The Barnwell people-sentinel. (Barnwell, S.C.) 1925-current, June 11, 1936, Image 7
The Barnwell People-Sentinel, Barnwell, S. C- Thursday, June 11, 1936
VIGILANTES WAR ON RURAL CRIME
Loss From Farm Thefts Is Greater Than From Bank Robberies and
Kidnaping in Illinois; Organize Vigilante Corps
By WILLIAM C. UTLEY
W HO is Public Enemy No. 1? The kidnaper? The gang kill- 28
er? The bank robber? The racketeer? chicken thieves who had operated as a
Perhaps. At least it is these desperadoes whose spec- ^ult^i^tonhlrn^llli!^! ° f ° f
tacular exploits make the big headlines. Their ruthless and merciless in another case a susplclous-appear-
work, often conducted right out in the open, is not infrequently ing man went to an oil station to buy
touched up with a bit of showmanship which makes them the type of S asollne at two o’clock on a cold win-
characters which fire the public imagination.
The urgency for exercising every method within human means
for apprehending these criminals is not to be minimized. But the very
publicity, ascending sometimes to outright ballyhoo in the enthusi
asms of the more vigorous press, which
for while the decrease In crime through-
out the nation generally last year was , * yasim
13 per cent, the decrease in Illinois
was 40 per cent. Especially in the
last six months has the fight against
rural crime proved to be a victorious
one for Justice.
It began in Joliet, Will county, with a
mass meeting in which more than 1,000
farmers gathered following the murder of
youthful John Blivernicht, who went to
investigate a suspicious car in the neigh
borhood of his employer's farm and was
shot in cold blood. [Ettgene Shilcut, the Ei gene Shilcut, chicken th e! who
negro who kiHed him, escaped, but was slew Joliet (III.) youth and was later
found later in Tennessee, shot to death slain himself in Tennessee
by a bullet from a .22.
Because Will county was the first ter morning. His actions and general
openly to declare war on rural crime, conversation didn’t quite ring true,
the results of Its,meeting and organize- T1 »ey were reported and Sheriff Clar
tion were watched with Interest by the * n ce Roth of Champaign county caught
entire Middle West The farmers of several cattle and hog thieves as a
the county themselves wfcre in a fever result.
attends their comings and goings, unfor
tunately overshadows another type of
public enemy, w’ho works quietly v and
In most cases inconspicuously, but
whose evil deeds are often of more
serious consequence than those of his
more spectacular brother in crime.
The citizen who lives in rural areas
or on the farms often entertains this
Rural Public Enemy No. 1 in his own
back yard without knowing it. For
this is the common chicken thief. He
and the others of his kind who steal
horses, cattle, and farm produce and
machinery are, collectively, far more
Important to the farmer than all of
the bank robbers in creation.
Importance 1* Unrealized.
Chicken stealing is usually regarded
as a low type of crime, perpetrated
only by the small fry, the hungry hobo
.or the wayward, mlnstrel-Joke darkey,
Often when the thief is caught he is
heat of Indignation against the three
wm
r
*
y,
This new method of identification la
•applied to the ear of livestock or under
the web of the wing of poultry. It
facilitates Identification of stolen prop,
erty and thus improves chances of con
victing criminals.
if
sent on his way with a 'kick in the
pants or is simply given a good scare.
It Is not unusual to find the farmer
he. has attempted to burglarize protect
ing him from'prosecution which might
net him six months on a state penal
farm, a sentence that might be regard
ed as ‘‘a little stiff” for just stealing
a chicken to two.
Stiff sentence? The monetary loss to
farmers last year in one state alone—Illi
nois—from chicken stealing and kindred
■rural crimes was more than the loss of
the entire nation from bank robberies
and kidnapings, according to Ross C.
Saunders, rural crime prevention inspec
tor for the state agriculture department.
From the 231,000 farms of the slate, says
Saunders, there were stolen IJiOO.OOO
chickens, 20,000 head of cattle and un
counted tools and implements.
Other states have been subjected to
enormous losses from what seems on
the surface to be petty thievery. A
survey conducted in Indiana by a farm
magazine revealed that in a single
year there were 580,185 head of poul
try stolen. 2.332 hogs, 3,212 head of
other livestock, 7,123 gallons of gaso
line, 27,122 bushels of grain. There
were 819 thefts of tools and Imple
ments, 138 thefts of clothing, 997
thefts of goods and 2,253 miscellaneous
thefts from farms.
In Illinois chicken thefts, for ten
years during which some sort of check
has been maintained, have averaged
about a million head of chickens an-
WCyE*S
h
%
Ross C. Saunders, leader in. Illinois’
model rural crime prevention cam
paign.
nually and 12,000 head of livestock.
The situation, which reached a climax
when a young man of Will county was
brutally murdered while trying to pro
tect his employer against loss at the
hands of thieves, called for action.
Mass Meeting Starts It.
Action that was taken In this state
has proved so successful that now HU
note’ methods are serving as a model
for the combat against rural crime In
other states. Inspector Saunders,
working under Walter L. McLaughlin,
state director of agriculture, and In
close co-operation with press and radio,
or four complaints of theft which had
been made to authorities every night.
From evidence uncovered at this I because the complaining farmer has no
Other Methods Help.
Cases Just like these can be rattled
off by the hundreds. Co-operation by
all the farmers, a really simple thing
to accomplish in areas where losses
have been heavy, is about all that is
needed. It has been shown that the
gangs pull up stakes when the farmers
unite against them
There are other methods which can
be of great help. A large number of
hen houses are now being equipped
with burglar alarms which have proved
effective. But even more important
is the institution in each state of uni
form registration of poultry and live
stock. If it were required that some
kind of Identification mark be put on
the web of the wing of poultry and bn
the ear or some part of the body, of
animals that would be a protecton.
It is all too frequent an occurence that
suspected criminals, when their cases
come to trial, are of necessity acquittec
meeting and at meetings in other parts
of the state it became apparent that
rural thievery was not the work of in
dividuals, but of gangs. Often these
gangs were led by seasoned criminals
who had been driven from the cities
by the efficient campaign against crime
there. These leaders hired men to
make systematic small thefts; the com
bined total of all of them was enough
to stamp the new racket as important.
Cattle Rustling Returns.
Even cattle rustling became big busi
ness to the gangs, although it was not,
to be sure, the cattle rustling of the
old West. In these days of smooth,
concrete highways and fast-moving
trucks it is possible to steal a few
Tiead of cattle, load them onto a truck
and move them across a state In a
single night. Often the gangs worked
in relays, one truck spiriting away the
stolen animals and another waiting for
the load to be transferred to It at the
state line. Sometimes the gang’s hide
out was 300 or 400 miles away from
the area where most of their thievery
was perpetrated.
Farmers, slow to awaken to the seri
ousness of the disappearance of their
livestock and chickens a few head at
a time, were often entirely unaware
that their neighbors were experiencing
similar losses. Small losses were sel
dom reported; farmers in some cases
undoubtedly thought themselves fully
capable of coping with a common
chicken thief. Where It was actually
discovered that the thefts were the
work of gangs or of the more des
perate type of criminal, farm families
hesitated to report thefts for fear the
burglars would return and set their
houses or farm buildings on fire.
The answer seems now to be that in
way of positively identifying his poultry
or his live stock. This "branding” can
make such identification possible.
A method has been developed in Illi
nois which seems to fill the bill and
which will probably be adopted soon
by the farmers of other states. The
mark is quickly applied with a simple
tool and the application is far more
humane than the old-time branding
with a hot iron and Is in effect some
what similar to tattooing.
Branding, of course, would also re
move the packing companies which buy
~rr
A? •
fe* m
John Blivernicht, whose murder at
the hands of a rural thief stirred Illi
nois farmers to action.
the farmers’ product from embarrassing
positions in which they sometimes find
themselves. They occasionally and
quite innocently buy stolen poultry or
livestock from thieves without know
ing it, and thus help foster rural crime.
, r o " f £ ere “ length. Thirty days after Th(J , aw make8 , t manclatory for the
the H ill county farmers met and organ
ised, Sheriff Breen was able to report
that thievery had stopped.
How did these farmers effect this
efficient clean-up so swiftly?
Eyes Opened, Ears Peeled.
Definite Instructions are given all
farmers in the area. Farmers and
their families are trained to be on the
lookout for suspicious automobiles and
suspicious-looking strange^ and situa
tions. When a theft is reported, the
farmers immediately report any ac-
buyers of stolen goods to reimburse
the losers upon proof that the prop
erty was stolen.
® Weatern Newspaper Union.
Cannibal Gardeners
In spite of modernized transport, and
the consequent shrinkage of the world,
surprise discoveries are still made in
odd corners where men have dwelt for
ages unknown to the rest of mankind,
says Tit-Bits Magazine.
In the high altitudes of central Ra
tions or persons of a suspicious nature J P ua » a race warr i° rs h 08 been dis-
that they may have observed at or covered quite untouched by modern de-
near the time of the theft. More bften velopments. Many of them are can-
than not the Information obtained
leads to a solution of the crime.
Flow this works may be shown by
a few examples:
Recently a man was convicted of
cattle-stealing in Iowa. He had been
transporting the cattle through 1111
noia to his farm near South Bend, Ind.
Two women saw his truck at an oil
station and the furtive manner of its
occupants aroused suspicion. The
nibals who engage in constant war
fare, though ignorant of firearms. They
are said to show traces of' Semitic
origin, and. In spite of their isolation,
they have acquired or inherited the art
of gardening. They plan them sym-
metrically, and grow many kinds of
vegetables, as well as bananas. They
also systematically drain the soil and
plant trees.
This newly discovered people num
women copied the name and address ^ er a ^ out a Q uarter ® million. They
from the side of the truck. The result. g0 a ^ out a,mo8t naked, their clothing
was an arrest, followed by conviction consisting mainly of queer decorations,
and the recovery of the cattle by the 8trln 8* 0 * 8hel1 * which const!fute theli
owner.
currency, tiny snakes through theli
A farmer near Chicago taw a cr ear *’ necklaces of birds wings. Widow*
has served as the focal head for the parked along the open highway for no ofteD han * around thelr necks the Jaw
campaign. Already It Is bearing fruit, I apparent reason. Ha became suspicious. I hones of their departed hssbandsl
PL.
lp|
iiiiM
At the End of an English Sylvan Path.
Prepared hy the National Geographic Society.
Washington. D. C.—WNU Service.
I F ANYONE wants to know the Eng-
lish countryside, let him gh house
hunting. On such a quest he wil*
discover Nature’s cozy-corners that
casuals never find. They are every
where, but as Ingeniously concealed as
a bird’s nest. There may even be a
sign which says, “Dangerous narrow
road. Enter at our own risk.” But
that is Just the kind of place to insist
upon penetrating.
Enter on foot if you are afraid, but
the car can squeeze in. You find your
self in one of those incomparable roads
like tunnels of living green. Earthen
banks of ivy and wild flowers rise ten
feet high to be topped by tall trees
sprung from the original hedge planted
a hundred years ago. The road keeps
you guessing by making such curves
that there is bo penetrating the secret
of what lies ahead.
All at once a gate. Within, a bit of
woodland, flower-brightened; beyond
that, a sunny garden, moldy mossy
walls, lattice windows, creepers all
abloom and reaching to the roof tiles,
which are toned from dull red to gen
tle green by two centuries of soft
raing and sun. ^
Who would not penetrate the wood
to gaze closer—especially when armed
with a handful of permits from a real
estate firm? You pass through the bit
of flowered woodland gay with yellow
primrose patches and massed blue
bells. But on emerging from the
screening trees and seeing the open
garden lying in the si and the house
forming a part of it, you gasp and
halt.
'this is the house of your dreams.
A servant appears and explains that
tin house is to-be let and is at your
service; the lease is for sixty-five
years! Exclamation marks rattle about
in your head. You stagger away, feel
ing a kinship with Adam and Eve.
Peculiar Rental Customs.
You select another house which you
consider a perfect gem, only to be told
that it is not available for “instant
possession.” The present tenant has
the place for four years longer.
These, and other interesting rental
customs you may learn in English
real-estate offices. Mayfair is full of
fascinating real-estate offices, most of
them seeming like private homes, with
their open fires, Chippendale chairs,
and bookcase desks.
"Mr. Upper ton and Partners” is the
diverting and reticent sign over the
door of one of these. Lovely way of
expressing it; Upperton, Stoggs, Chair
and Jones is outdone by the dignity of
“and Partners.”
Any of these gentlemen can teach
the eager American client new uses
of English words and phrases in
real - estate jargon, whether or not
he offers the ideal ancient hotfse and
rcmantle garden. And It is here that
yen learn that the rent of unfurnished
houses is denoted in pounds sterling,
while the furnished house smartly de
mands guineas—an extra shilling on
each pound.
You also leafn that company’s water
“laid on” merely means that domestic
water flows-from taps instead of being
pumped up from well or cistern. In
deed, one must not visibly shudder to
learn that for 200 years houses have
been occupied by gentry, modern smart
people among them, who have bad no
running water, no lights except kero
sene lamps, no telephones. Incredible!
Without the tireless English servant,
the English gentry must have died
out for lack of comYorts.
One of the Partners may ask yon
strange-sounding questions.
“Are you prepared to pay dllapida
tions?”
That Is disconcerting.
“But I don’t want a house that is ac
tually in a state of decay.”
The Partner patiently explains tha
any sort of damage or breakage must
bo restored by the tenant YoflT bil!
for dilapidations may be only four
•hilling, about one dollar, for a flower
holder. But It often happens that one
sent assume the dilapidations of the
The Mind , *
__ — LOWELL
Meter • hendemon
© Beil Syndicate.—WNU Service.
States and Capitals Test
In this test, either a state of a
capital of a state is given. Where
a state is given, write -the capital of
that state; where a capital of a
state is given, write the name of the
state.
1. Michigan, ; Minnesota, .
2. Cheyenne, ; Concord, .
3. Utah, ; Austin, .
4. Carson City, ; Kentucky, .
5. Oklahoma, ; Little Rock, .
6. Maryland, ; Iowa,- .
7. Harrisburg, ; Providence, ■,
8. Jackson, ; Montgomery, •.
9. Arizona, ; Idaho, .
10. Dover, ; Connecticut, .
Answers
1. Lansing; St. Paul.
2. Wyoming; New Hampshire.
3. Salt Lake City; Texas.
4. Nevada; Frankford.
5. Oklahoma City; Arkansas,
fl. Annapolis; Des Moines.
7. Pennsylvania; Rhode Island.
8. Mississippi; Alabama.
9. Phoenix; Boise.
10. Delaware; Hartford
Vt
previous tenant, which may Include
repairs and decorations of Importance.
So it is a word to excite suspicion.
Rent days are not the “prosaic first
of the month. They come four times a
year. Their names are full of sugges
tion: Lady day, Midsummer, Michael
mas, Christmas. It makes a romantic
pleasure of paying rent
Hunting a Country House.
The hunt for the ideal takes on the
aspect of a tour. It is possible to get
about by commodious omnibuses. They
set you down on the main roads, where
local motor cars with drivers can be
hired.
Gradually you come to know the
districts not too far from London
where certain types of the ideal house
have sprung from the soil. It is a
requisite of the ideal English small
house that it should look as if it had
pushed Itself up from Nature’s labora
tory of the earth, just as the shrubs,
flowers, and trees have done. They
are close kin. They all live together In
harmony and beauty.
Districts not too far from London
contain an entrancing variety of old
styles. The house of carved interiors
and scrolled gables is a specialty of
Kent; the thatched roof hides beside
the roads of Hampshire’s New Forest;
the cottage of light-gray stone makes
glad the villages of the Cotswolds; and
the Georgian, or rather Eighteenth-
century houses, scatter their elegant
lines in all parts of the land. Timber
and plaster houses tempt one almost
everywhere with their Tudor charm.
West of Southampton lies the witch
ing wood of the New Forest, where
fine leafage piles delicately up and
up against the sky, and where the road
slips softly into mossy turf of green,
sun-spangled. Out in the sunny tangle
of open lands the wild forest ponies
roam free amid gorse and broqm and
heather. Farther along, where the
read strikes the edge of the wood,
stand ideal cottages with thatched
roofs. The windows of the second story
are veritable eyes which kindly con
template. The casement of one is
thrown back and the rosy face of a
girl laughs with pretty boldness.
This Is a country of thatch. More
cottages watch by the roadside. Some
are inns, but are so elegantly kept that
only a lover of the picturesque, a po
tential artist, would be living there.
You come to one of the richest of
all districts for those who hunt the
ideal house when you arrive at the
hills of the Cotswolds. Gradually Its
little stone houses catch you in the
spell of their beauty. They spread
themselves beside the road, taking on
almost human qualities. They lift their
gables with dignity; they spread their
mullioned windows with frankness.
Their symmetry seems of the highest
art, yet it is said these lovely bpuses
were built by simple artisans. They
took the warm, light stone of the land,
and even the roof tiles aj*e made of It.
All seems a pearly gray, and on this
ideal color climb the bright flowers of
the garden.
Many Enticing Places..
You -linger long and drift from road
to lane, from village to farm, drinking^
in every detail of these houses—the
Tudor ornament over the leaded win
dows, the lovely flat arch of the front
door, the beauties of the back of the
house, the flowers and a cunning use
of shrubs and creepers piling one
thrilling beauty npon another against
the light-gray stone.
In Sussex and Kent, hunt out the
old farms and the ancient houses of
villages. They have a beauty all their
own, with their bricks turned to pink
and softened brown. Many have an end
gable of stone fashioned In the grand
curves which fascinatingly recall the
Walloons who brought with them their
own traditions of art when driven to
England by religious persecutions.
Those curvilinear gables have, too, s
Spanish flavor, a late Renaissance
caper of free-drawn curves. Fascinst
ing Interiors those Walloon doth
weavers constructed to make the homes
of their exiles resemble those tbej had
left
Uncle Sam’s Printing Bill
$38,000,000 for 2 VVYears
The government prlntinstfdll from
June 30, 1933, to December 31, 1935,
was $38,000,000. -J
Congress is responsible for only
1G per cent of the total. Its bill for
that period was but $6,500,000. The
Post Office department ranked sec
ond with $4,100,000 and the Depart
ment of Agriculture third with
$2,100,000.—Pathfinder Magazine.
Itellei ¥ neddened EYES
Idealism and Action
Words without actions are the as
sassins of Idealism.—Herbert Hoover.
K: IT CER
TAINLY IS
WORTH DO
ING HOME
CANNING
RIGHT.
M: AND THE THINGS THAT
MAKE HOME CANNING RIGHT
ARE U.S. ROYAL PE-K6TB5E
JAR RUBBERS.
NOTHING ELSE
CAN SEAL FLAVOR
IN SOUGHT
...AND THEIR
TWO BIG UPS
TORE IT CHILD’S
PLAY TO MAKE OR
BREAK THE SEAL
m
m.
OHS Isays
17MI
i tat, A T, Im in
Pe-Ko Edge
JAR RUBBERS
FRUITS-VEGETABLES WANTHii
• In Track and Car Lota. Hick Market priccn QMafc
Salas. Financial reapondbUity a«aras VMI daily ratnne
OurmarM oaotatioaa mrt sat aaaw»rat<d la
Outuet afcijraMsts. Writs or trim for (ton.
SCHLEY BROTHERS
Tin l
IS Bant Camdan St.
• IPyftlMl $o ywi
Commiooion Firm
loomtiouo mod ml
i Hoots"
BALTIMORI. M
> mod ths mote Whotssmls
m operation I oommrmtm
forest im Boltimors.
WANTED: Demonstrators drlvinc older
car* for Motor Rajuvsnator. Cuts can and
oil fourth, Improvea performance, apood,
pick-op and aavea repairs. Steady Money-
Maker Repeater, l&o and tl. package Wrme
•ample. Neo-Frodacta Co, Plaebloff, N.O.
."BLACK UAF 40*
i im
5* AND 101 JARS
we tot sue contains si*
TIMES AS MUCH AS THE 5< SIZE \ifOorJf
MOROUNE
■ ▼ I SNOW WHITE PETROLEUM JEUT