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UBR^ Of owrosoNCOUiffi BEASLEY’S FARIVI and HOME WEEKLY Volume 11. Charlotte, N. C., Thursday, September 18,1941 Number 38. TO HAVE ITS EAR TO THE GROUND Listening, Thinking, Waiting and Preparing the Way For Mak ing Up Its Mind on Things READY TO ACCEPT CHANGE WHY DEFENSE CAN NO LONGER BE PASSIVE . . . Roosevelt Foreign Policy Is The Historic American One (AN EDITORIAL) I never knew a time, says Richard L. Strout in the Christian Science Monitor, when people would talk more willingly and whole-heartedly about public affairs. Start a discus sion in the back of a bus, or in a day coach, or in a parlor car, and every body wants tojoin in. And it is sur prising how few dogmatists there are. Some people want to lay down the law. But most people are curious ^ about what other people think. It re flects the national mood. America is making up its mind. • You would be surprised how many talks on war these days wind up in discussing the League of Nations. And maybe you would be surprised, too, on domestic matters, at how many people are mulling over the new relationship of Washington to their own private affairs. There is another thing. America is waiting. You get the sense of it evr erywhere. It is like being in a room with a ticking parcel that may be a time bomb. America has seen its in dustrial life transformed, its sons taken to camp, its evex'y-day life al tered. Silk stockings, and aluminum, and gasoline, and jobs. And now there is suspense. Perhaps the talk of lowered morale is because things drag On so. What will President Roosevelt do? Will he take us in? What of Congress? One or two things strike a Wash ington observer forcibly. It seems to be taken for granted that Mr. Roose velt can “take us in” if he wants to. Not very much is said about Con gress. Congress always tends to lose importance in national emergencies. Then another thing, the “taking us in” is interpreted nearly always in terms of 1917. People instinctively think of war as likely to be like that of the last war, with an expeditionary force in Europe. Perhaps that shows the simplicity of people who think his tory always repeats itself. Perhaps it is prescience. I don’t know, though it is hard for me to think of an A. E. F, Jn 1917 terms today, and there was very little talk of it, when I left Washington. But that is what war means to most peoflle who argue about it today over America in cars and buses and on hotel porches. Another thing is the different mood today from 1917. There was a feel ing of brash self-confidence then. I remember it. People hated the Ger mans. They wanted to beat them. And they did join the war, and did lick the Kaiser, and didn’t bother with Woodrow Wilson’s statement after wards that to reject the League of Nations would break the heart of mankind. What a laughl .He was a pedantic, strait-laced professor. He was a joke. Having- licked the Kaiser and ended all wars America shrugged off the League and started an excess of “Normalcy.” Am'erica Is Now Older Well, today America is older. For the first time in its history it feels anxiety over Democracy. Even now most people don’t think there is much danger from outright invasion, per haps. But how about these dreadful new fissures right at home? People who owe allegiance to Moscow rather than Washington; other people who furtively tell friends they don’t like Jew's, themselves, and who declare that Hitler has solved the trade un ion problem ? These are new matters, and only a few of them. Everything is so complicated these days com pared with simple, care-free 1918! Underlying it all is a grimly ironic note. Who was the fool back there after the World War, Wilson with his fantast’c League, or the hard- headed cynics who rejected tiie fan tasy? How did we come to reject the League, anyway? People ask that in discussions these days. Maybe some thing of that sort might be a good thing after all, they say. That is an idea a good many people come to in their talks these days. Then again, while-people are re-op ening old questions of 1918, and watching' Europe, thnigs are happen ing right here at home. I had nine hours to spare at Dallas and went to the manager of the big telephone building. I asked for the Dallas telephone book of December, 1932, and turned to “United States Government.” I wanted to tesf; how fnany phones the Fedei’al Govern ment had in those days. Well, there was a modest array of entries. Some of them revived old memories like , “Prohibition-Deputy Administrator.” But on the whole there were relative ly few extensions of the Federal gov ernment in the city. .Then I asked for the latest direc tory, “Summer, 1941.” I turned to “United Statese Government.” What a difference! Columns of en tries. The list was twice as long, in smaller print. In 1932 the Depart ment of Agriculture needed only three phones; now it has eight. The Com merce Department with Herbert Hoover as President had one phone. Now it has five. Others have jumped in proportion. And in addition there are dozens of new alphabetical agen cies. The increase is by no means ac counted for by the sizeable growth of Dallas itself. You can make the same telephone test, if you like, in your own city. Where is Washington’s gi’owth taking America? I find people con- —- MORE ON PAGE TWO When the French government and the French chamber refused to provide the money to pay cer tain American claims which tliey had acknowledged, the matter dragged along for years. Final ly came the moment when the situation could no longer be ig nored. Andrew Jackson had made representations to the French and nothing happened. President Jackson ordered the navy ready for sea duty and be gan to prepare a message to con gress telling them what he had done. When the message got to congress the people said, “Hur rah for Jackson!” But the po litical capital makers started their efforts, a la Nye and Wheel er. But, says Marquis James, “a Massachusetts politician, groom ing Webster for 1836, woefully admitted that in the event of war the Whigs would have to support the President because he was right. Despite a minor strain of criticism, Old Hickory had the country with him. His touch had changed an obscure question, with which other presidents had fumbled in the dark, into a pop ular national issue.” This was neither bluff nor bluster. It was the determination of a clear-seeing President to car ry out a foreign policy which has always been characteristic of this country—to live up to our own treaties and require other na tions to live up to theirs; to grant all the rights of other nations while demanding and securing our own. Andrew Jackson set us anoth er example which it may now be well to remember. He never lost a battle, though all his wars were defensive, and he won by making his defense an offense. He never waited to be struck, he struck himself. “Has America a foreign pol icy, and if so, what is it?” we have heard it asked. America has had a foreign policy on one sub ject ever since the beginning ot the government—freedom of the seas. It has had a foreign policy on another subject for a hun dred and twenty-five years, the Monroe Doctrine. It has had a foreign policy on another subject ever since the question first arose, the Open Door in China. These are the three things in our foreign policy which President Roosevelt has, like Andrew Jack son, ordered the navy to be ready to uphold. Circumstances have changed, methods of war have changed, weapons have changed, but these policies have not changed. A :^rightened and bewildered con gress sought to give away our position directly on some of these important principles and indi rectly on others, by passing a neutrality act, but circumstances have about beataen the memory of it out of the minds of Amer icans. The English haters like Lindbergh, the Roosevelt haters like Wheeler, and the plain fumb- lers like Mr. Hoover, grumbling Jill the time about our support and friendship for England for get that it was this very friend ship and the support by Eng land, which enabled us to estab lish and maintain the Monroe doctrine. It was Jefferson him self who said that we must marry ourselves to the British fleet. It was the British government when sounded by Germany on the ques tion of interferring with us in MORE ON PAGE TWO DISTRICT TEACHERS MEET A convention crammed with meet ings, luncheons and suppers, speech es, and the exchange of professional viewpoints has been planned for the 19th annual meeting of the South Piedmont District Teachers’ associa tion here on September 26. Two general sessions in the Char lotte armory, one at 1 a. m., the oth er at 8 p. m., will be open to all mem bers of the association. Throughout the mominp" and the afternoon. Cen tral high school will be the scene of 26 departmental conferences for teachers from the 15-county district. Committees and departments will also hold seven luncheon and supper meet ings at various hotels and restaur ants in the city. Attending the convention will be well over 1,000 teachers whose schools will be closed on that day to permit them to attend the convention here. Dr. Price H. Gwynn, Davidson pro fessor of education, president of the district, will preside at the general morning session. Speakers listed for that meeting and their subjects are: Dr. Frank P. Graham, president of the University of North Carolina, “‘Federal Aid for Public Education,” and Dr. W. S. Taylor, dean of the col lege of education at the University of Kentucky, “Old World Education Versus New.” Superintendent H. P. Harding of Charlotte will welcome the delegates, and committee reports will be heard. for the year was in enrollment in W. M. U., 2,316, a loss of 51 from the previous year. Statistician Green was complimented by the association on the compilation of the statistics, the members standing in his honor. DAVIDSON PRESIDENT Historic Davidson College will in augurate its new president. Dr. John R. Cunningham, at formal exrecises to be held on Saturday morning, Oct. 18. The induction of the new president as successor to Dr. Walter L. Lingle will be in the presence of a distin guished assemblage of educators of the nation, public officials, alumni, and friends of the venerable Presby terian institution., Preceding the inauguration on Sat urday will be the inaugural dinner Friday night in the banquet hall of Chambers building, with Professor Theodore Meyer Greene of Princeton University the speaker. Following the dinner the president’s reception will be held at the home of Dr. Cunning ham and Mrs. Cunningham. Governor J. M. Broughton will speak at the annual homecoming luncheon that follows the inaugura tion, and that afternoon at 2:30 the Davidson Wildcats will meet the V. P. I. football team in the annual home - coming game on Richardson field. BAPTIST ASSOCIATION Thfe Mecklenburg Baptist Associa tion, composed of 35 churches, had its annual meeting at the Southside church Tuesday and Wednesday. Speakers for the closing day were A. M. Huggins of Raleigh, state sec retary of missions, and Rev. Jacob Gartenhaus of Atlanta, missionary to the Jewish people. The present of ficers were re-elected for another year. The officers who will serve the as sociation for the second year are Rev. W. Walter Jones, moderator; J. L. Williams, vice moderator; P. S. Vann, clerk-treasurer; Rev. C. O. Green of Pineville, statistician; Rev. E. T. Par ham, Biblical Recorder representative; and E. C. Lovell, Sunday school sup erintendent. Jack Petty of Charlotte was elected to succeed E. P. Russell, in school this year at Wake Forest, as B. T. U. director. The election of the Woman’s Missionary union direc tor will be held later. The statistical report for the year as compiled by Rev. C. 0. Green from reports of the 35 churches in the association showed an increase in all departments. Total membership for 1941, was listed at 14,364, an increase of 539 over 1940; Sunday school en rollment, 13,259, a gain of 473. B. T. U. enrollment, 2,479, a gain of 576. The money given to all causes totaled $225,751, for 1941, a gain of $23,096 over 1940; gifts to missions, includ ing orphanage, $42,682, a gain of $10,028 over last year. Gifts from the woman’s work for 1941 were 16,873, a gain of $694- The one loss repox’ted LOSES LIFE, SAVES SON Joseph A. McGinnis of Charlotte, a lineman for the Southern Bell Telephone Company, was drowned in Lake Murray near Columbia, Sunday. But he saved the life of his son, Jim mie, four years old. The father was wading in the lake with the child on his shoulder. Suddenly he stepped into a deep hole from which he could not extract himself. He held his son aloft at arms length till help came and saved the boy. The father was dead when they pulled him out of the hole. TWELVE TO 15 YEARS Chester Summers, 20-year-old Ne gro boy who killed Grady Wigfall, another darkey, because the latter, he said, had gotten him out of his job, submitted to murder in the second degree in Judge Hamilton’s superior court Monday, and was given from 12 to 15 years in prison. SOLDIERS TO THE FAIR The Southern States Fair is mak ing special effort to attract at tendance of the soldiers and will give a reduced rate. The army officials approve the effort as a part of the program for entertainment of the air- base people stationed here as well as for the many soldiers that will be here as visitors while manuevers are going on. But the army does not ap prove a proposed carnival on the Wilkinson Boulevard. Neither do the people living in that section and it is possible that the county commis sioners disapprove it so much that they will seek to prevent the show by refusing license, if the State law permits them to do so. Human Interestl^^^^ Witches |DRIVING IN COLD Rode, Mr. Hoover Staked Out' WEATHER THOSE DAYS WAS HARD IN WALKS OLD CITIZEN The Oldest Citizen, something of a bore, wj! !ked into the newspaper of fice, and said, as reported by the At lanta Journal, “I see they got a bad case of morale in the army camps. Seems t le soldier boys ain’t enjoy ing then elvese, and so they are com plaining. “Personally, I’m in sympathy with the draftees. Others may feiel differ ent. Other folks might say ‘Look at Valley Fcrge—did Washington’s men complain?’ Well, my guess is that they did. I’ll bet Lee’s soldiers belly ached, and i^iat the Light Brigade griped manfully. Complaining is an enlisted man’s chief recreation, U. S. 0. or no U. S. O. “Like KS not the draftees have cause to complain. Everybody admits mobilization hasn’t been mechanically perfect. You’d need a Hitler-run country t get a million boys in uni form witliout a slip-up. Now Hitler would be more efficien.t If he had too many uni/orms he’d call up another batch of r 'cruits; if he had more men than uniforms he’d liquidate the sur plus. That way a country can always be perfect COMPLAINING AND WHISTLING “Whai I mean is complaining comes n;.tural to an enlisted man. He gives up lots of individual rights when he changes over from a civilian to a soldier. Sol diering ain’t a forty-hour-a-week job; it’s full time, like the'min istry. You can’t expect a man who has always managed or mis managed his private affairs to take right off’ to operating as one of a column of squads. No body else can put a man’s hat on right for him or tell him when he’s ready for bed. “So long as our men are com plaining healthily I’m not wor ried. I’ll get anxious when they start whistling. Whistling is the world’s most overrated activity. Nobody enjoys it, not even the fellow who’s whistling, and ev erybody else in hearing hates it. “A man whistling is advertising that his mind is taking time off from functioning. It’s a primitive form of radio-listening. A ' complaining nia-ti, on- the other hand, wants something better and has an i ’'“a he might iret it. He’s a hopeful itnan.” THEY ARE SHOCKED “The things that interest me,” he proceeded before anybody could es cape, “is how the draftees were shocked to find themselves doing something they didn’t like. I can un derstand exactly how they feel. It’s a result of their upbringing. For a long time we’ve been teaching chil dren that work is something they’ve got to love before it’s worth doing, j “Now that seems to me a wicked notion to plant in the minds of the J young. To m.e .there’s something downright adulterous about loving work. To my way of thinking, there ain’t one job in a hundred that’s lov able. Most work is barely tolerable. Plenty of it is plain obnoxious. Yet people go on doing un-tasty jobs. Why ? Because they don’t expect to love them. What they love is the sat isfaction, the assurance, the sense of accomplishment, the knowledge of having done a man’s share, and the pay-check. We used to know an old man whom the witches rode. They rode him at night. One night they came, bridled and saddled him, roide him off several miles in the woods and left him hitched to a limb. We know this is true because the old man himself told us EO. Mr. Hoove'r, who spoke again the other night on what should be our foreign policy, is ridden by a witch. That witch so turns and twists bis mind that he can never agree with anything that his successor in office thinks or does. This is what leaves him standing out on a limb every time he makes a public address. Mr. Hoover wants to do the right thing by bis country and he does not want to see a Hitler triumph. But to accomplish these two considerations h.e can never make buckle and tongue m.eet. Mr. Hoover wants us to stay at home, mind our own business, and wait for Hitler to be downed by somebody else, when, having pre served all our own strength, we will be in good shape to aid the world. Then he says, “We have proved by bitter experience that, it is a futility for us to try to im pose freedom and justice upon the world by war.” We have never tried to do any such thing. We tried to stop the Kaiser and he was stopped. And then we made an effort to help the world in about the same way Mr. Hoover thinks we should try again, and it failed, because Hitler took up where the Kaiser laid down, the mad ambition to control the world by force. Mr. Hoover also said that “If we prepare we cannot be Invaded nor our economic life dangerous ly impaired.” There the old witch gave the Hoover mind a consid erable twist, for our economic life is already greatly disturbed and must be for years whether Hitler wins or loses, but with his win ning our economic life can never resume its normal way, for we will have to become as militaris tic as Germany. Mr. Roosevelt said of such assertion that it is silly to suppose that the free way of life in the United States could be preserved surrounded by a world controlled by dictators. And Mr. Hoover just couldn’t ad mit that the President is right. H§ had to find a substitute, and that is why he has worked \int his bunglesome ideas about our at titude towards Hitler. LEGION ENDORSES FOREIGN POLICY Defeat of Hitler the One Thing Now Before Us, Says the National Organization TAKE JOB BY THROAT “I’ve been working over 50 years and I ain’t loved any of it. Most of it I hated. Work inter feres with mankind’s instinct for taking a nap. But unlike modem youth I wasn’t expecting a job to be an affaire de coeur. I tackled work like it was a mortal enemy, the way a starving man goes after a hungry bear. Either the bear eats him or he eats the bear. A man may love bear steak, but he ain’t expected to idolize it on the paw. “The way to do a job of work, whether it’s soldiering or raising poultry, is to take it by the throat and choke it into insensibility. Make it holler uncle. Make it pay. Work is a hardship, like cold weather. You can’t appreciate a snow scene unless you’re clothed to ward off the temperature, and you can’t enjoy the beauty of labor until you’re protected against its teeth and claws.” ALL FOR ICE CREAM The Oldest Citizen sighed, “I used to think when I was a child that if I ever made any money I’d spend it all on ice cream. Most young folks’ judgment is just about as reliable as that when they choose their life work. How can a 16-year-old know what he’s going to like when he’s 40? “Folks say you ought to work at something you like. Well, I don’t know. But if I’ve got any special pleasures I like to keep them spe cial. The surest way to corrupt a natural taste is to'commercialize it. I don’t want to market my special delights. “I’ll bet Jascha Heifetz the fiddler gets awful tired of ‘The Flight of the Bumble Bee,’ but I expect he still relishes the applause of folks who still find it refreshing. And I’ll bet Heifetz would like slaughtering cat tle, or military maneuvers, if he did that as well, and earned the admira tion, he finds with a fiddle.” YOUNG REPUBLICANS The Young Republicans of the county met Tuesday night and laid plans in preparation for the Republi can rally which is to be held here on October 25th, at which time Republi can Leader Joseph Martin is to be the head line speaker. Officers of the I club will be elected at the next meet- i ing, which is to be held on October '16th. In session in Milwaukee, the American Legion on Wednesday en dorsed the foreign policy of Presi dent Roosevelt, called for a repeal of the neutrality act, removal of ban on sending soldiers out of the country, and said that defense of our country requires an aggressive policy. The delegates swept aside a minor ity report which sought to forbid the national administration from giving lend-lease aid to Soviet Russia. A roll call vote—first of the convention —showed a count of 874 to 604 in favor of tabling the report. The defeated minority report of the foreign relations committee re solved: “That the American Legion reiterate its oft-stated position on Communism and definitely go on rec ord as opposing aid to Russia under the lease-lend act.” The defeat of Adolf Hitler is “our present national objective,” the con vention (decided, and then voted a demand that “if fighting is necessai’y to defend the United States, we in sist on being prepared to do the fight ing outside of the United States.” The first fireworks of the day came when the foreign relations committee brought forward a three-point pro gram stating; “We approve and indorse the for eign policy of the President and the Congress; “We urge the immediate repeal of the so-called neutrality act; “We urge all Americans to join us in an united, wholehearted, and un swerving support of our govern ment’s foreign policy: to the end that the Americari way of life may sur vive in a world' of free men.” Mingled shouts for and against were heard throughout the spacious auditorium. There was bitter com ment about “Bloody Joe” and the Communists. On the other side, there were declarations that the fight against Adolf Hitler was an Ameri can fight and that, while America need not approve of Communism, it was purely a matter of good strat egy to help Russia fight the Nazis. “We’ll t.ake care of the Communi- ists in this country when the proper time comes,” one delegate shouted. The foreign relations committee report was adopted by a voice vote after the minority’s resolution was laid on the table. On national defense, the convention voted a 20-point program on general aspects of national defense, adopted six points dealing with the army, 12 concerning the navy, seven bearing on aeronautics, and five relating to the merchant marine. “Our present national objective is the defeat of Hitler and what he stands for, and all diverting contro- veries • should be subordinated to the main objective,” the defense commit tee asserted. “We appeal for unity on this na tional objective.” The basic elements of national de fense, the convention said, were: “(a) The ability to apply any frac tion or all of our manpower and war industrial resources promptly and ef ficiently—^by universal military train ing and Federal regulation of war supply agencies. “(b) The ability to carry war, when unavoidable, to our enemy, and thus prevent him from bringing war to us. This ability will require remov al of all geographical limitation on movement of forces and adequate provision for corresponding plans and material. “(c) Our great potential bulwarks are the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. These oceans will be our greatest as sets or worst liabilities, according to our strength or weakness therein. They represent the base of our world strategy.” This declaration was followed im mediately by one to the effect that the Legion wants America strong enough to meet any possible- attack before it arrives and to turn an en emy back “so that our Tiomes remain intact and our families secure.” SHOOT AT SIGHT POLICY IN FORCE Tuesday the Navy Began Its Purpose of Delivering Lend Lease Goods to Iceland The American navy-is now convoy ing British-bound cargo vessels across the North Atlantic for delivery in Iceland, where they will be turned over to British shipping. It is this. broad stretch of the North Atlantic in which the navy will shoot at sight any German and Italian submarines or surface raiders. American warships and accom panying aircraft are now sheltering the ships of all Allied flags from the sliores of the United States to the waters adjacent to Iceland and are thereby adding the naval power of America to that of the British in the crucial Battle of the Atlantic. In anothex’ move extending Amer ican aid to Germany’s enemies on ad ditional battlefronts, the state de partment announced that American vessels may carry arms, munitions and passengers to heretofore prohib ited ai'eas of the out-spread British Empire. Exercising executive discretion vested in the President by the law it self Mr. Roosevelt has thus acted to reduce the restrictions of the Neu trality Act perhaps as a forerunner to its complete repeal. Axis Reaction Not Known Official Axis reaction to the use of the Navy to drive German and Italian raiders from 2,800 miles of Britain’s Atlantic supply line and thereby to relieve British naval power for vig orous use elsewhere is neither united in policy nor definite in what Ger many proposes to do. Tokyo is clearly stepping out of line from the three-power Axis front, and an authorized spokesman of the Japanese government plaits to make no further representations against the shipment of United States oil to Russia via Vladivostok, at least pending developments in current Jap- anese-American discussions. Berlin takes its feelings out on Frank Knox, Secretary of the Navy, for his speech before the American Legion announcing that the “shoot- on-sight” order to the Navy is now in effect. But the Berlin comment, which runs on at length, is seen here as a purely propaganda reply because it deals not with the action which the United States Government has initiated but rather seeks again to influence American public opinion by accusing the President of concealing policy and then letting Mr. Knox dis close it. Gayda Warns of Consequencese Rome, as usual, is the most trucu lent. Virginio Gayda, Mussolini’s edi torialist, sees the Axis—though per haps Italy may not be in the middle of the fighting itself, — as promptly confronting the United States with War and announces in advance that America will be to blame for any thing that happens. Preparing for the greatest effort the United States Nacy has ever made, the Navy Department announc ed that it has contracted for a total of 2,831 ships, every single vessel authorized by law, under the $7,234,- 262,178 program calling for “creation- of the greatest array of fighting ships under one flag the world has ever seen.” Also, under the new relaxation of the neutrality provisions, American merchant ships will shortly step up the supply of defense aid direct to all parts of the British Empire other than the United Kingdom, India, Aus tralia, Canada, New Zealand and the Union of South Africa. * Opens Up Nw Ports The opening up of new ports to which American merchantmen can carry lend-lea^e supplies as well as general cargoes automatically ex tends the areas of water over which the United States has declared it will enforce the freedom of the seas. Thus according to the State De partment announcement American ships may now carry arms and mu nitions to such British colonies as Kenya Colony, and British Samoli- land; British West Africa, the Anglo- MORE ON PAGE THREE Capt, Ardrov Doubled His Socks, Shirts, Pants and Other Gar ments and Then Nearly Froze NEVER FORGOT PREACHERS By H. E. C. (RED BUCK) BRYANT Ardrey diary for 1883: “Provisions more abundant than since the war. and people are in good condition for farming this year, though money is scarce, and cotton low, 9 1 2 cents for the best. “More mules coming to this country than I have ever seen. “Mr. Mack L. Davis and family leaves us for Raleigh. “Mr. T. E. Stephenson and family leaves us for South Carolina. “Big George Ardrey (colored) and family moved to Dr. Mcllwaine’s. “Mr. J. P. Doster and family moved to Cousin Eld Russell’s place. “Mrs. Hood and family moved to the M. L. Davis place.” In my boyhood days McAlpine creek hill, between Harrison church and Pineville, on the Charlotte-Lancaster road, was a night-mare to farmers, for they had to load their wagons to make that hill; if they put on too much guano or other heavy material their teams could not climb it. As a county commissioner Captain Ardrey tried to lessen the risk of stalling in that strenuous- pull. February 15, 1883, he wrote: “1 went to Pineville; Mack Davis with us.” Two days later he said: “Comri^enc- ed working the I'oad and filling up the hollow of McAlpine’s creek hill; we hauled about 300 loads of rock and dirt on my plan.” February 28, “Working the road— Mr. James A. Kerr, overseer, with 30 hands and six wagons the first two days, and 46 hands and five wagons the second and third days.” March 1: “Too wet to plow; working the road again; 75 hands on that job.” Today, one would not realize that such a hill existed, and automobiles can go a mile a minute over it. That Capt. Ardrey had time for church work, amusements, public ser vice and keeping an elaborate and in teresting diary while he conducted his successful and ever-increasing farm operations is clearly shown by what he wrote from day to day. He was an all-round good citizen. March, 1883: “Went to preaching at Harrisons; a good audience.” March 5: “To Charlotte to a meet ing of the county commissioners. March 6, raining all day and night. I went to hear Dr. T. DeWitt Talmadge, preacher of Brooklyn, New York, lec ture on “The Bright Side of Things.” He said he was always glad to meet one of these pleasant, genial South ern audiences, and he wanted all who heard him to come up North to hia home, but not all at once. He out lined the lecture, mentioning stories told.” April 3: “In Charlotte; it cleared off. Saw Tom Thumb.” Tom Thumb was a dwarf that P. T. Barnum, the circus magnate, and ge nius discovei’ed and exhibited. Tpyical notes read: “April 7, we have not plowed any this week, and scarcely any for the past two weeks. Everybody complaining at the late ness of spring. No planting yet and not more than half the manure in. April 10, Farmers very impatient on account of the wet weather. No work doing. April 11, I went to Pineville, and bought a box of bacon, a barrel of molasses, and four sacks of flour. “Brother Joe and family spent the day with us—we went bird hunting. I went to set up with Mr. and Mrs. Sizer; they are very sick. April 12. I .went to see Mr. and Mrs. Sizer, they are a little better. April 13, commenc ed plowing again; still a little too wet. Wheat, oats and clover look well, pros pects good. April . 4, Mr. Sizer died; he was 84 years old, the oldest man in the community. April 15, Mr. Sizer’s funeral; large attendance; no preach ing—Brother Shell =iick. April ’6. too wet to plow. April 18, commenced planting corn, nearly a month later than usual. April 21, busy plowing; we have plowed about four days in three weeks. Lark Robinson cam'’ t*' see us. April 23, raining very hard , the creeks higher than for severa years; the season is twp weeks latei than usual.” When one leaves the South and takes up an abode elsewhere he misses a great deal he has been used to. Once I spent months in Montana, and never heard a good corner-store story while there. Reading Captain Ardrey’s diary takes me back to Providence township, Mecklenburg county. North Carolina. For instance. May 5, 1883, he wrote: “I am finishing planting cotton, plant ed our watermelons and goobers.” I had not met my old childhood friend—goobers— in many a year. Another old-timer is “exhibition”— nowadays, “commencement.” May 11: “Mr. Shirley’s school exhi bition. raining in the morning, a gloo my looking day. but it faired off at^ noon, and we had a good time. The exercises were, fine, and a bountiful dinner—everything pleasant. “Rosser Wolfe aid wife with us. Buddie (William) took the first prize MORE ON VAGE FOUR
Beasley’s Farm and Home Weekly (Charlotte, N.C.)
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Sept. 18, 1941, edition 1
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