Everything Cranberry

All images of cranberry workers from cranlib’s photostream on flickr

THE WINTER BERRY.

In cooking cranberries it is well to remember that they should never be put into a tin dish. Either agate or porcelain dishes should be used.

Cranberry Conserve. — Extract the juice from an orange, then cover the peeling with cold water and cook slowly until tender. Scrape out the white bitter part and cut the peel into narrow strips with the scissors. Simmer one and a half cups of raisins until tender; add the orange peel and the juice and a quart of cranberries. If needed, add more water to make a cupful of liquid. Cover and cook for ten minutes or until the berries are done. Then add two cups of sugar and simmer until thick.

Cranberry Trifle. — Cook a quart of berries with one pint of water until the berries pop open; rub through a sieve, return to the fire and add one pound of sugar. Stir until it is dissolved, then let boil two minutes; cool and beat until light with a wire egg beater, then fold in the stiffly beaten whites of two eggs. Pile in a glass dish and serve. Cranberry shortcake and cranberry pie are old favorites for desserts..

Baked Apples With Cranberries. — Select large, perfect, sweet apples, remove the cores and fill the cavities with thick cranberry jelly. Set the apples in a pan of water in the oven, and bake until the apples are done. Put each apple in a glass sauce dish and serve with whipped cream.

Cranberry Roll. — Cream two tablespoonfuls of butter, add a cup of sugar, a half cup of cold water and two cups of flour sifted with a tablespoonful of baking powder and a dash of nutmeg.  Beat until perfectly smooth, then add another cup of flour and roll out the dough to an inch in thickness. Spread thickly with jam or jelly, roll up closely, pressing the ends together. Lay on a plate and steam for three hours. Cut in slices and serve with cream.

Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin) Dec 11, 1911

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CRANBERRY COFFEE CAKE

1/2 pound cranberries
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 cup flour (bread)
1 egg
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter
2 tablespoons milk

Inspect and wash 1/2 pound of cranberries. Make a think syrup by boiling the sugar and water for 10 minutes. Add the cranberries to the syrup and simmer until they are clear and transparent. Pour this into the bottom of a cake pan. Mix the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Blend the butter with the dry ingredients. Beat the egg with the milk and add to mixture. Spread this batter on top of the cranberries and bake 45 minutes at 375 degrees. Cut in squares and serve with hard sauce. This amount will fill a pan 8 inches square.

HARD SAUCE

1/3 cup butter
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla or lemon extract
2 tablespoons boiling water

Cream butter, add gradually while beating the sugar. Add vanilla or lemon extract. Beat gradually into the mixture the boiling water. This makes unusually fluffy and light hard sauce.

Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin) Dec 7, 1935

Magic Cranberry Pie

1 1/3 cups Borden’s Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 cup Eatmor cranberry pulp, drained
2 egg yolks
Baked 9-inch pie shell of Krusteaz

Blend together sweetened condensed milk, lemon juice, cranberry pulp and egg yolks. Pour into baked shell. This pie may also be served with a meringue made of two egg whites beaten still and sweetened with two tablespoons of granulated sugar, browned in a moderate oven (350 degrees) for 10 minutes.

Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) Nov 20, 1936

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Cranberry Relish Right Complement To Turkey Dinner

By GAYNOR MADDOX
NEA Staff Writer

For brilliant color in the Thanksgiving menu serve this jellied cranberry molded salad:

Jellied Cranberry Relish Salad

Two cups fresh cranberries, 1 lemon, quartered and seeded; 1 apple, peeled, cored and quartered; 1 orange, quartered and seeded; 1 cup sugar, 1 package fruit-flavored gelatin.

Put cranberries and fruit through food chopper. Combine with sugar and let stand a few hours to blend. Prepare fruit-flavored gelatin as directed on package, reducing water by 1-4 cup; chill until syrupy. Stir into drained cranberry relish mixture. Fill mold and chill until firm. Unmold on lettuce or watercress and serve garnished with orange sections.

Or if you want your cranberries in the salad course, just combine pineapple and pears, bananas and walnuts, lettuce and watercress. top off with a generous handful of crunchy fresh cranberries for color and texture.

Finally — and what an old-fashioned and zestful end to the Big Meal of the Year — there’s cranberry pie.

Cranberry Pie

One recipe favorite pastry, 2 1-4 cups sugar, 1-2 cup water, 104 cup raisins, 2 cups apples slices, 4 cups fresh cranberries, 2 tablespoons cornstarch, 2 tablespoons water.

Roll out half pastry and fit into 9-inch pan. Combine sugar, water, raisins, apple slices and cranberries in saucepan. Cook until cranberries pop — about 10 minutes. Make a paste of cornstarch and remaining water, stir into fruit and continue cooking until thick and clear — about 5 minutes. Cool and pour into pie shell. Roll out remaining pastry and cut in strips. Arrange criss-cross fashion over top. Bake in hot over (425 degrees F.) 25 minutes.

Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Texas) Nov 16, 1950

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Pumpkin Pie Time

THE OLD-STYLE PUMPKIN PIE.

Some like a fancy custard pie.
Or apple, mince or game.
Or some new-fangled article,
I ‘low, just for the name,
I ain’t so p’tic’lar’s some I know,
And different from the rest.
But the good old-fashioned pumpkin pies
Are what I love the best.

I’m hankerin’ for a piece, right now.
Of the pie that mother made,
When I came home from school I,d get
A hunk and in I’d wade.
And, (p’r’aps my mouth is somewhat large)
Though I’d resort to tears.
She wouldn’t give me another piece
Because it mussed my ears.

I’ve lingered here a lifetime since,
Put up with what I got,
But oft in dreams I’m back again
To that old familiar spot.
And then, at such times, I can find,
On the butt’ry shelf arrayed,
A row of good old pumpkin pies,
The kind that mother made.

— Philadelphia Times.

Lima News (Lima, Ohio) Nov 3, 1898

Times Record (New York) Nov 4, 1943

FOR THE IDEAL PUMPKIN PIE
_____
Why Wait Until Thanksgiving to Enjoy This Exclusively American Delicacy? — Make It Now.
_____

Our neighbor came to call early this morning with lips stained a dark purple from a saunter through the arbor; on his arm he carried a basket of grapes and in each hand a big red apple, and in his buttonhole a spray of goldenrod, and the first red autumn leaf made him quite gorgeous. Under his arm he carried a pumpkin, so we invited him to breakfast.

One should not wait until Thanksgiving for the first pumpkin pie, but begin putting their appetite in training for the feast by some preliminary work on the American pastry.

Steam the pumpkin instead of boiling it, and when cool press it through a fine sieve or vegetable press.

For each pie allow a pint of this strained pumpkin, one cup of rich milk, one egg, one-half cup of sugar, one teaspoon of ginger, one-half teaspoon of allspice, one-half teaspoon of cinnamon and a little salt.

If the milk is brought to the boiling point before the other ingredients are added the pie will bake more smoothly.

The crust should be baked before the filling is put in, as this prevents it becoming soggy. Unlike most custard pies, pumpkin requires to be baked quickly. When the top is brown, firm to the touch and glossy it is done.

— Henrietta D. Grauel, in the Cleveland Leader.

Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin) Nov 11, 1912

The Frederick Post (Frederick, Maryland) Nov 20, 1923

CRADLE SONG

For the frost-rime now approaches,
And the price of eggs is high,
While the grapes hang blue and purple
On the vines.
From their store the wild bee poaches
Knowing winter time is nigh,
And the pickle snuggles deeper
In the brine.

Winter’s coming, coming, coming,
And the vittles that it brings
Fetch a trembling tear of gladness
To the eye.
You can hear the turkeys drumming
While the first fall sausage sings,
And the whipped cream lights upon
A pumpkin pie.

Love, the scoffing of the summer
That they talk of leaves us cold
All these ices and these salads
Give no thrill.
Each day’s rations leave one glummer
Yeh, but pumpkin pies are gold,
Welcome, then the blizzard coming
O’er the hill.

Kokomo Tribune (Kokomo, Indiana) Nov 21, 1929

Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin) Jun 26, 1912

The Frost Is on the Pumpkin, So of Course We’ll Have Pie

Open Season For Dessert Popular Since Pilgrim Days

By LOUISE BENNETT WEAVER
AP Feature Service Writer

ITS OPEN SEASON for pumpkin pie, a dessert treasured in America since Pilgrim days.

In preparing this famous fall pastry, there are three important things to consider. First, the crust’ it should be short and well fitted into a deep pie dish. Second, the filling; it must be subtley pungent — not too spicy or too flat — and it should be very creamy and a rich brown color. Most important is the baking.

Cook the pie ten minutes in a moderately hot over — about 450 degrees. That helps prevent a soggy under crust. Then reduce the heat to moderately slow — about 325 degrees — for forty-five minutes to give the filling its desired velvety texture. Always cool the pie on a rack.

DRY PUMPKINS ARE BEST

You can use any of the excellent canned varieties of pumpkin for the filling or cook up your own golden fruit. If you cook your own, cut the pumpkin into medium-sized pieces, discard peel, seeds and fibrous portions. Steam until the pulp is soft and press it through a fine sieve.

Dry mealy pumpkins make the best pies. So, if your pumpkin is moist, cook it over a low heat or in a double boiler until the moisture has evaporated.

If your recipe calls for three eggs and you are a little short, you can substitute two tablespoons of flour for one egg. Add it with the sugar.

TOP DRESSING

Pumpkin pie fillings sometimes have a flecked appearance, but you can easily prevent it by thoroughly blending together the sugar, salt, spices and pumpkin before adding liquids.

The favored pie steps right out when it’s dressed up with a new topping. For instance, then minutes before time to take the pie from the oven, sprinkle it generously with grated cheese or carefully cover it wit ha slightly sweetened meringue flavored with a few gratings of orange peel.

Cocoanut, marshmallows, chopped candied ginger (just a dash), candied fruit peels, dates, raisins or nuts also introduce variety. Use them for topping or add them to the filling before it is baked.

A sponge or chiffon pumpkin pie is of the lighter, fluffier kind. Add the egg yolks with main part of the ingredients and then lightly fold in the beaten whites just before the mixture is poured into the crust. A whipped cream coating gives this pie a real party air.

A two-crust pumpkin pie is a novelty. Bake a one-crust pie, as usual and at the same time bake a lid of pricked crust that will just fit on top of the pumpkin. Just before serving the pie, slip the lid into place.

PUMPKIN PIE

Two cups steamed and strained pumpkin (canned pumpkin may be used), 1 cup pure New Orleans molasses, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ginger, 1-2 teaspoon salt, 1 egg, 1 cup rich milk.

Mix ingredients in order given and bake in one crust. Top of pie should be sprinkled with sugar, cinnamon and dots of butter before it is put into the oven. Canned pumpkin is excellent. Crackers, rolled fine, can be added to mixture in place of the egg in pumpkin pie. Serve warm and topped with whipped cream.

Abilene Reporter News (Abilene, Texas) Oct 28, 1938

The Daily Herald (Chicago, Illinois) Jan 25, 1918

Positively Insulting.

“I know the pumpkin pie was rather thin as to filling,” said the landlady, almost crying, “but I don’t think he had any right to say what he did.”

“What did he say?” asked the second table boarder.

“He asked me if I didn’t think that the pie crust would be improved if it had another coat of paint.”

Lima News (Lima, Ohio) Feb 7, 1899

Lima News (Lima, Ohio) Oct 21, 1928

WASHINGTON, Nov. 26. — The art of camouflage has now reached the good old pumpkin pie. Mrs. G.M. King, of 241 William street, East Orange, N.J., today sent to the National Emergency Food Garden Commission a recipe for making pumpkin pie without the pumpkin.

Here it is:

Scald one quart of milk; add scant cup of Indian meal; little salt. When cool add two eggs, cinnamon and ginger to taste. Sweeten with brown sugar. Put a little cream or milk on top and bake.

Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) Nov 26, 1917

Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Pie is almost as old in the American history of feasting as those hungry Redskins who attended the first Thanksgiving get-together on the Massachusetts coast. Here are two recipes — one more or less in the homey tradition, the other based on a newer process.

Mix 1 tablespoon old-fashioned molasses with 1/4 cup brown sugar, then mix this with 1 1/2 cups cooked, mashed and strained pumpkin, or canned pumpkin. To this mixture add a pinch of salt, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg and 2 cups milk. Beat 2 eggs until fluffy, then add. Line your pie plates with your most perfect pastry, pour in this mixture and bake in hot oven 10 minutes, then in moderate oven about 35 minutes more.

Modern recipe: Mix these: 1 cup steamed, strained, canned pumpkin, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon ginger, 1/2 teaspoon cloves, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 3 well-beaten eggs, 1 1/3 cups sweetened condensed milk, 1 cup water. Pour into unbaked pie shell. Bake in hot oven for 10 minutes and reduce heat to moderate and bake another 35 minutes, or until crust has set.

Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) Nov 22, 1936

Variations on the familiar Thanksgiving dessert theme is the rule in the Maltby household in northwestern New York state. Lucy Maltby, noted American interpreter of what the average American family likes best to eat, says, “Let’s have both a mince meat dessert and a pumpkin pie this Thanksgiving, and add a surprise element to the dinner.”

Mrs. Maltby, an old friend of readers of this column, has worked out this mouth-watering “old wine in new bottles” recipe exclusively for us.

BUTTERSCOTCH PUMPKIN PIE
(8 Servings)

Pastry — 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1-2 teaspoon salt, 2-3 cup lard or other fat, 6 to 8 tablespoons ice water.

Filling — 3 eggs, 1-2 cup dark-brown sugar, 1-2 cup granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 1-4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1-2 teaspoon ginger, 1-4 teaspoon cloves, 1 3-4 cups cooked pumpkin, 1 3-4 cups milk.

Sift flour, baking powder and salt together. Cut in shortening until the size of lima beans with a pastry blender or two knives. Add ice water a little at a time, mixing it in with a fork. Pat dough together and chill if possible.

For the filling, separate eggs; beat yolks until foamy. Mix with yolks the brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and pumpkin. Scald milk and add to pumpkin mixture.

Roll out about three quarters of dough on floured board. Line 10-inch pie plate, leaving about an inch overlapping the edges. Make double upright fold and pinch between thumb and forefinger to make fluted rim.

Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into pumpkin mixture. Pour filling into pastry lined pan. Roll out remainder of dough and cut pastry turkeys with turkey cutter. Place on top of filling. Bake in a hot oven (450 degrees F) for 10 minutes. Then reduce heat of oven to 350 degrees F and continue baking for 30 minutes or until knife comes out clean when inserted into pumpkin custard.

Abilene Reporter News (Abilene, Texas) 14 Nov 1941

A Little Life

Image from Chatham Historical Society

LIFE

(Detroit News.)
A little house to keep,
A little floor to sweep.

A little meal to make,
A little sweet to bake.

A little friend to know,
A little flower to grow.

A little bird to sing,
A little hand to cling.

A little child’s caress,
A little life to bless.

A little grief and pain,
A little cheer again.

A little fleeting day,
A little prayer to say,

A little house to keep,
Life has no joy as deep.

Iowa City Press Citizen (Iowa City, Iowa) Jul 27, 1923

The Silly Season

Tee Hee; Wouldn’t I Look Funny in One of These!

Iowa City Press Citizen (Iowa City, Iowa) Jul 26, 1923

Image from Drudge

“All bomber jacket and no bombers.”

— Mark Steyn

The Personal Liberty Exponent

“I MUST AWAY”

You say a thousand things
Persuasively,
And with strange passion hotly I agree,
And praise your zest.
And then
A blackbird sings
On April lilac, on field-faring men,
Ghost like with loaded wain,
Come down the twilight lane
To rest,
And what is all your argument to me?
Oh, yes — I know, I know,
It must be so —
You must devise
Your myriad policies,
For we are little wise,
And must be led and marshalled .   .   .
And surely it is wrong
To count my blackbird’s song,
My cones of lilac, and my wagon team
More than a world of dream.
But still
A voice calls from the hill —
I must away —
I cannot hear your argument today.

— John Drinkwater.

Iowa City Press Citizen (Iowa City, Iowa) Jul 27, 1923

Whoop! Whee! Atta Boy!

Baseball World Series

Favorite Gladiator of All Sports

Middletown Daily Herald (Middletown, New York) Oct 9, 1923

Them Women Bandits

Image from Stumbling Virtue

THEM WOMEN BANDITS

Now the headlines in the papers tell us daily
That the “weaker sex” is learning how to shoot;
And the ugly mug who holds us up sa gaily
May just as well turn out to be a beaut.
From coast to coast the little bullets patter,
And they do not always have the aim so pat,
But they generally pull a line of chatter,
You can always tell the women guns by that.

When a gentleman is held up by a lady
On a lonely country highway late at night,
And she aims an automatic at his cady
And stops his car and tells him to alight;
When she swings him for his watch and chain and boodle
(And this may happen any night to you).
If he does not want a bullet through his noodle,
Pray, what is any gentleman to do?

For you cannot best a lady even slightly,
And if you strike a woman you’re no gent,
You must stand and take your medicine politely
And with a genteel protest be content.

Middletown Daily Herald (Middletown, New York) Oct 9, 1923

NEW YORK, Dec. 7. — (AP) — Another “bobbed haired bandit” has started work in New York. As her four male companions, armed with automatic pistols, held up the proprietor and 12 patrons of the Joy Inn, Brooklyn, the counterpart of Celia Cooney, now in Auburn prison, sat at a table calmly smoking a cigarette. Once or twice she nodded her crisp bobbed head in approval as the victims yielded money and jewelry.

When the holdup was finished and $500 had been stolen from the cash register and from guests, who had been torn from their women companions, the girl led the retreat to a side street, where the party entered an automobile and disappeared toward Manhattan.

The girl, described as an attractive brunette, was about 25.

Celia Cooney, the original bobbed hair bandit, whose exploits became known nation-wide, was arrested with her husband, Edward, in April 1924, and both were sentenced to from 10 to 20 years in prison. They had participated in more than 10 robberies at the pistol point and in one instance wounded a man.

Oakland Tribune (Oakland, Californina) Dec 7, 1925

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*Hm, I wonder what the “Joy Inn” was, exactly; and if the “guests” went home to tell their wives how they lost their money, lol.

Ballade of Ye Stylish Skirt

ON THE SPUR OF THE MOMENT
By ROY K. MOULTON

BALLADE OF YE STYLISH SKIRT

Miss Euphemia Burt
Bought a stylish new skirt,
The kind that’s so tight that it pinches,
To the mode she was hep
But the young lady’s step
Was at best a scant seven inches.

One could not see her feet
As she hopped down the street
She worried the keen traffic copper.
She could not navigate,
And the cars had to wait,
And he feared that she might come a cropper.

And the autos, my word!
It was truly absurd,
For Euphemia never could dodge ’em.
So they stopped with a slam,
And they got in a jam,
And it took a half-hour to dislodge ’em.

When she went to a show
With her regular beau,
To save time, the lady he carried.
And he said: “I can see
A tough life job for me,
If, perchance, we should ever be married.”

He would set down Miss Burt
In her very tight skirt
And lean her right up ‘gainst the wickets,
So she couldn’t fall down
In her Houdini gown,
And then he’d rush off for the tickets.

Two weeks of this stuff
And he had quite enough,
And eloped with a hack driver’s daughter,
Who was not long on style.

The Times Recorder (Zanesville, Ohio) Nov 20, 1923

In the Wooden Showcase

SA N BERNARDINO, March 26. — Missing since Saturday afternoon, Dickey Jensen, 6 years old, and Dean Meecham, 4 years old, had not been found tonight and early tomorrow morning it is estimated that 500 searchers will take up a systematic search for the two children. Police officers tonight advanced the theory the boys had been kidnaped.

Fear that they had been drowned in Warm creek was dispelled after the banks of that stream were thoroughly searched today.

Late tonight officers learned that the two children had been seen at 5:30 Saturday evening a mile from the city. Once of them was crying. A woman came out of a tent pitched in the brush and was talking to them.

Dickey is the son of James Jensen, who is in a hospital suffering from injuries received in a crossing collision between an automobile and an interturban car.

Dean is the son of Wells Meecham. Officers at Victorville were requested to search a gypsy camp near that town. The gypsies left here Saturday night.

Nevada State Journal (Reno, Nevada) Mar 27, 1923

Great Posse Organized in San Bernardino to Seek Two Youths Who Have Been Missing Since Saturday

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Early Reports of Kidnaping Not Confirmed, Officials Decide to Examine Every Foot of Country Near City

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SAN BERNARDINO, March 29 (By International News Service). — Launching the greatest search ever conducted in Southern California, more than 10,000 men assembled at the city hall here and started a systematic hunt for little Dicky Jensen, 6, and his younger playmate, Dean Meecham, 4, missing San Bernardino boys, who have been lost since last Saturday.

Responding to a general call broadcast throughout the city and surrounding country by Mayor S.W. McNabb of San Bernardino, farmers left their fields, businessmen their desks, bankers their offices and troops of Boy Scouts in uniform turned out to join in the hunt for the youngsters.

Before starting on the hunt today, the posse was addressed by Mayor McNabb, who exhorted to extend their greatest efforts in what is regarded as the critical period in the hunt for the boys.

Sheriff W.A. Shay and officers under his command then issued the necessary orders to the big group of men of which they had charge and the search was started.

Every foot of the country near here is to be gone over thoroughly. Every vacant house was to be inspected and every brush pile and old well were to be investigated.

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The Jensen and Meecham boys were last seen playing near their homes Saturday. Early reports caused the officers to believe that gypsies had kidnaped the boys and a caravan of these nomads was pursued and searched without result.

Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) Mar 29, 1923

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SAN BERNARDINO, March 31 — While San Bernardino sorrowed the police redoubled their search tonight for trace of the abductor of Dean Meecham, 4, and Dickey Jensen, 6 years old, whose bodies were found trapped in a wooden show case in a vacant store earlier today.

Undertakers reported to the police tonight that Dean had been drowned before his body had been placed in the curious death vault. His lungs were found filled with water and his garters were found to be rusted.

It was impossible to tell whether Dean had been drowned from the condition of his clothes, as they had been nearly torn from him by his frantic playmate placed alive in the crypt with the dead body. Dean had been dead for some time when discovered by searchers and Dickey, whose pulse still beat feebly, died two hours after being found and he was rushed to a hospital.

Says Boys Were Drugged.

Authorities expressed the belief that Dickey had been given a powerful drug before being placed in the case in a comatose condition, and that he did not revive for some hours later. Evidence indicated that the drug had caused him to have several spasms.

While preparations are going forward for the funerals, which will be held immediately after the inquest on Monday, the parents of both lads are close to prostration from grief and exhaustion after the week of frantic search.

In trying to locate the perpetrator of the crime, police became alarmed at the extent of the search, in which more than five hundred school children on vacation and one thousand armed citizens took part.

Believe Dean Cries Out.

Previously, they believe, he had the boys hiding somewhere in the out skirts of town. They believe he then drugged both boys hoping they would stay under the influence of the narcotic until he could escape. They believe that while he was taking them, probably by machine to some place where he could conceal them, Dean did not remain under the influence of the drug and perhaps began to cry.

Becoming alarmed, they think the kidnaper plunged his body into a creek stifling him until he stopped. It is then thought he stuffed the bodies into the peculiar show case in the store building, which was being remodelled and therefore deserted.

The strange death trap consists of a rack about four feet high, tapering down like steps of solid wood. In the abandoned store it was shoved toward a blank wall. The space where the boys were concealed was like the underside of a stair case.

Escapes During Night.

Under cover of darkness Saturday night, they believe the slayer escaped hurriedly, confident that his terrible crime would not be discovered before the following Monday at least. It was not discovered until a week later.

The possibility that the boys were playing about the store and unwillingly trapped themselves, was abandoned with the discovery of water in Dean’s lungs.

Police despatched an appeal throughout the country asking that any possible suspects be held for a thorough check will be made to dis- [today?] was made to southern California by the officers.

It is probable that all the play mates of the two boys will be questioned by police regarding any strangers who may have been friendly shortly before the abduction. A thorough check will be made to discover anyone who left the neighborhood suddenly after the crime.

Present plans are to have a public funeral, which will be attended by the majority of the one thousand citizens who took part in the unsuccessful hunt the past week.

Disappear Week Ago.

The boys disappeared while they were playing in a park on March 24. For a week searchers, numbering finally nearly one thousand persons, combed the will mountain country and desert back of San Bernardino as well as the city itself, in the hope of finding trace of the missing youngsters. The parents of neither are wealthy, so extortion was obviously not the motive. It was then thought for several days that gypsy bands, seen near here on the day they disappeared, might have kidnapped them, but a search of all the gypsy camps in southern California proved without result. Rescuers stumbled by chance on the trap early this morning.

The Lincoln Star (Lincoln, Nebraska) Apr 1, 1923

SAN BERNARDINO, April 2. — The coroner’s jury, composed of 13 members, holding an inquest today over the bodies of Dean Meechan and Dickey Jensen who met their death in a ______ showcase, returned their verdict this afternoon after long deliberation.

In the case of Dickey Jensen, who was found barely breathing when removed from the case, but who died two hours late, the jury was unanimous in declaring death to be accidental, due to starvation.

In the case of Dean Meechan, four of the jury refused to sign the majority verdict tothe same effect.

They wrote out an opinion basing their refusal on the testimony of two embalmers, who were positive that water was found in dean’s lungs, and that the body gave other evidences of drowning.

Dr. W.D. Lenker, county autopsy surgeon, testified that in his opinion both deaths were due to starvation, and that Dean was not drowned.

The district attorney and county officers were present. They indicated that the case will not be dropped despite the fact that no tangible clues as to whether Dean Meecham met with foul play are in their hands.

The funeral of both boys were held this afternoon immediately following the inquest.

Modesto Evening News (Modesto, California) Apr 2, 1923

SAN BERNARDINO, April 3. — The case of Dean Meecham and Dickey Jensen, the lads who were trapped in a showcase and for whom a widespread search was conducted for a week, was considered closed today.

Police accepted the verdict of the coroner’s jury in the case of both boys, giving the cause of the tragedy as “accidental death due to starvation.”

Modesto Evening News (Modesto, California) Apr 3, 1923

SAN BERNARDINO, April 17. — (United Press.) — Less than three weeks after little Dickey Jensen’s starved body was found entombed in a wooden showcase with his playmate, Dean Meacham, his grave was made the scene of a fight between his father, James Jensen, and his uncle, Willis Humphries.

A complaint brought by Jensen, on file here today, declares Jensen went to the grave to place a [wreath there,?] ____ the two men quarrled over the recent separation of the Jensen’s which took place two weeks after the boy’s tragic death. Humphries charged Jensen with having insulted his sister, Jensen’s wife, and is alleged to have attacked Dickey’s father and beaten him into insensibility. Humphries was arrested but released later on his own recognizance.

Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) Apr 17, 1923

Pish, George!

George Washington, whose birth we mark by closing up all day,
Was quite a well-known citizen, or so the schoolbooks say.
In all his sixty-seven years he never told a lie,
But George, you know, had never tried to take a hill on high

For Georgie dated back so far
He’d never owned a motor car.

George Washington could not be led into prevarication,
And so, of course, they chose him for the Father of His Nation.
Although he chopped the cherry tree he soon confessed his crime,
For lying was considered wrong, way back in Georgie’s time.

But in that gasless, quaint, old-style age
They never bragged about their mileage.

George Washington bu seldom swore; he rarely used an oath;
He might say “Tut” or even “Pish,” but never, never both.
That brief vocabulary now would hardly take him far,
But Washington was never asked to start a frozen car.

He cried “Git up!” when he would go;
To stop, he merely muttered “Whoa!”

George Washington was fearless, too, on dry land or afloat;
His famous picture proves it, for he stood up in the boat.
He crossed the Delaware that night! Was that just for the ride?
Ah, no, my children, George desired to reach the other side.

No foe could make our hero stop;
He’d never met a traffic cop.

Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) Feb 18, 1923