The Stockton National Bank has purchased the building formerly occupied by the National State Bank of Stockton the past week and will move to the new location within the next few days. It expects to open for business in the new quarters on Monday. Remodeling work is progressing satisfactorily in the new location, and the gold letters of “The Stockton National Bank” have already replaced those in the window of the failed institution. The Stockton National has sold its present building to Butler & Vallette, who rented it to the Carpenter Quality Store. Mr. Carpenter will move from the Oscar Gibbs building as soon as the bank building can be remodeled into a store, which will be about June 1st. While the financial part of the transaction has not been made public, it is understood the Stockton National Bank didn’t need to expend more than a few thousand dollars to make the transfer. The National State building was modernized with new vaults and built-in equipment only a few years ago, and the board of directors of the Stockton National felt that they could better afford the new location than spend thousands of dollars and a lot of time in modernizing their building. As part of the same transaction, the Farmers Union Mercantile and Shipping Associations purchased their present store location, which they have rented for several years, from the National State Bank. The Farmers Store will now be in its own building. The purchase was made from Harald Nomland, the receiver of the National State, and includes only the first floor and basement of the bank building, as the Masonic Fraternity owns the second floor of the entire building.

Chas. W. Coolbaugh was unanimously elected Stockton City School District Clerk at the annual school meeting. F. E Richmond, the present clerk, was not a candidate for re-election and could not be present at the meeting. Only forty voters were in attendance. The meeting voted a levy equal to 13 mills or approximately $21,000.00 for the expenses of the schools for the coming year. The wages of the teachers and janitors amount to about $2.600.00 a month or $130.00 for each school day.

Last week’s paper mentioned the fine concert staged by our local citizens, L. D. Fuller. It was Mr. Fuller’s opening number for the season before he and his company started on their tour. The concert was held at the high school auditorium, and the room was nearly filled to capacity. Fuller is undoubtedly a wizard on musical instruments, playing several at once, creating a novel expression among his audience. His son, Lorenzo, 12 years old, was exceptionally good on the harp. It is said he is the youngest harpist in the state. Mr. Fuller was assisted in the entertainment by his wife, a sisterin- law Mrs. J. Q. Sayers of Hill City, Professor Martin of Troy who will be one of the company’s regular entertainers as violinist this season, Will Pugh who puts on the comedy stuff, a daughter Rosabella Fuller, Eugene Stewart, and D. J. Green and his quartet.

Construction work will be started soon on the Federal highway east of Stockton. The camp has been located on the north side of the new location, half a mile east of the John Reed farmstead, and is situated at the center of the project for convenience. R. K. Walters is the superintendent in charge, with about fifteen men on the job. The actual construction work is still being held up while state highway engineers complete the office work on a recheck of the drainage structures. The work here will be under the charge of resident engineer F. Barkley, who arrived last week from Oberlin. Jack Coolbaugh, who has been studying engineering for some time, is assisting him in this location work. The material and equipment already on the job include a 60-horse power caterpillar tractor, a Stroud elevated grader, a dozen dump wagons, and much other equipment with some 30 horses and mules at the camp.

Next Tuesday, the local United Telephone Exchange will be host to the managers and owners of independent exchanges of this district. The district comprises all the counties west of Jewell and Mitchell Counties. The program includes questions about all phases of telephone work, round table talks, operator’s school, and other topics. There are more than 150 exchanges in the district, and it is expected that there will be more than 100 telephone people here for the meeting which will take place in the assembly room of the courthouse and will be an all-day affair.

Even with the dates of the Rooks County Fair’s annual meeting five months away, J. Q. Adams, the association’s secretary, is a busy man. In the past month, he had contracted for a significant portion of the free acts and other entertainment. Again, Mr. Adams is pleased to secure the Kilties Band of Beaver City, Nebraska.

C. D. Hobson of Downs, a veteran Missouri Pacific engineer, was crushed to death beneath his engine when the Lenora Branch passenger train ran into a herd of cattle on a curve a few miles west of Kirwin. The train was about three miles west of Kirwin when the engine crashed into the herd just as it came out of a small cut on a curve. In some way, one of the cows was pushed beneath the locomotive, causing it to jump the track and turn over into the ditch. Engineer Hobson was caught beneath the locomotive, only his head and chest projecting from the wreck. He was killed instantly, and the body was somewhat scalded by steam and hot water. The fireman, L.V. Harshey of Atchison, who was substituting on his first run on the Lenora Branch, was thrown clear of the wreck. The muscles of his arms and side were pulled loose, and he received some internal injuries. However, his condition is not believed to be critical. Mr. Hobson’s body rested beneath the weight of the 75-ton engine, and the light wrecker from Downs could not lift the wrecked locomotive. The section men finally managed to dig the body out after several hours before the heavy wreck had arrived from Atchison. Harold Hobson, son of the deceased, was working as a brakeman on the eastbound freight train. The trains passed in the Kirwin yards, and father and son waved at one another. Young Hobson’s train was still in the yards at Kirwin when the fact of the accident became known, and he rushed out to the wreck in an automobile and remained to direct the operations necessary to release the body of his father. The last fatal accident to an engine crew on the branch occurred about thirty years ago near Big Bend, also on the Lenora Branch. An engineer by the name of Wheeler and his fireman by the name of Gray were killed in that wreck. The Hobsons are known to most of the people of the Stockton community as both have been on the Stockton Branch run numerous times for many years.

The basement of the Christian Church on Second and Broadway in Plainville was dedicated by Pastor C. A. Burris. Dr. John Booth, \\conducted the event. The Christian Church had burned nearly three years ago after a thunderstorm. Some thought after the fire that the church would have to be given up altogether, but the building committee had other ideas. The new structure is on the same grounds as the old one and is a fireproof building and a beauty to the city. With only the basement completed, the cost so far is around $33,000. The work on the upper rooms for Bible School will be commenced at once, and in the next two years, the Sanctuary will be completed. We are strong for this building committee in having the grit to keep going. More often, the darkest hours are just before day.

Another fatal accident occurred late Sunday afternoon on the Dean Hill, south of the Saline River on the Hays/Plainville sector of State Highway No 1. John Drawbridge of Alma, Nebraska, was thrown from a runaway truck and died a few hours later at the Protestant Hospital in Hays. J. F. Baker and wife, Mrs. Coe, the mother of Mrs. Baker, and Mr. Drawbridge, a brother of Mrs. Coe, were returning from a visit at the Cecil Smith home in Hays in Baker’s Ford truck when the accident occurred. The exact cause of the runaway is not known. Near Dean Hill, the brakes on the truck seem to have failed. Possibly, the engine stalled. In a moment, the truck was beyond the driver’s control and dashing around the curves of the hill to almost certain destruction. In some matter, Mr. Drawbridge was thrown out of the truck’s rear. Whether he had prepared to leap to escape the inevitable crash or was thrown violently as the truck careened on the curve will never be known for Drawbridge died without regaining consciousness. Halfway down the hill, the wild race ended when a front wheel on the runaway truck collapsed, throwing the truck over and over and penning Mr. and Mrs. Baker and Mrs. Coe in the cab. After a time, Mrs. Baker managed to crawl out of the cab and, with the help of a tourist, released her husband and mother from the cab, raising the truck enough to permit them to be pulled from the wreckage. An ambulancewascalled,and all were taken to Hays. Mr. Drawbridge’s’ head was found to be badly cut with a possible fractured skull, and his chest was crushed. Mrs. Coe, who is 84 years old, received many cuts about the head and was seriously weakened by the loss of blood. Her condition is still considered so critical that she has not been told of the death of her only brother. Mr. Baker was severely bruised, and Mrs. Baker had a severe injury to an arm. However, both are recovering as rapidly as could be expected. The State Highway Commission has recently surveyed for a new location for State Highway No. 1. The maintenance condition of the hill has been unsatisfactory for more than a year, with deep ditches at the inside of the curves and loose rocks at the end of the roadway. It is to be hoped that this death trap will be eliminated before it causes the death of another citizen.

F. J. O’Brien, the proprietor of the Palace Café of Phillipsburg, attempted to commit suicide in one of the rooms above his place of business at about midnight on Sunday. Mr. O’Brien had been in poor health for some months, and this is the reason for the attempt, which was made with an old fashioned. 45 revolver held close enough to his body to set his shirt on fire. His screams attracted his wife to the room, and she found him with his shirt on fire. The bullet from the gun did not go straight through but followed a rib around, coming out from the back. It is thought that the bullet barely touched one lung, as he was spitting blood for the first two days. It is said that Mr. O’Brien had threatened to take his life previous to this time and that a smaller revolver had been taken away from him, together with cartridges for the large gun. He used a .38 caliber cartridge in the .45 revolver. While O’Brien’s condition is still serious, it is thought that he will recover if no complications set in. He was kept under the influence of an opiate during the first two days following the accident to appease the terrible pain he had suffered. Mr. O’Brien was formerly employed by the Rock Island Railroad but has been running the Palace Café for the past several years.