Newspapers / Watauga Democrat (Boone, N.C.) / March 26, 1959, edition 1 / Page 4
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"IT* baft* of oar government being the opinion of the people, the very first objective should be to keep that right, and mn it left to me to decide whether we should hive ? government with out newspapers, or newspapers without government, 1 should not hesitate a moment to chooae the latter. But Ishould mean that every 'man should receive these papers and be capable of reading them." ? Thomas Jefferson. BOONE, NORTH CA1 THURSDAY, tfm Rev. Dr. McLarty The Reverend Doctor Emmett K. Mc Larty, Sr., retired Methodist minister of the Western North Carolina Conference, who had occupied the top pulpits in the Methodist Church in this area, succumb ed Sunday in Asheville. The Boone Methodist Church was privileged to have Dr. McLarty for his last pastorate after the compelling and multiplying duties of the large churches had perhaps become too trying for his diminished strength. A scholarly gentleman, and a sermon izer of exceptional talents, Dr. McLarty was popular at the local church and among the members of other denomina tions, as for that matter. It seemed that the experiences of a long lifetime and his exceptionally fine academic train ing blended and mellowed in his ma tures years into a ministry of marked power and of compelling authority. Dr. McLarty radiated kindness, under standing and love for his neighbor as he occupied the pulpit, as he visited in the homes of the neighborhood and as he talked briefly with us at streetside as he hurried here and there, always with a mission ? of helpfulness, of love and human kindness. Whether he was bringing consolation to the bereaved or walking all the way through town to share some goodies with a baby girl he loved, and whose smile of approval he cherished, he was always the courtly gentleman, always the scho lar and the devout believer in our Blessed Lord and all His wonders. We are glad we knew Dr. McLarty as a friend, and by being a fairly un worthy parishioner of his. He lived a life of devotion to his fellowman and of service to the Omnipotent, which within itself provides his benediction. " Dangers Of Grass Fires The rapid ascent of the flames up Howard's Knob the other day, fed rather adequately by grass and other ground growth, demonstrated rather grimly the dangers of these fires, which travel re markably fast. Reports of other grass fires over the county are heard and we had the un happy experience of battling a grass and broom sage flame as it raced up our hill. Surprisingly it takes little to feed one of these grass fires as tinder dry as the earth's surface has been most of the time recently. And the flames multiply and spread like mad in areas where it seems there's not much of anything to burn. All of which means that we should all exercise the greatest precaution with outside fires. As a matter of fact, we believe one is supposed to apply to the county forester for a burning permit when it becomes necessary to kindle a blaze in open country. At any rate the torch shouldn't be applied to brush, or weed stalks from the vegetable garden until the country is visited by a rain. Outdoor fires are comparatively safe on a day when the terrain is wet. On the theory that a stitch in time saves nine, let's be doubly careful about our trash burning in these first days of spring, when the urge to get the premises in tip-top condition is strong, and when the refuse of the winter time is plentiful and unsightly. Grass fires can easily destroy homes and other buildings to say nothing of the havoc which is wrought annually by fires in woodland areas. Your forest fire wardens are doing a good Job. We owe them our full co operation in trying to contain the ravages of fire. Easter Customs The annual White House egg roll is a tame variation of an Easter custom that used to sweep the ancients off their feet. Nowadays the custom involves hordes of youngsters who converge on the Executive Mansion to send their egg bowling down the grassy slopes of the White House lawn. But in the days when England was as hardy as it was merry, people used to roll themselves down a hill! Research experts with The World Book Encyclopedia reveal that the Eng lish ? joyful over the return of spring and the Resurrection of Christ ? tumbled down Greenwich Hill at Easter. Eventually they tired of the sport ? or its accompanying bruises ? and sub stituted eggs. One reason why the egg comes in for such a beating is that traditionally it is a symbol of life from death ? the message of Easter. Just as the dead winter gives way to spring, the lifeless-looking egg produces the chick. The wearing of one's best garments on Easter Day, or actually the acquisition of a new wardrobe for the special event, to say nothing of the traditional Easter bonnet, perhaps dates to the ancient heathen Roman celebration of the Vernal Equinox, or the arrival of spring. Where the custom of tying the bunny rabbits into the Easter celebration came .from isn't clear. ? ? ? ? The average family ia said to pay the doctor $190 a year. That'll be real newa to the doctor. ? ? ? ? Either we're getting older or the commerci ala are getting ahorter. We can't make it from the aet to the refrigerator and back to the aet In time.? Billy Arthur. Crown Tax Would Be A Blow (Kiniton Daily Free Pren) A proposed one-cent crown tax for bottled ?oft drinks, which Is pending in the North Carolina General Assembly, would be grouty unfair to bottlera. Some of the smaller firms certainly would be hard pressed to stay In 1 ' . Many might actually be forced out of A reduction in the volume of sales would J reduce returns from other taxes now imposed on the Industry. It would actually kill the gooee that is laying a golden revenue egg for the State at present. When a penny was added to soft drink price* in 1887 it was a matter of economic necessity. The five-cent figure had prevailed for over half a century, despite the steadily rising trend of everything connected with the industry. The smaller companiea were being forced out of business and the larger ones had to invest more and more capital in rolling equipment, higher wages and overhead. As a matter of fact the number of bottlers in North Carolina dropped from 202 in IMS to a new low of 1M in January of 1900. That is a loaa of 83 firms in 11 years, which must be charged primarily to the high coat of doing badness with a "fixed" income product. The proposed crown tux would bo collectible U advance and would ftnatly inereaae the coot of operation*. Bottlers would have to add of thousands of toUars per shipment of to their present heavy capital invest merits Thi> would tend to freeze out the small operators, who are in the majority in the soft drink business throughout the Stat*. Local bottlers estimate the hike would boost the cost of a carload of crown a by some $72,000 to $75,000. Where this tax has been Imposed in other states the increase in price has cut down vol ume as much as 28 to 30 per cent Such a cut would materially reduce present Income taxes from bottlers. It would leave the State with a lower net return from income, franchise and Claas B taxes. The latter tax (class B) is im posed on machinery. Local planta pay up to $1,800 per annum in this levy alone. But the strongest argument against a crown tax is that it would be discriminatory. It would single out an industry which Is already reaching the point of dlminlahing returns on its thin profit margin and make it an even easier target for competition. Other food items In the range of five and six cents each. In cluding chewing gum, candy bars and the like, may reduce the site of the package and hold the price line. Soft drink bottlers cannot do this. Sponsors of this leglalation include Rep. Ed Keaop of Guilford County and Rep. Frank Snepp of Mecklenbarg. They and other legiala tors should be reminded that the tax ia un fair and discriminatory and should be killed. t. & mi . , Hi . ' i , i ten Message Of Rebirth " LEGISLATURES . . . ARE ALWAYS THE SAME " Assembly Is Always Jolted By Press By BILLY ARTHUR Over the yeari segsiom of the General Assembly have been jok ed and jolted in the state press. "Raleigh has a new gas works," the Wilson Advance reported in 18&?. "We had thought this ex penditure might have been dis pensed with until after adjourn ment of the legislature." In 1897 the Raleigh Chronicle quoted Gov. Daniel L. Russell a? saying: " Tis said there's nothing at all In a name; but Legislatures, you've noticed, are always the same. There's no Legislature, however stupid or green, that's not the ablest the State's ever seen. Given a herd of wild assea, all dullness and shoddy, call them 'Legislature,' and behold, a great body!" In 1892 the Statesvllle Record reported that in the assembly "about six out of every ten men you meet are office seekers. Those who are a little more advanced in mathematical problems, such as fractions, are seeking Federal ap pointments. And there are others who are a little advanced in edu cation and can sway the hand to and fro in their denunciation of the other fellow. They're running for governor. Others who have been through Webster's blue-back and York's grammar are for Con gress. Those who can speak the loudest and make the most noise are for the U. S. Senate, and those who can lead the people astray by their smooth sayings are candi dates for president and vice pres ident." Secrecy became a problem in 1903 when Col. Fred Olds of the Charlotte Observer was barred from the secretary of state's office "because Important business is go ing on in there." It was later learned the secretary was hiring a cook. Which reminds me of what Rep. Jim Speight of Bertie told the House appropriations committee during a secrecy discussion in 1983: "Several years ago I was riding over to the store at the crossroads near home. A pretty little city girl was visiting in the neighborhood. When I passed my neighbor's av enue leading to his house, she" ? was standing by his mail box wait ing for the mail. She was wearing a little strip of cloth about three or four inches wide across here, and about six inches around the middle there wasn't much secre cy "Wei, that horse of mine just naturally got slower and slower until he almost stopped. Just as I got even with the girl, she jump ed, slspped her leg and ssid, 'Darn that fly.' "I went on to the store. The next day about mail time I got to thinking about needing some plow points, so I saddled up my horse and started out again. When I got to my neighbor's mail box, she was there but this time she was dressed in a boy's' shirt, but toned up to the neck. And over alls that reached to the toes. I took one look at her and said, 'Darn those flies.' "There was entirely too much secrecy there; so I went on to the More. Secrecy though was not so bad, for the next time I didn't need to go to the store. I stayed home and got my work done." The '80 session is wrestling with taxes, but no newspaper yet has wailed as did the Raleigh Minerva in ltlfl: "Most honored sirs, I've read with wonder your list of taxes, blood and thunder! Prom head to foot, most worthy masters, your stick like mustard plasters. Egad! I never knew before the advantages of being poor! "Of watches, thank the Lord, I have none; so 1 hope you have not taxed the sun. I have no horses, but I have a mare too weak by half a tax to bear. I've no costly fine affairs as sideboards, tables, sofas and such like toys of wealthy fools. But, pray, have you laid a tax on stools? "I never deal In silver matters, but earthern bowls and pewter platters. If these you tax, I'll throw 'em away and eat upon a wooden tray. And if you tax my (Continued on page six) From Early Democra t Files Sixty Years Ago March SO, IBM Rev. L. C. Wilson of Hattie was In town Monday. Mrs. I. 3. Rambo of Mountain City la visiting her parents in Boone. Dr. Parlier says that the health of the people is now unusually good. Mrs. Rachel McBride, one of Watauga's oldest and most highly respected ladies, died on Cova Creek some day* ago. Mrs. Cora Couneill has gone to Asheville where she has accepted the oosition of housekeeper at the Hotel Burkeley. Mrs. Eola Rivers, relict of the late Dr. J. J. Rivers, of Watauga, was married in Taylorsville on Monday of last week to Mr. E. C. Sloan of that place. John S. Culler, standard keeper for Watauga county, asks us to say that all the weigKs and meas ures that have not been sealed within the last two years, must be sealed at once. Mrs. Klnie Gentry died at her home on the 20th inst. of fever, after an illness of several weeks. She leaves four little orphan chil dren, her husband having died last spring from injuries received from a threshing machine. Her brother, Mr. A. C. Grubb, has charge of U>a little ones. Now comes fun. The new school law ia to be tested in the courts. The county school officers are not willing to give up their positlona. Some of them have already writ ten to Raleigh saying they will not surrender when the new law goes into effect. The new law gee* into effect In April, does away with the county board of education and aa these officers are elected for three years those now in office have held only tw? years. They contend that the act it uncon stitutional and that they cannot be put out. The W. C. T. U. Meeting at Blowing Rock laat Friday was quite a success. Several new names were added to the list. Thirty-Nine Year* Ago March 25, 192* Mr. George M. Suddreth, who was appointed Clerk of the Su perior Court of Watauga County to succeed Mr. O. L. Coffey, resigned some time ago, refused to qualify and upon the recommendation of the local bar the appointment went to Mr. A. W. Smith of Mabel. It is good to see the automobiles spinning around again after their long isolation on account of mud. Mr. Carl Beach, who has been in the service of the United States Army on the Mexican border for nearly three years, was given a discharge on the 15th inst. and is now with his parents, Mr. and Mr*. A. W. Beach In Boone. He has not yet decided what he will do. Mr. J. S. Culler of ZlonviUe, who two years ago was stricken with paralysis, losing the use of one of his arms, is now suffering with drop?y or some kindred disease. Attorney W, R. Lovill returned from Statesville Tuesday where he had been visiting his son, James, at the Long Sanitarium, and re ports him slowly improving but still very weak. His operation for appendicitis was a vary serious one. Mrs. Thomas Cannon of the Blowing Rock section, died almost suddenly at her heme laat Satur day, heart trouble being the cause of her death. Mr. John H Simmons, son of James N. Simmons of Elk town ship, is added to last week's pttb lishnrt list of Watauga loaaes in i ??? . ' i the World W?r. The young nun died at Camp Lewis Washington. On last Monday loving hands placed to his memory a beautiful young tree, the first to be set In the plot of ground provided by the Training School. Mr. Dalton Watson, of Stony Fork, a respected citiien, died at his home last Saturday at the age of SO years. He leaves a wife and four sons, one of whom is a soldier stationed in Pennsylvania. Fifteen Years Ago March U, 1944 Roby T. Greer, Boone; Donley Hagaman, Reece, Democrats, and Russell D. Hodges of Boone, Re publican, again constitute the Watauga County Board of Elec tions, having been named Saturday by the State Board of Elections. For the first time in many year* the Republicans of the ninth Con gressional district face a primary fight to determine the man who will oppose Congressman Robert L. Doughton in the general election next November . . . Monroe Adams of Statesville and Emery C. McCall of Lenoir, have filed their candi dacies. Watt H. Gragg of Boone was nominated for Secretary of State by the Republicans assembled in State convention in Charlotte last Thursday at which time the mi nority party named a full slate of candidates for office and endorsed the candidacy of Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York for the Presidency. Dr. Robert R. King, who was to have sailed for Africa today, will remain here until perhaps the middle of April, it wu learned Monday. Joe Williams, seaman second claas, Anna polls, Md? is spending the week with relatives here. KING ^STREET r! : ? By ROB R/VERS ' f W Circuses . . . Ain't Like Hey Uftter Be Since Ring ling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Shows have quit the tented cities of other days and gone indoors Into a glorified sort of Sullivan show, we wish we'd have visited the sawdust rings more often in the dying days of one of America's greatest institutions of mirth and merriment . . . This is not to say that the indoor version of the circus isn't good ? many of those who've seen it are loud in their praise of the production,! which a* a result of typical circus-man ingenuity has accommodated itself to the changing times, and more especially to the changed labor conditions and capsuled its giant extravagaganza of entertainment into a package from which the owners might hope to extract a profit, after all the years of misfortune which had beset the greatest show on earth. It is likely that heretofore we have penned an ode to the smelly domain of the circus lot, and paid our respects to those who skippered the little wagon shows through the ruts and mud of other days to bring the only entertainment of the season to the hill people . . . And occasionally of course, pop would take the kids and go to Bristol or Johnson City or someplace else and see Ringling Brothers or Barnum and Bailey's Shows, or maybe have a look at John Robinson's Circus, where the ringmaster would always scream with prac ticed precision, "Mr. John Robinson presents. before every big show act, despite the fact that Mr. John Robinson had long since been gathered to his ancestors. We can look back to Teat Brothers Shows, James Shelby's New Shows, Cole and Cooper's Enormous Shows, M. L. Clark ft Sons Combined Shows, and the Mighty Haag Shows, and to the interminable wait between the appearance of the bill posters, and the arrival of the elephant maybe a month later ... At this time of year there was always a fair prospect that Haag's McGuire, or Clark's Clark (cousin to the owner) or some advance agent from another circus would heave into town late some afternoon driving a famished horse to a buggy filled with fancy lithographs, a couple of long-handled paste brushes riding on the running gears, and mix his cold-water paste down at the creek helow the Critcher bam, where all the kids in the neighborhood would gather to watch him get ready to plaster the Councill blacksmith shop and every barn in the neighborhood with pictures of man-eating tigers, over size elephants and dazzling women in pink tights performing in the tip-top of a giant tented arena . . . This advance agent knew what every kid wanted to know ... He could tell tales of animal trainers being torn to shreds down the road by an enraged bull elephant, of trjpese artists falling from out of the billowing folds of canvas a hundred feet to the ground, and of the mess they made. The youngsters would memorize the fliers the press agent gave out, and no amount of parental disbelief would shake our complete confidence in every single word of the circus publi city . . . And then the great day would dawn ... In those days of dirt roads, and no numbers, few signboards, and little travel, men would ride horseback ahead of the show, marking off side roads with streaks of flour to keep the circus wagons going right, and making a yhite streak across the road with proper indications fof a $0$^. And the lumbering elephants, and the great cages with the beasts and the loads of canvas and of tent poles and of stakes, and the straining horses, scourged to their last ounce of strength, would make their way into town, where folks had gathered for miles around to take in the show, mix with their friends, and hear from the circus people of the wonders beyond the rim of the hills. We wouldn't go back if we could, although a heap of pleasant things happened on the road back, but an old circus goer grows nostalgic when springtime comes, and the big show's gone inside and the lumbering wagons, and motor trucks and some old friends we had in the circus business have all grown silent together, and given up the blistering heat and the stormy nights on the muddy trails, and there's a new set of children who wouldn't dig the circus jive no way. Like the dodo and the surry, the mud pies and the t-model, the circus which was once a part and parcel of community life, has creaked to a halt, the canvas has rotted, and motels and fine homes and churches and schools occupy the old circus lots . . . But one doesn't have to be much of an old-timer to remember the old shows, and showmen, and the barkers and the hamburgers, the red lemonade, crackerjacks, prize' candy boxes, animals, faded spangles, and the bustle and joy and the commanding stink of the whole enterprise which pro vided a fairyland and an overflowing measure of joy and merriment. ?? . ? . f Uncle Pinkney HIS PAL AVE RUTS DEAR MISTER EDITOR: The boys up at the cod* try ?tore Saturday night was talking about the good old days and that brung up a argument about when the good old day* left off, and the modern days come along. Ed Doollttle aaid the good old days was when calico was five eent a yard, when all the grocery atom sold worm medicine, when diapers was made from rivaling flour sacks, corn sold fer 30 tent ? bushel, work shirts fer SO eent apiece, when folks almost died from taking calomel ever Spaing, when the wimmen knitted all the family socks. Them waa the days, allowed Ed. when country folks dtdnt eat nothing but sar dines, cheese and crackers when they went to town, when yoa al ways put two drops of turpintine In a dose of castor oil fer the kida, whan nails was used fer but tons nn your coat, and 110 waa all the doctor charged fer a baby and you didnt pay him that on- i til he come to deliver the next one. On the subject of doctors, one feller put in his pieee thM in the good old days a doctor al ways Wed a man wkan more'n likely he waa needing a tranafu fieti * ! i | There waa a big difference of opinion among the fellers as to when the modern days arrived. On* feller allowed a> how you could keep up with the Joneses in the old day* but now, erer time you eateh up with 'em, they refinance and get ahead of you again. He aaya the system of re financing was the beginning of the modern days, Personally, 1 think the new day got here when our deep thinkers got to putting "ation" onto everything. When, we got integration, segregation amalgamation, education, aaaocla< tion, fixation, allocation, and tax ation modern times come intc their own. At least, that's when folks started gitting a head; achation. And our new feller-eitlieni in Alaska would be mighty proud o the boya up at the store Saturday night. They aay Texans was Ih biggest liars In the Union til Alaska got In, and put together' I reckon they can field th world's championship team. We got some good prospect fer the team oat here. Fer h stant, one feller aaid he wi walking through a field of sm? pines last Pall when a rattl< snake hit at him, missed and M I im?n hlna f. * 1*1 ? J
Watauga Democrat (Boone, N.C.)
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March 26, 1959, edition 1
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