret T. Smith, vs. Clarence L. Smith, divorce complaint. - -Winifred Maxine Weixel. vs. Theo dore Weixel. divorce complaint Virginia Etta Shilzony. vs. Victor Arpad Shilzony. divorce complaint. MARRIAGE LICENSE APPLICATIONS Sidnev Fred Rapp. 24. Spokane. nd Shirley Phyllis Sullivan. 20, of 713 Oak St. Br EUGENE BURNS Ranger-Naturalist thousands upon thousands of tons of snow come hurtling down with ever-increasing terri fying speed, the hissing grows In the Day's News into a deafening rear in which even the snapping of great tree trunks goes unheard. .And then as the snow settles, within min utes, all is engulfed in tranquil ity, a silence in which an es caped chicadee's call comes loud and clear. Of the many avalanches, two are most common: first, the so called dust avalanche of winter which is due to an overloading of powder-dry snow and is often started by winds; and, second, the even more common type which occurs in the spring when melting snows make the moun tain slopes so slippery that masses of snow, ice, rock and earth are carried down by their own weight. Of the two, because it comes unexpectedly, the dust powder .avalanche is the more dangerous it is difficult to guard against it. , Most of the earth's avalanches occur in the European Alps. In the U.S., the eastern mountains have few because snow seldom lies deep enough and most of the slopes are wooded with few open slopes long enough or steep enough to be dangerous, but in the west, particularly in the high Rockies, hundreds of slides oc cur each season. It is nature's way of disposing of heavy snow falls. Fortunately, most occur in uninhabited areas. V Trains Swept Away :': Curiously, I have been a rang er in two widely separated areas in the U.S. where two of the most dangerous avalanches oc curred: one in Franconia Notch, N H., which wiped out a resort area: and a second in the state of Washington, at Wellington, where two trains, three large locomotives, the station building and a water tank were swept over a ledge into a canyon 150 feet below with about 90 people killed. During this same win ter, 1910, 17 avalanches involv ing destruction of life or prop erty, or both, were reported in the ' mountains of . Washington, Idaho and Montana. The greatest avalanche disas ter occurred during World War II. Qn December 13, 1916, while Italian and Austrian troops were maneuvering against each other in the Dolomites, a warm wind sprang up and within a single day, 105 avalanches occurred, bringing death to 10,000 most of whose bodies were not recov ered until the melting snow un covered them the following sum mer. In the open path of a big ava lanche man can do little to save himself. If he finds himself on top of it, however, he should make swimming motions with arms and legs in order to reach the edge of the avalanche a few have ridden them down, and lived. (Copyright. 1953. by Eugene Burns) -(Released by McClure Newspaper Syndicate) Free: By special arrangement with the editors of the Encyclo pedia Americana, my panel" of judges will award each week to the reader who sends me the best true-life nature adventure, the best nature observation, or the best question on nature and wildlife, a complete 30-volume set of this world-famous refer ence work in a handsome Seal craft binding. Each week new submissions will be considered. Sorry, I simply cannot answer your many friendly letters. Please address your letters to: IS THAT SO! care Medford Mail Tribune, Box 575, Sausalito. Calif. By FRANK JENKINS Russian building experts who are presently touring the United States visited a housing development in the Boston sub urb of Braintree. They wert fascinated by an electric oven built into the wall at eye level to make things easier for the housewife. They gathered around the gadget and Oh'd and Ah'd and pointed and talked and admired. It was obviously as strange to them as a man from Mars would be if he showed up unexpectedly in the middle of an American Main street. 11HIS IS the point: The wall oven idea was though up by some American free enterpriser who wanted a new selling point for HIS OVEN, so that he could sell more ovens than his competitor. Nobody would ever have thought up such a thing in Russia. WHY NOT? ''In Russia all the ovens are the GOVERNMENT'S ovens. You take 'em or leave, 'em. The government doesn't HAVE to think up new selling points for its ovens because it has all the ovens there are. If you don't like its ovens you just DO WITHOUT an oven. That's the difference between socialism and free enterprise. INCIDENTAL information: The census bureau says the fastest increasing segments of America's population are chil dren, older people and non whites. It adds that the number of women continues to grow faster than the number of men. (In the golden days there were about 99.4 men for each 100 women. There are now, accord ing tb the census bureau's statis ticians, about 98.5 men for each 100 women.) WHY CHILDREN are increas " ing is perfectly simple. More babies are being born..Older people are increasing because people live longer in these days. Non-whites are increasing be cause on the average they have larger families than whites. " Why are women increasing? It may be Divine Providence. The men have made a mess of a lot of things. More women may be the answer. . - - SPEAKING of population: . A Sacramento dispatch says California's population is mount ing so rapidly that the state statisticians are having trouble keeping up with their own pre dictions. The California department of finance has taken' another look at. prospects for 1960. The report says the outlook is for 14,500,000 residents . five years hence! as compared with the prediction of CJIl r' ' J Sunday, October 9, 1955 MEDFORD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNE FIVE REUNITED WITH DAUGHTER JASMIN, Prince Aly Khan shows her around his Paris house after she arrives in France : with mother, Actress Rita Hayworth, who divorced prince, then married Crooner Dick Haymes from whom she is sep arated. Aly refused to discuss reconciliation. ''. .jna.) Funds Coming In For Youth Drive Ashland Contributions for the Ashland-Talent Youth Activi ty drive are coming in steadily but the cooperation of every citizen is needed to reach the goal, according to Gordon C. Hays, drive chairman. ' Goal for the drive is $14,300 which will be divided among the Girl scouts, Boy scouts, Camp fire girls and YMCA of Ashland and Talent. ',' Hays pointed out that youth groups such a the Boy scouts provide a good way to combat juvenile delinquency and to en courage better citizens of to morrow. Money, collected by the drive, will aid such groups to in clude more youngsters, Hays said. . ' . " 14,000,000 made last year. At the same time, figures for 1965 were upped from 15,500, 000 to more than 16,250,000. WHAT DOES that add up to? It adds up to this:" ' MORE CLOSE - AT - HAND CUSTOMERS FOR THE PROD UCTS OF SOUTHERN ORE GON. .. Cordy Recommends Peach Spray Use Peaches should be sprayed be fore Oct. 22 for control of leaf curl and peach blight, C. . Cordy, county horticultural ex tension agent said Saturday. Where .leaf curl has been a problem, the spraying process should be repeated in mid-winter. Instructions for mixing spray are as follows: For each 100 gallons of spray use seven pounds spra-cop, or five pounds COCS, or five pounds ortho-cop, or five pounds copper A. In air blast sprayers increase the dos age of fixed cop per 50 per Cent. For small srayers use one quarter pound of any of the above materials in three gallons of water. A good sticker is essential, Cordy said. Use two quarts of summer oil or one third pint of spreader depositor per 100 gal lons. Mix sticker and neutral copper with a little water and pour into partly filled tank with the agitator running. Where peach blight was a ser ious problem this year, trees should be sprayed immediately and again in early November. Deadline Oct. 19 For Applications Applications for competitive examinations for Naval Re serve Officers Training corps candidates must be filed with the Educational Testinff sprvtpp in Princeton, i N. J., prior to Nov. 19, 1955. The 10th annual examination for high school seniors and srad. uates interested in attending col lege and training for careers as otticers in the navy or marines will be held at Medford high school Dec. 10. Successful can didates will start training in 1956 at 52 colleges and univer sities throughout the country. Examinations here will be for valley youths interested in NR OTC as well as for those from Yreka to Roseburg. Some 40 ap plicants participated in the tests last year here. About 1,800 candidates will Annexation Hearing Scheduled Nov. 1st A public hearing of annexa tion of property owned by Ben ton Smith and Odell Larson on the northeast and southeast cor ner of Murray st. and Columbus ave. will be held at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 1, instead of Nov. 8 as pre viously published. The hearing was originally to be scheduled for the first city council meeting in November, but through an error, Nov. 8 was inserted in the ordinance calling for the hearing. The date has been corrected to read Nov. 1. Geysers exist in many vol canic regions of the world such as Japan and South America, but their greatest development is in Iceland, New Zealand and Yel lowstone National Park, Wyoming. be selected for appointment as midshipmen from those eligible between 17 and 21 years of age. Application blank are avail able naval reserve and recruit ing offices here. MONEY GROWS quickly when invested here . . . where INSURED SAFETY and LIBERAL EARNINGS await your savings. Open an account tomorrow and get these worthwhile savings from now on. FIRST FEDERAL SAVINGS & LOAN ASS'N of Medford 27 North Holly To Those Who Save An Institution Dedicated AT YOUR' HOf.lE : 11111 M i , ;k! Will AIR CONDITIONER Want winter warmth and summer cooling' from a single, all-electric unit? Get the indoor climate control of the future, the Westing house HEAT PUMP. It cools and dehumidifier your home in hot weather, heats it when days are cold. The HEAT PUMP also filters dirt, pollens, lint and dust from the air. Brings in and conditions outdoor air for freshness Provides healthful buooc circulation day and night. Get your HEAT PUMP installed today t TROWBRIDGE & FLYNN 214 W. Main Phone 2-5211 Westini&ouse Alft'COMHTIONING Daily's U-Drive Medford Airport WATCH FOR HARD UiECl Preview IMlight FALL HARVEST ACT NOW! . Limited TIME Limited QUANTITY Model AD1 FULL SIZE Holds 18 lbs. Damp Load . o v-"'-: FAST DRYING Direct Air Flow System o . FULLY. AUTOMATIC Low Down Payment o Easy Terms you cam si SURE.f.if irk "VVstin0house mm 214 West Main St. ELECTRIC COMPANY MM Phone 2-5211
