Whether they be young or old,
short or tall, large or small, all of
the New Bern mothers we’ll be
honoring Sunday have at least one
thing in common. Each of them, at
one time or another, has turned
to another mother—Mother Goose
—to provide delightful entertain
ment for the heavenly bundles de
livered to them by the Stork.
Much of the advice that a moth
er gives to her offspring may be
forgotten or disregarded in later
years, but We oldsters seldom for
get the rhythmic phrases of our
early nursery rhymes. There have
been poets far superior to Mother
Goose, and yet it is doubtful that
all of them put together have
achieved the lasting tame that still
adheres to her name.
Who was Mother Goose anyhow?
Don’t feel ignorant if you can’t an
swer the question, since no one
else can answer it either. Perhaps
you’ve heard that she was a Boston
' Widow, named Elizabeth Goose, who
'made up the little ditties and sang
them to her grandson. Grandmoth
ers being the affectionate souls
that they are,' the story sounds
pleasantly plausible.
According to the oft repeated
version of how Mother Goose came
into being, the father of the grand
son referred to happened to be a
printer. Impressed by the rhymes,
he supposedly published them in
a book at Boston in 1719, just nine
years after New Bern was founded
by_the Swiss.
it’s a good story, except for tjje
fnpt tbqtr #i af ^
our Mother GOose charat^rs thw
fa^ve stood the test of time. Not so
much as one lone copy of the book
has been found, although a great
deal of research has been done in
an effort to bring it to light.
This in itself is not conclusive.
But even if we assume that there
Was such a book in existence, the
story of Boston’s Mother Goose
falls through because long before
then the same intriguing name was
used in connection with folklore in
France. Back in 1679 a French
master of fantasy named Charles
Perrault published a volume of
fairy stories entitled “Tales of
Passed Times, by Mother Goose.”
One of the stories, called “The
Master Cat,” is the same yam we
know here in America as “Puss
in Boots.” Another is one of the
great favorites with New Bern chil
dren of every generation—“Sleep
ing Beauty.”
However, before these stories
found their way to England, that
staid old country had its own
rhymes and jingles that had been
handed down through the years
When and where they first began
is lost in the annals of the past.
In the year 1760,“a publisher in
London by the name of John New
berry lifted “Mother Goose” as a
signature from the aforementioned
French fairy tales, and transferred
it to the nursery jingles and
rhymes that have since borne the
name of this mythical authoress.
To give you an idea of just how
old the Mother Goose rhymes you
read to your child really are, it is
a historical truth that the “three
blind mice” are mentioned in a
poem that was published in London
in 1609. And, believe it or not,
“Sing a song of sixpence” appeared
in a play that was written in
Shakespeare’s time.
“Tom, Tom, the piper’s son” in
spired a song published in 1719,
and it is to be hoped that it was
less mournful than our own “Tom”
song of recent years, “Tom Doo
ley.” Come to think of it, "Tom
Dooley” is as old as the hills too,
and was all but extinct until its
modern revival. ,
Somebody most certainly had to
be the original Mother Goose, but
after that she became not just one
rhymer but several. Any number
of amateur poets probably had a
The NEW BERN
PUBLISHED WEEKLY
IN THE HEART OF
EASTERN NORTH
CAROLINA
5^ Per Copy
VOLUMNE 3
NEW BERN, N. C., FRIDAY, MAY 6, 1960
NUMBER 6
even the simplest wafei^ii^pnt scene, this familiar sight will
have special appeal. A placid stream,; a boat at anchor,,
'^dhd^ift^t tftyirtg'iii%e rhorning sjiaiil They add ujp to
• a picture of peace in a sorely troubled world.—^Photb by
feiUy Benners.
Chessman's Death Saddens
' r
Number of Local Citizens
New Bern’s most talked about
news story, of the week didn’t hap
pen here, but occurred thousands
of miles away within the green
walls of a California gas chamber.
To local citizens, Caryl Chessman
was more than a name in print and
a photo on the front page of their
morning newspaper. Physically un
attractive though he was, and guil
ty of vicious crimes, he had caught
their fancy and aroused their sym
pathy.
Few in their deep feeling of re
gret over his belated execution
knew the full story of his acts as
a redlight bandit who brought ter
ror to Los Angeles 12 years ago.
What they did know was that
here was a man who had been on
San Quentin’s death row for a doz
en years—a man who had been sav
ed from the grave no less than
eight times by a stay of execution.
Typical was the comment of one
New Bernian, who said, “I think he
has suffered enough during all
those years on death row, no mat
ter what he did.” That was on the
morning when his demise in the
name of justice was only hours
away.
It is safe to say that the majori
ty of-New Bernians took the same
attitude, especially women. The
feminine sympathy for Chessman
was ironical, since his victims were
women, and one of them went
hopelessly insane afterwards and is
hand in putting the jingles togeth
er.
At any rate. New Bern parents
and New Bern children can do
worse than remember Mother
Goose, along with other mothers,
on Mother’s Day.
still confined behind bars in an
asylum.
Lurking in the minds and hearts
of a goodly number of citizens
here is the feeling that the famous
[ convict was innocent. They based
their conclusion not on facts,
[which leave less than no doubt
whatsoever of Chessman’s guilt,
but on the theory that any man
. NBHS Junior-Senior Prom
WIZARD OF OZ SCENE
spared as many times as he was
probably was unfairly arrested and
convicted.
It’s the old story of America’s
compassion for the underdog, and
in the public’s mind the image of
Chessman as a mistreated and
wronged individual had long since
become firmly fixed. He, of course,
had been largely responsible for
creating the image through his
best-selling book, “Cell 2455, Death
Row”, and subsequent volumes that
came from his rather remarkable
pen.
Not only did his books attract a
following in these United States,
but around the world as well. In
their basic sense of fairness, wheth
er in this instance it was badly
misplaced or not, fellow human
beings cast Chessman in the tradi
tional role of the “good man” and
at the same time made those who
had captured and convicted him
the “villains” in the grim real-life
plot.
As is inevitably the case when
major crimes are greatly publiciz
ed, the Chessman cause, picked up
a lot of cranks and screwballs.
However, there is no denying that
a great many highly intelligent
people ended up on his side too.
They not only ended up on his
side, but went to extreme lengths
in an effort to save him from his
fate. One of his most ardent de
fenders was Steve Allen, who is
one of television’s most talented
and apparently most enlightened
personalities.
What appeared to be the moti
vating force in Allen’s crusade to
save the redlight bandit from le
galized death was not his innocence
(Continued on Bock Pago)