|
There is an unusual readjustment in local
business circles. The many changes of ownership of buildings has
resulted in many changes of business locations and according to rumors a
number of very important business changes are looked for within the next
thirty days.
The firm of Fye & Campbell, known as the Mt. Pleasant Transfer Co., will
go out of business at once. They will offer at public sale June 9th
their entire equipment of motor trucks, and moving equipment and
everything on the premises. Mr. Campbell will return to the farm and Mr.
Fye will look into something else.
The purchase of the Willits building on North Main street by Dr. J.J.
Pitcher and which premises are now occupied by Mr. Stewart Craig with
his harness business will make a change. Dr. Pitcher who owns the
building to the south will remodel and make modern his new purchase. It
is probable that Mr. Craig will arrange to remain there as the location
is a good one.
The purchase of the National State bank property by the Crane Brothers
will make changes on that corner. Mr. McNew has already moved out and
has occupied the rooms vacated by Dr. Payne on West Monroe street and
Dr. Payne will later open up new offices at the first door west of the
new First National Bank building. The telegraph office will move into
the McNew place.
The new Masonic building will bring in two new concerns as the two store
rooms will be rented without doubt to desirable people. The new meat
market on the west side has vastly improved conditions there. At the
southwest corner of the square the shoe repairing shop of Mr. Lebercheck
is going to be moved to Salem and the building has been leased by Mr.
Weir, its owner, to the Rukgaber’s who will open up an agency for the
Chevrolet cars. This move will also greatly improve the general
situation on the west side. Logically the west side should be a fine
retail district and the last few months has tended to bring about better
conditions.
Several deals of major importance are pending and which will be of
tremendous interest to the town. There are rumors of another powerful
oil company coming in here with a fine filling station and its
representatives are hard at work trying to secure a suitable location.
There is talk of further adjusting of the banking situation as regards
sites and locations and with the disposal of the National bank corner as
the pivotal problem, the suggestion being that the Henry County Savings
bank purchase and occupy the National State Bank location and some other
business take over the Savings bank corner. The matter has been hanging
fire for some time and no decision reached. It is known that Phillip
Brody is looking for a location here and as soon as he can find what he
wants he will purchase or lease and re-enter the retail business. A
chain store is also sending a representative here with a view of
locating and a number of other deals that are of interest to the town
are being considered.
Taken all in all the financial and general business situation in this
city is about as promising and satisfactory as it ever has been in the
history of the community. There seems to be more tendency to real team
work and united effort and if a Commercial Club can be organized whose
sole business will be to work with the other civic bodies for the
material interests of this city, great progress can be continued. The
farmers have two tremendous organizations which aggressively look after
the affairs of the farming business and there is no reason why the
business men should not perfect an organization to look singly and
effectively after the business interests of this town.
In its list of things to be done as printed in Friday’s paper we
neglected one item that must not be overlooked. That item is the removal
of the oil tanks from the area on Broadway at the turn table. Omitting
the question of fire hazard, the matter of civic pride should force the
unsightly premises to be cleaned out. Those oil tanks should be down on
the “K” line or east of town. They must be forced out of the very civic
center of the community. Two oil companies are down on the “K” line and
it is assumed that if the fifth comes in it will locate down there too.
Only the Collins and the Standard are up on Broadway and with little
insistence they could be influenced to move somewhere else.
And another thing in reference to civic pride. We can’t understand how
the Fairfield Bill Posting company – got by in their erection of the
huge bill boards at the Lincoln St. crossing. This big bill board is not
only an eye sore but it obstructs the view to the west along the tracks
and greatly adds to the danger of that dangerous crossing. The old bill
board rotted down and we can’t understand how it happened that the city
authorities or the railroad permitted the erection of a new one. All
over the country there is being a war waged on these great bill boards
which of course occupy strategic positions from the advert sing
standpoint, but they are hideous in town and should be suppressed. It is
discouraging to work hard to beautify the town and then to find these
nightmares springing up. For instance, East Washington street can boast
of one just being erected in the midst of its residential section and on
one of the most attractive residence properties in town. Can you beat
it?
Then there is another thing that should be accomplished and that is the
substitution of man-controlled gates at the four principal grade
crossings in for the electric bells which are worse than useless. The
electric bells indicate nothing. They ring at the right time and they
ring at the wrong time. They will not ring when trains are close and
they will ring for hours with not a train in sight. Sometimes they will
ring and the lights will not show and sometimes the lights will show and
the bells will be silent. If a man sees the signal swinging it may or
may not mean danger. If the signal is silent, it may or may not mean
safety. There is absolutely no dependance to be placed upon them. The
only reliable system is a man stationed at the Lincoln St. crossing
where he can see trains from all directions and in his tower by the use
of the compressed air control the crossings at Adams, Main and Broadway.
This can be brought about and the city authorities were wrong in
permitting the installation of the electric signals instead of gates. It
will take time to get the change but it can be done by hanging onto the
job.
The walls of the new First National bank are now getting up to the first
story and the outlines of the building are slowly developing. It is
going to be a handsome building.
The work of taking down Old Central is progressing rapidly and, in
another week, it will be down to the ground level. We hear a lot of talk
about the good old building methods and how they don’t build as solidly
now as they did fifty years ago, but that is not bourne out by what is
being found at Central. Brick are found in the walls too soft to be used
today and break up when any attempt is made to clean them. Of course,
there are thousands of good brick. Nothing, however, indicates the
dangerous condition of the building than in the fall of the ceiling of
the old high school room. While the carpenters were trying to get off
the sheeting which formed the ceiling of the old high school room, it
started coming off in great sheets, a hundred square feet at a time and
went crashing to the floor below. Insecure fastening or else rotten
joist had so weakened the hold that a heavy jar would soon have started
the fall. All shows that it would have been folly to undertake the
remodeling of the building.
The ice plant is moving right along. The big steel tank in which the ice
is frozen is riveted together and other work is being pushed fast. The
new filter is at work and it is large enough to filter and clear the
water used in the steam boiler. By July 1st a real ice plant will be
about ready for operation. It was a fine project and a wise expenditure
of public funds.
Mr. W. H. Woodson and Miss Bertha left Monday on a real automobile trip
that will last all summer. They go from here to Des Moines and then up
through the northwest, including the Yellowstone Park, to Seattle, then
down the Pacific coast to Southern California and then home by the
Southern route. They will get back about the first of September as Miss
Bertha will teach again this fall. They will have a great trip and see
much that is wonderful and worth while. Their Mt. Pleasant friends hope
that they will get along without a puncture or a blow out.
Mr. John G. Abraham left Sunday evening for Cedar Rapids where he
conferred with the management of the Redpath Chautauqua people relative
to his trip of speaking under their management. Mr. Abraham’s first
appearance was Tuesday at Anamosa, Iowa, and then he will speak once a
day for the season. He will be in Northern Iowa and Minnesota during the
entire course. His team mates will be six beautiful girls who will be
with him on the entire trip. The girls give the opening on afternoons
and then Abraham gives his lecture and in the evening the girls give the
full program. They all go in two Ford cars, John driving one and one of
the girls the other. While John has not seen his fair companions, the
advance program indicates that they are a handsome lot of young ladies,
which are bound to give a pleasant flavor to the trip. Abraham is not
limited to his lecture and has about concluded to talk most of the time
on the political and social status of the countries he visited during
the winter. Judging by the literature that the Bureau is sending out,
they are banking heavily on Abraham as a star attraction. We pre-predict
that he will be one of the most popular speakers on the program and will
be signed up for another year. Abraham will make more clear money during
the few weeks of his lecture tour than he would in a whole year of
farming.
What has become of the “Twilight League?” This question is being asked
everywhere. Has professional base ball driven out this popular evening
pastime? Everybody hopes not. The News hopes that the Twilight League
can be re-organized. It gave lots of fun to a lot of men who enjoy
amateur base ball and it gave a lot of fun for those who like to see
amateur base ball. The shop men would like to enjoy the league either as
players or bench warmers and so would a lot of others. We shall miss the
Blues and the Browns and the Greys and the Reds and so will a lot of
others if they allow this fine and wholesome summer program to go by
default. Get together, you base ball amateurs and breathe the breath of
life into the Twilight League.
The News enjoyed a very pleasant visit this morning from Mr. Theo Hull
of Barttlesville, Oklahoma and who after being gone for over half a
century is back to visit the scene of his boyhood. Mr. Hull was the son
of Mr. and Mrs. George Hull who lived near Columbus Junction and being
good Methodists, they moved here in 1866, to give their children the
advantages of our college. They lived here until 1871. Mr. Theo Hull was
here in college two years. President Wheeler was at the head of the
school then. The Hull family lived on Jay street, which runs south from
the freight house. Mr. Reuben Eshelman lived just north of them, and
Capt. Beckwith on the south side of their home. On the College campus
were but two buildings, Pioneer and Old Main. While he was in college,
the P E O was organized. Mr. Hull stopped off here primarily to visit
his old boyhood chum, Mr. W.F. Burket and together they are going over
the town hunting up some of the old sights.
|
