Page Two
THE PILOT—Southern Pines. North Carolina
FRIDAY. JUNE 13. 1952
THE PILOT
Published Each
Water Safety
No. 8—^Do You Know Your Old Southern Pines?
d Each Friday by
THE PILOT. INCORPORATED
Southern Pines, North Carolina
1941—JAMES BOYD, Publisher—1944
Editor
Asst. Editor
KATHARINE feOYD
VALERBE NICHOLSON ....
DAN S. RAY General Manager
C. G. COUNCIL . Advertisuxg
Subscription Rates:
One Year $4.00 0 Months $2.00 3 Months $1J)0
Entered at the Postoffice at Southern Pines, N. Cw
as second class mail matter
Member National Editorial Association and
N. C. Press Association
“In taking over The Pilot no changes are con
templated. We will try to keep this a good paper.
We will try to make a little money for all con
cerned. Where there seems to be an occasion to
use our influence for the public good we will try
to do it. And we will treat everybody alike.”
—James Boyd, May 23, 1941.
A County Need
It’s budget time these days in Moore County.
The county commissioners are working overtime
taking up one need after another, studying the
details, and stacking it up in. the pile of Things
To Be Done,—if ... On the other pile are the
“ifs”, the listing of revenue due the county from
taxes, from state or federal subsidies and all
other sources.
In the job the board has of balancing the
need against the funds available, it is to be
hoped that consideration will be given, among
other pressing calls, to the case of the County
Home.
For a good long time, this matter has present
ed itself as something that ought to be tackled.
It has been under consideration by the board
and a good deal of investigation has been made
as to just what ought' to be done. Solutions pro
posed have varied, but there has been little
doubt anywhere that another plan to the one
now in existence is badly needed. For, one
thing, the present home, run as it is for so few
inmates, and as a rather large farming opera
tion, cannot be considered satisfactory. Costs
are beyond all reason, running to as high as $70
per inmate per month. Sick and bedridden pa
tients are placed there, with no nursing care
available; there is no attempt at recreation or
rehabilitation.
County Homes are being eliminated in the
state program: they are considered expensive,
antiquated and unsuccessful in the proper care
of the indigent aged. In their place, privately-
run convalescent homes are being established as
fast as possible. This appears to be the solution
here, anc. it is to< be hoped it can be arranged
for in the county budget now under considera
tion.
To Think Anew
“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate
for the stormy present. The occasion is piled
high with difficulty and we must rise to the
occasion. As our case is new, we must think
anew and act anew.” ,
These words, spoken by Abraham Lincoln in
the midst of the crisis of internal war, are ap
plicable to our situation today. They are, in ef
fect, on the lips of every thoughtful and con
scientious civic and military leader. Each makes
his fervent appeal to the American people: the
problems of today are unlike any we have faced
before, we must learn to think anew and a^t
anew, and we must learn fast.
Judge Wlilliam O. Douglas, coming back from
his third summer spent travelling in the Mid
dle East, says that we are making bad mistakes
there, and largely because of too great reliance
on the old ways of thinking and acting. We tend
to judge people by their standards of living,
calling them “backw^d” if it differs greatly
from our own. Largely ignorant of their history
and culture, passing over the centuries in which
these nations have existed under tryannical
and oppressive rule, we reproach them because
they have too few bathtubs and are not demo
cratic.
In our almost exclusive concentration with
the job of fighting communism, we are letting
our natural American haste and impatience push
us into backing unpopular, repressive regimes
because they are in power and can, as we im
agine, “get things done.” We overlook the hu
man problems, the aspirations of the people,
which are, after aU, what counts. For political
alliances of an enduring nature, such as we
must secure, will be built not on the power of
guns and dollars, but on understanding and mu
tual respect: :or, as Judge Douglas puts it, “on
affection.” Furthermore, the reactionary regimes
we so often have supported have been the very
ones most responsible for the low standards of
living we deplore. The people know that: they
cannot understand our attitude and deeply re
sent it.
This situation is shown in sharp degree right
now. Our people in Korea have backed the Rhee
government from the start, but finally, last
week. General Clark spoke out against it. The
political situation has grown so bad, the dislike
of the South Koreans for Rhee and their rest
lessness under the support given him by the
United States has grown so acute that General
Clark had to tell President Rhee to stop all
political activity. The unity of oior cause was
suffering.
By not placing our reliance on the liberal ele
ments who would educate their people toward
democracy, we are, according to all who have
seen these lands at first hand, missing the great
est opportunity that has come to this, perhaps
to any, nation. By failing to think and act anew,
we are gravely risking losing the fight against
communism in the East and are letting fall the
torch of true human progress.
One of the best home service efforts that the
Red Cross carries out is its safety program: the
lessons in swimming and life-saving that are
given free to all who will take them. Every
summer for the last five years this campaign
for safety has been held, resulting in the equip-
ing of a great many people, not only to swim
and save themselves, in the event of danger
from drowning but to save others as well.
This is a most worthwhile service. Each
spring, as warm weather brings the urge to go
swimming and boating, wre start reading of
drowning accidents. People who can’t swim go
in over their heads, those who can are dragged
down v'ith them because they don’t know the
safe way of rescuing the drowning. When they
are finally brought ashore, too often ignorance
of how to administer artificial respiration, and
the panic that ignorance brings, results in need
less fatalities.
There is hardly a person, we imagine, who
could not, from his own experience, recall a
close call or some fatality in his personal circle
of family or friends, happenings that need not
have occurred had those involved been better
equipped to cope with the danger that any
dealings with this trickiest of elements involves.
For, with all the publicity given drowning acci
dents and the natural caution which it ought to
bring, people still take chances when it comes
to going either in or on the water: they go out
over their depths, they venture forth in unsea-
worthy craft, driven by some wild urge for ad
venture, and capsize themselves and whoever
may be with them. The sea, rivers and lakes
and pools seem to present a compelling tempta
tion to adventure, made positively lunatic when
the participants, as is so often the case, can’t
swim. We are a crazily adventurous people, but
surely the adventures of the non-swimming
public are the craziest of all.
This is the sort of thing that the Red Cross,
through its swimming and life-saving program,
is trying to reduce. Classes in swimming are
given free to both senior and junior groups, and,
for those qualified, instruction in life-saving
and the latest methods of resuscitation.
The local chapter has done a fine job in
promoting this service. Under Dr. J. C. Grier,
in charge of the water safety program, many
grownups and children have become fine swim
mers, able to enjoy themselves in the water
safely and to give helping hands to others if
the need arises. Dr. Grier deserves, we feel, the
thanks of the community for the persistence
with which he has pushed this community pro
gram. The Red Cross may weU chalk up an
other E for Excellence in its long record of serv
ice rendered.
It's Not The Heat, Or Is It?
What’s a good hot weather editorial? It’s 80
in the shade of our backporch: over that, in fact,
but too hot to read those little lines. It’s almost
bound to be cooler by Thursday night when our
readers should be eagerly scanning these pres
cient columns, but that doesn’t help about to
day.
Today it’s 80 plus and for the third day run
ning. So about that hot weather editorial:
Should it be about soothing, cooling subjects or
should an editor treat hot weather the way
they say the British do who drink hot tea in
stead of cold and exercise furiously? Maintain
ing, doubtless, that to heat you up inside cools
you off outside. “Mad dogs and Englishmen go
out in the noonday sun.”
By that recipe a good hot weather editorial
would start off: “We consider that General Mac-
Arthur is a louse,” or, alternatively, “We con
sider that General MacArthur is the greatest
living man.” Or omit the “living.” Either open
ing would be guaranteed to send temperatures
rushing up to the bursting point. But whether
they would produce the desired glacial exterior
seems doubtful.
That reminds us of a story, though just why it
does is beyond us: hot weather effect on the
brain, no doubt. There were two men, a Rus
sian and an American. The American said: “I
think Stalin is* a louse!” ''‘Grrrrr!” went the
Russian, “Be quiet you whatever-it-is-in-Rus-
sian! And anyway I think Truman is a double
louse!” “Hooray!” said the American, “So do
I!”
Now how would a Britisher have reacted?
Gazed cahnly over the head of his companion,
maybe, and said nothing at all; or at the most,
murmured: “It’s a matter of opinion.”
The American’s reply may shock plightly, but
we find it rather endearing, and not so bad an
example of the slap-dash democracy we like to
call American. We feel quite certain President
Truman would get a chuckle out of the tale,
but, if the phrases were reversed, just as cer
tain that Stalin woudn’t. Or does a sense of hu
mor lurk under that walrus mustache? Could
be, at that.
But the thermometer is still rising. Perhaps
we’d better go back to the soothing, cooling
plan: Thoughts of cold clear water, a mountain
trout-stream sluicing between rocky boulders
and the rod-tip dipping under when a big one
takes hold? Uh-uh. Too energetic. . .
Two polar bears, floating across a blue sea on
a great big cake of ice? Too far afield; and it
ought to be just one bear. Cooler. The thought
of two bears today. . . and sitting together. . .!
How about, right here at home and even when
it’s 80 plus on the back-porch, imagining that
rushing breath of cold, damp and pungent with
the aroma of bay and swamp magnolia, that
hits you when you’re driving and dip down
through a swamp, the Lumbee or James Creek
... or the first step into the lake and the cold
water creeping up and your toes sinking deeper
into the cool sandy bottom?
Shucks to Stalin and Truman and the polar
bears. . t let’s go swimming!
case there are still some local boys
and girls on your list to whom
you haven’t given we respect
fully suggest the gift of that
weekly “letter ffhm home”—^The
Pilot, next September through
June.
We noted last week that Pal
and Will Stratton have named
their new home Cattistock, after
the village in England where Will
was born. The Strattons moved
there from Weymouth, the James
Boyd place, and are now only
about a mile and a half away.
They are enjoying the knowledge
that Cattistock is only a little way
from the town of Weymouth in
England.
This commodious mansion with all the porch
and awnings is very likely still around town
some place, minus the awnings and maybe min
us the porch. Or maybe it still looks just about
like this. We can think of several places which
might be it.
Anyway—who built it, around the turn of the
century? "Who owned it, and enjoyed that sunny
porch, in little old Southern Pines of long ago?
The Public Speaking
PICTURE NO. 7
Old Picture No. 7 has been
identified as the Kings
Daughters' Hall by several
of our old-timers, including
Dr. Herr, Mrs. Elizabeth
Hewitt and Rufe Chatfield,
who helped build it. In the
picture, said Mrsi Hewitt,
"it looks just the way it did
when we moved here in 1910."
Wie are indebted to Charles
Macauley for the following in
formation concerning this
structure, so important in the
life of the town in that early
day:
To the Pilot.
Your picture No. 7 does not por
tray a church. As a matter of fact
this same cut was used in the edi
tions of the Tourist of June 16
1905, and September 6 1907, under
the caption “Kings Daughters
Hall.”
To tell the complete story of
this really historic structure
would take considerable space in
the' Pilot as it includes Southern
Pines first Public School, first Li
brary, and the Lend a Hand Cir
cle of the Kings Daughters, and
more than that the names of
many women foremost in the up
building of the new town.
To be as brief as possible, the
building, now bearing no resem
blance to the picture, is located
on the north side of Connecticut
avenue between Broad and Ben
nett streets. It was erected in
1895 by Chatfield & Messer for
the newly organized Circle found
ed under the leadership of Mrs.
L. M. Young, mother of the pres
ent Mrs. A. S. Ruggles.
In July 1897, the board of
commissioners appointed a school
board of five members, and they
immediately completed a free
lease of five years’ juration for
the second story which they then
added to the building. This was
used as a public school until the
erection of the new school build
ing on May street, this being
ready for use in February 1908.
In October 1899, the members
of the Circle opened in the build
ing the first library, which con
tinued to serve the public for the
next 21 years. On my personal
solicitation in 1922, Mrs. Flinda
Weed and Mrs. I. F. Chandler, the
surviving members of the Circle,
donated 800 volumes and $1,200
to aid the newly organized South
ern Pines Library association.
June 1920 saw the purchase of
the Hall by Dr. William H. Spears,
who is said to have removed the
tower, and operated the building
as the Spears Apartments until
his death in November 1939. It
was so continued by Mrs. Spears
for a short period, and about 1945
was acquired by Mrs. David Hos
kins, who remodeled the struc
ture. The Pilot has a plate pictur
ing the place as it now stands.
CHARLES MACAULEY
that the TV-dazzled brats of today
would shed their cowboy boots
for a while and go back to “The
Pobble Who Has No Toes” and
“My Uncle Arley” with their hyp
notic rhymes and lovely giggles.
One thing about Lear sur
prises me. He didn’t exactly in
troduce the Limerick to the Eng
lish language (and it was a fav
orite Greek comedy meter) but
he popularized it in a hundred
ridiculous ways. Yet, according
to contemporary acid tests, he
wrote an imperfect Limerick—
—a lazy rtian’s Limerick.
For the Limerick is as formal
as the sonnet—more so, perhaps,
for the sonnet has a half dozen
variations. But the Limerick is an
invariable five-liner with the sur
prise, the “snapper,” the culmin
ating joke in the last line. But
what did Lear do? In his last line
he merely repeated his first line,
adding a whimsical adjective. For
instance, (first line) “There was
an old man of Dundee” and (last
line) “That wretched old man of
Dundee.” Most of our modern
Limericks, unfortunately, are
bar-room classics, glaringly un
respectable, but for mixed com
pany, here’s a model of perfec
tion: “There was a young fellow
of Clyde! Who at funerals oft was
espied.! When asked who was
dead! he giggled and said| T don’t
know, I just came for the ride..’ "
The Lear-style Limerick re
minds me of the dull habit
some of us have of telling a good
one, then pausing to explain the
joke. You remember the tale of
the live lobster? A grateful ani
mal trainer comes up to a Park
Avenue bar, unwraps a package
and lets out a live lobster. He
says to the bartender, “You’ve
been so good to me that I’m
bringing you this very special lob
ster.” “Oh, thanks,” says the
barman, “I’ll take him home for
supper.” “But he’s had his sup
per,” says the animal trainer,
“take him to the movies.” The
man who first told me this stan
dard story added by way of foot
note, “The trainer probably
thought that the barkeeper (Want
ed the lobster for a pet.”
That’s something like the As
sociated Press report on General
Eisenhower’s speech at Abeline.
The AP told how the rain-soaked
general opened by saying, in ef
fect, that it looked pretty wet, but
not so wet as the (Channel looked
when we crossed it eight years
ago. So the AP obligingly anno
tated the jest by explaining that
he was referring to the European
Invasion in 1944.
What has America done with
her well-advertised sense of hu?
mor? Or do our memories play
out in eight years?
I won’t attempt to answer these
questions. I’m on a diet.
WALLACE IRWIN
GRAINS
of SAND
A couple came in the other day
to place a subscription to The
Pilot as a graduation gift for a
young high school friend, wanting
the paper to start in September
when the young friend went to
college. Mary Scott Newton in our
business office wanted to know
if they didn’t want to wait till
September to pay, and they said
they didn’t, they might forget.
Well, Mary Scott was afraid she
might forget, too, as her files are
set up for the paper to start when
the money is paid. But she pro
ceeded to set up a new file, just
for the purpose, and The Pilot is
all ready to take “delayed college
subscriptions.”
This is a little late for the reg
ular graduation season, but in
Once again we have occasion to
bring out that original remark,
“It’s a small world!”
Pfc. Andy Page, USMC, son of
Mr. and Mrs. C. N. Page, is seeing
some interesting places while on
a Mediterranean cruise. On a re
cent liberty he visited the famed
European resort, Monte Carlo.
Walking down the street he heard
a girl’s voice call, “Hi—^Andy!”
It was Gay McClellan, who used
to live here with her family tiU
they moved away two or three
years ago. Gay and her mother
are spending the year in Europe
and just happened to be in Monte
Carlo at the same time as Andy.
After they got over the first sur
prise of seeing each other they
had a good time talking about
people and events at home.
Andy played go-lf on the famous
Monte Carlo course, which is
practically nothing but high
mountain peaks with deep valleys
between. He found plenty of new
hazards, never seen on Sandhills
courses. “It certainly is funny to
be teeing off right into the heart
of a cloud,” he wrote his folks.
RANDOM THOUGHTS
To the Pilot.
Maybe it’s because they’ve put
me on a diet—anyhow, I’ve turn
ed from the hot-calory fare of
“modern” reading and gone back
to the earlier and (to me) the ’oest
work of Henry James. I’ve been
old-fashioned enough, too, to read
“Tobacco Road,” thinking perhaps
that it would add a touch of garlic
to Henry’s Mayfair. But like the
late Victoria, I was “not amused.”
Is it because I am unfamiliar with
the type—although in my mining
camp days I encountered some
pretty low-down humans?
At any rate, following my
bland-feeding diet, I reverted to
Edwin Lear’s “Nonsense Book”
the other day. That wonderful lit
tle sick genius has kept children
and their grandfathers laughing
for a hundred years. How I wish
tracks.
Second: Broad street should be
kept as Southern Pines’ shopping
street. That means that traffic
ought to be slowed down. No one
ought to be in a hurry, but have
plenty of time to look and park.
Make it a through road, as this
plan does, and speeding will re
suit. Already people are using the
one-way streets as miniature
speedways.
So- I’d say: put stop signs on
Broad street, not on the crossing
avenues, and give people a chance
to cross the street peacefully and
shoppers a chance to look around
Most important, let’s give that
fellow crossing the railroad tracks
chance to get across and out of
the way of danger. I’m sure the
Seaboard would approve.
Anyone who is in a hurry ought
to stick to Route 1, or, if coming
from Pinehurst, turn right to
Bennett street at Vermont ayenue
and bypass the shopping district
Bennett might be made 'the
through street, with stop signs on
the avenue crossings. That would
carry through traffic from both
Aberdeen and Pinehurst around
the congested part of town. Peo
ple coming from Aberdeen would
turn off on Bennett where it en
ters Route 1 below the Jackson
Motor company.
This might reduce some of the
fast driving along the southern
eAd of Broad street, especially
coming into the post office block,
and, on the other end, slow down
the cars roaring in past the
freight station, both definite traf
fic dangers.
JAMES BOYD, JR.
A TRAFFIC SUGGESTION
To the Pilot.
r read the notice in last week’s
Pilot, that Broad street has been
given a right-of-way Over the
crossing avenues, in the new traf'
fic plan. I can’t help but feel this
may be a mistake: for a number of
reasons:
First, and most important: on
account of the railroad.- Anyone
crossing the Seaboard tracks
should have the right-of-way over
all other traffic. This is especially
true now that train service is be
ing speeded up along the double-
tracked road. It is very easy to
start across the tracks with the
signal lights off and have them go
on before you can get over, if
traffic has been held up ahead of
you. I’ve had that happen to me
more than once and, with the
train bearing down on me, have
had to start tooting to get folks
to move on and let me get off the
Mrs. Constance J. Foster of
Pinebluff, author of numerous
books and articles on youth prob
lems, is greatly concerned about
her own son Tony Waxdell, who
goes to Georgia Tech. . . We must
admit, she really has a problem
there, and all her psychiatric
knowledge doesn’t seem to help
. The darned boy keps getting
all A’s.
This greatly concerns his ma,
who doesn’t want him to be a
grind! Well, we’ve met Tony, a
thoroughly delightful young
man, with lots of energy and a
nice sense of humor, and we don’t
think she needs to worry too
much. He takes part in plenty of
extra-curricular activity at
Georgia Tech, where he is a rising
sophomore and student of mech
anical engineering, and on holi
days at home gets around freely
with the younger generation,
making many friends and show
ing a normal boy’s liking for a
pretty girl. He is in NROTC and
will go on a cruise this summer.
Our latest bulletin on Tony,
which comes from the college
public relations office, is not cal
culated to make Mrs. Foster feel
one bit better. He has been elect
ed .to Phi Eta Sigma, freshman
honorary scholastic society, which,
the bulletin informs us, is “the
highest honor which a freshman
can achieve at Georgia Tech.”
Tommy Avery, son of Mr. and
Mrs. L. T. Avery, is niaking about
the same kind of record at State
college, only worse, because he
has been at it two years longer.
Besides being elected to the hon
orary engineering fraternity
(whose Greek letters we forget at
the moment) Tommy, a rising
senior, has been elected to the
Student Council. Besides making
practically all A’s in his civil en
gineering course, and popping up
on the dean’s list from time to
time, he is holding down a part-
time job in Raleigh.
Chrysanthemums may live for
several years in one location, but
they are usually best the first
year, say State College horticul
turists.
ooo
^But ojifyTMe mU Tdl.
\
\ t
/
WOVi! ARE WE
SONNA have a
’ gardenJ best,
ON THE BLOCK.!
GEBj
X WISH I
HAD COLOR
film!
vV*
//J -tr?^'■
^ CAMYTELL ABOUT A GARDEN uNTiuyouGive
IT TJ/ME TO GROW. AND VOU CAnVJUDSE A CIGARETTE VLL
y©uVE TRIED rr AS yOUR <ST&>oy smoke, test camels
FOR 30 DAYS. >eUR''T-20NE*WILLTELL '>PL> HOW
MILD AND FLAVORFUL A CIGARETTE CAM BE*