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La$t Saturday morning, at the
Craven 'county courthouse, em-
' ployees were going about their
usual chores in air conditioned
‘ comfoi^. There was activity in the
/'Sheriff’s office, the tax office, the
/-^auditor’s office, and in the offices
• of'the register of deeds and the
cl^K of Ae' court.
iTifiere wasn’t supposed to
any activity in the eourthouse up
stiiiirs, but there was nevertheless
M a matter of fact, what was go
ing on unknown to the outside
world was far more interesting
than some of the dull civil cases
wev’e been forced to listed
not to mention quite a few politi
cal speeches spouted in the past
in this ancient but now renovated
courtroom.
The NEW BERN
42^ '•^EKVf
5^ Per
• 0
J
VOLUMNE 3
NEW BERN, N. C., /FRIDAY, JUWY 22, 1960
NUMBER 17
'Had you tiptoed to the door on
the morning referred to, and
peeped inside, you would have
seen two of the busiest little girls
you could possibly imagine. They
were playing court with all the
complete seriousness that young
sters with vivid imaginations are
capable of when they indulge jn
m^e believe.
This, .to say the least, was no
small undertaking, seeing as how
just tfie two of them were assum
ing the roles of judge, jury, law
' yers Mid defendants, They not only
had t6 have nimble wits to keep
up with the lines improvised on
the iimnt, litit. nimhln feet a.s thev
during in honesty,to ' goodness
".-tri'al.
r); Taking^'-part' iti ?4he delightful
fantasy wete Marion Brinson, 11
whose father writes oUr Mirror
'^efhtation% eadh week, and her
■ iousin, Paula., "Wyrick. 14, of
.WiHstbn'Salofn/- ‘who’ has been
iSisrion ‘this summer.
They held not one but three
trials before adjourning court
shortly before noon, and each was
a murder case that would have
1^.^;' made even that grand master of.
horror and.^ mayhem, Alfred Hitch
cock, slightly envious.
4n fact; it is probable that Hitch
cock, coupled with others who con-
Ir irive grimsome television violence
inspired me game that Marion and
# Paula had come up with to ease
% the monotony of- a sultry July day.
' At any rate* their courtroom pro-
ceedure was flawless. For example,
when Paula Ss an attorney offered
an objection to certain, soiicited
toriimony, Marion as the judge at
that moment looked down her
'pretty little nose and intoned in
her best judicial manner the
' words-—'“Objection overruled.”
In the first trial, Marion wasn’t
lucky enough to be the judge. She
was charged with murdering a
man with what she admitted was
a “22 double^Htrreled shotgun.”
We’re not acquainted with a weap
on of this description, but it was
sufficiently lethal to bring death
to tlfe unsuspecting" vicitim.
Paula, in the second trial, was
convicted of violent, death even
more gruesome. It seems she was
a mentally unbalanced woman who
owned five cats and five dogs. She
had ten cradles, and affecticmately
tucked the cats and dogs in their
individual cradles each night."
With evil cunning, she taught
her pets how to commit murder,
and one of them—a fox-gray cat,
invaded the cradle of a sleeping
K baby and killed it. The woman,
k brought before the bar of justice,
was given her just desserts. How
such a story ever entered the
minds of two little girls who
‘ ; coudn’t be gentler or sweeter
f; We’ll never know.
' In the third trial, Paula’s hus-
band was the murder victim and
H^vshe wos the chief prosecuting wit-
m Pw 6)
TO SAME;—Childreii' tbl^wdrld^ dver,
and" thBse Bern^ youngsters viewing a miniature reproduc
tion of the Swiss Alps could easily pass for some of our New
Bern small fry. Like the many other Mirror murals pub
lished of our mother city, this photo was flown to us from
across the sea^a friendly gesture on the part of Berne offi
cials.
New Bernians Are All Set
For Second Convention Show
Most New Bernians. of voting age
will be gazing intently at their
home television screens Monday,
when the Republican National Con
vention gets underway in Chicago.
Having eased their bleary eyes
to some extent since the Demo
cratic doings recently concluded in
Los Angeles, local citizens are all
set for still more late viewing and
the incessant windy speeches that
are bound to come in a metropolis
aiready famed as the Windy City.
For the relatively few citizens
who aren’t intrigued by political
antics, watching the convention
will be a matter of last resort.
They’ll grumble and complain be
cause the networks havejbeen tak
en over by something less appeal
ing than the shows they usually„d
enjoy, but as confirmed TV addicts
they are apt to stick by their sets
l ike the rest of us.
It should be quite a show, an
amazing one in fact, if convention
planners make good their promise
to keep the aisles cleared. Manag
ing this stupdenous feat wouldn’t
necessarily prove that the Repub
licans are better qualified to lead
the nation than the Democrats, but
it would indeed indicate that the
age of miracles hasn’t passed.
For our part, we’re not anticipat
ing too much order, although the
nomination of Vice President Rich
ard Nixon as the OOP’s president
ial standard bearer appears to be
thoroughly cut and dried. If there’s
no honcst-to-goodness excitement
to be had, a reasonable fascimile
thereof will be phonied up by the
powers that be.
As a matter of fact, the delight
ful candid camera glimpses fre
quently projected on the screen
during the recent Democratic get-
together were a highlight of the
convention coverage. It didn’t leak
out incidentally, until after the
convention ended, that many of
them were taped for later inser
tion rather than show at the in
stant the camera focused on an in
teresting subject.
You may rest assured that the
networks will continue to use this
method of keeping the vast tele-
4/’
visioh audience amused during dull
spots that crop up in convention
activity.
It would be difficult to determ
ine at the present time, with any
degree of accuracy, how many New
Bernians will bolt the Democratic
Party in November and vote Re
publican. However, there is suffi
cient open talk from the man in
the street to indicate that, the pos
sibility of both New Bern and Crav-
efa county going Republican is by
no means remote.
A va^ majority of the local vot
ers SO! inclined will be watching
FREEDOM’S REMINDER
the convention with hopes that
Nelson RocR^feUer will somehow
nose out Nixon for the nomina
tion. Rockefeller’s chances are so
slim that he has all but admitted
he is out of the running, buf lo-
Oally there's a great deal of wish
ful thinking.
It is no secret that Nixon is quite
unpopular here. If this were not
true, things would look even more
gloomy to a lot of Tar Heel poli
ticians who have admitted private
ly that the Democratic slate is
facing tough sledding. These sea
soned observers are counting on
Nixon’s lack of appeal in, these
parts to save the day in North Car
olina and much of the South.
In short, the votes cast for Nix
on will for the most part be anti-
Kennedy support, and not a tribute
to the Vice President. And, of
couse, in almost every instance in
New Bern and Craven, an anti-
Kennedy vote is going to be an an-
ti-Catholic vote.
Although Kennedy in his accep
tance speech picked up quite a few
wavering voters here with his
statement on the religious angle
of his public life, it nevertheless
remains a fact that he will not be
accepted by some Democrats.
Religious bitterness it a tragic
thing to behold. In America it is
doubly tragic, but bitterness lies
ahead as surely as tomorrow’s
dawn. No matter what your views,
and our views might be, heated
controversy and rash emotionalism
won’t help matters.
How we worship and how we
vote is a choice we are privileged
to make ourselves. Let’s keep in
mind that our neighbor has the
same, privilege.
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