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TWO MEDFORD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNE
Sunday, December 25, 1955
Judge Goldstein Sets
Jury Verdict Aside
Judge Barnett Goldstein
Thursday set aside a jury ver
dict which gave a S500 judgment
to Robert Voris. Voris brought
suit against E. W. Ekman, Med
ford, for a S"50 real estate com
mission which he alleged Ek
man owed.
In setting aside the verdict,
Judge Goldstein said the jury
should have returned a verdict
granting the 5750 or nothing.
Goldstein said the two contracts
stating the agreement between
Ekman and Voris were not in
Qagreement, as one stated the
amount f commission to be
paid ana the other did not.
Retrial has been set for next
rrgnth.
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Their Best Wishes
for a "
and a Most Prosperous
NEW YEAR!
Is That So?
Nothing on this earth can be
more enchanting than the first
fall of snow with its sudden and
magical transformation of every
thing it touches. Yet soft as it is,
there's hidden in it a mailed
fist.
The first snow's coming is
eerie: steely skies lower, gray
clouds hang with a great envel
oping stillness. Then a few
flakes flutter down without
sound. The air fills until one can
scarcely see across the valley.
And winter's first snow is on
As the flakes fall into the
swirling back river, they melt
instantly the river rushes om
inously on. As they fall on the
evergreens, thev cling and soon
powdered breaches bend with
their weight of snow. In the stark
hardwoods, last spring's robin's
nest grows a cocked peaked
roof. A veil is drawn over the
4 k
stones. Irrigation ditches soften
into gentle slopes. Each fence-
post is crowned with a diadem.
The familiar cluster of nearby
roofs takes on a strange appear
ance.
Study the first great flakes to
lie unmelted on your coat sleeve.
With a hand lens, their beauty
will be revealed the most deli
cate ' and fleeting perfection in
nature. Thoreau called them "the
sweepings of heaven's floor."
Although the patterns are seem
ingly endless in varying details,
yet the basic design will be the
same that of a hexagonal star,
its parts divisible by six or three.
Night comes with a subdued
excitement underlying. It is
snowing. The miracle of snow.
First To Look
Who can resist the windows
in the morning? Everyone wants
to be first to look at the new
strange world. There is an all
pervading brilliance of white
ness. The outdoors seems sud
denly enlarged; and in contrast,
the rooms suddenly become
smaller, but cozier. Dawn has a
new inner glow and all is shot
through with blue shadows, and
By EUGENE BURNS
Ranger-Naruraliit
as the sun lifts, it finds a mil
lion diamonds.
Beautiful as it lies over tree,
and rock, and housetop and last
season's robin's nest, this snow
cover is not to remain un
touched for long. Comes the wind
to whirl up the flakes and quick
ly and easily throw them into
new sculptored patterns, piling
curving banks there, wavy
peaks here, and long hollows
there and never was artist
more dexterous than the wind,
nor his medium, the snow, more
malleable. And, as wind leaves
off, there is, all over again, a
new-shaped world.
Falls then the night again
swiftly, the chilled silence of
winter night, and twinkling stars
step forth with a grandeur and
sparkling brilliance unmatched.
Summer never knew of such
skies.
In the forest, the snow was al
ready inscribed the first day. As
one enters the woods, footprints
are to be identified the leap of
a cottontail, the tracks of a
pheasant with the wingbeats
where it took off from the snow,
the tracks of a deer mouse with
tail dragging. Romances are
here too to be interpreted; and
there are silent tragedies to be
read where a great owl on soft
wings swooped down on an easily-seen
meadow mouse. But red
berries, too, are now more easily
seen by the birds.
Snow Actually Warm
Cold as the snow may seem,
actually it is warm. Fluffing out
feathers or fur, the small crea
tures find in the snow shelter
and stay warm. And it also con
serves the earth's banked
warmth and thus protects roots
from frost-heaving.
Yet hidden in that delicate
seeming blanket of snow is cruel
power. It can melt, then freeze,
making a hard crust hard
enough for a wolf to run over,
yet too weak to support a deer.
Or the same crust may hold im
prisoned a grouse which sought
warmth and shelter and now has
no food. But that crust, too, can
serve as a stepladder for the
snowshoe rabbit, turned white,
so that he can reach up and
get new tips and buds to stave
off hunger which is already mak
ing inroads on his stored tallow.
Quickly melted, that snow can
start floods; or hold ' stored
moisture against summer's
drought.
But how fickle, the human.
Should the snow last a week, he
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..yfiyiBiwyi-H
; MILK PRODUCERS LEAGUE
of
JACKSON COUNTY
Suit Brought Against
Highway Department
Salem U.R) Seventy-two
employees of a Lane county lum
ber mill filed suit against the
State Highway department here
Friday seeking damages totaling
$9,375.20 for loss of wages.
The employees charged the
department with setting off a
blast near the Consumers Co
operative association plant at
Swisshome which destroyed a?!
transformer and forced the mill
to close down from Jan. 5 to Jan.
17, 1955.
The suit was brought in Mar
ion County Circuit Court b'y
Elmer Ballard for himself and
71 other workers at the mill.
becomes restive; in a fortnight,
he is heartily sick of the old,
grey tiresome , stuff. Forgetting
so soon that the deeper the snow
often the richer the year. And
forgetting that always under
neath the snow spring is hiding:
next year's white dogwood and
red rose; next year's waterfalls
to refresh a parched landscape.
All is there, in these first hexa
gonal snowflakes, twirling down,
gathering in numbers, whitening
the sky and transforming the
earth as by magic.
(Copyright, 1955, By Eugene
Burns Released by McCluro
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 wild
life, a complete 3.0-volume set of
this world - famous reference
work in a handsome Sealcraft
binding. Each week new sub
missions will be considered.
Sorry, 1 simply can't answer
your many friendly letters.
Please address your letter to: IS
THAT SO! co Medford Mail
Tribune, Box 575, Sausalito,
Calif.
jr-"--2. - ' , - .
RUSSIAN RIVER ON RAMPAGE This isn't the Pacific
Ocean it's the Russian River, summertime paradise for
swimmers from the San Francisco Bay Area, roaring
through Guerneville, Cal., after the season's" worst storm
lashed the Northern California coast. The'resort town was
isolated and 150 families evacuated. Damage was estimated
at two million dollars.
New York Police Look
For $10,000 In Taxi
New York U.R) Police
Saturday carried out a pains
taking search for the cab driver
whd unknowingly drove off with
a Brooklyn housewife's $10,000.
The woman, Mrs. Frances
Cohen, lost the money last week
but didn't tell police until Fri
day because she was afraid to
break the news to her husband.
The money had come from the
sale of their house.
Mrs. Cohen . tearfully told
police that she had gotten into
the taxi Dec. 16, carrying the
money, her daughter's doll and
several packages. She had got
ten out of the cab and seen it
drive off before she realized she
didn't have the money, she said.
- Police broke the news to her
husband Harry Cohen, 47.
"What's done is done," he
said.
Use Tribune Want Ads
Adenauer May Confer
With Ike Next Year N
Bonn, Germany (U.R) Chan
cellor Konrad Adenauer may
meet with President Eisenhower
early in 1956, informed political
sources reported here Saturday.
The West German chancellor
has been invited to visit the
United States to receive an hon
orary degree from Yale univer
sity. He has not yet accepted th
invitation.
HOW
CHRISTIAN
SCIENCE
. HEALS
Station
KWIN
1400 K.C.
Sundays
'10:15
' A.M.
Klamath Falls Flood
News Inside Paper
Klamath Falls (U.R) De
spite some of the worst floods
in recent years within the circu
lation area of the Klamath Falls
Herald and News, the paper re
fused to back away from its reso
lution to print only "good" news
during Christmas week on its
front pages.
Readers who wanted to learn
about flood troubles in Oregon
and California had to turn to
the inside pages.
A Nichol's Worth of . . .
Comment On This and That
By HARMAN W. NICHOLS
United Pre total Writer
g
Harman Nichols
Washington (U.R) This is an
open letter to mamas wherever
they are: .
The next
time junior
lets out a
1 1 i 4-
rl&"iRJ getting dunk-
r : t. I' i ed in a tub,
tell him to
shaddup. The
kid has no
copyright on
that sort of
torture. Bath-
taking, accord
ing to infor
mation I have at hand, has been
going on for at least 7000 years,
maybe longer.
The Plumbing Fixture Manu
facturers Association has dug up
some facts about the business of
keeoine clean. Time was, it
seems, back there in the forgot
ten past, when bathing in some
countries was sort of a celebra
tion to greet a new year. It was
sort of a public dunking. An al
together business.
The record says that bathing
was quite the thing in ancient
Babylonia. Bathrooms were 15
by 15 feet and were fixed up in
the palace of King ' Urnimar's
little showplace at Tshunnak.
Tubs were not known in those
days, so his majesty stood there
in the buff and servants raced
around dousing him with water.
Cold water.
A long time after that, around
1300 B.C., the Persians and the
Egyptians thought up a rough
clay pipe system which spurted
water onto anyone needing a
bath. Could be that was the first
shower.
Funny thing is that folks
think the bathtub is an Ameri
can . invention. Fact is, nobody
knows who did, really.
A story has been going around
for years that it was a character
named Adam Thompson. That
man is a myth. He lived only in
the mind of one of our news
paper colleagues back , in 1917.
The columnist wrote the thing
as a joke, but the story grew and
grew and is growing still.
Thing that started all of this
about bathtubs came up in con
versation the other day. Some
body asked a sensible question:
Lodge To Present
Festival of St. John .
The Festival of St. John the
Evangelist will be observed by
members of the Medford Lodge
103, AF and AM, at 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Dec. 27, in the Masonic
temple.
Two speakers on Masonic sub
jects are scheduled, as are sev
eral musical selections. Refresh
ments will be served.
PICTURE TUBES
REJUVENATED
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"Why do they slant the tub at
the sitting end?"
Well, the plumbing people
don't know for sure. Several ex
planations have been : offered.
One is that when one of the first
tubs was built, in a Babylonian
palace, his high ' and mighty
didn't want the place messed up.
So he instructed his tub build
ers to please slant the tub, so
that his servants, while sloshing
him would let the water go into
the drain instead of spreading
all over the floor. That sounds
sensible.
Tubs probably sired water sys
tems. The first water mains in
America were wood, laid in
early 1700 in Boston.
And so today we have show
ers, tubs, back washers and foot
washers and the like. And there
isn't much new under the fau
cet, is there?
Hannon Named New
Attorney For Fong
Portland '(U.R) John Patrick
Hannon Friday was named new
attorney for Wey Him Fong, ac
cused of the murder of 16-year-old
Diane Hank. Hannon said
he would ask for a 30-day ex
tension of time before Fong's
trial to familiarize himself with
the case.
Fong was originally scheduled
for his second trial on Jan. 9.
His wife, Sherry Fong, was re
cently convicted of second de
gree murder in connection with
the 1954 Hank death in a separ
ate trial.
Convictions of both Fongs in
an earlier joint trial was dis
missed by the court.
Attorney Irvin Goodman de
fended both Fongs in the earlier
trials.
Newsprint Shortage
Seen With Closures
Oregon City (U.R) A possi
bility of a newsprint shortage
faced Portland newspapers
Saturday because the flooding
Willamette river has forced shut
down or curtailment of produc
tion at two paper mills here. .
The Crown Zellerbach cor
poration mill at West Linn across
the river from Oregon City was
shut down for "probably as
much as 10 days," a company of
ficial said.
Publishers' Paper company
mill was at 60 per cent of capac
ity Friday night.
The two mills are principal
source of newsprint for Portland
papers.
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of all fabrics. Treat
yourself to a treat
and see a demonstration.
This Yuletlde Season marks
the end of another year of
service to you. May we
thank you fer your patro
nage and say that we hope
to see you often in the
future . . . Have a Happy
.Holiday.
We Service What We Sell . . .
MARY A
"Your Exclusive Blackstone Dealer"
220 WEST MAIN ' PHONE 2-4922
0
May your Yuletide glow brightly throughout the
Rogue River Valley with that good old fashioned
Christmas cheer that makes every heart lighter,
every friendship warmer, every hour richer in
happiness and contentment.
CRATER INN MOTEL
Bill and Mary Schei
t
PH. 3-1971
0
v
18 N. GRAPE