Mrs. Sarah Perry . . Her Pupil
In the death of Mrs. Sarnh Perry the
county has loet another of its oldest and
moat esteemed citzen*.
She waa 99 yean old, and brought the
courtesy, neighborliness and charm of a
quieter age to mellow and add beauty to
the day of the powered wheel.
One of the- more cultured ladles of her
day, she was a pioneer homemaker of the
Beaver Dam section, and excelled In many
of the activities of the household. An ex
pert weaver and knitter, she continued to
employ her talents along this line uhtil
about a year before her demise.
A first cousin to the late Daniel B.
Dougherty, she lived in the Dougherty
home in Boone when Dr. Dougherty and
his brother, D. D. Dougherty, were chil
dren, and had the distinction ot having
taught Dr. Dougherty "his letters" and
to read, which was likely a source of pride
to her in the years ahead.
Dr. Dougherty is not certain that Mrs.
Perry taught his brother to read, however,
and adds, "Dolph was twenty months old
er than I, and usually about three years
ahead in his books, so maybe she didn't
teach him."
Toll Gates . . Not A New Issue
? , 0
The proposal to levy a toll charge on
motorist* over the Blue Ridge Parkway,
which met defeat some time ago, remind*
that the toll gate isaue is not a new one
in this area.
However, so the Democrat said in Oc
tober 1916, folks had a different way of
dealing with the poles across the road in
that day of more positive approach to pub
lic problems, and actually did away with
the gates.
The Democrat said:
"The report has reached here thst on
last Saturday, toll gates were esected on
two of the splendid highways leading wt
from Newland, in Avery county. PTHUm
ably to collect tribute from the large
throng of people who were forced to attend
' / , r ;
court in that town this week.
"To this move the populace of the tax
ridden little county did not readily agree,
and at night the gates were demolished by
a band of indignant citizens, and a poster
was left with this inscription: 'We are pay
ing interest on the bonds that constructed
this road, and we do not propose to pay
toll for the privilege of using it.'"
We'd have to agree, though, that the
Parkway .toll project was dealt with more
adequately. The people stirred themselves
before the collection station was set up.
And if their temper slays what it ia now,
-the government's going to have a hard
time of ever enforcing a toll on the
"Scenic."
To The Teachers: A Welcome
The students have come back to Appala
chian^ campus, and In number* equal, at
least, to any summer school enrollment
record thus far established.
Interesting is the information that dor
mitory space at the College is at a prem
ium. All men's rooms have been taken,
and there is scant chance for a woman
student or a married couple to get housing
at this time.
Three regular terms are offered this
summer, for the first time, and this may
account for accelerated Interest in the sum
mertime program at the college. A pro
gram of ttudy leading to the master's de
gree may be completed in these three
quartera.
The iiimmer achool student body comes
from the entire Southeaat. However, 24
states were represented last year, besides
the District of Columbia, South America
and Puerto Rico.
The Democrat enjoys offering a wel
come to these teachers and others who
constitute at least half aa many people
as the normal population of the town. We
are glad you are here, hope your sojourn
will be pleasant and profitable, and that
you will return in future years.
Croquet . . Stages A- Comeback
Croquet, which blossomed, we've heard,
in the gay nineties, as a proper sort of
lawn game for both the men and the wo
men of the era, and found a recurrence
of favor perhaps forty years ago, is again
going strong over the land.
George Sanders, British Hollywood mo
vie star, it seems, has beaten Darryl Zan
uck, at what the former calls "one of the
few intellectual games played outdoors."
Mallets are heavier, and the rules more
stringent in the movietown version of the
game, which is known as "killer croquet."
From a strictly sectional viewpoint, it's
incorrect to say that croquet has returned.
So far as Watauga county is concerned U
never has ventured far away.
Used to be that a court was maintained
on the east Me of the courthouse where
Ab Smith, W. It Gragg, E. S. Coffey, J. C.
Fletcher and others, played hours on end. |
In later years A. C. Mast and some of his
friends organized a croquet group at Su
gar Grove, which arouaad all the interest
generated in other circles by big league
baseball.
Then of course Emory Joints' court has
been popular for years, a* down afcng
the funeral home the enthusiasts of
the wooden mallet and the rolling ball
aa* - * ? ? - ? I a ?? ? J m nn ?? m Iam/i
44MU11S, DOflTffVCTj IttyCtt bWij I
time. Popular thirty-five year* ago, when
there were private court* In the town, the
tennis enthusiasts moved away, and noth
ing more came of the game till it was
instituted down at the college in recent
timed.
Words Of Wisdom *
And out of good still to find means of
evil. ? Milton.
When to mischief mortals bend their wilL
How soon they find fit instruments of ill!
Bear the ills you have, lest worse befall
you. ? Phaedrus.
The evil that men do lives after them; the
good is often interred with their bones.?
Shakespeare. IfT
One man's wickedneas may easily be
come all men's cure. ? Pubilius Syrus.
Time to me thla truth has taught
(Tis a treasure worth revealing),
Mora offend by want of thought
Than from want of feeling.
? Pope.
4
f
?
A
Stretch's Sketches
# By "STRETCH" ROLLINS
Some Dayt It Don't Hardly Pay To Get Outa Bed
IN MEMORIAM ? The Country Gentleman,
alaa, la no more. The magazine, not the termer,
most of whom, so far ?s I
know, ?till are perfect gentle
men. ,
The Curtis Publishing Com
any has announced the sale
of the 102-year-old Country
Gentleman to farm Journal,
Inc., who will merge the mag
azine with their own publica
tion In the September issue.
The news brings on a bit
of personal nostalgia. It re
calls a summer back in the
Thirsty Thirties when the de
pression w?? Hoovering over ui. (Ill give equal
space for any inide remark! the opposition may
care to make.)
That rammer, I traveled over South Carolina
in a Model A Ford, one Jump ahead of the fi
nance company, selliag subscription* to the Cur
tia magazines ? C. 0., Saturday Evening Post, and
LadMe Home Journal*
The Ford was equipped with a chicken coop,
hand scales, and a bushel basket If the lady
wanted a magazine alfd didn't have the cash.
I'd trad* her a subscription for chickens, eggs,
turnip*, taters, or any kind of salable (or edi
ble) (arm produce.
I'd catch the chtekens myself, too. And to .
this day, every time I tee a big fat hen around
a farmhouse, I find myself wondering how fast
she can run, and if she'd Jwing the price of a
subscription.
Got * big Tom turkey once, that was living on
borrowed time, a fugitive from the festive board*
of the preceding Christmas. We got to know each
other real well. 1 named him Herman, and he
affectionately called me "Urk," or "Gobble-Obble
* Obble" when he decided to go formal and use
my full name.
Did YOU ever try to sell a 30-pound turkey
in July? 1 finally, and s?dly(i pers^d^ another
farmer to take over hi* feed bill by throwing in.
a five-year Subscription to the Country Gentle
man. -
Ah, those were the days, when it was stylish
not to have any money. But some days, like
today, it didn't hardly pay to get outa bed.
SCANTY SKETCHES? Bob Hope said it:*"Ike
was enthusiastic about the meeting of the Big
Four. He thought the other three were Saead,
Hogan, and Middlecoff." (Ill give equal space,
etc.) ... Does television make you sick? "Turns '
are now being advertised as a remedy for "TV
Stomach." (If you still can't quit the stuff. Join
Televiewers Anonymous.) . . . Battery-powered
electric wrist watches may load to the develop
ment of two-way wrist radios, say* an item.
(Science may yet catch up with DicMYaey.)
From Early .Democrat Files
Sixty Year $ Ago
Jum M, IMC.
X. Spencer Blackburn of Jefferson spent Mon
day in town.
We had plenty of frost on Monday morning
June 17th. , fc '
The public Is Ipvited to be present at the
closing exercises of the Boone High School
Friday night la the courthouse.
Our attention has been called to a report cur
rent ia the State that Judge Timberlake, in
stead of having toothache was drank at Boone
court. This report is false and in justify to
Judge Timberlake we hope the matter win be
corrected by the papers that have given currency
to the report.
Boom township has sixty-five miles of public
road* to keep in repair. Under the new law
there are ten supervisors elected by the town
ship trustees wboee duty it is to work each man
four days each year.- If the supervisors do their
duty this township can keep the roads in good
repair without much tax money, if any.
CeL C. A. Cilley of Hickory has been awarded
? gold medal by the War Department for bravery
at Chteamaug* Col. Cilly had twe horses shot
from1 under him while leading a charge by the
Federal troops.
Thirty-Nine Year* Ago
Joae (Altlt
Mrs. Minnie Watson of Lenoir, with her little
son Hugh, is at the home of her parents, Mr.
and Mrs. J. W. Farthing, where she will spend
some weeks.
A large gasoline tank has ben put in at the
Cottrell sore, and a good supply of the fluid
will be kept constantly on hand. A great con
venience for Ike traveling public and the local
trade.
The lambs are now beginning to move from
Watauga. The first bunch of 160. owned by
Aaoa Adama, passed through yesterday, en route
te Todd. The price paid was I* to * cent* per
powad, the flock costing the purchaser right at
UMI 7v
The Mat, tanitary and Inviting -looking Cafe and
bottling works being conducted by Mr. John
Spencer in Boom, ia quite an addition to our
Cards an out announcing the approaching
marriage of Dr. Robert B. Garvejr of Beaver
Creek and Miss Rose Edna, daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. J. D. Brown of Blowing Rock.
Dr. and Mrs. Mack G. Anders and children of
Gastonia, were guesta at the Blair Hotel Mon
day night.
Mr. Avery Graybeal, an Ashe county boy,
who has just completed hia third year in the
Medical College of Virginia, at Richmond, spent
Sunday in Boone.
Dr. Ronda H. Hardin of Pineviile arrived at
the home of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. H. H.
Hardin, remaining here until yesterday when
he left for his home.
Fifteen Year a Ago
Jane 20, 1M0.
R. W. Colvard, well-known West Jefferson
business man, has doeed a deal for the business
known aa Hodges ^ire Co., which has been
owned and managed by A. E. Hodges for eight
years. The transfer involved about $35,000, it
is said.
Mr. Russell D. Hodges leaves Friday for Phil
adelphia, where he will be in attendance at
the Republican national convention, which con
venes Monday. Mr. Hodges and Hobart Morton
of Albemarle, are the ninth district delegates.
Tuesday morning the town of Boone allowed
? number of slot machines to be placed in dif
ferent busineea houses on a percentage basis, to
raise additional revenue, displacing the pin table
machines which had been operated here for
some time. . . . The ministers of the city in ?
special meeting Wednesday, vigorously protested
the use of the devices in the town. The min
isters contend that the machines are gambling
devices and contrary to State laws. . . . The
minister* and the town board a*e to meet to
gether at 2 o'clock this afternoon.
Borrowed Comment
i ? , ?; - ..,U - , - . ' v- ,; i f.
We've Known It All The Time
Jackson (Mm.) State Times
"I am amased that to many highway accidenta
involve only one car," say* a traffic inglnaar.
We MA We've known all along there were
plenty U A. fools entirety capable of wrecking
can without any help whatsoever. v
KING STREE
v3l BY ROB FIVERS
Bf;?a ? M *
SONGBIRDS . . . DODOS, PASSENGER PIGEONS
Among the large number* of song birds which we note around
the place this spring, some of the old standbys are absent . . ,
We have plenty of robins, catbirds, brown thrashers, yellow*
hammers, sparrows of wide variety, blue jays, cardinals and the
like. . , . Fact is,' in spite of the BBs and the cats we have more
songsters than for many years. . . . But we don't find the blue
birds around the house any more, the Baltimore orioles don't
come to see us ef late, and we haven't noted any redwing black
birds in the willows along the creek fo? years. . . . Not being
a bird-watcher, in the professional sense, these feathered friends
of anothe^day may still be sticking around, but not in our bock,
yard . . . and perhaps a lot of birds we now have in scant num
bers are heading toward extinction, along with the dodo.
HE COULD NT EVEN FLY
The dodo was a big fellow, big as a goeae, some write.,
a clumsy useless sort of bmt, who couldn't get off
the ground, even with a tail wind. . . . Akin to the
pigeon he was helpless in the 'march of early-day pro
gress. . . . And his tousin, the passenger pigeon, grace
' ful in flight and countless in number, followed the dodo
into extinction in the most merciless wanton slaughter
the continent has experienced.
THEY CAME TO BOONE, BY MILLIONS
Bob Rivers, the elder, has often remarked of the days of his
early childhood, when the passenger pigeons would come in
with a whir equal to an airplane engine, and settle down In the
timber for the night, until the limbs were so heavy with the
birds that the trees would be left broken and splintered. . . .
'Course that sounds like a good many pigeons, but in a recent
issue of Newsweek magazine, we find more about thf birds. ...
Extinct for 40 years, Newsweek sa^, ''for countless centuries
their species made up one third of the entire bird population
of North America. . . . They were shot down with cannon's
grapeshot and encircled in their nests by grass fires, clubbed
down from their roosts, and taken alive by the hundreds of
thousands to become targets for trapshooters." ... By 1900 the
bird had disappeared.
SPACE FOB THE NON-SMOKERS
With the universal acceptance of cigarettes is all J
levels of society, a fellow comes forth with the notion
that special lounges should he provided in dining rooms
and other public places for thoao who don't engage in j:
the burning of the weed. . . . Which might bo a good
idea, since some people are sickened when the stalo
smoke is thick over the dinner plates. . . . And there,
should be a little alcove, where the wheezy pipe or the
rank cheroot may bo smoked by the hardier soul*. . . .
But it's funny how a reformed cigarette fiend always
makes such suggestions, and how the man whose ulcers
won't tolerate a toddy any more, is the toughest oppon
ent of John Barleycorn.
JIM BROWN . ; . AN OLD FRIEND GOES AWAY y.
This corner was sad<WnedPb? the death of on* of its life-long
friends the other day. . . . Jim Brown, kindly carpenter, went
home one day and failed to come back to the street ajong which
he had sojourned for so many years. ... A former member of.
the Graham evangelistic movement in this section, Jim had
studied for the ministry in the Moody School in Chicago, and '
followed his religious work for a number of years. . . . Generous,
friendly, and helpful, he esteemed his fellow man. . . . We shall
miss Jim's visits and the session^ in which we exchanged our
views on all matters of consequence. ... He had a wholesome
philosophy of life, a happy outlook, and made a lot of friends
along the way. ?
ODDS AND ENDS
The oldish citixoo was admiring the long rakish lines
of the high-powered automobile he'd bought, and we
chlded him about the gay new vehicle. . . . "Don't sup
pose I'll do a great deal of philandering? at my age,
but Td give a hundred dollars or so to be seriously
accused." . . . Continued cold weather said to have pre
vented much of the bean crop from coming up. . . . "
"Squinchy," our favorite word for describing some
thing skimpy or stingy or hopelessly inadequate.
And the continued aimless speculation about the College
Presidency on the eve of the meeting *f the board of
trustees. '
Washington Comments
By BOX WHITLEY
CONTEST. There's an 11-year
old boy in North Carolina who
want* Senator Scott to help him
win a bicycle.
The youth wrote the (Senator
and enclosed a contest blank from
the comic section of a Sunday pap
er that offers m prizes bicycles to
youngsters who name Arthur God
frey's new horse.
The contest has as first prtxe a
$0,000 college scholarship for the
person who submits the winning
name for the horse, but the Tar
heel youngster who wrote Scot
isn't interested in the scholarship
?Just a bicycle. A total of 600
bicycles will be given to runners
ap, and that's where the youth
wants to cash in.
"I'm going to write him and sug
gest a name," Scott said, "but I
want to think about it a while."
' Good names for bones, no
doubt, are hard to find.
POWER. Power easts a lot these
days? at least the poww that it
takes to rn the White House. The
White Rouse electric Mil usually
runs about |2?00 a month? which
amounts to over >30,000 a year.
Here are aome more interesting
facta and flgnrss about the White
House that have just been reveal
ed:
? takes abort ?MOO a year to
keep the WWte House pr??arly de
co rated with flowers, (mil and
plams.
Thirty-lour men and women
main op the domeitic staff of the
White Hodm and do all the house
keepia* chore*.
Laat year, these 34 pooplo took
care of the 828.943 visitor* who
toured the White House. This fig
ure does not include the Pres
ident's daily callers.
FOOD. The farmer's share of
the money you pay for food la still
dropping Out of every dollar apent
at the grocery store for food, the
farmer gets only 42 cento? the
smallest share since 1041. la 1952,
farmers were getting 47 coats of
each consumer's dollar. Last year
they were getting 49 cents.
Here's a hint as to who's getting
the dollars the farmers uaed to
ft 1 From the fall of 1963 to the
fall ef 1854 ? whitt farm income
was dropping? profits of food pro
cessors? after taxes ? rose more
than 17 par coat
FOWL. Hera's a tip for Demo
cratic Party members: if you are
planning to invite Democratic
Chairman Paul Butler to a rally or
dinner meeting, pick some dish
other than chicken It swim that
the chairman la allergic to fowl.
la 1880, oaly 3.2 per cent of
North Carolina's farms had elec
tricity; now 87 par cent have.