On Friday the 9th inst, departed this life, the noted JOHN GILLEY, at the advanced age of One Hundred and Twenty Four years! This remarkable old man enjoyed good health to the end, and literally his lamp continued to burn, until the last drop of oil was wholly consumed. Mr. GILLEY was a native of Ireland; has resided in this town more than seventy years; and has left a large family; his youngest child is in his twenty fifth year. On account of his remarkable old age he has been visited by most of the strangers travelling in our section of the country—who have generally contributed in small sums, to enable him to endure the heat and burthen of the day.—Some eight or nine years since, he was introduced to the Supreme Judicial Court then sitting in this town, as “the most remarkable instance of longevity they had ever seen;” he received a considerable sum from the liberality of the Court, and the gentlemen of the bar—and retired with his friend; but by some unaccountable and strange fatality, the money which he received on this occasion, was not applied to his comfort and support in his old age!—The body of this old man was opened prior to his intermant by Dr. Daniel Cony, of this town, and we may expect to have a particular and minute description of the construction of a vessel, which could bear the storms and ills of life so long.

Judge Cony, who had investigated Gilley’s case as early as 1799, and had conversed with persons who had then known him from the time he first came to the fort, states his age, from the information which he received, at one hundred and twenty-four years. Two days after his death, in company with Dr. E.S. Tappan and Dr. Enoch Hale, Judge Cony made a post-mortem examination of the body. He found the lungs slightly adhering to the pleura, and the right lobe slightly affected. The heart sound. The aorta at the curvature and at the valves near the heart a little ossified. The liver and other viscera of the abdomen sound and in a healthy state, gall bladder empty, stomach distended, but no very marked symptoms of disease.

Gilley was below medium size, five feet three inches in stature. His greatest weight was one hundred and twenty-four pounds, but usually from eight to twelve pounds less. Being asked upon what he lived, by some one curious to know the influence of diet upon health, he replied, “meat three times a day.” Dorcas Gilley, his wife, survived him many years, reaching the advanced age of ninety-five in March, 1840, when she died, leaving numerous descendants.

“I thought it was strange when I got a call from someone asking for Marilyn Harrington,” Holwerda said. “I had been married for 47 years and wondered who would be using my maiden name.

“When he told me he had my class ring, I couldn’t believe it. I certainly wasn’t looking for it. I gave up hope of finding it a long, long time ago.”

A few weeks ago, Latterner sent to Holwerda the ring she lost two months after buying it in 1950 while swimming with her church youth group at Gull Lake.

“To me, this is just a hobby,” said Latterner, an amateur treasure hunter for years. “I’m not in this to make money. I have found a couple of diamond rings and some old coins. Those, to me, are my trophies.

The teacher of physiology in the Traverse City high school dissected a cat for the benefit of his class. He has been reprimanded.

It appears that, though physiology is a popular study in the public schools, there is a line beyond which it seems inexpedient to initiate school-children into the mysteries of animal life. On January 18 a cat was dissected in the public school of Matteawan, New York, and its inwards exhibited to all the scholars. It made some of the children sick, and seems to have scandalized a good many of the grown-ups of Matteawan, for lively remonstrances followed, the Board of Education met and passed a resolution prohibiting dissections in school, and the principal of the school is said to have resigned. It seems safe to infer that public opinion does not favor at present the cutting up of cats in the public schools.

The event which attracted this unusually large crowd was the mock trial of Prof. J.H. Voris, teacher of physiology in the high school. Last November Prof. Voris dissected three beautiful kittens in his physiology class and it is charged that he did cruelly torture, torment, mutilate and needlessly and unnecessarily kill certain animals, to-wit: cats, by then and there stabbing, cutting and lacerating and killing the same contrary to the statute in such cases made and provided against the dignity of the State of Indiana.

South Portland witnessed an election yesterday, which marks an epoch in its history and sets into motion the machinery of its new city government. No wonder, then at the opening of the polls under as clear a sky as the sun every shone from, that Oasis hall was packed with a crowd of legal voters anxious to take part in the preliminary skirmish over the choice of a moderator. At the very start the interest was intense and the Republicans and the Citizens lined up for the contest in an earnest and determined manner, but with the best of feeling on both sides.

It is understood, of course that there was no contest over mayor, for Hon. E.C. Reynolds who was nominated by the Republicans was endorsed by the Citizens and out of a total vote of 948 received 946. One vote was pasted over the mayoralty name and one lone vote was cast for Greely H. Dyer.

Well throw me a curve and call me batty! I’m supposed to chose one of the 25 handsome, hard-hitting Bengals as my favorite.

It seems that for some reason or another, I have a partiality for pitchers. I suppose I could take the Tiger ace, Hal Newhouser, but he gets enough praise without me putting in my 2 cents worth.

But what about that swell young fellow, hard luck Houtteman, who definitely was jinxed last season? I’m sure he could certainly use a pat on the back for his effort.

It touches something deep in my heart to see a deserving young pitcher like Art put his all on the ball and then lose by such slim margins.

I know he has the qualities necessary for a top-flight pitcher and that the day will come when he will be rated one of the best hurlers in the game.

He’ll be a natural to lead the Bengals to victory come next season. I hope he doesn’t get too discouraged from his past record.

At the wheel of his convertible Houtteman was driving back to quarters with a girl and two students at the time of last night’s collision.

Friends said the four were returning from a Florida Southern College dance which had followed a rowing regatta. Shortly before midnight their car collided with the truck at an intersection after traffic lights had been turned off, witnesses said.

Houtteman’s car, being driven with the top down, was flung against a lamp post. The impact with the truck stove in one side of the convertible. The other side was similarly damaged when it hit the post.

“It’s an economical thing,” he said, “but also—it just makes good sense to call it quits now. Let’s face it, baseball is quitting me as much as I’m quitting baseball. I’m too old to tramp around the country with a bunch of kids on their way up. I don’t want to try to hang on, just for the sake of hanging on. That’s what I’ve been doing for the past couple of seasons when I thought I could have helped a Big League club.”

Minneapolis Southwest High School students took important symbolic action last week in the spirit of Minnesota’s “Year of Reconciliation,” which is also the 125th anniversary of a war between Indians and whites living along the Minnesota River.

The students changed their school nickname from “Indians” to “Lakers.” They acted when they saw that “Indians” was an emblem of division, not of community. The revelation came via a Dakota Indian parent and his sons, embarrassed and hurt by a fellow spectator’s unofficial actions with war-whoops, paint and feathers at a basketball game.

Like other cheering the “Indians” on court, the costumed fan intended no offense. Yet offense was committed, not so much by individuals as by unreflecting institutional use of a subtly demeaning racial stereotype. And when white and Indian individuals alike confronted and acknowledged that reality at Southwest High, they agreed it was important to change the institution.