a democrat fcY BY Htrai HUNTING COHPAMT. INC. IIVERS, ?, PUBLISHER 'T!\ Weekly Newspaper l_ fm br the late Sabot C. Vim, if. Hi SOBSCBIPTtON BATES ' jg j -'/y nths, II JO; four month*, $1.00. Outride Watauga Ceonty; Om year. ft.00; ate months, S1.7B; four North Carolina ? ? NOTICE TO OLD, ea well aa dMH I ?* the poe (office at Boom, N. ft, aa aeeood class mall matter, under the act of Congreaa of March S, int. MEKBEB NATIONAL EDITORIAL ASSOCIATION North Carolina press association *123 S% tales tax to be added on It la important to mention the Your Home Town Needs You ' Now that the tobacco market if .going merrily 011 with sales fetching good prices for the golden weed, and with the Christmas parade all over, and the first visit of Santa Claus dispensed with, Christmas shoppers are beginning to get down to business with their gift lists, and their pencils and their budget figures, and to actually make plans for the festive season, all the way from Utoele Zekes necktie to what sort of fowl will grace the big platter when all the folks gather in for the visiting and the feasting and the fellowshipping. Boone was not built by the business men along the street in the strictest sense, but the business district was fashioned from the enterprise and the hard work of all the people of the community and of the county and the entire trade area. Everyone who's trad ed with us and with the storekeeper, the grocer, the druggist, the automobile dealer, and all the rest has contributed his share to the erection of the buildings, and to the burgeoning growth of the shopping district of his home town. Through the efforts of all these peo |Ue, Boone has developed the outstand ing business district in this section. This year, as perhaps never before, the lines of gift merchandising are the largest and most comprehensive in the history of the thriving little metropolis. Friendly, courteous salespeople will take care of your Christmas shopping needs at com petitive prices, and will be glad to see you. We have always felt the community is your town as well as ours, that it was built through your efforts as well as through the efforts of those of us who toil along its Street. In trading at home, we are merely investing in the future of our community and our county and the fringes beyond, which prosper and succeed in direct proportion to the suc cess which is achieved in the county seat. Our local business men sustain every worthy project, contribute to all public purposes and provide a merchandising service they ask you to use. Visit them often. Trade at home and help build your own community and county. Americanism A great American is usually describ ed by the politicians at a big pow wow 88 one who's contributed vastly to the fortunes of his own political party, while at the same time, gathering some fat on his own ribs. Others view him as simply one wjio was born in this coun try, but the Retailer comes forth with the following which is pretty jood^ we think Me ytH* for the government states that the better grades of " leaf brou^ prices ranging in the high fifties while a considerbale portion of low grade leaf brought less than the floor prices and was taken over by the Commodity Credit Corporation ... On Tues day the first sales were held at the new Farmers warehouse. There MJOO pound* was (old accord in g to Mr. Steve Taylor, who waa highly pleased by prices brought by the high quality leaf. This to bacco brought SO to 58 cents but the low grade lagged and the gov ernment purchased 94,000 pounds after the price offered was below the floor. ? Born to Mr. and Mrs. Stacy Bingham at Watauga Hospital a son on December 1 which has been named James Lewis Bingham. Mr. and Mrs. C. B. Angel were Aihner guests Thanksgiving day of Mr. and Mrs. Hale Vance. Irvin Berlin's "White Christmas" has definitely joined the proces sion of Christmas music. Lest we hesitate to admit so recent a crea tion to our inner sanctum of cherished traditions let's see how old some of our Christmas favor ites really are. Dicken's "Christ, mas Carol was written in 1843. Samuel Clement Moore wrote "The Night Before Christmas" in 1822. W. C. Dobson dispatched the first Christmas card in 1846 and the first Christmas tree was set up in 1604. Just One Thing By CARL GOEBCH A latter came in the other day from Miss Mary Greaham of Beau laville, North Carolina, aaking how the expression about "eating crow" originated. I reckon everybody knows the meaning of the term ? Jt meant to retract, or take back something, or change your view point. For example: I lit of people had to eat crow in connection with the recent bond election. Well, I couldn't answer Miss Gresham'a question, a* I called on Mrs. Margaret Price at the State Library to help ma out. She did a lot of hunting around and finally found an item about it in an 1888 issue of the Magazine of American History. It'a a colloquialism which originated in the United States, and here's the story about it. An American crossed the Niagara River and waa caught hunting on the property of an Englishman. The Englishman was mad. The American had Just shot a crow. Pointing to the dead bird, the Englishman ordered the hunter to eat it. I don't know whether the crow was cooked or not, but any way the American was forced to comply. The news of this little episode gained considerable circu lation and the hunter was teased quite a lot. One day, while he waa being kidded about It, someone a*ed him bow he had liked the diah His answer waa: "Well, I managed to eat it, but I can't say that I hanker a'rter it." So that'# the story of bow the expression originated. A friend a f mine used a word in conversation the other day that I bad never heard before ? delight some. Dictionary, however, says that it is O. K. And I remember once when Colonel William Joyner waa ap pearing, before the Appropriationa ? Committee during a aesaion of the General Ataembly, be used an ex (Cession which Is somewhat dif AFTER ANOTHER ferent*from the one I've always heard. A* a general rule, people My: "On the money I make, it la dif ficult to make both ends meet." Bill expressed it this way: "On ^ the money that these people make, it is difficult to make buckle and tongue meet." A friend told me this little rtory on the street the other day. A tourist going through Minne sota met with a alight accident. Unable to find his monkey wrench, he went to a farmhouse and in quired of the Swede owner: "Have you a monkey wrench here?" "Naw," the Swede replied. "My brother bane got a cattle ranch over there, my cousin got a sheep ranch down there; but too darn cold here for monkey ranch." We know that for years you probably have been worrying about how the size of shoes ? 6, 8, 10, 12, or whatever it may be ? has been determined. A friend of ours re cently brought a clipping from a trade Journal which gives the ex planation, so from now on you can quit worrying. Here it h: "Why do we have shoes in IS sizes? Because in 18M Edward II, sn English king, decreed that three barley corns from the center of the e?r, placed end to end, equalled an inch. By eareful measurement it was found that M barley corns, end to end. equalled the length of the loagect foot. Since the longest ' foot measured 13 inches, this foot was eallad sis e IS. and other slaes were graded down from the long est normal foot at the rate of S sices (or S barley corns) to an inch Thus each variation between half-sizes and full sixes represent one-sixth of an In oh ? -the variation between full sites being one-third of an inch. The width of the shoe was determined in units of one sixth of an Inch." G STREET By ROB MITERS i?s Opening., I lights Shine Again The Christmas lights, which had been all but a thing of the past of late years, wore turned on Saturday to illuminate Um Ciwiatmss trees through the business district, and to provide bright accompaniment to the gayest Christmas open ing spectacle the Street has witnessed. The parade with Miss Watauga County, and Hiss North Carolina, with Fred Kirby and with all the professionally built floats, with the bards and the blare and the brightness, provided a grand spectacular, while Good Saint Nicholas, rotund and happy, and ageless, dipped into his bountiful bag and passed the goodies to the children. And the people came by the thousands and it rained, and all the streets of the community were blocked by the bumper to-bumper traffic, in some sections of the town cars were left in private driveways and even on the lawns of house holders, and the pedestrians jostled each other in happy sardine fashion as the rain continued and the darkness came. We've never developed the capacity to estimate a crowd of people. . . We've leaned to the notion that most such ap praisals are little more than starry-eyed guesses, and have little statistical accuracy. . . . But we'd venture the chimney corner opinion that there were more people in Boone last Saturday than have been here at any one time during our stay on the Street. ? Other great crowds we recall came in a day when auto mobiles hadn't contributed vastly to the congestion. . . . Like when the college campus was jammed with folks who'd buggied and walked in for- a big get-together after the Armistice was signed to at least slow world-warring. . . . And when the multitudes came in 1922 for a Fourth of July celebration which didn't jell at all, due to the fact that the day came a-raining, and the deluge never let up . .or again in 1932 when the Bob Reynolds barbecue took place, also in a steady rain on the John F. Hardin farm . . . when a heap of folks were hungry, and "Happy Days" was the theme song, and the folks aimed for the man with the dead legs and the golden voice to lead them Into greener pastures. ... It was a great crowd and there have been other gatherings which brought the people to Boone in prodigious numbers, but we'd venture that for many years to come talk of the multitudes will date back to the 1961 Christmas opening. , And we enjoyed a new happiness that the lights are back. . . We still cling to Santa Claus and the reindeers, right down to the one with the glowing proboscis, and have never lost all the excitement of the fireside at dawn, which crested during the years when the golden haired youngsters messed the place up no end, and the rafters echoed to the childish shrieks. . . . And we always add our voice to those who've been pleading to return to the bright lights and the parade, and the warm-up to the Christmas season. . . . Not that we aim to promote the commercialization of the birthday of the Prince of Peace ? not at all ? hut we think the Baby can be seen easily through the greens and the tinsel, and the colored lights, and in the bright eyes of the little children and in the smiles of those' who are going about their shopping, and in the added warmth of the neighboring, and in the heightening of the Spirit of Christmas, which we've always wished might endure. ? * * * * At Raodm . , No Pad, No Pencil Miss Watauga County, charming and beautiful, enthusi astically acclaimed from her vantage point on a beautiful float. Miss North Carolina follows as the guest of the reigning local beauty queen. We enjoyed A session with Fred Kirby of WBTV fame, who's known locally for Ms promotion of Tweetsie, and as a matter. of fact, the entire area. ... A Charlotte native, Fred and his horse^dlico have buQt up an immense follow ing among the children with their afternoon western show t which is aimed at the juveniles. . . . "I'm always hap$v because it seems I always find myself in such good com pany," philosophizes the cowboy star, "and the only reason I'd like to live to be 300 is that I so dread to leave the little children. ... I love them so much." . . . And give us a man who loves the youngsters, and who esteems horses and the rest of God's creatures, and we'll bet our last rumpled green . (Continued on page three) Uncle Pinkney (MacKnight Syndicate) I see by the papers where a official of the Treasury Depart ment claims it would b? food fer the country if we'd cut ia half the inheritance tax on all eatate worth $10 million or more. He allows as how it would bo a "incentive to frae enterprise." I'm strong in favar of K, Mis ter Editor. I remember hack in IBM when Cal CooUdge come up with a idea called the "flex ible tariff fer helping the little feller. My memory fits a little hazy after 93 year but seems like I recall we got a little relief on such Items a* gooee feathers, paint bwahcs. axe handles and sheep dip. If I recollect right, this is the last time u* little fei lers haa had ai*r reductions Starting at 910 million is a little high up on (ha hog, but H could be the beginning of a trend. By the end of this cen tury the Congress might gtt down to the one-gaHus boys, gtt It so's a farmer or rancher eouM put his cemetery lot and front yard in the Soil Bank and git his fertili ser at coat through the United Nations When T brung these 4*6 tid ings to the feller* at the country store Saturday night moat of 'em took a dim view Of the (UuttiOQ. HIS PALAV ERIN'S Ed Doolittle, fer Instant, claim ed everbody in Washington did ? heap of popping off when the Congress was out of town. It don't mean a thing, allowed Ed, and he said he wouldn't be sup rised, afore them Congressmen git back to Washington, to see Bobby Kennedy issue ? procla mation abolishing poverty. Zeke Grubb said he was special doubt ful of anything that come out of the Treasury Department. He fifgert that any Gurernment agency that has to have a barn yard full of high officials and a pasture fall of clerks to keep track of them cheap dollar* Bint to be trusted on long-range fore cast* at the *10 million level. Speaking of Washington, some of the feller* was wondering If them junketing Congressmen and their wives and kinfolks would git back home in time fer Christ mas. Bug Hookum said he was mighty mad at Elizabeth Taylor fer apologizing to some of them Congressmen when they visited ber studio In Rome. She claimed lb* reaaon she didn't com* out to rest 'am waa becauae ate didn't know tney waa there. Lie, at least, w*s worting, claimed Bug.