Mr. E. E. Correll, Hebron, Nebr.:

   Dear Sir and Friend - Allow me to congratulate you upon your fiftieth anniversary of the Hebron Journal, and I wish you many more prosperous and happy days.

   No doubt when you father and mother located in Hebron in an early day Hebron was then but a barren prairie, and where Indians and buffaloes ran at large. But conditions have changed and it is like the song of the little bird, " O beautiful bird, The springtime has come, seeking a place to build its home." So came the early pioneer, seeking a place to build his home, but when the hard times and crop failures overtook them nay were like the little bird, and flew back to the land from whence they came.

   But the old pioneers who came in an early day and endured the hardship of the cold northwesterly winds and remained steadfast and true to this country and state is the one who reaps the benefit, and the jingle of the cowboy's spur or the crack of his pistol or whip is no more heard in this our beloved land.

   But in place of that we hear the most beautiful tones ringing out from most every home in our beloved land, and so you can be thankful that your dear mother is still with you and that you live in a community where honest and God-fearing people live.

   So, again, I wish you success and many more happy years as time rolls by. Although you and I did not always agree in politics, nevertheless we are friends.

   But say, Ernest, let's look back about thirty-five years. How well do I remember in the year 1881, when my brother-in-law, Mr. Frank Bruning, bought his first land at Bruning, Thayer county, Nebraska, for seven dollars an acre - wild prairie. He then bought eighty acres of land for my brother Onno a half mile east of Bruning for $7 an acre where now the German church stands. But when my brother saw the land he did not want it and the result was Mr. Frank Bruning kept it himself and it has since doubled in value about thirty times.

   So in October, 1882, myself, Henry Eden and E. D. B. Eden came to Belvidere, Nebr., to see what the country looked like and to make my brother-in-law, Mr. Frank Bruning, a visit. Mr. Frank Bruning said to me, "Say Tom, why don't you buy the 160 acres of land just west of my home place?" I said "What does the man want for it?" "Ten dollars an acre." We had to go to Fairbury to see the party, and we went in a lumber wagon. When we got there Mr. Snyder, who owned the land, said he would sell for $10 an acre the 160 acres where the town of Bruning now stands and $10 an acre for the 160 acres just south across the road from the German church. "But," he said, "if you take them both I will sell it to you for $3,000," which I considered a bargain. I said to Mr. Snyder, " Will you keep this offer for me about ten days so I can go home and see what I can do?" and he said "Yes." well I went back home and stated circumstances to my intended father-in-law, Mr. W. F. Bowman, he said, " No. I don't want my daughter or any of my children to go to the wild west and to through the hardships that my wife and I went through in an early day in Illinois, 1859 to 1870." So, you see I was up against it. But I had to decide one way or the other, and the question was between his daughter and the 320 acres of land - and so I decided in favor of the daughter and against the land.

   But in 1888 my father-in-law got a notion to come to Thayer county, Nebraska, and don't you know, he liked the country and bought 320 acres south of Bruning. So you see I had the way clear and came to Belvidere, Thayer county, Nebraska, in 1890, and I have never been sorry of my bargain. But on Sunday, October 17, 1882, I remember going to church in a school house one and a half miles east of Bruning. Of course the town of Bruning wasn't there at that time but was located in 1886 or 1887. But while I was at that church meeting I noticed there were eighteen lumber wagons there. Some had a spring seat on, others just a board to sit on and some had hay in the box to sit on. I then said, "Boys, the day will come that you will all ride in buggies," and it did, and they were all happy. Land new and full of pep and taxes as low as $18 to $20 a quarter. And then came the horse less push-mobile, and everybody had to buy one, myself included.

   But before I bought, an auto agent came to me and said, "Mr. Lahners, I came to sell you an automobile." I said, "Is that so? What kind do you sell?" "Oh, I have ten different makes," and he named them, and then asked me "Which one do you want?" And I said, "My friend, you haven't got the kind of car I want." "What," he said, "Haven't go the car you want?" "No," I said. "Now, Mr. Lahners, what kind of car do you want?" And I said, "I want a female car." "Well" he said, "I haven't got it, but I think the farmers are making a mistake in not raising more colts than they do. for the time will come when the horse will be our best friend when it comes to work on the farm."

   And the next thing that's coming is the flying machine. In fact, it's already here - which is another luxury for higher taxes, which are already too high, and with all our "personal liberty" gone, where will we finally end? thirty years ago taxes on 160 acres were $18 to $20; now 160 acres are taxed from $100 to $325. Don't you think we are getting too extravagant? Had we not better practice economy a little more or we may go broke?

   Now, Mr. Editor, in conclusion I surely wish you well and hope that you may live long and prosper.

   But I predict that some day the press will have the strongest kind of competition, as Mr. Thomas Edison, or some other wise guy, will invent a wireless phonograph, and all the people will to do is to get the blanks, place them in a rubber tube in the front yard and it will receive the news that's going on.; take the roll off at night, put it on your music box and all we will have to do is to go way back and sit down and listen - and we pay the bills.

Yours truly,
THOS. LAHNERS,
Belvidere, Nebr.

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