Diploma Ribbons are ripe in the Land of Mears

FIFTY CENTS A YEAR

There was a time when Pentwater was a lumbering , town and the hum of the sawmills made the music of the village and great loads of boards were shipped away in the sailing vessels . Then came the furni- ture manufacturing days when wooden bedsteads were made by the thousands . And after that the canning factory held sway and Clare Demmon and Minnie Iteen and forty more watched the horses draw in the wagon loads of peas and sweetcorn and saw them swim in the cook- ers and go out in labeled cans . The firm of Sears & Nichols was the benefactor that gave summer work to the village population so they could live through the winter . The lumber mills are gone now , the var- nish brush no longer whisks over the gargoyles on the heads of the bedsteads . The canning factory is dismembered ; its buildings are gone . Pentwater has one sustaining industry to keep it alive . It is the sum- mer resort business that makes the grocers glad , that makes the milk man glad as he sings and washes his bottles . It is the summer resort business that makes the tea rooms thrive , the post office bloom , that rents the summer cottages and tips the waitresses in the hotels , that brings the summer telegraph office and pays the messengers on bicy- cles , that gives the charwomen cottages to clean and floors to mop , that makes a market for strawberries and fish . Ask any business man in Pentwater and he will tell you it is the summer resorters who keep the town flourishing . Everything the village of Pentwater can do to keep the tourists happy and satisfied and oft - returning is sound sense and good business . And what do the people from the cities come to Pentwater for ? Do they come seeking a dry inland town where the toads hang their tongues out of their mouths and pray for the Novem- ber rains . No , the resorters come seeking a land of lakes so that they may be near them . And if you fence off the lakes three blocks away and engrave on your tablet of stone a new commandment : " Thou shalt not go near the water , " what have you done to your summer resort business ? You have murdered it . The metropolitan multitudes will turn from you saying : " We come unto you thirsty for the lakes , and not to seek dry inland acres to parch our souls . We will return even to our cities , or we will go elsewhere . For you have shut our sandals from the

beaches and our breasts from the waves . " The business consciousness of Pentwater - by - the - sea is not unmindful of this . Nevertheless there was a certain business man who came from Chicago and bought a hotel in the southern sector of Pentwater , even in the plat of Middlesex . And he filled it with $ 1300 worth of furniture he bought in the village . Now this hotel was not on the lakes , neither on the lesser lake where the masted boats tie up and ride at anchor nor on the greater lake where the freighters move in a far - out line across the path of the setting sun . The Pentwater Lodge was situated midway between the lakes . In front of it was a street that ran to the Lake Michigan beach . The guests of the hotel reveled in luxurious meals , rested on the great long screened veranda and when the mood suited them they could take their bath towels and beach slippers and walk down the cement sidewalk or the cool , quiet shaded street to the lake . For a dozen years or so the beau- tiful dream went on . Ah , is this country a democracy , a melting pot of the nations , a blend of nationalities , or is it exclusive and haughty and full of social intolérance and anti - Semitic prejudice ? Nearby was the cultured , refined , Oceana Beach Association , a summer colony of opulent and exclusive people . Oh they are lovely people to meet . I like them . You would like them . But they liked it not that anybody of the Semitic race should go to the shore and disturb the waves or bask on the beach . They went to the village council two years ago and felt the pulse of the village fathers and inquired discreetly whether the council would listen with a sympathetic ear to a petition to close up the street to the lake . " Not so , " said the village fathers . " We are not in sympathy with closing up the street to the lake so that the village people and re- sorters can not go down to bathe . And what is more it is not the wisest thing for you to want to close that street to Lake Michigan . In a few years the bridge across the channel is going to require attention . It may be necessary to replace it with a different style bridge which will run up into money and require a bond issue . Now if you shut up the street to the lake so that our people can not walk to the south beach you can imagine just how responsive they will be when it comes to voting a bond issue to build you a new bridge . They will say let us return to the old ferry . The Oceana Beach people can get across to town the best they can . " Yet in spite of this counsel given two years ago the Oceana Beach Association went ahead last winter and put in a petition to the circuit court to close this street to the lake and cer- tain other streets in Oceana Beach plat . I never heard anything about it until yesterday , but it seems it was duly advertised and tried in circuit court last winter . I believe on Saturday , the 6th day of Decem- ber . While they were about it the Oceana Beachers thought they would do a good job of it and sew up every last street that ran to their beach . So they had another petition to close up Water street which ran along the south pier . The village of Pentwater was alarmed and hired an at- torney to help them keep the streets open . Gerry Meehan represented the village and Lawrence Fonferink , who owns the Pentwater Lodge . Louis Parnasse , who runs the hotel , should have been there to wave lis hands and expostulate and stand up for his rights and tell them what's what . And he could , don't you forget it . He is a scion of a down - trod- den race . Nevertheless he is alright . He had a right to have a street open so his guests could go to the water . Anyway you think so and I think so . But alas for Louis Parnassee ! He was in Miami where he goes to work in the winter . The Oceana Beachers knew he would he far away on the Florida shores . They had the thing timed perfectly . Louis and Sophie would be far away . On Saturday morning , the sixth

of December , the general public would be thinking about their Christ- mas shopping . If they tried to close the street on the sixth of July a storm of protest would have been present in the court room . Mr. Fon- ferink , the owner of the hotel , was busy in Chicago and could not come np . He sent word to Bill Yonkman to look after things for him . The lawyer for the Oceana Beach Association was Mr. Uhl , who lives in Grand Rapids . He is a prominent member of the Oceana Beach Asso- ciation . It so happened that Judge Pugsley must have been trying cases in some other county , so a judge from Grand Rapids came up and tried the case . In spite of the protests of the village council the streets were closed . If the people from that part of the village want to go swim- ming in Lake Michigan they can get in their cars and drive three - quart- ers of a mile , over across the bridge and down to the state park . But the shaded street to the south beach is closed to their feet . And the people of Pentwater are saying : " Since the Oceana Beachers have clos- ed their streets to us , why should we furnish them with any street lights . We can take the street lights out over there . " More than this . The spring rains were wont to wash torrents and gulches down the hilly streets of Oceana Beach and the village of Pentwater has spent hundreds of dollars in drawing gravel and filling in with brick bats to stabilize the road beds . Pentwater village will no longer spend its mon- ey to maintain these private roads . A fuller measure of justice would even suggest the Oceana Beach Association ought to repay the village of Pentwater for making these more permanent fills - To Keith Corliss in Mears for groceries on Decoration Day and for gas , cookies , pickles and picnic supplies . adv.-Mr. and Mrs. Claude Ball started from Mon- tague to the Shelby hospital . Before they got to the Oceana county line baby was born . They hurried on to the Shelby hospital . - Floyd Krauter , the manager of Silver Hills Farm , is now a very happy man for he has a rubber - tired carriage to drive . At first I thought it was a surrey he bought . But Joe Marquis , who came from Chicago , insists it is a Victoria . It is different from a surrey because the floor dips down by the back and front seats . There is a fringe around the carriage top which flutters in the breeze of the summer evening when Mr. Krauter hitches up to the mottled horse Maizie and drives to the village with his family . Douglas in the front seat with his father is anxious to hold the lines , while Jeanine sits in the back seat with her mother . They pull up by Corliss ' grocery for surb service and Keith rushes out , grabs up the gas hose and says how many . But Floyd doesn't need any petrol today . He will take a package of gum and a bag of peppermints . If the gas ration goes into effect Floyd Krauter is all ready for it . Keith Corliss may add horse oats to the stock on his shelves so when the surreys and victorias and cutters drive up to the curb the drivers can tell the clerk to bring out a cupful of oats for a lunch for the horse . Nathan Quick Lathers , 6 years old , and brother Sylvan Dale , who is three , think it a beautiful and picturesque sight to see a horse and carriage go by . - For Sale : Jersey and Shorthorn cow , 2 years old . Fresh last December , $ 60.00 . Will Schrumpf , Hart , Rt . 3. - A window light has rattled out of Bill Krauss ' upstairs hall window and more are ready to fall . But Bill , who sleeps downstairs and lives alone . wouldn't know this . Will someone tell Bill to get the putty knife ? -

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House cleaning days are here . A good time to buy a new mattress at Richard Wietzke's . And he sells floor coverings for kitchen and parlor and all through the house . Also window shades and chairs , adv .

See us for insurance , fire , life , automobile , surety bonds . Also real estate . Neil Wheeler , Shelby , Mich .