Miss Ruby Dotson and Miss Flossie Gaumer, both of Beloit, are opening a beauty shop inside the Maris store this week. The ladies are experienced in beauty work and come to this city highly-recommended. Miss Gaumer is known to a few Stockton ladies; she had them as customers while she operated a shop in Beloit. Miss Dotson is a former county girl; her parents resided for some years in southwest Stockton and are now located at Glasco. The two ladies are going to outfit the shop with the very latest in fixtures, and being experienced operators, they should demand a good patronage.

The Chick Boyes Players, with Chick himself and his own company, will be back to the Rooks County Fair this year with a new bill of plays and vaudeville. Chick will be in the plays this year, and there are some of the old members of the company and a few new ones. The opening night play is “Skidding,” a three-act play with a real story. The other bills for the remainder of the week are equally as interesting.

A series of local showers blanketed most, if not all, of Rooks County fell Wednesday evening and night, breaking a long and most disastrous drought. Some communities in Rooks report as much as two inches of rainfall. Others had less than a quarter of an inch of moisture. Generally, the east part of the county received the heaviest showers. Reports from near Kirwin, at Woodson, and Codell indicate that most farms in the eastern part of the county received from one to two inches of desperately needed moisture. Plainville and Phillipsburg received more than an inch, but Stockton got less than half an inch of moisture. Webster and Bogue report good showers but not satisfying soil-soaking rains. Generally, the corn crop of Rooks County has been blasted, and many fields are long past the point where rains can be of any help. Other fields are as hopeless as the corn, but good rains from now on, if helped out by late frost, may make a good feed crop.

Pete Parmenter entered a plea of guilty to the possession of intoxicating liquor in the justice court of F. N. Schruben Tuesday morning. Federal officers picked up Parmenter about a year ago, and the local officers found a quantity of beer on his premises a couple of weeks ago. After entering the plea of guilty, Parmenter made a request for a stay of sentence on account of the precious condition of his little one, Joe. The attending doctor and several responsible citizens who have seen the little chap, who has been confined with a severe illness for several months, testified to his desperate condition and the splendid care given the lad by his father. After making a full investigation into the matter, Justice Schruben announced that the punishment to be given to Mr. Parmenter would be 30 days in jail and a fine of $100.00, but said that he wanted to do everything possible to ease the sufferings of this unfortunate lad. Accordingly, he continued the matter until September 2nd for the sentence. Mr. Parmenter gave a bond to appear in court on September 2nd to take his sentence.

Sheriff Joyce Blackman of Graham County was shot and possibly fatally wounded by Alfred (Red) Cummings in the country north of Morland early Tuesday morning. Blackman and a deputy, Dick Odle, attempted to arrest Cummings on a charge of murder lodged against him at North Platte, Nebraska, when the shooting occurred. Nebraska authorities had been seeking Cummings for some time. They had reported to Sheriff Blackman that the fugitive would be in Morland early Tuesday morning, and Blackman and Odle started after their man. Cummings was located in a Model A Ford Sedan belonging to Silas Huntington, a farmer living four miles north of Morland. Floyd Huntington, also wanted on the North Platte murder charge, and Silas and Bill Huntington were with Cummings. The Ford was located about three miles north of Morland, and Blackman, driving a powerful Buick, forced the machine into the ditch. Cummings and his companions jumped from the car. Floyd Huntington surrendered immediately. Cummings is said to have drawn a gun and to have opened fire on the officers. Sheriff Blackman was struck by a bullet that passed through the upper portion of his left arm and into his breast, lodging near the heart. Despite his wound, Blackman returned fire, a bullet striking Cummings in the hip. The shooting stopped, however, when Silas Huntington stepped in front of the wounded officer, and Cummings fled on foot. Cummings ran to the John Sullivan farm and, at the point of the gun, forced the farmer to drive him north to Lenora. He is said to have boasted that he had “just shot it out with the sheriff.” Two miles south of Lenora, Cummings became sick from his wound, and Sullivan was able to get out of the car and then returned home and notified the officers where he had left the desperado. A posse was formed immediately, and Cummings was noticed as he left the farmstead of J. Dwine, which was just south of Lenora. He was trailed into a cornfield and captured within three hours after the shooting. Sheriff Blackman is a young man and a World War veteran. He was raised near Morland. Cumming also grew up in the Morland community. He had been arrested on June 24th at North Platte on the murder charge, but his release had been secured on a writ of habeas corpus by a Hill City lawyer. Since then, additional evidence against Cummings and Huntington had been discovered, and the new search for him was inaugurated. In view of the possibilities of mob action in case of the death of the popular sheriff, it was deemed best to take the desperado and his associate out of Graham County for safekeeping. Sheriff Blackman was too weak to be moved and was left at Morland. He was bleeding internally from his wound and grew steadily weaker for some time. At first, no hope was held for his recovery. Several prominent doctors were rushed to his bedside to give him the benefit of expert consultation.

Phillip Morin, 23, of Damar, was almost instantly killed yesterday morning when his car, stalled on the Union Pacific tracks, was struck by a freight train about two miles from Damar. The automobile was carried for a distance of 200 feet and demolished. Morin was picked up by the train crew and taken to Palco for emergency treatment by Dr. Peterson but died a few minutes after reaching the doctor’s office. Coroner Brown made an investigation of the death and decided a hearing would not be necessary. Morin suffered severe injuries. A long wound was made above the right eye extending to the ear, a deep gash on the head, left ear torn off, right shoulder broken, and left arm broken. It had been said that Morin had been at a dance and apparently had gone to sleep in his car, which had stalled on the Union Pacific railway tracks.

The latest oil test to be made in Rooks County is the well being drilled in the exact center of NE1/4 of 21-8-19 on land owned by Dick Silvers. The drilling is progressing rapidly, and reports state that the hole is down by 925 feet. This well is being drilled by A. E. Creeley of Russell and H. K. Boysen of Ponca City, Okla. Mr. Creeley has the distinction of bringing in the first well in the Russell field, and we are in hopes he will be the first to bring in a producer in his new location.

The preliminary returns of the 1930 census indicate that although Rooks County is still losing population, the rate of decrease is far less than in the previous decade. The Census Bureau reports a population of 9,534, while in 1920, the total was 9,966, and in 1910, it was 11,282. This is a total loss of 1,748 in twenty years, but only a decrease of 432 in the past ten years.

The engineers from the Fairbanks-Morse plant at Beloit, Wisc., are here this week installing the new 360 horsepower modern diesel engine at the municipal power plant. The installation work will be completed within the next week. The new engine is a six-cylinder full diesel of the latest design, directly connected with a 300-kilo volt amperes 3-phase 2200 volt alternator or generator and a ten kw exciteor. The great steel crankshaft is extended beyond the engine, and the generator and exciteor are connected to the shaft extension. No belts are required on the equipment.

Stockton will have a Fourth of July celebration this year, and the businessmen are inviting everyone to come to town on the evening of the Fourth and enjoy the celebration. There will be no speech-making and no milling around during a hot July afternoon. The entire entertainment will be in the evening at the fairgrounds, with the fireworks set for nine o’clock. The entertainment is free, the expenses having been contributed by about sixty Stockton businessmen. A fine display of rockets, bombs, set pieces, all sorts of wheels, and other fireworks has been ordered. Harvest will be on all over the county, but the farmers are asked to quit a few minutes before dark, load the family into the car, and come in for the fireworks display.