Page 4—Smoke Signals, Wednesday, March 23, 1971
"Cost Bottles Upon the Water"
Preacher Hunts Whisky Bottles
PIEDMONT, Ala. (AP) —
The Bible says “Cast thy bread
upon the waters: for thou shalt
find it after many days.”
Change the word “bread” to
“bottles” and you’ve got a
thumbnail picture of the 38-
year-old hobby of a lay Method
ist preacher who haunts the
city dump, back alleys and the
pool hall area of Piedmont.
Jewel Pierce goes to these
places for whisky bottles. He
also collects empty embalming
fluid bottles from a Piedmont
mortuary.
Although he has spent all his
62 years in this part of north
east Alabama, he has reached
many corners of the earth with
religious messages cast upon
the waters in the bottles.
“I send messages dealing
with the shortness of life and
the need for repentence,” he
said in an interview.
Pierce toeses the bottles into
the Coosa River behind the
Catholic Hospital in Gadsden
when he is at the hospital to
.b4 ngjatients.
They float into the Alabama
River, the Mobile River, the
Gulf of Mexico and sometimes
across the ocean.
The messages ask the finder
to advise Pierce of the date and
location the bottle was retriev
ed from the water.
His messages have bobbed
their way to Greece, the Loui
siana bayou country, the coast
of Washington State. One was
even found in a hay field in
Alabama 1*2 miles from water.
It had been deposited there
during winter months when the
water covered the low area.
An Ohio man wrote that she
found one while vacationing on
a Florida beach. “I felt like the
I/)rd had directed me to Flori
da just to get your message,”
she wrote.
Most replies are com
plimentary but not all.
“Some people say I ought to
Pierce said he spends about 20
hours a week on the project.
“I have to wash the bottles—
to get the small of what was in
them out. It takes time to get
the corks in and sealed with
waterproof glue,” he said.
“But this makes them safe for
years. A metal top would rust in
a year in salty water but a cork
won’t ever deteriorate.”
be in church instead of out
doing something like this,”
Pierce said. “One man was a
bootlegger who refused to let
his wife attend church. His big
gest complaint was that he
didn’t want her to know any
thing about the Gospel.”
Pierce has never pastored a
church but has taught Sunday
school classes for years.
He launched his project after
ongregationaltdg
$jifgOist, elected him Sunday
school evangelist.
“I was supposed to visit each
church in the district, 104
churches, in 12 months,” he
said. “I had difficulty doing this
because I had no way to go.
Then I thought that a message in
a bottle wou t’ to somebody I
would never see and meet.”
He sends 125 bottles a week
down the Coosa and gets replies
on about one-fourth of them. The
project has mushroomed since
its beginning and Pierce said he
has sent more than 28,000 bottles
downstream.
Pierce answers each reply,
alhough he sometimes has to go
to the International House at
nearby Jacksonville State
University to ask foreign
exchange students to translate
letters for him.
Pierce and his wife have three
children, J. C. Pierce,
Birmingham, Ala.; Paul Pierce,
Crystal Springs, Miss., and Mrs.
I^rry Westbrooks, Collinsville.
And through the bottle, he has
come up with hundreds of
friends throughout the world.
Confidence Returning
in Stock Maricet
THREE MUSKETEERS? No, just three Graphic Arts students heading for class. Left
to right are Larry Walker, Billy Hall, and Lynn Naudian, all second year students in the
School of Graphic Arts.
NEW YORK (AP) - Some
return of confidence is appear
ing in that somewhat obscure
but vitally important area of
corporate finance called the
commercial paper market. Ac
tivity rose in December for the
first time since May.
And what had caused the de
cline? Nothing less than the in
ability of the Penn Central
Transportation Co. to pay its
bills on time. So shocked were
other corporations that they
dared not lend out their excess
cash.
And for good reason. The
commercial paper market is
where many large companies
lend and borrow wich each oth
er for short terms, anywhere
from a day to 270 days. The
notes are unsecured, backed
only by a company’s reputa
tion.
In Nixon's Budget
Money Sought to Educate Indians
Naturally there is some ele
ment of risk in such lending,
but participants in this profes
sional market felt they knew
enough about each other to
avoid taking any great risks. It
was a market built on con
fidence.
When the Penn Central, the
nation’s largest railroad, ran
into financial trouble the event
thoroughly shook corporate fi
nance officers.
As a result, the amount of pa
per outstanding shrank sharply.
But in December, the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York
now reports, it rose again for
the first time since the PC
dbacle.
Total volume last month rose
$662 million to $33.64 billion aft
er having declined $1.3 biUion
in November. Some of the in
crease may be attributed to an
expanding economy, but it sug
gests also that the PC shock
waves are receding.
WASHINGTON (AP) —
President Nixon asked Congress
today for more money to educate
Indians, give them better
medical care and help those who
migrate to the cities.
He also proposed indoor
plumbing for 8,000 more Indian
dwellings.
His budget for fiscal 1972
increases finds for the Bureau
of Indian Affaris by $66.3
million, to $456.7 million. Most of
the boost goes to build
kindergarten classrooms,
provide for more people at
reservation boarding schools,
send more Indians to college,
and pay public schools to enroll
more children from the tax-free
reservations.
Money to the Indian Health
Services would be increased $12
million, to $132.5 million. The
additional money would help
increase the staffs at the
Indian Health Service hospitals,
improve laboratories, and
expand a community mental
health program using Indians as
local workers.
In the Office of Economic
Opportunity, part of a $60.6
million allottment for special
migrant and Indian programs
would be directed toward
helping the growing number of
urban Indians.
The BIA budget increases
education and welfare services
$24.1 million. This will provide
for 1,665 more students in
boarding schools, training and
hiring of Indian education
coordinators, scholarships for
8,400 Indians in colleges, and
supplements to public school
finances to provide for 4,243
Indians.
Last year there were 36,405
Indians in boarding schools on
reservations, 4,143 were at
schools living in nearby
dormitories, and 6,100 in college.
There would be an additional
$20.5 million for construction of
kindergartens at 21 locations, a
high school at Cherokee, N.C., to
the Navajo Indian Irrigation
Project in New Mexico, addition
to the Wagner, S. D., East
Charles Mix schools, and
updating of the Sioux Indian
Museum and Crafts Center .
The budget indicates that the
Office of Economic Opportunity
and the departments of Labor
and Health, Education and
Welfare will jointly expand
Indian health services, as
requested by the President in his
message on Indians last July.
In another credit market par
ticipants are engaged in what
is being termed the trade-off, a
game that could have impor
tant consequence for lenders,
borrowers, builders and others.
It involves the home mortgage
market.
Mortgage interest rates along
with other credit charges are
faUing, a fact closely watched
by millions of individuals who
contemplate buying homes. If
rates are falling, these people
believe, they may continue to
fall.
Their thinking isn’t without
merit, because a wholesale re
luctance to buy conceivably
could actually force mortgate
rates lower, thus fulling the ex
pectations. It could happen, be
cause Americans in general are
shrewd in using credit.
The U.S. Savings and Loan
Designer Criticized
PARIS (AP)—Yves Saint Laurent, once the man who could
do no wrong in French fashion, was criticized today for his new
collection, called a sad reminder of the Nazi occupation.
Saint-Laurent dressed his models Friday in jackets with shoulder
pads and high heeled platform shoes.
“Saint-Laurent took a particularly trying step backwards,” the
newspaper Paris Jour wrote. “This fashion doesn’t have a good
reputation for elegance. We thought at first these were the
designer’s usual gags, but the evidence was otherwise: these
excesses were deliberate, sad and demoralizing.”
The attack on Saint-Laurent was all the more unusual because
French fashion writers generally just tell what they see and avoid
extensive criticism of designers, considered a virtual part of the
French patrimony.
Mine Disaster Caused
By Illegal Explosives
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
Interior Department charged
today that a Kentucky coal
mine disaster that killed 38 men
last month was caused by the
use of illegal explosives, illegal
blasting practices and failure to
control coal dust.
The department said it was
sending its findings to the Jus
tice Department for possible
criminal prosecution.
The department itself will
also consider civil penalties
against the mine operators.
Americans to Drink
More, Smoke Less
The disaster occurred Dec. 30
in a mine owned by Charles and
Stanley Finley, near Hyden, Ky.
Of the 39 men working in the
mine at the time, only one sur
vived; he had left the mine for
supplies and was on his way
back in when it blew up.
The Bureau of Mines, in its
investigation report, said evi
dence was found that dynamite
—illegal for use in coal mines—
may have been used for blasting
purposes. If legal explosives
were used, the bureau said, the
manner of their use was appar
ently illegal, and they may have
been touched off with prima-
cord, an illegal type of fuse in
coal mine blasting.
The blast, intended to enlarge
a chamber of the mine, threw
coal dust into the air and ignited
it, spreading the explosion
throughout the mine, the bureau
said.
This occurred, it added, be
cause of “excessive accumula
tions of coal dust and inadequ
ate applications of rock dust”
which is required to be mixed
with coal dust to make it incom
bustible.
Samples of mine dust showed
less than the legally required
percentage of rock dust, the re
port said.
Conviction on a criminal
charge under mine safety laws
carries penalties of up to $25,000
and a year in jail.”
The Finley mine had been cit
ed for 38 violations of safety and
health regulations during the
nine months it was in operation
before the Dec. 30 explosion.
Accidents had killed one man
and injured two others.
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Americans in the next year will
drink more liquor and bet more
on pinball machines. But they
will smoke less.
They’ll also travel more, hunt
and fish more and talk more on
the telephone.
The projections are not the
work of some eminent professor
speaking from an academic
ivory tower, but straight from
one of the nation’s most
significant sociological
documents, the federal budget
sent to Congress today.
Specificially, it is the work of
President Nixon’s budget
advisers who must estimate the
revenue expected in the 1972
fiscal year from all sorts of
federal taxes.
The tax-receipt picture shows
a nation with growing affluence
but in search of more security
e taxes and contributions also
are forecast to go up.
Shedding light on a nation of
drinkers, the budget gives this
tax-receipt profile:
Total excise taxes on alcohol
are expected to rise by $110
million to $4.9 billion, with most
of the gain attributed in the area
of hard liquor. Excise taxes on
beer and wines are expected to
go up slightly.
Although the federal wagering
taxes are expected to remain
steady at $5 billion in estimated
revenue, manufacturers’ taxes
on coin-operated gaming devices
are expected to jump by $1
million to $16 million.
The assumption is that if
people didn’t want to use them,
industry wouldn’t be
manufacturing more pinball
machines.
Cigarette taxes are projected
to go down by $65 million,
reflecting government health
warnings. Cigar taxes are
expected to remain steady at $60
million.
As for traveling more, gasohne
taxes are estimated to rise,
along with taxes on tires, diesel
fuel, and automobiles.
In addition, airport and airway
taxes will rise, indicating the
government believes that more
Americans will take advantage
of the jet age.
Americans will use their
telephones more: Taxes on
telephone and teletype services
are predicted to rise by nearly
$200 million.
Americans will buy more
guns; Manufacturers’ excise
taxes on various guns and
ammunition are expected to
increase by a total of $2 million
Americans will fish more:
Excise taxes on fishing rods and
creels are expected to go up by
$2 million.
Women's Shorts Big
Item In Fashions
PARIS (AP) — Now women
can have their shorts and hide
them too.
Pierre Cardin, who showed
today, loves shorts, but for
modesty’s sake you can only see
them from the side. In tweed,
wool and leather for day and in
filmy printed organza for
evening, his message is dresses
slit to the hip to show what the
shorts underneath are made of
— the same thing.
Women who believe in the
Zodiac, as Cardin does, will
adore his leather sheaths. Each
has a different color waistband
and a different sign on the front.
Some go with shorts, but most
important, all stop two inches
above the knee.
Whether short triangular
ponchos or very long robes,
these are left wide open on both
sides to show printed shorts.
For conservatives only, Cardin
keeps his day silhouette tight on
top, belted at zji,go)t and falling
to just below the knee. Blouson
shirt jackets and sleeveless
dresses, either with a cut-in
armhole or stiff extended wings,
come in navy, salmon and
violet checks.
Pierre Balmain’s spring
collection remains true to his
principles of high-class elegance,
perfect grooming and
impeccable tailoring. His clothes
shown today are for the jet set
and those who know true fashion
from pranks and nonsense.
League is attempting to ward
off this possibility of reminding
the public that even if interest
rates come down, housing
prices are likely to continue
higher.
Still another factor may be
entering the trade-off. Some
builders are planning to hold
down price increases by reduc
ing the size of the houses they
offer.
Rebel 400
On Sunday
This Year
COLUMBIA (AP)-The Rebel
400 will be held at Darlington on.
Siinday this year and in
succeeding years, instead of on
Saturday.
Gov. John West signed into
law this week a local bill
allowing the Rebel 400 to be run
each year on a Sunday in
early May. This year the date is
May 2.
The bill was pushed through
the legislature by the Darlington
delegation after Darlington
Raceway officials considered
moving the race to Myrtle Beach
in Horry County, where the ban
on Sunday racing would not
apply.
Students Tour
State Buildings
Although Wednesday, March 3,
was a dismal rainy day 24
secretarial students, Jim Cherry,
bus driver, Mrs. Eason, and Mrs.
Burgwyn left Chowan College
early in the morning for a tour of
the State Legislative Building
and the Governor’s Mansion in
Raleigh, the University of North
Carolina and the Planetarium in
Chapel Hill, Duke University and
the Liggett and Myers Tobacco
Factory in Durham.
At the State Legislative
Building the group was greeted
by Senator J. J. Harrington, D-
Bertie, and Mr. Roberts H.
Jernigan accompanied the
students to the Governor’s
Mansion for a most interesting
tour of the lower floor of that
magnificant Victorian mansion,
they were admitted to the gallery
of fte House of Representatives
to observe the morning session.
One of the highlights of the trip,
many girls said, was the tour
through the Liggett and Myers
Cigarette Factory in Durham. If
you were one of the lucky ones to
be able to “pass” for twenty-one
years of age, you were given the
opportunity to select a package of
cigarettes as a gift.
ANOTHER MEDAL HOAX
Everybody, we suppose,
remembers the case of the
general who had to return a
medal because it was discovered
that enlisted men had told
part of the story that led to his
being decorated.
Now the Army has revoked the
award of two Bronze Star medals
it has found were authorized for
dogs in Vietnam. The dogs were
listed, with fictitious names and
serial numbers, along with 19
members of the 25th Infantry
Division who received Bronze
Stars.
The hoax was discovered after
a St. Louis serviceman reported
it in a letter to the St. Louis
Dispatch. He said, “This little
joke has greatly reduced the
value of the Bronze Star.” He’s
right. Such nonsense should be
stopped. — Savannah (Ga)
Evening Press
TAKING DENSITY READINGS—Lynn Naudian, of Wil
mington, Del., checks the density reading of a photograph
prior to “shooting” for reproduction in the college year
book. This young graphic arts student spends many hours
outside of class assisting with production work in the
School of Graphic Arts.
Chapel at Chowan
There has been in the past
some problems in chapel with
conduct of some student. Since
we all must go to chapel, some
feel it is a good time to catch up
on sleep, homework, gossip,
etc.—anything but giving the
speaker the proper respect which
he deserves. Tell me, people,
does this conduct look good for
Chowan College? Now I know
some people do not care what
kind of image Chowan has to
others.(Some of you figure you
are here because you can not get
in any where else. But where
would you go if Chowan had not
given you a chance? So since you
are here, why don’t you take a
little pride in this school?) I will
admit some of the speakers have
been pretty dull but they still, no
matter how dull, deserve your
attention. But we will always
have a small majority who will
cause problems.
Last week the Meredith College
Choir performed in our chapel
and in fact gave a very good
concert. But some students felt
they had to show the animal in
themselves; so they whistled at
the girls. The direction stopped
the song and cut the performance
short. But this was not all, she
(the director) was so humiliated
that she reused to allow her
group to eat in our cafeteria. One
of the girls in the choir is quoted
to have said, “We have chapel
three times a week and they can’t
even sit still twice a week.” This
looks just great for Chowan!
I have one suggestion and I
hope Chaplain Taylor and his
committee will take it into
consideration. My idea is to give
a grade and credit for chapel.
This has been done in other
colleges to a degree of success. I
believe if a student were to get
graded on chapel attendance and
conduct, he would be considerate
of his grade if nothing else. This
grade would be averaged in with
the other grades to get the
student’s acedemic average. I
suggest this grade scale:
A- 1-2 cuts
B- 3 cuts
C- 4 cuts
D- 5 cuts
The conduct could be controled
by faculty members watching for
problems and tearing up the
“trouble maker’s” cards. Or the
“trouble makers” could be sent
to the Dean.
This situation is a problem
which concerns us all; so let us
all take an interest in it. Let us
strive to make chapel more
enjoyable for all of usiajureating
an atmosphere that is com-
plimentry to us and Chowan
College.
—HUGH CLARK
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) —
Men won’t be the only ones who
can wear the pants in the Ne
vada Assembly, and the Assem
bly speaker says he’s sorry he
ever told the ladies they
couldn’t.
I^awrence Jacobsen decreed
on opening day of the legisla
ture last week that lady law
makers could wear mini skirts,
but not midis or pantsuits.
Jacobsen, Republican from
Gardnerville, a tiny town south
of here, said “I never realized
what a furor it would create.”
Irate women “kept my phone
ringing off the hook” he added
in announcing to the Assembly
Monday that he’d changed his
mind.
WINNETKA, 111. (AP) — The
annual Winnetka Town Meeting
has passed an ordinance forbid
ding the use of power lawn
mowers before 10 a.m. on Sun
days.
BEST YET AUTO RALLY
Thursday, March 25
4:00 o'clock
Meet Under the Bridge
FUN
- EXCITEMENT -
CASH AWARDS
Entrance Fee $2.00
Sponsored by Chowan
Motor Sports Club