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Published Every Thursday By
Record Printing Company
P 0. Bo* 70 Warrenton. N. C 27589
BIGNALL JONES, Editor
Member North Carolina Press Association
ENTERED AS SECOND CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE
IN WARRENTON. NORTH CAROLINA. UNDER THE LAWS OF CONGRESS
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Obligation Of Citizens
Parents of 100 Wake County
school children who are attending
school in nearby South
Granville School in Granville
County have asked that the
Wake County Board of Education
pay the cost of $140 a pupil
which is to be charged by the
Granville Board of Education.
In a recent editorial asking
that Wake County give an
unqualified yes, The Raleigh
Times gave several reasons,
including lower cost and convenience,
why these students
should continue to go to the
South Granville School at Creedmoor.
While most of the
remarks of The Raleigh Times
were addressed to a Wake County
issue, some of the remarks
should be of concern to schools
everywhere.
After stating that the "Wake
school budget this year equals
82% of county revenue that
comes from property tax," the
newspaper adds:
"But support of its public
schools is an obligation that goes
with owning property in any
county, regardless of whether
the property-owner has children
or not, or sends his children to
private schools, county schools
or some other county's schools.
The schools are part of
everyone's investment in the
well-being and future development
of the community where
property lies."
And this is in a nutshell what
we have been trying to say for a
great many years.
Trucks And "Pollution
Most of the large diesel trucks
that ply the highways of North
Carolina appear to be in good
mechanical shape, with good
tires and efficient drivers. Many
of them, perhaps most of them,
have a tendency to exceed the
speed limit. While this may not
create a safety hazard, higher
speeds increase the wear and
tear on the highways.
Naturally, there are some
exceptions to those trucks which
are in good mechanical condition,
which is reflected in carbon
emission. A few days ago while
en route to Durham a large
diesel truck overtook and passed
us as we pursued our 55-milesper-hour
route, and breezed on
down the highway with smoke
pouring from its exhaust pipe at
a rate that made it look like a
smokestack on one of the old
coal-burning locomotives.
This truck was followed by
scores of cars whose owners had
paid quite a bit of money in
added cost and reduced mileage
in order to reduce carbon
emission. If the highway patrol
is permitted to stop cars in poor
mechanical condition, one won
ders why they can't stop trucks
which fail to meet emission
standards and require them to
be taken off the road until their
engines are repaired?
Granted that a downed truck
is expensive to its owner and an
inconvenience to the public it
serves, we question the silkglove
treatment truck drivers
receive. The average motorist
on almost every trip of any
length seed the highway patrol
stopping speeding cars, as they
should. This average motorist
sees truck after truck exceeding
the speed limits, but any arrests
are rare on the highways; and
rarely is a truck stopped in
small towns because of a cut-out
on a muffler.
We would certainly like to see
a little more attention given to
truck violations by our Highway
Patrol. If there is any legitimate
reason why large trucks must be
permitted to open their cut-outs
in small towns the Department
of Transportation should explain
this reason to the public; it
would help improve the image of
the Highway Patrol.
"Dirty Little Secrets"
Southern Pines Pilot
For some time thoughtful people
have been willing to admit that our
criminal justice system is a failure.
It's a system which deals with the
effect and not the cause of crime, and
most of the time the efforts are simply
those of applying a bandaid to a
grievous wound.
Some years ago the Congress passed
legislation which has funneled large
amounts of money into law enforcement
channels. It has improved the lot
of law enforcement officers and
provided them with more tools to do
their jobs, but it has not reduced crime.
In North Carolina the Legislature has
been debating the enactment of more
stringent laws relating to crime-tougher
statutes to put more people in jail
and keep them there longer. Yet this is
the state which even now has a larger
prison population per capita than any
other state in the country, and the
crime rate keeps growing.
Obviously we are not solving the
problems of crime or even making any
progress toward it.
Recently some pertinent comment on
the matter was made by Chief Robert
Di Grazia, the former chief of police of
Boston who now heads the Montgomery
County, Maryland, police, department.
Speaking to fellow police chiefs, he
said:,
"We are not letting the public in on
our era's dirty little secret that those
who commit the crime that worries
citizens most-violent street crime-are,
for y>e most part, the products of
poverty, unemployment, broken
homes, rotten education, drug addiction
and alcoholism and other social
and economic ills about which (law
enforcement officers) can do little, if
anything.
"Rather than speaking up, most of us
stand silent and let politicians get away
with law and order rhetoric that
reinforces the mistaken notion that
(we) can control crime."
In an editorial comment on Chief Di
Grazia's speech, the Charlotte Observer
added, "Our only regret is that he
wasn't addressing the North Carolina
— legislature," —•
Brotherly Fish Story
By BILLY ARTHUR
In The Chapel Hill Newspaper
Here's a story about two brothers
who fished together all the time. One of
the brothers always caught fish, the
other never did. One weekend when
they'd planned a fishing trip, the fishcatching
brother became sick and
stayed home.
"You go anyway," said the sick
brother. "Take my bait and my tackle
and go catch some fish."
The other brother was thrilled. "I'm
gonna catch fish today," he said to
himself. So he fished with his brother's
rod and reel and his bait, but after
three hours had not a single nibble to
show for his efforts.
Then, suddenly, the waters of the
lake parted, and a huge fish stuck up
his head.
"Where's your brother?" the fish
asked.
Mostly Personal
Firemen's Burial
Ritual Is Eloquent
By BIGNALL JONES
»i.N°™ nger do "embera of
the Warrenton City Fire
Department memorize the
words of the Burial Ceremony
of the North Carolina
Volunteer Fire Department
and much of the beauty of its
*ords. J1**® been lost
through its reading by those
who were never trained to
read orally. But still the
picture painted through its
instruction and the eloquence
of its words should not
be permitted to fade away
between the pages of a more
than 50-year-old booklet.
In a copy 0f the
Proceedings of the ThirtySixth
Annual Session of the
North Carolina Volunteer
Fire Association, held at
Farmville, N. C„ in August
1926" I re-read this service,
the requirements of the
dress and march of the
firemen, the words of the
Chaplain and the response
of the firemen, and I was
impressed in my old age as I
was never impressed in my
youth. Thus a copy of this
beautiful burial service
becomes the second part of
a two-part article on the
Warrenton City Firemen. It
reads as follows:
FIREMEN'S RITUAL FUNERAL
CEREMONIES
1.—The department
should assemble in full
uniform at headquarters,
and if the services are to be
held at a private house,
should proceed in a body to
such house. If the services
are to be field in church or
other public place, the body
may be accompanied there
from the house by a
committee (or from six to
twelve) and the balance of
the department march from
headquarters to such church
or other public place.
2.—After the services at
either place are conducted,
the department should form
in two lines outside the door
and remain while the body is
brought out and placed in
the hearse.
3.—The department
should then march in
column of twos or fours immediately
behind the hearse
to the place of burial. If that
distance be too considerable,
they may be transported
in vehicles to the gate of
the place of burial, when the
line should be formed as
above indicated.
*•-The column having arrived
at the foot of the grave
double line will be formed as
before, and the Chaplain, or
some member acting as
such, will take his position
at the head of the grave.
5.—The casket being in
position, all will uncover,
weather permitting, and the
Chaplain will then say or
read:
BROTHERS: — The
solemn occasion of our
assembling together is the
dissolution of the bonds
which united the body with
the spirit. We are born to
die. Dust must return to
dust, and the spirit to God
who gave it. The solemn
words which salute our ears
proclaim that another spirit
has passed from earth to the
great unknown infinity. For
this cause we are assembled
among the habitation of the
dead. Here around us they
peacefully, quietly rest. The
gentle wind may blow
among the trees, the
sunshine may gladden the
earth, the fierce tempest
may around them rage, and
the busy world pass on, yet
they heed not, We are here
shown the uncertainty oi
human life, the CCTtainTy oi
death, the mutuability ol
earthly things, and the vanity
of human pretensions.
Decay and death are written
on every thing that lives.
The cradle and the coffin
appear before us, and
intervening space seems but
a span. Yet it is strange,
notwithstanding the evidence
of mortal fraility that
daily appears to us, that the
sound of the tolling bell will
so often fall upon ears and
we heed not its admonition.
Here, all thoughtless, we
tread upon the green grass
roof of the dark mansion
whose chambers we must
sooner or later occupy; for
we know not, how soon the
time will come for you and
me to go hence and b<
known no more forever.
6.—The casket will then be
lowered and the Chaplain
will then continue:
Brother, we lay thee down
to rest. We loved thee here,
and our remembrance of
thee shall be pleasant.
Thou may'st have had thy
faults, and who of us hath
not? But over them we cast
the veil of Charity and Love,
and while we mourn our
loss, we will try to emulate
thy virtues. Let us strive to
live so that when we are
called away from this
terrestial scene we may be
prepared to give a good
account of ourselves before
the Throne of the Great
Chief before whom we all
must appear. We now commit
the body of our deceased
brother to the grave. "Earth
to earth (the sexton will
here go through the usual
ceremony of dropping
earth), ashes to ashes, dust
to dust," hopefully looking i
to a Joyful reunion with him
in that peaceful abode
beyond life's troubled
dream, where separation
and death are no more.
7.—He shall then continue:
Chaplain: I am the
resurrection and the life,
said the Lord. He that
believeth in me, though he
were dead, yet shall he live.
Brethren: Blessed is the
man who Thou chasteneth
and teacheth him out of Thy
Laws.
Chaplain: I know that my
Redeemer liveth, and that
He shall stand at the latter
days upon the earth; and
though after my skin worms
destroy my body, yet in my
flesh I shall see God, whom I
shall see for myself and
mine eyes shall behold him
and not another.
Brethren: My days are
like a shadow that declineth,
and I am withered like
grass.
Chaplain: Man born of
woman is of a few days,
filled with trouble; he
cometh forth like a flower
and is cut down; he fleeth
also as a shadow and continueth
not.
Brethren: Cast thy burdens
upon the Lord for He
will sustain thee. His anger
endureth for a night; but joy
cometh in the morning.
Chaplain: Let us pray; 0
god, the protector of all who
trust in thee, without whom
nothing is strong, nothing is
holy; increase and multiply
thy mercy, that Thou, being
our ruler and guide, we may
pass through things temporal,
that we finally lose
not the things eternal. Give
unto us an increase of
charity and brotherly love.
Keep, we beseech Thee, 0
Lord, our organization with
Thy perpetual mercy; let
Thy continual pity cleanse
and defend us; and because
we cannot continue in safety
without Thy succor, preserve
us evermore by Thy
help and goodness, and unto
Thee we shall render praise
forever. Amen.
f.—If there shall be any
further service, the department
shall remain at
attention to the close, when
the line shall be reformed
for return as before.
A CORRECTION
In this column last week it
was incorrectly stated that
A. S. Johnson preceeded
McCarroll Alston as Fire
Chief of the Warrenton Fire
Company. Alston followed
Jimmie Roberts.
Firemen Seeking
Homes To Bum
The Warrenton Rural Fire
Department is searching for
abandoned homes in Warren
County which are no longer
fit for human habitation. Lt.
Walter Gardner said the
homes will be used for
training purposes to improve
the efficiency of the
rural fire department.
, Safety measures will be
taken by the fire company to
protect any enclosures that
may be around some of the
buildings to be burned,
Gardner said.
Anyone that has such a
building on his or her
property should contact
Gardner at 257-3104 from 9-5
p. m.