AUGAi
EVERT THURSDAY BY RIVERS PRINTING COMPANY
«. c. rivers, jd, rvnusmai
Aa bltfnlnt Weekly Newspaper
P*IUhed fw 40 ymn by Use lata Robert C. Rivet*.
•OBSCRimoN
80#; 4s watte, |1 SO; <W manth*, ft 00; OuU«de Watauga County:
79; ft>ur mouth*, HO. I
■"■■■■ « ww » ■■>■■■»» at Imoc, N. C, u aeeond claaa mail matter, under the act <4 Ctrngrrt of
»"»»■ «.// -v *u;,a
NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS—In requeating change of addreaa. ft t* Important to mention the OLD,
aa weO ai the NEW pddren*.
jfHthe hula of oar geaprnment being the opinion of the piiople. the very firvt objective should be
to heap that right. and prere it left to Mt to dee Me whether we ahould have a government without
newapeper*. * newspaper* without gaverwnent, I ahould not heahate a moment to chooae the latter
B»t I ahould mean that apery man ahould receive theaa paper* »ad bf, capable ut reading them."—
!!!=~
!fw /f„ . m
BOON*. NORTH CAROLINA. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1M7
- ,
"Horn" Season Is Ended
"Horn in the Wert," Boone's outdoor
historical drama, concluded its sixth year's
run Monday, evening on a happy note.
Fact is, says Leo Derrick, public relations
director, attendance for the current
season was 27,110, which was 12.1 per
cent greater than last year's attendance
figure of 24,410.
Significantly, Mr. Derrick points out,
thfs is the first season since the drama
began in 1991 that the attendance has
shown an increase over the preceding year.
Tie Horn started off with a bang, nearly
50,000 having witnessed the first year's
run, with a yearly falloff since, making the
fate of the drama uncertain, at least for the
past two or three years
It is gratifying that the Horn ia doing
tMrtter. Chief, reasons which have been
assigned for the increase are that the
dram* is better, that a more fruitful publicity
program has been followed, and that
there have actually been more people in
the area than ever before.
Without actual statistics, we would biggest
that travel to Blowing Rock, Boone,
the Smokies and all tourist centers has
been greater this year. One can rather
sense the increased tempo on the open
roads. And of course, Mr. Derrick, and
; ' 1 %K: K W.j.\ I *'• .. , .' " - ■
all others connected with the promotion
of the Horn have worked diligently, and ,
deserve great credit for their enterprise.
So it would aeem to go without saying
that the Horn will blow again, come next
June, and that is a good thing for the
town, futlier enhancing ita status in the
western North Carolina tourist community.
Circulation Gains
The average weekly newspaper published
in towris under 50,000 population has
shown a circulation increase of 409 during
the past ten years, according to an analysis
made by the American Press Aaaodation.
Average circulation of these newspapers
is now 1,877, compared with 1,508 in 1947.
Of interest locally ia the fact that the
Watauga Democrat has gained about 2,000
circulation during the period mentioned
as against the average of 469, and has a
circulation of 3,450, or 1,473 above the
national average.
In North Carolina there are 155 nondaily
newspapers. In weekly towns of
under 60,000 there are 8,123 newspapers
in the country today, a loss of 189 under
the 8,312 listed in 1947, the survey shows.
Join Forces To Help 111
Physicians and ministers, in a growing
awareness of the relationship of faith and
health, are Joining datum, to help ttaeill,
reports Milton Gofln in jthe .September*'
Reader'* Digest. His article, fNear life,
Near Death, Near God," is condenaed from
The Journal of the American Medical Association.
He cites the story ofr Stanley Wisniewski
who "died" in Chicago Just before Christmas
in 1954. His heart stopped beating.
But doctors at the Lutheran Deaconess
Hospital operated, massaged his heart,
gave him stimulating drugs. Two and a
half hours later, he was alive and his heart
was beating normally. The case was widely
reported at the time but, writes Golin,
neglected was one significant fact: "during
the crucial two and a half hours everyone
within sight of the victim—nurses, doctors,
technicians—was praying, some audibly."
Of the 7000 hospitals in the United
States, 1100. have some religious affiliation
and a large proportion of (he remainder
provide for the spiritual as well as physical
needs of patients. The Texas Medical Center
not only has a program for training
ministerial students from five theological
schools but also offers courses in religion
for medicsl students "to help them learn
about the resources the church can offer
them in their practice."
Enmities between theology and psychotherapy
are melting away, reports Golin.
A number of rabbis, like Dr. Henry Raphael
Gold of New York, have become prac
tieing psychiatrists. So have several Catholic
priests. One is Jerome Hayden, a Benedictine
monk and a doctor of both philosophy
and medicine, who teaches psychiatry
at Catholic University in Washington,
D. C„ and sees patients every day.
" i i '
Food Processing
Miss Marguerite 'Alexander, Asheville
newspaper woman, who has an abiding
faith In the future of the entire North Carolina
mountain area, paid one of her infrequent
visits to the Democrat the other
day, and mentioned a subject which has
been handled from time to time by the
Democrat for generations.
That is, the apparent opportunity which
abounds in the processing of the products
of mountain farms.
Miss Alexander believes that the welfare
of this region could be advanced greatly
through the development of food processing
plants which would prepare apple butter,
string beans, and other products which
are produced in such great abundance
here.
For instance, in most years, apples go to
waste by the untold thousands of bushels
here. They are buried and carried by the
ton from areas where cattle graze. They
should be good for apple butter, or vinegar,
it would seem. And vegetables could be
processed by the carloads.
It's a good notion.
^re Teachers rnii
•Sit* V«°ishing?
A trend of the time* has been noted by
a report of the Fund for the Advancement
of Education, which predicts that the
teachers colleges as Utey have been operated
in the past will soon disappear.
The report was made by Dr. Paul Woodring
of Western Washington College of
Education, whose findings are that the college
devoted exclusively to training teachers
is no longer economically or educationally
practicable. Hence, the teachers
colleges will be absorbed by the liberal
art» colleges, or they will expand into liberal
arte colleges with education only one
brapcb of their curricula.
The pressure of ecenomics is probably
the strongest force in this change, but
ju also, as Or. Woodring points oui, the high
concentration In teacher* college* on professional
courses is out of line with the
present day demand for teachers with
K greater knowledge of jubject matter.
The graduate of the teachers college is
often rejected for graduate study in a liberal
art* college, because he has not had
enough background in subject matter to
be able to pursue the advanced work.
Likewise, the holder of a degree from a
liberal arts college is sometimes rejected
for graduate study in the teachers college,
because he br < not bad enough professional
courses to give him a foundation for a graduate
degree In education.
For many years critics of the present
system of teacher training have remarked
on what seems to them to be an overemphasis
on professional courses at the expense
of subject matter. The result, says
these critics, is a teacher with an excessive
amount of training in how to teach and a
deficiency of instruction in what to teach.
It may be that the gradual elimination
of the teacbere college es a separate unit
will bring about a better balance of professional
training and subject matter. Better
teachers might be tbe result.
Stretch's Sketches
By "STRETCH" ROLLINS
How Honett Are We?
THERE'S A LITTLE LARCENY, someone has
■aid, in everybody.
It it probable that very few people are completely
honest. There are many, happily, who
would not steal your money
or posaesaions, but there are
many ways of being dishonest
Most of us are guilty of
aome form of deceit at one
time or another.
Once aa a lad 1 waa playing
left fitld in a sandlot baseball
game. There was a ditch in
deep left with some bushes
in front. We were leading by
on* run and the other team had two runner*
on base >n the ninth iming with two out.
The batter bit one out there and I ran back
and got my glove on it but dropped it aa I fell
into the dKeh behind the bushes. The center
fielder was there, too, and he picked it up, put
it back in my glove, and I emerged from the
bpshes triumphantly waving the ball aloft as
though I had- held onto it. Nobody questioned
the catch, (he game waa over and we won.
But did we?
A MAN WHO runs a grocery store in another
state told me this one with a straight face.
Said he had to go out of town for the day,
so he briefed his new clerk on hi* "two price"
system. "For instance, on five pounds of sugar,
it's fllty-five cents if they ask—sixty if they
don't
"But be honest," he admonished. "If you have
to tell 'em it's fifty-five, be sure that's all you
charge 'em!"
HONESTY IS OFTEN a matter of necessity.
A survey indicates that the public is curiously
unresponsive to paying for "intangibles." Generally
they will make steady weekly or monthly
payments on a product, says the report, but
when it's services, Mr. and Mrs. Public unaccountably
"fall off in squaring their bills.
Unaccountable? Not very. You can't repoases
• service.
A DRY CLEANER (not here, of eourse), who
found a $100 bill in a customer's trousers was
in a dilemma. Should he keep it, or be honest
and split it with his partner?
AND SOMEHOW, when a person begins a
sentence with "Frankly," or "To be perfectly
honest," I get a vague feeling that this is a rare
occasion, and he is not always so frank and
honest.
WISH IT) SAID THAT, SO I WILL—Some
women's idea of keeping a confidence is refusing
to say who told them.
From Early Democrat Files
Sixty Yeart Ago
September 2, 1891
Our enterprising m* mill man, S. N. Bingham,
of Pine Run, has sold hii mill to the Measn
Green on Flat Top. Mr. Bingham contemplatei
buying another engine and mw.
On last Saturday, Dr. T. C. Blackburn was
appointed postmaster at Boone to succeed R. C.
Rivers. One by one the heads of the Democratic
officials fall from the Republican guillotine.
Hon. A. Leaser, who has been stopping at
Coffey's hotel for some time, left for his home
•n Monday last. Miss Carrie, his daughter, will
remain longer with us.
What »re we going to do about the reunion of
old confeds? Capt Todd, of Ashe, responds in
last Democrat. Let us hear from others in our
adjacent counties.
Thirty-Nine Yeart Ago
September is, ltiS
In honor of Mrs. W. L. Bryan's 74th birthday,
• beautiful aad bountiful dinner was served st
the Bryan home yesterday, and to make the
happiness more complete, every member of the
family, save one, Robert, who is now in California,
was present and partakers of the dainty
repeat The food lady who has rounded out her
three score and ten and four years, was born
and reared here, stands high in the esteem of
all who know her, and The Democrat, in behalf
of them all. extends to the splendid woman and
her husband, several years her senior, the wish
that they may both live to see the happy return
of maay such ooeaasioos.
Miss Carrie Coffey, daughter of Atty. and
Mrs. E. S. Coffey, has accepted a position with
the Boo a* Fork Lumber Company and entered
upon her duties in the offtoes of the Co., at
Shulls Mills Tuesday morning. Suceess to you,
little lady. <'
Fiften Yeart Ago
September S, 1MZ
Mr. S. C. Eggers of Booae was re-elected
moderator of the Three Forks Baptist Association
at the 102nd session which was held
with Mount Calvary Ckareh at Balm last Tuesday
and Wednesday.
Mrs Horton Gragg left Tneaday for U Mesa.
Texas, where she will Join fear husband who is
taking advanced courses in the army aviation.
Mr. Oragg recently completed his preliminary
training in various typas of fly In* in Goodland,
Kan
Mr. Gilbert Barnes suffered the loss of three
fia«ers on the left hand la* week wkan the
shotgun with which ha eought to kill greittdhogs
was accidentally discharged The index finger
remains and it is believed it may be saved. Mr.
Barnes was holding the short weapon by the
muzzle when U was accidentally discharged.
Letters to the Editor
Stewart Simmons Like* Column
I deeply appreciate your nice write up you
gave our community in your columa King Street,
and I want to extend to you »d your entire
staff an invitation to visit our community at
anytime.
STEWART SIMMONS
Triplet!, N. C .
Aahevlllan Enjoys Colorama Editorial
Pleaae let me express my appreciation and
enjoyment of the article from your paper copied
in the Asheville Citizen of August 26th. on the
autumn season in the mountains.
It it a beautiful description, and could b«
used "as is" in any brochure gotten out for tha
Fall Colorama.
MARIE SHANK
M Maney Avenue
AsheviOe. N. C.
Praises Boone Youth, Their Elders
Just a few weeks or so ago, I was reading an
article from tha "Watauga Democrat" that was
sent to me by a Mend. The article was written
by Mrs. Owsley and concerned itaeif with praising
the youth of Boone. I, too, think the youth
of Boone should he praised; but 1 think more
praiae should go to the people who have built
our youth—people lika Mrs. "Corky" Owsley,
Mrs. Holshouser, Mr. and Mrs. Jack Grace, Mr.
Bill Rom. Mr. Shirley Gabriel, aad Mr. Stave
Gabriel (who have helped in the past) and many
others. AU Um praiae possible should go to these
people, for they are the people who have built
a strong youth in Boom; aad in doing so have
built a strong America
I agree whole-heartedly with Mrs. Owsley la
saying that the "Watauga Democrat" has been
an outstanding factor towards the development
of our youth, for a* loag aa I can remember,
it has promoted good citizenship, not only In our
schools, bat aiao la our husiaaas.
I have lived in many different towns in my
short II years; but I can sajr that Boons U my
town—my town for the friendship, courage, and
beanty that makes it the most wonderful city
in aH America.
WILLIAM ft. GftAGC
S6C. NAPS. Naval Training Center
Bainbridge, Md. , « ' *
KING! STREET
LI By ROB RIVERS
ft COFFIN MAKERS .. SOME REMAIN
We goofed, M seem*, when we cafe) recently that the late
John Harmon wan the last of the old-time coffin makers in this
area. . . Fact b, we are reminded there are a lot of people left
who hate fashioned some of these coxy planked-up cases for the
dead. .. . Charles F. Thompson, Esq., calls our attention to the
fact that he has been making coffins for about forty years, and
that during the time he's turned out perhaps 75 of the caskets
... He reminds that Poly Wyke, and many other carpenters in
the area have made caskets . . , We'd thought the "storebo
lighten" variety of coffins had taken away the market for the
home-made sort longer ago than that. . . . Anyway Squire
Thompson harks back to the days when home-made coffins were
the rule rather than the exception. . The favorite timber
used, he says, was chestnut, which worked easily, finished nicely,
and was easily secured. ... He has also used poplar, cherry
and oak. ... He says some folks had the boxes made ahead of
time—one customer of his kept the sanctuary for his mortal
remains on hand 12 years before the summons—but in most
cases, nothing was done until death came. . . . Then, maybe by
night, the coffin was fashioned, handles were bought at N. L.
Mast's Store, cotton padding was used and the interior looked
quite as well as those found in the caskets which the general
merchants later sold.... Mr. Thompson says on occasions when
a man about his size had gone away that he would climb into
the box himself to ascertain whether or not there would be a
cozy fit. . . . And often, he relates, he served as undertaker,
before funeral parlors had come to the county. . . . But the
situation has changed, and he hasn't bad a call for a coffin in
seven years. ... It used to be that folks regularly kept a few
smooth boards of "coffin timber" just in case. \
RESIDENTS OF BOONE . . WHAT ABE THEY?
Folks who live In Charlotte are referred to as Charotteans.
Those who reside in New York are obviously
New Yorkers; if you are a resident ef Denver, you'd
be a Denverite, but we don't know what yon call a
resident of Boone. . . . The Democrat, back through
the years has referred to us as "residents of our
beautiful village," "those who live In the best tow* In
the State," "citizens of our fine community," but what
we want to know, for reasons of brevity, are we
Booneans, Booners or Boonites.
MORAL . . DON'T WORRY ABOUT PARKED VEHICLE
The man was parked fairly close to the intersection, and
during the split second while we should have been observing
the color of the light, he swung one of these extra wide doors
right out into the lane of traffic. While we were mildly cussing
his carelessness we drove right smack through a red light, at a
busy spot. . . . Luckily, no damage ensued. . . . Ironically we
made our first trip through a stop signal just after we'd made a
fervent editorial plea for all motorists to take care, lest there be
other fatal accidents on our Street. ... As they used to say in
these parts, when a man had committed a crime, we "ought to
be handled."
HAS BEEN AVAILABLE ALL ALONG
Two fellows were passing the Democrat, and one
read the sign on the window.. . . "Strange," quoth he,
"I'd never heerd of that paper before." . . . "You'd
orter," said our faithful friend, "hit's been here a right
smart spell."
M. ■ ■' :* i
GREETINGS . . FROM UNKNOWN FRIEND
"No business," said our caller. "A good friend of yours from
down Roily way just insisted that I come by and remember him
to you." "Always glad to hear from an old buddy," we beamed.
"But the heck of it is," said the visitor, "even though we are
good friends, I can't for the life of me call his name . . he's a
medium-sized, darkskinned fellow, dresses well, and says he
used to have some plumb good times with you, way back whan.
... And if it would help you any, he has a Beautiful wife." . . .
So we've spent some time pondering the subject. . . . There are
only a few million medium sized, well-dressed lads, and a lot
of them have fared well in getting beautiful wives. ... If he'd
only had a wen on his nose, had five fingers or something we
might have guessed his name. . . . Anyway, we're happy he
remembered us even through a man who couldn't remember him.
So This Is New York
Standing betide a policeman in
the lubway—it is redundant to
say "crowded subway"—I noticed
he had a box at his feet which he
seemed to be carefully guarding.
I asked him what was in it and he
told me. Cops here are usually
courteous. He said it was full of
policy numbers and other gambling
data he had captured in a
raid in the Bronx and he was
taking it to headquarters as evidence.
Noting I was curious, he
explained how the racket works.
About • third of the people in the
huge Bronx borough play, he said.
Kaeh selects a number and bets
on it at any time, usually in connection
with horse races. Odds are
about 800 to 1 that the person will
not win. But so popular is the
custom that aome folks go hungry
rather than miss placing the betting
money with the phon*y bookies.
"Yeah," he concluded, shrugging
his shoulders as he got off
the train, "there's always some
people who want te get something
for nothing."
On the stage, in the movies and
on television and radio her*, bey
meets girl in never-ending succession.
Yet ia reel life, it (a about
as easr for a young man to find a
decent date ben m It is for a
Brahman to eoWact an Untowfcable
ia indie. New Yorkers are
understanding^ «ta»rt-offi*h, he
cauae any stranger who approach
By NORTH CALLAHAN
es you is considered, not without
reason, either • criminal or a
screwball. Therefor* the young
man or woman who comes to New
York and grows lonely is forced
onto the resource* of their friends
—if they have any—into the dimea-dance
hall* or perhap* go to one
of the local lonely hearts club*.
Such contacts have mulled in
some good matches; but the best
mean* of meeting are in the
church, at the Y. M. C. A. or back
where homefolk* are friends.
Ex-Governor Keen John*on, now
a joke-telling public relations representative
(or a metal company,
said a visitor waa riding in a
taxi in Washington when he passed
the National Archive* building.
High on it* wall* were the word*.
"What is Part is Prologue." The
visitor turned to the cab driver
and asked what that meant. Quoth
the cabbie: "That's >4ppjMM|
talk for *\wi ain't *een nothin'
yet!"
Returning from New York on a
train to Cincinnati were a Hungarian
couple with two small
children. They were refugee*. In
the *ame coach were teveral
American high school students.
The student* learned that the
Hungarians spoke no Bnglish,
carried a dictionary and had only
38 cento to lam them until they
(Continued on page seven)