SEPT 8, 1904, Sun Monitor, Greer County, Mangum, OT

THE TELEPHONE PEST

Have you ever been up against it? If you have, you know what worry it is and realize that life is not one long, sweet blissful dream.

The telephone pest abounds in Mangum to an exasperating extent. There are both the male and female genders and they vary in age from the tender social bud of ten to the smiling, old jolly boy of sixty. The pest in the love-sick pangs is when its fangs are sharpest and the agonies of its victims most intense. In these cases there are two pests ----one at each end of the line----and therefore, two sets of victims are being bored to madness at the same time.

These pests never use their own phone, at this stage, even if they have one, but the girl will go to a neighbor's so the folks at home can't hear what she says and the fellow will go to some other house, store or office than where he lives or works. When they get connected up and get busy talking, then the misery begins for everybody within hearing distance of either end of the line, except the two silly noodles who are doing the talking. They will keep those two phones monopolized for perhaps an hour at a time right in the busiest part of the day.

Many other people, some with perhaps very important business, may call either one of the two phones in the mean time and all will get from "central" that heat generating and soul maddening answer, "talking now."

There are other varieties of the pest, one is the party who is too stingy to pay for a phone of his own, but uses his neighbor's every day. But the love-sick pest is the worst. Science has exterminated the chinch bug and has found a killer for the boll weevil, now he should turn his attention to the telephone pest and rid the earth of it.

Sun Monitor, November 3, 1904
A CARD FROM BOB DEVER

I want to say to the voters of the second commissioner district that when I was a boy down in old Kentucky going to school at the little log school house, sitting on a split log bench without any back, our teacher used to tell us boys between larrupings--as he called them--with good long smooth elm switches, that some day he would not be surprised if some of us boys would be president of this great republic and of course it made us feel pretty big.

But since that time I have been too busy hustling grub and hickory shirts to cover those numerous children, that poor dissatisfied fellow told you about. I have just got started, and of course, I expect to climb the ladder just a few rounds at a time.

Down in Texas I had the honor to be elected road overseer and from that, I was elected justice of the peace. So, my fellow citizens, you see I have made a great start towards the White House. Now, if you voters will kindly remember me on next Tuesday, November 8th, in the good year of our Lord 1904 you will have my everlasting gratitude. In return ,I will promise to serve you honestly and faithfully, ever having in mind that I should deal justly with all parts of the district.

I will also use my best efforts for good roads, especially the main traveled highways to the different markets and in all the business interests of the county that I have to deal with, will try to be conservative and reasonable and make a dollar buy a dollar's worth.
Your humble servant,
Robert E. Dever

Dec. 15, 1904 Sun Monitor
DUKE CAVE

It has been known for a long time that there was a cave one mile north and one mile west of Duke, but no one ever seemed to have gone into it but a short distance.

Last Sunday Messrs. Hogsett, Jeffreys, Blanton and Bradley went out with the intention of finding out more about it. They took along ropes, lanterns, etc. to light their way and prevent accidents. The entrance started abruptly from a gulch, a narrow passage leads into a large subterranean room. This is as far as anyone had previously explored it. From this room three entrances lead out into different directions.

The boys explored one division only for their time was limited. They proceeded cautiously; at times they were in large rooms with rock walls, ceiling and floor. They then were on all fours, making their way into the unknown. They saw a well, the water of which seemed somewhat muddy and had trash on the surface. They discovered a lake of clear water the depth of which they did not ascertain. They said the walls of some of the rooms were covered with a crystallized substance and looked beautiful by the light of their lanterns.

They saw tracks of various kinds of animals. They found the skeleton head of some large animal and brought back some large teeth taken from it. They said that if they had had more time they would have found out more of this subterranean world. It seems strange that no one has heretofore investigated this interesting subject.
Altus news.

February 2, 1905 Sun Monitor

N. Mc Millan, who lives 23 miles northwest of Mangum, was in town Tuesday and called with his brother, Justice T.F. Mc Millan, at this office. Mr. Mc Millan brought with him for our inspection a pistol found by his son near their home last November.

It is a flint lock--an old flint lock pistol with the flint still screwed in the hammer. It bears the date of manufacture 1813 and the manufacturer's initials, B.A. and trade mark, a sphinx head. The barrel is about seven inches long and would discharge a bullet a half-inch in diameter. Barrel, hammer, springs and screws are of steel, while a part of the frame work is of brass. The steel ram rod was found with the gun resting in its proper place under the barrel, though the wood, which projects from the trigger guard forward under the barrel, and nearly its entire length, has rotted or burned away. The wood from the handle had also long since returned to dust or ashes, though the screws which held it in place were still with the gun when it was found.

That the gun had laid on the prairie a half century or perhaps more seems hardly to be doubted, as that style of fire arm was succeeded only a few years after 1823 by the cap and ball pistol---the later, yet so long ago as the civil war--the cartridge pistol was much in evidence. Page 1

Feb. 2, 1905, Sun Monitor, page 1

Last week, when the fire boys were out practicing with the new fire hose, they were throwing a stream over a high board fence back of one of the saloons when a man named Harmon, said to have been more or less under the influence of "booze", went out the back door of the saloon and got a dash of the water.

He went on through the fence and as he emerged into the alley he got another dose before the man at the nozzle saw him. He was hopping mad and started for the firemen but, tripped on the hose and fell in the mud, which did not sweeten his temper. He got to where the firemen were and probably would have tried to clean out the crowd, but was afraid to get too near the range of the water stream.

He got behind the nozzle man and attempted to grab the hose, all the time using language that would not do to print in a Sunday School paper. He finally got in range of the stream again and was knocked off his feet and fell sprawling on the ground. He went to the authorities and had Fireman Charley Rutter arrested, charged with disturbing the peace. Mr. Rutter stood trial and the trial was held on Saturday before Justice McMillan, resulting in a hung jury. Harmon was arrested and his fine and costs amounted to $10.25.

May 5, 1905

Just east of the brick plant there is a swag in the earth which in the wet season fills with water. The recent heavy rains made a lake covering several acres of ground.

In various places in the lake bubbles are continually rising to the surface of the water. Last week when the water was highest, at a point near the brick plant office, the water spouted up four to six inches above the level of the lake.

The water has receded from this point, but the bubbling may still be seen in other parts of the lake. This is without doubt, escaping gas and indicates a deposit at some depth in the ground. Mr. Moore, manager of the brick plant, is quite confident that the discovery is a valuable one and that Mangum can get natural gas for the drilling.

June 8, 1905, Sun Monitor

The little sons of M.A. and J.C. Johnson, who live about seven miles east of here near the mouth of Elm, came in after playing in the sand one evening last week and told about finding a big bone.

Mr. Johnson was interested and lit his lantern and went out to look for it. It proved to be a bone all right, and a big bone. Mr. Johnson put it in his wagon and brought it to town Saturday and left it temporarily at this office, where it has been the subject of a great deal of speculation. It is a huge bone over three and a half feet in length and weighs 68 pounds.

Most people figure that it has been the thigh bone of some immense animal of the long ago. Dr. Baker, without figuring any, estimated that an animal with such a thigh bone must have been 16 or 17 feet high and probably 26 feet long. The bone is in a remarkable state of preservation. The recent high water dislodged it from the place where it has rested for so many years. Possible some hot, dry summer twenty or thirty centuries ago, the mighty mastodon or lusty lizard wandered down to the river to quench his thirst and was caught and buried alive in the treacherous quick sand. Possibly--but this all happened so long ago no one would believe us if we told the true story. Suffice it to say he was doubtless a good lizard and left his family well provided for.

ALTUS,

 
Chasing jack rabbits has been one of the town's amusements the past week. When the heavy snow came, the long-eared jacks found their rations cut off out on the prairies, so they began coming into town to look for scraps.

Two were startled out of their hiding places in the public square Monday and a general chase ensued. The jacks made for the open, and went around the square, with dogs and men and boys after them yelling like Comanche Indians. The poor rabbits stood, but little show from the start, though one finally got away.

The entire business portion of Altus turned out to witness the race, which was intensely exciting while it lasted.


Frank Stratton, a son of S.N. Stratton, brought to town yesterday a small flat stone, something near triangular in shape, the sides being three to four inches. On one side was carved several Masonic emblems: a gavel, an apron, a coffin, three steps with the letters F.H.C. upon them. On the other side of the stone, "in captive by Indians, J. Vanclure, London, Eng., 1764."

Young Stratton said his brother, John, found the stone a few days ago near the head of Deer creek, on the divide between Deer creek and Haystack creek. He said it was lying near an old trail through the brakes. We are inclined to the belief that it is a fake, for the stone and cutting were entirely too well preserved to be so old. We are well satisfied, however, that the Stratton boys found it and they know nothing of its origin. Page 1.

Sun Monitor, April 28, 1904

A FRISKY ZEPHYR, STRONG WINDS HIT MANGUM CITY AND LEAVE DAMAGE

There was probably never a storm, a flood, a fire, or a disaster of any kind, but what brought forth a few ludicrous sights and so it was with this disagreeable, but not very serious storm.

During the worst period of the storm, a man walked down the middle of the street running North and South on the West side of the square. With the sand and grit in his eyes, he could hardly see, and the wind every moment threatened to carry him off his feet. An empty banana crate come rolling down the street directly in his path, he saw it coming and stepped to one side several feet. The crate, like a living creature saw him, moved to one side, too and catching him when he was not looking, knocked his heels out from under him, and he sat down----hard. He would have sat on the crate, but it was gone.

N.B. Vaughan, who has a room in the Josephine Hotel, was lying on his bed in a half undressed condition, reading a paper when the storm struck. He heard the door down stairs blow open. Grabbing his coat and vest, he threw them on as he rushed down stairs. The hotel was too frail a thing to hold him, and he started across the street for the Sun Monitor office, but he had such a hard time to navigate--he had forgotten to put up his suspenders before he put on his coat and vest, and he had that newspaper to manage.

Sun Monitor, June 9., 1904

Last Tuesday, Chief Lone Wolf, his son and two sons-in-law were here to confer with a committee of Woodmen in regard to having a crowd of Indians attend the Woodman picnic to be held here on the 27th of this month.

The Indians agreed to come and show the white man how Indians kill a beef and cook and eat it. The Indians will be furnished the beeves by the Woodman. It is hoped a large crowd of Indians will be here.

Chief Lone Wolf has agreed to find out how many of his people will come and notify the Woodman Committee.
Lone Wolf Echo.

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