The Mexia Weekly Herald (Mexia, Tex.), Vol. 66, No. 28, Ed. 1 Friday, July 14, 1944 Page: 1 of 6
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The Mexia Weekly Herald
• PUBLISHED IN—BY—AND FOR THE CITIZENS OF THE RICH BI-STONE EMPIRE
MEXIA, TEXAS, FRIDAY, JULY 14, 1944.
NUMBER 27.
rmans
Advance Made
It* Lo by Yanks
SME HEADQUARTERS, AEF, July 13. (UP) —
cican First Army blasted and bayonetted its way
[itskirts of St. Lo today and hammered out gen-
noes of about a mile all along the Normandy front
an the German keystone1 defense bases of Lessay
#rs.
Gen. Omar N. Bradley's left wing closed on
twsome of the bloodiest fighting on the French
^iis assault forces battered forward in at least
Mors, cleared the entire La Haye Du Puits—Car-
^ilroiid and highway, and completed the conquest of
awling swamp area called Les Prairies de Hareca-
geuses de Groge.
Before Baltic Drive
is Lost in
,on Munich
leculale on
tuse of Assault
tl.
yjr ,,
JON, July 13. (U.R) — A
! Wro thun 1,000 American
b.omUfei'.s accompanied by
mote fighter planes smash-
pugh rabble opposition from
FUvi^ffe today to bomb the
jirea for the third succes-
and Saarbrucken on the
Is
bers and five fighter
'ne# failed to return from tlr-
Over "Germany, the United
Second Tactieiil Air Force
ed tonight. The raiding
s shot down nix enemy
ianeBi'wTjijeHhe escorting fight-
cd ;t>vo Nazi aircraft, it
unreal.
h
ur.Vf l n:cy|r
ifrrec-aay, intense bombing
iMunich gave rise to t, possi-
|lnt.V that the Americans were af-
er a specifi(/t.irget, probably . iie
ty's ero-dn;rine y works, at least
oLwUleh i;< known to be turn-
^out .new >jtnoilel engine. YViie-
E r not are the robot
[,mbVjtt-prppelleii motor.-' was a
batter of speculation.
A High air fore • officer said to
•y i(he' Murfkh bombing, during
thich 'thcvfiity has -received nenr-
t.fnjs of bombs, was d.'f-
In the west coast sector United
States forces overran the strate-
gic hill 92, commanding the en-
tire area of Lessay and bringing
that key transport junction un-
der direct fire.
The last "bloody mile" into the
heart of St. Lo, hinge of the Ger-
man defenses on the Normandy
front, shook under a thunderous
artillery and infantry attacks as
the Doughboys drove spearheads
to the east and northwest of the
city, sotting the stage for a pos-
sible encirclement of the stub-
bornly defended hilltop citadel.
As the foremost elements slug-
ged to the outskirts, a column
striking upstream along the west
bank of the Vire from Pont Heb-
ert advanced a mile south of that
village to a point three miles
northwest of .St. Lo.
The advances of 300 yards to
more than a mile gradually were
straightening out the American
line and eliminating the marsh-
land salients, with the battle front
now stretching along a line run-
ning northwest to southeast from
Lessay to St. Lo.
part of the strategic air
nHern and "hot in any sense u
retaliation for the robot al-
%
ire to!
u lister
East Leaves for
Huntsville Today
Begins Serving
Life Sentence
Herman East was taken to the
state penitentiary Thursday*morn-
ing to liegin -erving the life sen-
tence given him July 5 by Judge
Lex Smith after Fast interrupted1
the trial to a plea of guilty to the
charge as assault and robbery.
Sheriff Sam Adkins reported
that Deputy Sheriff Whit Popejoy
carried Fast to Huntsville by car,
with the two of them leaving the
"%\ patrons who de- county jail at Groesbeck Thursday
fjfer their children I morning at H o'clock. He has been
district to an- held since his arrest April 25th,
and attendants reported he has
proven a "good prisoner" during
that time.
One of hi< last visitors was the
Rev. Jack Gober of Tehuacana,
who spent some time with Fast
Wednesday afternoon.
ichool Transfers
(lie During July
45,000 Seek to;
Break Allied Trap
5% of Japs Left
on Saipan Island
Hy United Press
An estimated force of 15,000
starving Japanese sought desper-
ately to break out of an Allied
trap on British New Guinea in the
Southwest Pacific today, as casu-
alty figures on the Saipan cam-
paign revealed the Japanese lost
five men for every American kill-
ed.
Although details of fiuhtinp
were not disclosed it was indicat-
ed that isolated units of the IHth
■Japanese army on the northern
New Guinea coast were making
furious attacks in an attempt to
find an escape route.
The units, pocketed on a lit)
mile str'P, by the American land-
ings at Aitape and Hollan.lia,
were cnc'rcled b,v American forces
to the west and Australian troops
to the east.
A communique from Gen. Doug-
las Mac-Arthur's headquarters said
the strength of the original army
trapped whs estimated at 60,000
but that an estimated 25 per cent
was believed to have died from
privation or had been killed by
aei ial bombardment.
On Saipan it was estimated that
less than five per cent of the en-
emy's original force of 20,000 to
30,000 survived. Americans buried
]i),!tl0 Japanese dead and captur-
ed 1,000 prisoners. A considerable
number of Japanese still remain
unburied.
American losses in the 27 days
of fight were announced at 2,35'.'
killed, 11,481 wounded and 1,213
Today's War Map
P AuJTmll
MILES
Stint Bay.
onftbourg
•:j Catttnt
Lo Hoyc
du Puits
CoumonNfc
Ccvisti
In today's war map, arrow? picture American drives near St. Lo,
France, approaching closer to Les say and Periers while British
troops gain in the Caen sector. (N EA Tclemap)
missing.
Mexia Breaks into Big Time Print
By Way of Its Fluorescent Steaks
roitjjndedl
ipplicatio
inly during, the month of July.
M jiital decline is July 31, af-
Wh y)no transfers can be
rle." Any 'parent desiring to|
r to the Mexia Dis-
I
that such
should be
pet may the proper blanks
the ftMftie of the School
|t« Collector ,or by calling the
(th "ch'jol'n^jjiec, 09G, and mak-
mith request or at the office
r the Ofcupli .Superintendent in
esli«:k'-
,£(iool prfjliHi who live in other
rtric-t ^ •bflfj httend t|he Mexia
^(Unl withott.having been trans-
are" reared to pay tuition,
h-cfore.-.^ti^is, urgent that all
fensfei ~th4fw l' be desired be
de soonw /'.
Secure Landing Right
WASHINGTON, July 13. (U.R)—
The State Department today con-
firmed a. United Press report that
the United States and Spi.in have
reached agreement in principle on
a plan to give the United Statin
civil aircraft landing rights in
Spain.
A spokesman raid that three
American officials arc en route
to Spain now to work out the de-
tails.
T~
Republican Trend Seen in
Primaries Held This Week
cal o
liled Press
vers today studied
albican trend in the
three of the six
primary- elections
week, seeking a
,to the relative
ro major parties
ferV balloting.
|y(rhich has been pre-
locratic for the
le Repcblicans poll-
to 39,072 for the
the gubernatorial
the' renomination
Gov. Herbert B.
nomination of
Lee, of Price.
AH,' Democrat,
renomination
will face Adam
lea executive, in
the November election.
A similar GOP gain was noted
in Washington state where the
Republicans nominated Tacoma's
MayorJlarry B. Cain, on military
leave, ^be their candidate in the
November race for the Senate
seat of Democrat Homer T. Bone.
Unofficial returns from 2,317 of
the state's 3H64 precincts gave
Cain 50,337 votes, while Rep.
Warren G. Magnuson, nominated
by the Democrats, received 76,971.
Republican Gov. Arthur B.
Langlie won renomination bfr a
vote of 124,392, more than the
combined number polled by the
Democratic nominee, Sen. Mon C.
Wallgren, and Louise Wanner.
(Continued on Pag* Six)
Coon Dog Saved
by Ozark Friends
MONTERFY, Mo., July 13. (U.R)
Old Drive, "the best durn coon
dog in southeast Missouri," rest-
ed comfortably hi the warm sun-
light of his mastar'f. Ozark mom-
tain home today, regaining the
strength he lost during his 10
days' imprisonment in a nearby
limestone cave, and grateful to h:s
many friends among the hill coun-
try folk who worked night and
day to rescue him.
Drive was rescued last night
after about. 75 of Jake Light's
neighbors, working by lantern and
torch light, completed blasting a
hole through a 30-foot stone wall
and dragged the dog to safety.
The men left their fields,
brought out their caiofully hoard
ed stock of dynamite, used to
blast stones and stumps from
their fields, and set to work. A
blacksmith left his shop and <el
up his forgo in Sugar Camp Hoi- |
low lo shapen the drills use^l to |
make holes for the charges of dy-
namite.
The wmicn folk, glad of an ex
cuse to leave the humdrum monot- 1
ony of their kitchens and the end-
less chores around tho farm, came i
to prepare hot meals for their ;
men.
They stoud over ihe hot brush I
fires cooking, and while they sal i
in the hot sunlight, for the past j
ten days, they talked of their sons J
in the service and read to each
other letters from pljices they
never knew existed until their boys
left the hill's for war.
W. H. Hensley
Dies Thursday
W. II. Hensley, 52, died at the
home of P. L. Henry early Thurs-
day morning after several weeks'
illness. He was found dead in bed.
Funeral services wili be held
at 10 o'clock Friday morning at
the Forest Glade cemetery, with
the Rev. A. W. DeGt ire, pastor of
the First Presbyterian church,
conducting the services, and J. I.
Riddle and Company in charge of
arrangements.
Survivois include his wife and
tight children; a sister, Mrs. E. B
Johnson of Mexia; and two broth-
ers, L. W. Hensley of Mexia and
S. S. Hensley of Harlingen.
Tlio internationally known
Army newspaper Starr, and Stripes
and no less a magazine than the
ophisticatcd New Yorker have
both taken official cognisance of
Mexia's now famous fluorescent
meat, Mexia learned with some
amusement today. The glowing
meat, which la t month made lo-
cal housewives test their steaks in
dark corners before broiling them
after a phosphorescent* bacteria
mysteriously appeared on meat in
several local stores, had already
been virtually forgotten here
when clippings from tlie two per-
iodicals named began to pour in
this week from ox-Mexiu residents
and relatives all over the coun-
try.
From Italy Camp Captain H. R.
Clevvis son! a copy of the July 5
Stars and Stripes which contain-
ed this item:
"MEXIA, Texas—When citizens
of this tov.r rus:ic(. wildly to the
police with the story that then
refrigerators were lighting up with
Think Robots Hail
from Netherlands
King and Queen
Watch Activity
LONDON, uly 13. (U.R) — The
Germans, apparently confining
their robot bomb attacks to day-
light hours, renewed the assaults
on London and southern England
today after a lull that lasted thru
the night.
Some of the flying bombs came
from a direction well east of Pas
de Calais, and il was considered
possible the Germans may have
developed new launching points
in the Netherlands as well as Bel-
gium.
The lt.ll in the flying, bomb at-
tacks was the third consecutive
night respite for London, al-
though «ome of the weapons fell
in the southern counties on Mon-
day and Tuesday nights.
The slackening off of night at-
tacks led to the belief the Ger-
mans may be concentrating on the
daylight hours when thousands of
working people fill the streets and
cannot easily find shelter.
When one attack occurred yes-
terday, King George and Queen
Elizabeth were lunching at a gun
-ite f!i.ring a tour of anti-aircrnfi
defenses. After tIte alarm sound-
ed, they saw an ack-ack gun and
fighter pilot share in the kill of
one robot bomb.
"Good shooting," the queen told
the men. "I like to see these things
chivvied about a bit."
The kin? added: '"it's a pity
there were no Germans in them."
It was disclosed that the Royal
Free hospital was hit directly re-
cently by a flying bomb which
fell in the central staircase, caus-
ing great structural damage.
Five persons were killed and
nine injured in the hospital, where
doctors and nurses worked thru-
out the night evaevoting patiertts.
The hospital had been damaged
in the 1940 blitx.
I out any electric bulbs inside, ev-
eryone began suspecting that iii.<
I fellow townspeople had gone daft,
j Then Dr. J. S. Watson, city sani-
i larian (and father-inlaw of Cap-
| tain Clewis) stepped ur and said
j the trouble was pseudomanas
i phosphoreseens, which is caused
, by mini te organisms thriving on
meat in cold places. Not harmful,
he said. Just wasii tin. meat off
with vinegar."
Then the New Yorker on the
first page of its July 1 copy, un-
der the heading of "The Talk of
the Town,' reported as follows:
"We don't know exactly what
has happened about the phos-
phorescent meat that turned tip
in the iceboxes of Mexia, Texas,
last week. The phenomenon was
first brought to the attention of
the authorities there when a
j frightened citizen rushed into the
I police station exclaiming, "My
j meat—it's all lit up!" A town-wide
j check of butchers showed live of
I them to lie selling the product
that gave off the peculiar eman-
I ation, and the mystery was l-eferr-
| ed to the local health officer, who
| remarked coolly, "I think I know
1 what it is," but then he added
that he wouldn't make an announce
mcnt until he was sure. The last
I we heard from the daily press was
that the meat continued to glow
| and that the matter—as the press
! kept calling it—had been turned
' over to the state health depart-
| mcnt, the top chemists of Swift
]& Co.'< Fort Worth laboratories,
and Texas A. & M. University,
where it had been referred to the
department of veterinary surgery.
Meanwhile, according to the last
word in the papers, the townsfolk
continued to eat it, with no ill ef-
fects.
"We have, no doubt that some-
I cne will find the explanation, but
I what we wonder is, will, he let it
I go at lhat? Some of the most im-
I porta lit scientific discoveries have
| come up incidentally, of course,
j and no one knows where this in-
vestigation might lead to, pro-
vided it doesn't end with the mere
' solution of the mystery. We aren't
I thinking of just tiir obvious com-
| mercial possibilities, either, such
! as butchers being able to scrap
their neon lights and decorate
their windows with ingenious ar-
rangements of luminous cuts. How
many generations of workers with
the mierascopc wiped the mold
specks off their slides to concen-
trate on the bacteria they were
studying—until somebody let the
microbes go and went to work oil
the mold itself, with the result
known as penicillin Who knows
but that whatever is making that
meat incande-cent might be con-
verted into something that will
enable fresh meat to cook itself?
In the world of science nothing is
silly. Buried somewhere in that
little fantasy in Mexia may be a
secret of great worth to mankind,
and we hope that the technicians
at A. & M. and Swift & Co. will
not quit with the discovery of
what lit un the meat, iust because
t>pv'vp pot it tiivnpri r\ff "
FullScale Stand
I
Made by Germans
Lajatieo Taken
by Yank Advance
ROME, July 13. (U.R)—American
assault forces stormed and cap-
tured Lajatieo, German mountain
stronghold 20 miles southeast of
Livorno, in some of the bitterest
fighting on the Italian front since
the fall of Rome, Allied head-
quarters reported today.
German resistance stiffened
further all along the line, and
now was Hearing the intensity of
a full scale stand in the outposts
of the Gothic line as the Allied
Fifth and Eighth Armies battled
before the coastal anchors of Li-
vorno and Ancona.
The Germans mounted costly
! and generally unsuccessful coun-
I tei attacks in a number of sectors,
| and were revealed to have pushed
| advanced Eighth Army elements
back two miles from Pietralunga
in the mountains east of the Tiber
valley.
United States units of Lt. Gen.
Mark W. Clark's Fifth Army
i beat ioff counter-thrusts Sn the
i Era River valley southeast of Li-
i v. rno before capturing by-passed
! Lajatieo and making gains up to
a mile and a half beyond the line
j five miles eastward from Lajatieo
to Villamagna.
The Allied communique and sup-
plementary reports said nothing
| of the situation in the coastal
sector below Livorno, where the
j Americans had captured Castig-
] lioncello and pushed on within
j eight miles of the big- port.
30,000 Toil for
France, Saipan
235,411 Casualties
for U. S. by June 20
WASHINGTON, July 13. (U.R)—
U.S. -ombat casualties as officially
| reported thus far by the War and
| Navy departments here were
| brought to 235.111 lodyy with an
| announcement by Undersecretary
] ef War Robert P. Patterson that
Army casualties through June 20
total 187,028.
Official Navy Departmint cas-
ualty figures announced through
| today total 18,383.
Normandy and Saipan casual-
} ties as announced in those the-
I Rters would raise these totals b /
30,000 or more.
Patterson said Army cwi'.altics
! included 33,210 killed, 77.11!'
I wounded, 38,1-12 missing ami 38,-
1 Hi" prisoners ol v.-ar Of the
I wounded -10,41 •! have returned to
' duty.
The Navy total, embracing
j Navy, Murine Cerp.s ami Coast
Guard casualties, include 20;3'iJ
dead, 11,127 wounded, 0,133 miss-
! ing and 1,401 prisoners of war.
Patterson said American Fifth
I Army casualties in Italy from the
time of the first landing on the
Italian mainland through .1 fly '1
total 12,055 killed, 17,457 wound-
ed and 10,2s? missing- a total of
70,390.
Mexiaite Attends
Father's Funeral
Mrs. Betty Anderson has return-
ed from Weatherford, where she
attended the fufieral Sunday of htr
father. J. V. Gladish, 97. He died
Saturday in a Weatherford hos-
pital, after having lived in Texas
.frr 03 years. Believed to be the
oldest - resident of Parker county,
he was bortl at Bowling Green,
Kentucky, November 30, 1840. Un-
til age forced his retirement sev-
eral year- ago, he had farmed in
the Weatherford area since around
1880. For several years he made
his home in Mexia.
Survivors include three sons and
three daughters. He was the last
of his immediate family. Services
were held Sunday evening at 6
oolock from the First Methodist
Church in Weatherford, with the
pastor, the Rev. R. E. Stanford,
conducting the service?. Burial
I was in the local cemetery.
Greatest Offensive of
War Sees 5 Red Armies
on March O ver450Miles
MOSCOW, July 13. (UP)—The Germans were re-
ported fleeing in disorder into Latvia along a 93-mile front
today under a mighty new Soviet offensive designed to
complete the liberation of the Baltic States.
The new assault put five Red Armies on the march
westward along a 450-mile front toward the Baltic Sea and
Germany in the greatest coordinated offensive of the war,
confronting the Nazi command with the necessity of sacri-
ficing huge chunks of territory in order to concentrate
their dwindling strength for the defense of East Prussia
and the Polish plains.
One Soviet column south of the new Latvian front
drove to within 36 miles of the disputed 1939 border ol
East Prussia and 73 miles of its pre-war border, while
others stormed the Pripet Marshes stronghold of Pinsk
and advanced to within approximately 2G mile of the
Fortress Grodno and Daugavpils (Dvinsk), the latter in
southeastern Latvia. ~ ~~ ~
Chinese Mass for
Tengchung Drive
Bombard
Hunan Garrison
(Reliable diplomatic reports
reaching Madrid by way of Vichy
said Adolf Hitler had convened a
supreme war council, at which it
wa>- decided to withdraw forces
^ from certain occupied countries,
I believedly the Balkans and Nor-
way. To bolster Germany's shrink-
ing- strategic reserves for antici-
pated decisive battles in the west,
south and east.)
(A Stockholm dispatch quoted
the Berlin newspaper Nachtaus-
| gabe a-> asserting that "next week
| we may be forced to meet Russian
assault on territory which no
longer allow us the use of space
to ward off an enemy offensive"—
an obvious attempt to prepare the
German public for the possibility
the war soon may reach German
•soil.)
Front dispatches said that Gen.
Andrei 1. Yeremenko, a hero of
I Stalingrad and former commander
of the Independent Maritime Army
which aided in the liberation of
the Crimea, had "completely rout-
j ed" the enemy in launching his
i new offensive- on the Latvian front
j two days ago.
Sew Girl's Scalp Back
ST. LOUIS, Mo., July 13. (U.R)
CHUNKING, July 13. (U.R)—
Chinese troops massed for an all-
out assault today on the Japanese
stronghold of fTengchung after
American Mitchell medium bomb-
ers blasted a hole in the city's
ancient wall.
A communique said the Chinese
already had occupied the last
strongpoints outside of Tengchung,
west of the Salwcen River, and
were preparing for a thrust into
the city through the breach in the
wall.
Another communique, reporting
on the fighting in Hunan Province,
said numerous buildings in Heng-
yank, enemy-circled junction on
the Canton-Hankow railway, were
demolished by Japanese air raids
made on three successive nights.
Chinese forces in the garrison re-
j sister renewed assaults by the en-
I emy in the suburbs, the communi-
| que said.
The communique also reported
i Chinese forces had recaptured
, ,. . ,, , 'several strategic points south of
—In a delicate three hour oper- i , . , , .
Lieyang and were engaged in
.at, n surgeons at city hospital to- j 8troet fighting with Japanese
day restored « 19-year-old girl
war plant inspectors' scalp, torn
completely from her head last
night by a machine at the Landis
Machine Co,
The girl, Miss Margaret Egan,
had leaned down to inspect shav-
ings from a screw machine mak-
ing mortar shell fu-es, when her
thick, black hair became entangled
in a spirajing part of the machine.
She was-'rushed to the hospital in
an ambulance and police followed
carrying her scalp, which surgeons
sewed into place, hoping it will
reunite with remaining tissues.
troops in Liling, 75 miles north-
east of Yengchang.
The 14th Airforce bombers, to-
gether with fighter planes, were
giving steady support to the
Chineses forces in Yunnan Pro-
vince, and also carried out new at-
tacks on Lungling, the twin base
of Tengchung, and a junction point
on the Burma road.
WEATHER
Bv United Press
F. \ST TEXAS: Partly
cloudy today, tonight and Fri-
day.
Vz
PRICE SALE
$2.00 DOROTHY GRAY
HOT WEATHER COLOGNE
$1.00
$2.00 DOROTHY GRAY
FACE POWDER
$1.00
$2.25 BARBARA GOULD
CLEANSING CREAM
$1.25
Kendrick&Ha
MEXIA
PMONt - «M
tsxas *
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The Mexia Weekly Herald (Mexia, Tex.), Vol. 66, No. 28, Ed. 1 Friday, July 14, 1944, newspaper, July 14, 1944; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth292604/m1/1/: accessed July 11, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Gibbs Memorial Library.