Calla Lilies are ripe in the Land of Mears

Calla Lilies

are ripe in the Land of Mears

So still the summer night at twenty minutes after two . I cannot sleep . I will arise . Not a breath of air to wart the odor of the calla lilies in at my bathroom window . I hear no fluttering of a breeze among the thousand blossoms of my catalpa tree . So long I have lain awake in re- view of the stony road I came . The air is full of portent . These are the final hours of the thirty - third year of the country newspaper I ushered into the world long , long ago . Yet a few hours and the morning light will be breaking on the anniversary of its creation . Almost a third of a century has rolled away since the old hand press began to creak off the 26 copies of the first issue of The Mears Newz , pioneering a new journa- lism . And since that day I have won curses and renown , the approbation of the humble and the gratitude of the poor as I blasted away at shams and hypocrasies , as I took woodpiles apart to show what was conegaled therein . With the ritual of my pages I have married the lovers and bur- ied the dead , I have painted the emerald of the green pastures and the orange flame of the open hearth . I used to write in poetry about the glamour of the purple liills and the pale blue wood smoke of the village enimnles , but with the passing of the years the poetry went out of my life and I wrote in prose and disillusionment , with the muttering of the rabble in my ears . I called a spade a spade and persecution arose be- cause of the word . Always and always I believed in myself and the name Who of Mears was like a shining shield that is set upon a hill . Those would tear down its school and destroy the business of te village were righteously rebuked , but every good thing was magnifled and encouraged . The sabbath bell , the upward - pointing spice , the sleighride parties , and good times of the young folks were music to my ears . I loved everyoue but everyone did not love me . I watched the mills of the law turn out their weekly grist . It grieved me to see the poor Indians sent to state's prison for being drunk the third time while big - bugs went unmolested and drank freely . I saw the mighty defy the lay and the little fellow dragged thrungh the wringer . My heart grieved for him . In my youth I had pletured justice as the goddess with the scales and not as a woman chained and dragged through the streets behind the chariots of the misty . I visited the chiropractors who were in Jail because they had Fealed the sick and brought comfort to the affileled . I carried the cup of courage to the faltering . It has been said that a prophet is not with but honor ezerpt in his own country . I am not unaware of the fidnt

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mutterings of a certain envious rabble in Mears . For me they have cheer leaders , but they have their sneer leaders . But the chess game of life goes on . Always and always I try to uphold the banners of justice and fair play and community progress and my eyes are fixed on distant goals and I am so busy with my work that I forget whatever curs that turk in the darkness who would like for a moment to creep up behind me and snap at my heels . There is a certain rowdy element in Mears who would like to tear down the school and the business of the village and throw it on a wagon and send it all to Hart , where they have sent the school printing for many years . But having within me a great world of riches , of beautiful faces and landscapes to remember , of things think about and the power to think , and finding fascination in my work , and havig achieved earthly success ad national recognition , my enemies are like fly specks to me , as immaterial and amusing . Perhaps way be- yond the Dismal Swamp I might hear the faint baying of the hounds if I stopped to listen . But I am so busy and so full of good will to all men that I have no time to listen . Envy is far from me . I am wrapt in the struggles of humanity , the righting of justice , the relief of the underdog . I hear the birds singing in the early morning mist . The 33rd year is in its final hours . In fleeting review I look back at the long trail of hard- ships and pleasures , of struggle and success . of setting type all night with a kerosene lantern suspended from hte dingy ceiling with a string , of sumac trails , of persecution and prosecution , of the grave I dug for my own child , and my children dropping the clods of dirt and flowers on the lowered box that held their little brother , of homesteading hard- ships like the pioneers , of the 2000 miles I walked in a single year teaching the Youngs school , unforgettable pictures like the dimples of Grace Riley or the face of Doris Mauk or the tall stature of Jerry Cong- don with his head tipped back in laughter , the rotund genial calculat- ing shrewdness of R. T. Morris , the far - away stretch to Ludington har- bor across the bay , snatches of Hawaiian music about an isle of golden dreams , and always and always my printing press standing up like an iron god to right the to right the wrongs of the world . - Gordie Osborn is home from his Norge job in Muskegon this week , learning to play golf . Shaffer pen and pencil sets ; Eversharps ; electric clocks . Harold L. Moore , Jeweler , State St. , Hart . - Anne Louise Halloran is expecting a school friend , Ruth Anne Stolle , of East Chicago , Ind . , to come Sunday for a week's visit . They do say Ruth Anne is pretty and sweet , like Anne Louise . Hope Ruth Ann visits Mears Newz town . At the Mears school meeting Monday night William Volpp and Arthur Snyder were elected trustees in a proper and regular manner . But the millage elec- tion was a horse of a different color . The constitution of Michigan pro- vides for a 15 mill limitation on taxes , and although the people in any local unit , such as a village , city , township or school district . may by a two - thirds vote decide to exceed that amount for a limited number of years , all statutory provisions must be complied with . You can't just get a crowd together and say : " All in favor say Aye . " The statute provides that the ballots at a millage election shall be cast and counted in the manner provided by the general election laws of the state . Well know- ing all these things I went to the election in a most unruffled condition , realizing that probably there was not a man on the school board cap- able of engineering the election in a legal manner , nor was it likely that their combined sagacity wuold accomplish the result . Even though it was five minutes to eight when my wife and I arrived at the school- house we found the front doors locked . People were trying the doors and going away from them . Now just what would voters at our town hall be expected to do if they went there on election day and found the front doors locked ? The front draw bridge door of the castle should be open .

A voter is not required to search for a chance entrance at the postern gate . Well , I managed to get in at a rear cellar entrance and coming up around a bend in the cellar stairs I found quite a crowd of people pres- ent . The front door of the schoolhouse remained locked until the ring- ing of the eight o'clock bell . Just how many people tried the front door and went home I do not know . Certainly newcomers in the district would be apt to do so . As the days go by I keep on meeting people who tell me they tried the door and found it locked . Having secured a seat I settled down to enjoy the evening farce . Down town there were out- door movies this evening , but what were they compared to this ? I got myself a good front seat as I found ringside seats didn't cost a cent more than the bleachers . I began to search the walls for instruction ballots but there weren't any there . Neither were there any produced on de- mand . No period of hours when the polls would remain open had been mentioned in hte posted notices . Neither had there been any posted no- tice to the world for how many years the millage was sought . The vot- ing was not permitted until a late hour , after some who had come to vote had gone home . Then the ballots were passed promiscuously down the aisles without regard to sequence of numbers . I got ballot No. 140 . There were only about 60 people in the room . I addressed the chair and was recognized and told him about the number on my ballot . I was told it didn't matter . The township clerk protested that the election was not being properly conducted . At one time Chairman Ricks said every- body should write his name on his ballot . I protested that it was highly improper . The township clerk also objected . The order was afterward rescinded . Some people voted and passed out of the room . Then some people decided that all the ballots should be torn up and the voting start all over again . Mrs. Bashaw , our township clerk , advised against such a procedure . She said every spoiled ballot should be accounted for . So they were wrapped up in a paper and laid on the floor beside the tench- er's desk . Fresh ballots were passed out and a list of names who receiv- ed them was taken down . When the tellers went down the aisles to col- lect the ballots in an open cardboard box I went up to the chairman's desk to tell him the voters ought to pass in front of his desk and deposit their ballots one at a time , so that any unqualified voter could be chal lenged . But chairman Ricks told me they would proceed as they were proceeding . According to the count of the ballots the millage measure passed , but if ten of the ' Yes " votes had been " No " votes the measure would have failed to receive the necessary two - thirds vote . When yon consider that some people who had gone home before the ballots were passed out at a late hour , when you think of the locked front door , the absence of instruction ballots which people could study beforeband , the promotional electioneering harangue permitted within the very polling room , the results might easily have been far different . People who really knew how an election should be conducted realized there had been no legal election . While some hilarious proponents went home gloatingly , the editor went home very amused , thinking of a certain classification of people , " those that know not and know not that they know not . " Since that evening affidavits have been filed with state officials citing eleven violations of the election law . The establishment of even one of those should be sufficient to to throw out the election - Lots in Forest Hills at Pentwater . Pentwater Lake lots , houses and resort properties at " Cook " Richmond's in Pentwater , known as Central Agency , if you for- got that Cook is the boss ' maine . - To Silver Lake came Frank Guinn of Riverside with ma and Frankie and Joan and a maid named Albina Chambres , Was she the chambermaid ? And Harold Taas with Ken . Jim and Jon and ma and Hill Nelson with Karen and Craig and their ma