Hunting with dogs will be permitted.

*****

According to information received by Major General Frank Parker, commanding the Sixth Corps Area, with headquarters in Chicago, Major Clarence L. Sturdevant, Corps of Engineers, from Neillsville, Wisconsin, has been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.

Colonel Sturdevant is now stationed at Seattle, Washington, as District Engineer of the Seattle Army Engineer District. He is charged with the engineer works pertaining to the coastal defenses of Puget Sound and the various river and harbor improvements for navigation along the Pacific Coast in the State of Washington.

Colonel Sturdevant, a native of Wisconsin, has been an officer of the army since 1908. He graduated from the United States Military Academy, West Point, and in 1908, was commissioned a Second Lieutenant, Corps of Engineers. He was promoted to First lieutenant in February, 1911, and to Captain in 1915. He was appointed a temporary Major on July 13, 1917. On December 20, 1917, he became Lieutenant Colonel of Engineers in the National Army and was advanced to the emergency rank of Colonel in 1918.

Colonel Sturdevant is an honor graduate of the Command and General Staff School, Fort Leavenworth and also graduated from the Engineer School of the Army, Washington Barracks, D.C.

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Plans have been completed for the barbecue lunch and city-wide bargain sales day. Neillsville is ready to play host to the vast crowds that are expected to visit the city and join in the big celebration. The barbecue crew starts roasting the beef Wednesday night and a number of businessmen have been organizing into work shifts so as to attend the meat turning over the fire throughout the night. A county highway bunk shanty will be hauled on the lot for the men to rest in while off duty. A highway mess shanty will be used for preparing the hundred or more gallons of coffee necessary to serve the visitors.

Store windows have been attractively decorated for the occasion and the merchants are displaying unusually fine stocks of goods for the holiday shoppers. Prices on many articles have been reduced far below cost and there will be many chances to obtain articles at unbelievably low prices. A number of merchants are offering valuable prizes.

Everyone is invited to come in and join their neighbors and friends in enjoying an old fashioned reunion. As special entertainment, the American Legion is giving a dance at Paulson’s hall in the evening, featuring the famous Oriole orchestra. Tickets are at the bargain price of 48 cents.

Last Thursday evening, at about 4:30 p.m., James Milton was returning home from Neillsville with his team, wagon and an empty wood rack, when his rig was struck in the rear by Andrew Wightman’s car. Wightman was driving his auto near the Otto Zank home, west of Neillsville on Hwy. 10, when the accident happened. The day was very dark and foggy when the auto driver found it very difficult to see the road ahead, which probably accounted for the accident. Milton’s wagon was broken in two parts, from the middle and Milton was thrown out of it, but hung onto the reins and kept the team of horses from running away. Wightman’s car was quite badly damaged in the mishap.

Highway Commissioner Otto J. Weyhmiller believes that a warning is timely in regard to the law requiring lights on wagons as well as other vehicles traveling on highways after dark. Several accidents have been resulting from lack of lights on wagons. More than the usual number of farmers are hauling wood this winter and they start from home when it is daylight, many not taking a lantern along. The days are now at their shortest and if cloudy, darkness sets in early, finding the teamsters on the road without any light. Several accidents have occurred because of this and more are likely to happen unless precaution is taken. Those traveling with wagons on the roads after dark should have one or more lanterns lighted and placed where they are visible to other traffic on the highways.

*****

This year, Neillsville experienced the warmest Christmas day within the memory of many of its oldest citizens. The weather was extremely mild. There was scarcely a lawn in the city which did not show considerable green grass.

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Melchior Hoesly, Jr., Ernest Begley and Herbert Grottke, who are spending the winter trapping in northern Wisconsin, came down to spend the holidays with their parents. They expect to return to their camp, which is 27 miles from Bayfield, on January 3^rd. Their catch so far as been confined to mink and weasels, but they are expecting bigger game catches after snow falls.

*****

Franklin Heiman, 10i-year-old son of Mr. And Mrs. Henry Heiman, of Weston, met with an accident recently. Dr. Housley had to amputate an index finger from one of the young lad’s hands on Tuesday night. Franklin’s finger became caught in the gears of a pump jack.

The national limelight quietly passed Neillsville by last Monday morning and the residents would have been pleased if the -36 degree temperature had passed by also.

This record low of the year and young winter probably was the lowest in the nation.

But, as Kenneth Weber of the town of Hewett, remarked: "After it reaches 20 below, any lower temperature doesn’t make much difference."

The difference, however, was that the 36 below was greeted by frozen radiators, cars that wouldn’t start and furnaces that couldn’t keep houses warm.

That, plus mail and train schedules, already cracking under the strain of the Christmas season loads, shuddered to an almost complete stop Monday in protest to the cold.

*****

Saturday and Sunday, December 15 and 16, the cutting of Christmas trees in two of the Clark County forest areas will be allowed. A charge of 25 to 35 cents per tree will be made by the forestry department, which will have forestry personnel on hand to direct those who wish to cut their own trees. No permits will be issued this year and this will be the only opportunity to cut trees on county land.

The first area is 15 miles west of Neillsville, along Highway 10, in the Carter Lake swamp. The second area is the Big Soldier swamp, off of County I, north and west of Neillsville. Trees under 12 feet in height may be cut. They are white spruce.

A nine-foot tree, purchased from the Clark County Forestry Department, presided over the Christmas party held this week at the Clark County courthouse. Over 40 courthouse workers attended the party, which consisted of entertainment, refreshments and exchange of gifts. The tree has been set up in the main corridor of the courthouse, where it will stand throughout the holiday season.

*****

A hit and run deer has left a rabbit hunter, Art Pflughoeft, battered and bruised after a collision in the woods.

A bump on his head, a bruised nose and a lame shoulder attest to Art Pflughoeft’s story of being run over by a deer.

` According to Pflughoeft, he was rabbit hunting in the woods two weeks ago with his two dogs. One of the dogs scared up a rabbit around 3:30 p.m. and Pflughoeft took aim at it. But before he could fire, a deer, startled by the other dog, came tearing out of the underbrush, with his eyes glued on the dog following him. The deer didn’t see Pflughoeft and bounded into him, hitting him just below the left shoulder. The blow knocked him down.

Public participation is invited by the committee in charge of the ice skating rodeo, which is scheduled for Sunday, December 30, on O’Neill Creek. There will be races, figure skating and other events following one-after-the-other, in rapid succession.

The rodeo will begin at 2 p.m. and will take place on the pond above the Hewett Street bridge.

The rodeo will be conducted by the E&R Club of the Zion Evangelical and Reformed Church of Neillsville.

There are stories that have been passed down through the years, many too good to be forgotten. Here is one of those stories:

Mr. And Mrs. C.C. Sniteman owned a touring coupe car, in the 1920s, which only Mrs. Sniteman drove.

When the car top was up, the car was too high to drive through the garage door. The side curtains, with the izing-glass windows, had to be unsnapped from the top’s framework, tucked in and folded down, and then the car could be driven into, or out of the garage.

One Sunday afternoon, Mrs. Sniteman asked a friend, Mrs. Joseph Schiller, to accompany her for a car ride to Christie and back. Arriving in Christie, Mrs. Sniteman realized she couldn’t make a U-turn on the then narrow Highway 73 with its deep ditches and she didn’t know how to back up the car. She informed Mrs. Schiller that they would have to drive to Greenwood where she could drive around a block to return southward and home. Luckily there was enough gasoline in the small gas tank for the trip home.

`After getting home from the ride, Mrs. Schiller told her daughter, "Never again will I ride out-of-town with Mrs. Sniteman. Goodness knows where that woman might take me".