Journal Gazette from Mattoon, Illinois • Page 3

I I 1 in feoi'is exptosioii Ey THE ASSOCIATED PRESS One man was killed and more than a dozen persons were injured as a result of mishaps during two Fourth of July fire HAPPY WINNERS piness is winning a three-legged -sack race as pictured here during Fourth of July activities Tuesday at Peterson Park. Despite early rains, a large crowd turned out for the Mattoon Firefighters Association picnic lunch and finished off 1,500 pounds of chicken. i is Lonnie Johns, chairman of the Association of Illinois Student Governments, who CANDIDATES DEBATE Sen. Charles H. Percy, R-Ill.

(left), and Rep. Roman D-Ch(cago (right), debated Monday at Eastern Illinois University. Pucinski is seeking the U. S. Senate seat held by Percy.

In the center moderated the debate. (Related story and pictures on Page 2.) (JG photo) New U.S. outlook Japan names piime minister i test it leadership of the government at a convention of the party's members in the the Japanese parliament. The vote on the second runoff ballot was 282-190, with four blank votes. The Diet will meet Thursday to confirm Tanaka as prime minister for a three-year term, a formality since the party has a sizable majority in both houses.

He is expected to announce his cabinet on Friday. Tanaka's victory resulted from growing restlessness within the party over Sato's inability to cope with the problems of China, the United States and mounting domestic difficulties. Little change would have been expected had. Fu Fiddlers cut loose (JG photo)' a ing for the festival and directed traffic. Police reported 15 arrests since the crowd began to gather Monday.

Seven of those ar: rested were charged with violating the court injunction when they allegedly attempted to bring stage equipment onto the" site. Six others were charged with aggravated assault and, fat use of a weapon." The latter arrests stemmed from a fracas between torcycle gang members and festival-goers, police said. No injuries were reported. 1 "They're doing their added Sheriff James CaUahan.3 "And we've been treated all, I right." 3 Callahan said it would be im- possible to evict the several thousand youths from the site. But, he said, 125 policemen from nearby communities were, in the area in case of trouble.

2 worked up ing his 240 acres, 'he would climb to the top of the tree and gaze out over his property, he's recalled. Then he decided to try standing on his head. ii "Some folks worry about me standing on my head in that 3 tree at my age," he said. "But; it never worries me. I'm taking fewer chances in that old tree than I am driving down Routed consistently failed to approve 1 legislation introduced to let 18-i year-old males marry withoutl parental approval, even though other bills giving 18-year-olds 1 added legal rights and responsl- bilities have been passed, fl Scott said the Illinois statute in question violates the equak protection clause, of the 14th 1 Amendment to the U.S.

Con-1 stitutioa "4 declared kuda been chosen. Tanaka made a brief, restrained acceptance speech stressing that unity of the party must continue. He has said previously that he would give his major attention to repairing the frayed relations with the United States and to bringing about diplomatic relations with Communist China. Problems with the United States developed when Japan achieved a favorable balance of trade, then steadily widened it with a river of low-cost, high-quality goods poured onto the American market. Angry talk combined with'.

American restrictions soured the old relationship, and relations are still The program noted that "fiddlers' conventions and contests have been an American folk institution since the early part of the 18th century and probably even earlier." But they obviously have caught on with the young. Koken and most of the other contestants looked to be in their 20s and 30s and so was most of the audience. The tunes they played have been, around i lot longer. Besides "Turkey in the Straw," special favorites were "Arkansas Traveler" and the old church tune, "Are You Washed in the Blood of the Walt also won first prize for the most unusual tune a Scotch-sounding "Sail Away, Lady" he told the crowd, "you can't hear on a record; you have to hear a fiddler play it." In the old days, said the fv, TOKYO (AP) Japan's ruling conservatives today named Kakuei Tanaka, a dynamic rags-to-riches construction man turned politician, to be prime minister with a mandate lor bold new approaches to the United States and China. The Liberal-Democratic Party in effect turned its back 'on the cautious establishment politics of Prime Minister Eisaku Sato, who is retiring at 71.

It decisively rejected the bid of his protege, 67-year-old Foreign Minister Takeo Fukuda, to succeed him. Tanaka, at 54 the youngest prime minister since 1945, won the party presidency and with Woman killed when struck by automobile Sharon Mae Miller, 26, of Robinson was fatally injured in an apparent hit-and-run accident near Sullivan, about I a.m. Tuesday. She was the sister of Ralph Layton of Oakland. According to authorities, Mrs.

Miller and John Goff Palestine were standing near their stopped car along U.S. 41 near Sullivan when the vehicle was struck by a car driven by Fred Wheeler of Sullivan. Then Mrs. Miller was struck by a ear driven by James of Paxton, authorities said. Eflinger was apprehended later and charged with leaving the scene of an accident by the Sullivan County sheriff's office.

Goff was taken to a Sullivan hospital where he was listed in fair condition. Mrs. Miller's body was taken to the Marshall Funeral Home, Oblong. 1 fans staged their own show. But many ofthe residents of Streator, a city with a population of 15,600, weren't complaining.

"They've been coming In here since 10 a.ra.," the operator of a carry-out restaurant said' Tuesday afternoon. "I just hope we have enough food to last." -Hundreds of nsesiitf them young, poured into the area-Tuesday. While the vast majority came in cars and on motorcycles, some came on bicycles and horses. Some authorities. Estimated the crowd at while others put the count closer to 15,000.

County and state police stayed on the outskirts of the farm property near the Sandy Ford Conservation Area north of Streator, but mostly just gave directions to persons look way up when some, but I still can climb that tree like a squirrel," he says. "I used to say I would quit standing on my head in that old tree when I got to be 70," he said. "I said the same thing when I was nearing 80. But I guess I'll just keep on doing it while longer because I get so much fun out of it." When Knudson began farm Youths at rock By P. J.

HELLER STREATOR, 111. (AP) -The Fourth of July holiday will he long remembered in this' north-central niimois community. It was the day thousands of young Americans declared their independence. Despite a Circuit Court injunction barring the "Spirit of '76" rock music festival from erected a makeshift stage, brought in gasoline-powered generators and local talent, set up housekeeping in tents and trailers on private property, and spent Monday and Tuesday "doing their thing," The man who had made ar rangements for the rock festi-i val, which was to have featured big-name talent such as New Riders of the Purple Sage and R.E.O. Speedwagon, never showed up.

Neither did the big-name groups, so the rock music Man, 81, PONTIAC, 111. (AP) When Charlie Knudson gets Va notion" or gets "worked up," he climbs to theJop of a 40-foot pine tree on his farm and does a head stand. Knudson is 81 years old. The last time he did it, on his 80th birthday, it was "just as easy as it ever was," he said. "Age has slowed me up Males, 18, SPRINGFIELD, 111.

(AP) -Eighteen-year-old males have been given the go-ahead to marry without parental consent in Illinois'. Atty. Gen. William J. Scott said Monday in a nine-page opinion that a state law requiring men under the age of 21 and women younger than 18 to have permission of a parent be a works demonstrations.

Five pyrotechnicians escaped serious injury in a third incident. Police In Wauconda, 111., said Edward G. Bulger, 24, was killed when some kind of fire work device exploded in a crowd of spectators observing a display at Bangs Lake, 40 miles northwest of Chicago. Eight other persons were treated and three of them were hospitalized following the explosion Tuesdgy night. All three were' reported in satisfactory condition early today.

In Seattle, an errant sky rocket exploded in a crowd gathered near a fountain at the Seattle Center. Up to a dozen persons were injured and three of them were None was believed in serious condition. Witnesses said the skyrocket started upward but appeared to "break off" and exploded in the crowd. The fireworks display in Elsi-nore, went off all at once when a spark from a skyrocket touched off $3,900 worth of star bursts, fire balls, aerial bombs and rockets. The pyrotechnics were loaded aboard a barge in Lake Elsi-nore, which was ringed by thousands of spectators.

No spectator was hurt and the five technicians conducting the display dove overboard and escaped with minor powder burns. Champaign bus drivers call- o'f strike CHAMPAIGN, 111. (AP) Bus drivers and mechanics have called off their scheduled strike against the Champaign- Urbana Mass Transit District Steve president of Amalgamated' Transit Union Local 1090, said Tuesday that the strike was canceled after a last-minute vote Monday night. The strike was called off on the advice of Circuit Judge Birch Morgan, who said the workers were public employes and thus were banned by Illinois law from striking. The old contract for the 35 drivers and mechanics involved expired at midnight Friday.

At issue are wages and fringe benefits. Arcoja youth wins fair title MARSHALL, 111.. Mark Tuttle of Areola won the grand champion steer title Tuesday with a hereford at the Clark County Fair. Ending its third day Tuesday the fair's -attendance was described as "running good" by secretary Maxine English. Also named Tuesday was Miss Gark County Fair.

Connie Siverly, daughter of, Mr. and. Mrs. Robert Siverly of Marshall, will represent Clark County Fair at the January Miss, Illinois County Fair pageant in Springfield. The week's activities at the fair will end at 7 p.m.

Saturday with-a, factor pull. Actor, 61 LOS (AP). When Kirk Alyn hung up his Superman suit it was like a dose of Kryptonite for his acting career. A studio head told him: "Everybody thinks you're Superman, Kirk. They believe you in any other part." Alyn, who played Superman in movie serials from 1948 to 1951, went to New York and searched unsuccessfully for stage' roles.

1 couldn't walk two blocks without people recognizing me," he says. "They'd honk their horns and yell 'Hi ya, Alyn was so upset over what playing Superman had' done to his career that he turned down the television role of Superman strained despite a visit last month, by presidential adviser Henry Kissinger. President Nixon's unexpected rapprochement with Peking without prior consultation with its chief Asian ally, also hit Sato in the political jaw and weakened his standing within the country and the party And Peking said there could be no real improvement in Japanese-Chinese relations until Sato went Tanakd should be well fitted to deal with the economic problems between the United States and Japan, having served both as Minister of Finance and as Minister of International Trade and Industry. Smithsonian's program, "hats, handkerchiefs, 1 socks, shoes, hams, flour, sugar, pocket knives, razor blades and even false teeth sometimes showed up as awards." Walt got $100 for his fiddling and $50 for his tune. The toe-tapping sound of the fiddle wasn't the only nostalgic note on the mall as the folklife festival finished its five-day stand.

Under another clump of trees, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union commemorated one of the tfirst labor strikes in America with, a spirited rendition of its anthem: "Hail the Waist-Makers of 1909." That song, too, seemed any thing but outdated. Its refrain: "We showed the that women could fight. "And won our battle with women's might." Chess match again delayed REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) The world' championship chess match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky now is "scheduled to start Thursday afternoon following another psotponement, this one demanded by the Soviet champion. After holding out for more money and getting it, the American challenger came to Iceland for the postponed opening match Tuesday. But Spassky walked out of the noon drawing to decide who would move first because Fischer was not present.

He had sent his second, a Roman Catholic priest. Officials announced a new 48-hour postponement of the opener, originally scheduled for last Sunday. They hoped both players would be ready to meet on Thursday. Fischer arrived, In Reykjavik early Tuesday. The Icelandic Chess Federation had rejected his demand for 30 per cent of the gate receipts, but he agreed to come after a London investment banker doubled the $125,000 purse which he and Spassky will divide.

The 29-year-old American grandmaster was resting from the overnight flight in a guard ed villa at the edge of town when Spassky counterattacked By MARGARET SCHERF WASHINGTON (AP) Walt Koken somber-faced and gap-toothed with the wide-open look of a country boy adjusted a sweat-rimmed black felt hat, tucked a fiddleHCinder his chin and cut loose. 1 Hundreds; of bare feet beat the mud, calloused hands pounded one another and shrill yelps of approval rent the air as he sawed out a raucous, rambunctious "Turkey in the It was enough to win him first prize as the best old-time fiddler in the First Annual Fiddlers' Convention Tuesday at the Smithsonian Institution's Festival of American Folklife. For five hours fiddlers from across, the country spelled one 'another on a wooden platform in the middle of a muddy mall jammed with fiddling enthusiasts. SULLIVAN ROYALTY Gayle Garmon (left) was named Miss Sullivan in the city's annual beauty pageant Monday. First runnerup was Christine Foreman (right).

Queen Gayle is the daughter of Mrs. and Mrs. Gar-mom of Sullivan. She will represent Sullivan in the Miss Moultrie-Douglas County Fair pageant. can wed without consent Superman bounces back to actresses." The men fore marrying discriminates against males.

Scott said the -setting of different ages for males and females "does not rest upon any grounds of differences having a fair, and substantial relation to the object of the legislation so that all persons are treated alike." The General Assembly has audiences didn't like anyone making fun of their hero. "So I cut out the kidding," he says: They wanted me 10 oe like the Superman they remembered on the Saturday after noon "matinee." Superman made his comic strip debut, in 1938, and Columbia Pictures decided to make a movie serial in 1948. "They had trouble getting someone with a good build who could read lines," Alyn says, "so in desperation they called me." He says the producer and casting director had him come into their office and asked him to take off his shirt. Then they asked him to take off his pants. "Walt a minute," Alyn said, "I thought this only happened plained that Superman had to wear tights and they wanted to see if he had good-looking legs, a An athletic 6-2 and tough because the writers sumed he could do Suoerman in 1952.

That role was taken by the late George Reeves. During the 1950s and '60s Alyn lived in California and settled for doing television commercials- -1 But now with the nostalgia craze, Superman is once again in demand. "I still can't believe it, but suddenly I'm in big demand as a speaker," Alyn, 61. "Nostalgia groups and colleges all over the country want me. to 8-nostalgia convention not long ago and all these prominent "men came up to me and told me what an inspiration Superman had been to them when they were growing up." He says he first tried to joke I about Superman, but found his stunts, and ne naa 19 nve out windows (onto mattresses) vault over cameras as if taking off.

ij "1 never intended to moke more than one Superman series," he says. "But it such a success I kept on i making them. Superman ruined my acting career and I've been bitter for many years about tin-1 whole Jhlng," Alyn says. "But now it's finally starting to pny in the holdout department..