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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 4, 1959)
.-2 MAIL TRIBUNE, Medferd. Oregon. Sunday, January 4. 1958 i I Few Pistols See Action In Three Major Wars ; Very few pistols made in ; thij country have seen ser Jvice in three major wars, but : some of those made in south l ern arm plants were used in J the Revolution, the War of 3 1812 and in the Civil war as well. ; Any pistol, stamped with ; the name of such a plant - the Rappahanock Forge is one 1 is worth upwards of $ 1 ,000 if Tit is authentic, but because such weapons are among the most historic and valuable of j American handguns, they (.have been counterfeited. 2 In general, they have an ; eight-or nine-inch, smoothbore barrel of .00 Or more calibre, no sights, a wooden ramrod y and a brass trigger guard. Oc casionally, however, they are found with silver mountings, ; in which case they may be : foreign-made guns that were stamped in American plants that were used by Confeder ate troops were converted to percussion fire. Normally the conversion of a flintlock to percussion reduces the value, but in this case it increases the probability that it was a genuine Confederate weapon, and, in view of its earlier his tory, actually raises it. Because many of the regi ments in American armies through the Civil war were raised by individuals, some of whom even equipped the men at their own expense or through popular subscription, early weapons are sometimes found stamped with the regi mental insignia. One pistol that I saw two years ago was stamped P.L.H. The initials stood for Peter son's Light Horse, a New York unit raised during the Revolution. The pistol was not marked with the name of the forge, but since it tallied with before beine issued to the troops. They may or may not the description of Rappahan- I be dated. ock Forge weapons in other As originally issued they respects, and was supported were flintlocks, but most of by the proper documents, it : t h o s e - and possibly all - sold for $600. I CONFEDERATE STAMP HONORS ANDY JACKSON By a strange quirk Of fate J the last stamp issued by the E Confederacy for general post- al purposes carried the por- trait of the man who con- demned secession as "an im- practical absurdity." The man was President An ; drew Jackson who 32 years earlier had sent federal " troops Into South Carolina to I compel the collection of fed- eral tariffs which that state had disallowed in its borders. The stamp is a two-cent, ; brownish red item that was : engraved and printed by a firm in Richmond, Va. It is a 'poorly executed piece of , work, reflecting the tremen dous strain which the war had imposed on the South's it brings only $2' or a little more. If canceled, its value ranges from $25 to $35, de pending on the condition of the stamp and the type of can cellation. If the stamps were on the original envelope, its value would be much greater, re gardless of the names of the addressee or sender. That, however, is a point that many persons still fail to realize ev en though it is true of all can celed stamps without excep tion. A pair of these two-cent, Confederate Andrew Jackson stamps were offered to a friend of mine recently, and he bought them for $70 - the value of the individual item ' resources. It was the first is- rises if it is part of a pair or sued on May 8, 1863, some months after the blockade of southern ports had tightened I enough so that blockade run ; ners no longer attempted to 1 carry such comparative lux uries as postage stamps print ; ed in Britain on order of .the Confederacy. The stamp is generally found unused, in which case greater number. But he no ticed from a stain on the pa per margin of the envelope about the stamps that it might have been freshly cut. It had been. The owner thought that was the way to do since stamp albums have places for stamps but not for envelopes. The assumption cost him not less than $25. BELLOWS ONE OF MOST PROLIFIC PAINTERS George Wesley Bellows, who painted the famous picture of F i r p o knocking . Dempsey through the ropes, could and did paint landscapes, portraits and ' religious scenes with equal ease. He had the faculty of going to the heart of the subject that caught his attention and trans ferring it to canvas with an ye to detail that makes his ; work essentially realistic. In short, he was an abstraction j 1st in that he caught the es- sence of what he saw and put -it down so everyone else could see it. : . He was something of an ar tist in words, too. During World War I, he painted a pic ture of Edith Cavell on her way to execution as a spy. When someone criticized it as the work of a slacker because he hadn't been on hand at the execution, he replied that Le onardo da Vinci, who painted The Last Supper, hadn't been on hand to attend that either. Though Bellows died in 1924 at 42, he had been one of the most prolific . artists in the country from the time he got out of Ohio State univer sity where he made an en viable record as an athlete. An indication is a two week's vacation he and Eugene O' Neill, the playwright, spent at Zion, N.J. Bellows return ed from it with 24 canvases. Because of his great produc tion much of his work is in private hands, and inevitably a percentage of it shows up in auction rooms and secondhand establishments. Not all of his work is top flight, but it is safe to - say that any of it one finds is sure to have a considerable value, even if it is one of his earliest pieces. An acquaintance of mine felt himself lucky to buy a small street scene, in oil that Bellows did in 1907. He was lucky because the price was only $300. How lucky is indi cated by the auction sale of a painting of a newsboy. It is an oil, about 30 inches high and signed at the bottom with the signature Geo. Bellows. When sold six years ago it brought $1,000. (Released by McClure News paper Syndicate) Weather Patterns Forecast in Advance Washington -(Science Serv ice)- A way to predict weath er patterns several weeks in advance has been discovered. An electronic computer and newly solved basic equations of atmospheric motion are the essential ingredients. When fully worked out, the method will give a much more detailed description of long range weather than now pos sible. Such a forecast would read: "West Coast residents can expect generally clear skies and colder than normal days during the period from Feb. I to 4." However, it will not predict the weather for a specific city on a specific day 30 days in the future. Nevertheless, the method will yield considerably more specific forecasts than the present 30-day ones. These predict only whether tempera tures and precipitation for differing regions will average above or below or normal for the period involved. Even such limited forecasts have been invaluable aids to the Government, business and the public, and saved unknown millions of dollars yearly. A new dump truck, said to be the world's largest, has 18 wheels and two engines of 300 horsepower each. It weighs 79 tons empty and 200 tons when loaded. POPULARITY CONTEST Little Rock, Ark.-(UPB- Rep. Brooks Hays (D-Ark.) tells this story about a novice poli tician and a veteran judge. "Tell me, Judge," asked the politician, "who do you think will vin, me or my op ponent?" "Well," replied the judge, "it depends on which one of you sees the most people. If you see the most, he'll win. If he sees the most, you'll win." Burglaries Reported To Sheriff's Office Approximately 14 bottles of i soft drink were stolen Thurs-I day night by vandals who en- j tered the Talent Union Serv ice station on Highway 99, according to sheriffs depu ties. Burglars broke windows of the station and damaged a power mower, which was re- j moved from the building and burned In a nearby field. Deputies also received a re port of the illegal entry of a ; cabin owned by Charles Ches-! ter Richmond, route 4, Rogue River. Edmond G. Bailes. 391 Bridge St., Ashland, reported the theft of a metallic tool box containing tools valued at approximately $250. Bailes said they were taken some time last week from Balies panel truck. f M MY- DAY 1 ""Hl -AGAIN llp JN WSW AT.;jACKSONl IjgF C0UWTY. FEDERAL " llp This Semi-Annual Dividend of $238,281.03 Makes a Total of $455,331.06 in Dividends Received By Jackson County Federal Investors During 1958 DIRECTORS GLENN O. TAYLOR W. J. WARNER H. J. FIELD JOHN H. PLETSCH JOHN P. MOFFAT SETH M. BULLIS E. H. SINCMASTER Semi-Annual FINANCIAL STATEMENT December 31, 1958 ASSETS First Mortgage Loans Loans on Savings Accounts Other Loans ; Properties Sold on Contract Real Estate Owned and in Judgment Investments and Securities United States Government Bonds Cash on Hand and in Banks Office Building and Equipment Deferred Charges and Other Assets LIABILITIES Savings Accounts Loans in Process 1. Other liabilities Specific Reserves General Reserves Undivided Profits .$11,474,091.11 102,265.72 8,499.11 20.034.36 12,423.58 199,600.00 . 1,811,586.13 . 1,093,000.09 55,316.97 88,372.31 $14,865,189.38 .$12,974,541.42 . 436,074.65 41,704.18 . 14,606.58 . 1,165,935.58 232,326.97 $14,865,189.38 STAFF John H. Pletsch Paul G. Antony Irene Child Jim Fredericks Kathryn South Bertha Boone Irene Barclay Nelda Hale Phyllis Wald Helen K. Buffington Narita Simpson Marie Schmelzer Patricia Higinbotham Audrey Cogan A dividend at the rate of 3 per annum and an extra dividend at the rate of Vi per annum has been declared on your share account for the six month period ending De cember 31, 1958. SAVINGS 126 E. Main Medford a LOAN ASSOC ATION "Where You Are Paid To Save" Ml n Zrzi r Ann n fl ' "fl M ESSE mi nnnn n
