| Show BIG l 1 How Frank Johnson Helped Holdred Holdredge a Out HOut of the Mud By Dy A. A B. B Macdonald In Out in Western Nebraska they are yet talking about th the big birthday cake caIre which Frank Johns Johnson n made and cut and handed out to ten thousand persons in celebration of thirty fifth year of his In the little littletown littletown littletown town of Holdrege The size of ot the cake grows as the story travels In some places the they tell that It weighed more than a ton that it was the biggest biggest biggest big big- gest jumbo of a cal cake o ever baked measuring ten feet across Startling stories are told about Johnson and his store and the truth is that he sold upward of third one-third of a million dollars' dollars worth of general gener gener- al merchandise last year and is selling selling sell sell- ing fug so much more this year that he expects his sales to Lo total a half million million dollars That in a town of only three thousand It Isa is isa isa a rich farming country all aJl round but the county has only people people peo pee pie so of course a large part of his trade must come from outside his own county It is a fact that farmers farmers farmers farm farm- ers and people from other towns drive as far as seventy miles to trade with him that they come from towns larger than tha Holdrege passing many other stores Seeking to learn why that was so a visitor went to Holdrege in III May driving by motor car twenty miles across country from a town on another another another an an- other railway line The cross cross- country trip had scarcely begun when the driver said I suppose youve you've heard about that birthday cake Frank Franl Johnson made a couple of months ago well I not only saw It but I ate a hunk of it Everybody Everybody Every Every- Everybody body in all this country round here went in that day to see it and everybody got a slice of it Must have been some cake Making People Talk It was a whale of a cake a world beater The librarian down there at Holdrege went through all the books and records he had and he lie said there was never a cake as big bigas bigas bigas as that It was six feet across and anda a yard thick with barrels of ot raisins in it and all frosted as as white as snow They say it cost over a thousand thousand thousand thou thou- sand dollars Why did he bake it Well sir that's just Johnsons Johnson's way lies He's always doing something to make people talk and come com to his hs h s I store And nd its it's some store believe beHove Country Gentleman me There isn't another store in all Nebraska outside of Omaha that can equal it and not more than two or three in Omaha that can beat It ft On that drive of twenty miles to toward toward toward to- to ward Holdrege the farmers along ulong the way were asked about Johnson and his sore We Ve trade there said one who lived nearly twenty miles because t away we can an g g t gi-t anything there in his line ju just t i ne nesame same as if we were in Omaha or I Denver or Kansas City J Johnson ison is ison ison on on the square about it and he has lias i imade made Holdredge the best town ol of its I i size in the state I doubt if there theres there's s another town in this country that can equal Holdrege We Ve are arc proud of it and It just naturally seems I like Johnson has got us all in the notion of driving to Holdrege when i we want anything Farmers and their wives all along I Ithe the road spoke with pride of Holdrege Hol liol-i liol drege and of Johnsons Johnson's store and of the big auditorium there Several farmers ef of the town as having added to the values of their lands lauds Its worth something to live I j In easy reach of a town like that it I makes the land worth more than it i I would be if the nearest town was as shabby and as muddy and as dirty and as selfish and greedy as the ma tha majority majority ma- ma of small towns said a farmer farm farm- I er and andy several others spoke in the the same vein Holdrege has two principal streets that cross at right angles and Johnsons Johnson's store looms up right thereon there on the main corner a landmark to all the tho countryside It is a brick building one hundred feet each way with three floors and the great plate- plate glass windows dressed up like the windows of a store on Main Street in Kansas City One of ot those streets is one hundred the other eighty feet teet wide from curb to curb and no city street anywhere is paved better than titan they with a thick base of ot solid soUd concrete con Ion concrete crete an Inch of or sand on that vitrified vitrified vitrified fied brick set on the wane ana n 1 as asphalt asphalt S as- filling the cracks between the bricks Dolling Up the tho Town That pavement will be there thero a thousand years from now said all a business man proudly They tell that Johnson put that Continued on Page Two BIG DIG COU COUNTRY rRY MERCHANTS n RC ANTS Continued from rom page one pavement there covering tuo the t f fo ro r-o romain romain main streets ts and reaching out to where tho wheat fields begin ThAt t doesn't mean mean that ho he paid pata It ft but buthe buthe buthe he kept h hammering away In his store paper and urging tho the people to Lift Holdrege out of or the tho mud That t 1111 was his slogan for tor years Lift Holdrege out of the mud At last the pavement came Johnson Johnson Johnson John John- son says about It I 1 d dont don't nt deserve more credit for that pavement than others here We all pitched In to together together to- to gether sether and did It tt and I helped with the rest You know you take take- a colored man shino his shoes give him him- hima a clean white collar and ami he looks all dolled up Did you ever ever notice that Its It's the same way with witha a l little town give it clean paved streets and it always looks looks- spick and span In tenths nine-tenths of the prairie towns of this size the streets are aree seas of black sticky mud seven months I of tho the year and deserts of whirling sand and dust the tho balance balance of ot the the time and yet the tho merchants in such towns sit round and wonder why so eo so many farmers farmers' go to other towns to trade trad or send away to order mail houses honses What right has a merchant to invite In Inv Invite In- In v vite e farmers to come to his town lown to trade wl when en the streets are knee-deep knee in mud A farm wife has enough mud and muck at home goodness knows If she steps out to feed the chickens or fetch some eggs from the barn or slop the hogs she Is apt to to be deep ankle-deep in mud and then to ask her to come to town and to wade in It knee deep knee deep that's what I call rubbing it in Why you cant can't cross the street in the average county country coun- coun try ty town in winter without wading A merchant has nerve to ask a family nin to to drive through the mud to toa toa a town where the streets are worse th than l any country road Mr John John- son son added Country folks line like their town to be citified The old n notion Uon that anything Is good enough for a farmer doesn't go any more It never was true They like paved streets and concrete sidewalks Just Justas I as well as ell city folks folls do They like to walk In town I figure that our clean paved streets are the greatest asset this town has outside I of our auditorium Im I'm not afraid of I any town within a radius of fifty miles of us taking my trade from meso me meso meso so long as they have muddy streets and we have our paved pared streets and auditorium J Johnson cannot deny that the auditorium au- au auditorium au au- waS was h his s enterprise For years he preached the need of it in his hid monthly store paper and when he he lie thought the time was ripe he turned i ed the store over to his son sou and the department h heads ads and went out and up and down the countryside For six months he solicited money with which t to build that tha auditorium He and another merchant in town were the largest contributors The auditorium cost thirty-five thirty thousand dollars and Johnson saw to it that every dollar went into the building Many of the farmers In the county are stockholders in it In the state of Nebraska there is only one other auditorium so large as this one in Holdrege and none Is nearly so beautiful Its walls are of pressed brick and Its arched roof roof roof-is is so architecturally perfect that the builders of it illustrate and describe In their catalogue as the most graceful graceful graceful grace grace- ful auditorium roof in America There is not a post in the building to Interfere with seeing Three years ago this auditorium was built and the first big event in it was a concert by Galli- Galli Curci They say that when the great singer learned that on the way from Omaha to Denver she was to stop and sing In a village e of ony three thousand population awa away out there on on the prairie she was not very enthusiastic tic about it But her agent said to her You will have an audience of three thousand persons and not one in one hundred of them ever e heard hearda a opera grand-opera singer The da day of the concert the the str streets ets of the little town were filled with ay- ay People came one Ole hundred hundred hundred hun hun- dred miles to the concert Three 1 thousand persons paid one dollar each and were comfortably seated sealed It was a new now experience to Galli- Galli Curci i-Curci and she actually wept with emotion when that great audience of Df farmer folk hearing for the first time in their UV lives 3 such singing and thrilled by It rose and cheered and d cheered Since then other other great singers and musicians and other concerts con con- have been there and each time ithe the auditorium was filled Johnson st stood od In the center of the auditorium recently showing t t off to a committee sent from a bigger T Nebraska town to look at it and make a report I feel mOl more nore pride In what Ive I've done to help l build thin ihla and l keep it going than In n all n else put together er that Ive I've done in m my life JUe lie ho he said An auditorium like this is 18 the gre greatest benefit that can an anbo bo be conferred on on any farming farmin com com- YOU got to live on a prairie farm to know how monotonous ous it is how v irksome It becomes become how lonesome folks P. P gat t especially young people Why In the tho average farm community the tho girls have no n chance to marry ml Neither have the young men Theres There's no change chance e for r them to meet Thorn There s no Intermingling intermIngling Intermingling gling no social life Tt The Lurch church is closed almost the whole year round If the young oung folks drive to r town they can only stand round or shop Man ally alive I tell you there are tragedies of or loneliness for young oung folks on these western prairie farms yearnings for lor companionships companionships companionships companion companion- ships go unsatisfied and hearts break Now he told them here s this big hall halt Look at that waxed and polished hardwood floor Hun lIun- of ot couples can dance hero here at once and they do Twice a month we have a dance here one dollar for formen formen men ladles ladies free We Wo havo a good orchestra of our own but th the the theare 1 are all nIl church members and they refuse refuse re re- fuse tuse to play the jazz music demand demanded ed by the new dances so we bring up an orchestra from Lincoln the Lincoln the finest orchestra in the state Then we advertise tho the dance In the tho Anai- Anai Au i- i Herald That's a a. little four four- our our- page paper edited by the advertis advertising ing man of ot my store an and d mailed out to a select list of ot four thousand per per- sons I also advertise It free tree of charge in my Store News and the weekly papers of the county tell teU about it and so everyone knows of or it They come from as far as onehundred one onehundred onehundred hundred miles away by train and fifty miles by automobile to dance here I wish you OU could be here at one of ot those dances and see the fun the young folks have and the fun theold the tho theold old folks get out of it just sitting up there in the galleries and watch watch- ing I wish you could see the faces 8 of the boys and girls brighten as I they pair off oil Theres There's a a. great work being done in this hall a great socializing so socializing socializing so- so work It beats beat everything else in this end of the state A girl comes to this dance with her brother or with her father and mother or with neighbors They are shy at first but they soon soon warm up S Se meets a lot of or young men she never would have seen except for this hall Maybe she lives thirty miles north of town She meets a likely farmer lad who maybe maybe maybe may may- be lives thirty miles south of ot town They become interested in each other The next neat Sunday you see him streaking north through town in his car going to see that girl T They hey meet again in the hall at the picture show given here each Fri Fri- day nigh a film our commercial club selects a high-class high picture that you'd pay fifty cents or a a. dollar dollar dollar dol dol- lar to see In Omaha or Kansas City We show it for fifteen and twenty- twenty five cents We can afford to for tor we bring in two or three thousand people peo- peo plo to see It and make bargain prices possible These young folks meet again In Inthe Inthe inthe the picture show and then first thing you know this young man and woman are married they buy a apiece apiece apiece piece of ot land settle down down to o raise a family and another coupe is saved saved sav sav- ed from abandoning the farm and drifting to the city It is loneliness lack of at entertainment and variety of life that sets the drift of young men and women from the farms to the I cities This auditorium is the greatest Influence in all this territory terri terri- territory I tory to stem that tide z see proofs of it every day I see so much good from this auditorium that it is becoming becoming becoming be be- coming a sort of religion with me It is saving the country It pays me too in dollars and cents Ill I'll give you an example of It Weve We've had three annual automobile auto auto- mobile shows in this auditorium three big shows such as they have in Omaha The last was in April It continued only three days but x our ur str streets ets were ere choked choked with motor cars and my store did a whale of a busi ness The last day of the show our store sold worth more of goods than we sold the corresponding correspond correspond- ing day last year In the three days ys of the Southwest Nebraska Scho tl- tl Teachers Teacher's convention last spring we Q tripled our usual business in the store i Some day dar I guess Ill I'll write a t Continued on Page 3 |
