EDITORIALS:
OLD SALT HAS HIS SAY
When Adm. Arleigh Burke retired
from active duty, he left behind
some words of wisdom which, no doubt,
were stepping stones to his rise to the
highest post the Navy has to offer—
Chief of Naval Operations. Likewise,
his words could pave the way for others
to so ascend if they were followed.
“Boredom comes from lack of work,”
he once wrote. “Outline for yourself
work to do each day. Make sure that
you achieve something in your career
each day. Never let a day go by when
you don’t do something good—not for
yourself, but for somebody else and,
more importantly, for your Navy and
your country.”
The admiral won his nickname, “31
Knot Burke,” in World War II when he
commanded a Destroyer Squadron.
When the going was critical, he order
ed full steam ahead and, once commen
ted : “I only know that the enemy has
less chance of hitting you at 31 knots
or better than he does at slower
speeds.”
On punctuality, the 37-year veteran
observed : “It’s unforgivable to be early,
inexcusable to be late.”
And, “If anybody has a choice be
tween choosing an organization and
choosing people, they should choose
people and the organization will take
care of itself.”
“Lot’s of things money won’t buy.
Money won’t buy the loyalty of a dog
nor the love of a wrife.”
When asked if there would ever be
the ultimate weapon, the old salt re
plied :
“There’s no such thing as an ultimate
weapon, any more than there is an ulti
mate wife. People have been searching
for both for a long, long time. They
always find that they are not quite per
fect.
NO BETTER LURE
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Charlotte in October will have two ex
hibits which, we are certain, will not be
passed up by a single visitor. The word
from the Governor’s office says they
are going to serve fresh shrimp and
country ham biscuits. Could there be
two commodities more enticing? Pro
bably, the biggest problem will be wait
ing lines and quantity.
The North Carolina Fisheries associ
ation says it is planning to fly 200
pounds of fresh shrimp to the Queen
City every day during the Fair. The
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company and Maiden-Mooresville mills
will furnish the biscuit mixture. Both
items are to be served free.
It will all go to show what a variety
state old Tar Heelia .is. Ham comes
from all over, but only Coastal North
Carolina has shrimp. No doubt the
shrimp may turn out to be just the lure
to bring still more people from the up
state hills down to the coast to enjoy a
full course of the sample they get at
the Fair.
"GONE WITH THE WIND
The blacksmith shop and horeshoe
ing days had just about passed from
our memory until we saw an item about
a traveling: “smithy” down in Texas.
The Texas smithy carries his shop right
along with him in a pickup truck and
his specialty is shoeing horses and
mules. He goes to his customers; they
don’t come to him as was the custom in
other days.
Tractors and similar labor-saving de
vices have just about put the black
smith out of business. He is a victim of
the times. But where there are horses
and mules and people who love them,
the man in a split leather apron bearing
hammer, rasp and nippers is mighty im
portant.
Any grammar grade student can
quote that famous poem, “Under the
spreading chestnut tree . . .” but the
thrill is missing because he has never
seen the sparks that fly from the flam
ing forge.
Now the blacksmith has become a
machinist, a welder, and the bellows
that forced oxygen through flaming
coals has been succeeded by a push
button blower. He’s particular about
shaving every morning and the face
smudged with coal smoke is missing.
Saturday at yesterday’s blacksmith
shop was a long and busy day. Farmers
and lumber people came to towrn to
trade but getting their horses and
mules.shod was the first order of busi
ness. The smithy lifted a foot and tried
a shoe for size. Them back to the forge
to heat and shape the shoe. Nails were
specially molded and he drove them so
they’d come out through the outside of
the hoof. Then he’d twist them off be
tween the claws of his hammer and
smooth the jaggered ends with a coarse
file. All this while he held the hoof be
tween his legs.
Generally, shoes for horses were put
on flat but those for mules, work ani
mals, were shaped with an L at the
ends. This gave the mule more digging
in traction in rough country where the
ground was hard and rocky. Belliger
ent animals, the kicking and bucking
type, got the “twister” treatment. A
twister was a three-foot heavy stick
made of oak with a loop of rope thread
ed through a hole in one end. The
mule’s nose would be pulled through
the loop and the loop tightened about
his nose in a squeezing fashion. When
he got quiet the squeezing would stop
but it would be held firmly until the
shoeing was finished. If he refused to
let his foot be lifted, a rope was coiled
around the foot and carried around his
neck as a kind of lever to hoist the foot.
Danger attended the operation but old
timers wrent about the job with a cool
ness that put the would-be-shod at east.
Where did w'e get the term ? One was
a Smith and his work kept him black
dirty so he become “Blacksmith.”
McNamara making his mark
Secretary of Defense McNamara is
getting the reputation as “the success
story” of the Kennedy cabinet, observ
ers on the scene say. It is said that he
is making his mark in Washington and
particularly in his handling of the three
defense services—Army, Navy, and the
Air Force.
If Mr. McNamara succeeds in bring
ing the three services together in a
workable force, he will have come near
The State Port Pilot
Published Every Wednesday
Southport, N. C.
JAMES M. HARPER, JR. Editor
Sintered as second-class matter April 20, 1928
at the Post Office at Southport, N. C., and’
other Post Offices, under the Act
of March 3, 1879.
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
Brunswick and Adjoining Counties
and Service Men . $2.00 per year
Six Months . $1.50
Elsewhere in United States — $3.00
Per Year;—6 Months.. $2.00
er than any predecessor in making uni
fication work. It was just 14 years ago
that the Defense department was estab
lished. Its purpose was to place defense
activities under one head and prevent
another Pearl Harbor. But bickering,
jealousy and rivalry have been the
rule rather than the exception among
the Army, Navy and Air Force.
High blass in the three branches re
spect the views and intelligence of the
Secretary but, in the light of their ex
perience, they feel that he should ac
cede to their advice more closely than
^they to his decisions.
In any event, after some seven
months at the job, Mr. McNamara
seems to be exerting a control superior"
to that of his predecessors.
“One of the benefits of inflation is
that kids no longer get sick on a nick
el’s work of candy.”—Journeyman Bar
ber.
“One reason Americans won’t go
Communist is that when they hear the
shout, “Workers Arise,” they think it’s
time for the coffee break.”—Jack Wass
reman.
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Time and Tide
Continued From Page One
phine Moore, Greensboro College; Doris Harrelson, AC.C.; Mar
ion Frink, Lenoir-Rhyne; Malcolm Frink, Earl Bellamy and Neil
Thomas, U.N.C.; Edward Taylor, Davidson; and David Watson,
E.C.C.
Fifteen years ago this week the Waccamaw River project was
much in the news, and a headline in our issue for Sept. 11, 1946,
figured the benefits would “Mount Into Millions” if this proposed
work were carried out. Another major engineering project was
the proposal by residents at Carolina Beach to dredge another
ocean inlet.
The old McRacken home on the corner of Moore and Howe
streets had been sold and the house was to be removed. The sec
ond floor—including the “widow's walk” of the Morse home on
the waterfront was being torn down; sport fishing was good
again after a spell of bad weather; and some mixed-up pear
trees on the J. J. Knox farm near Lolrnd presented a strange
site, being loaded down with a combination of in-season fruit
and out-of-season blossoms.
Ten years ago this week Hall Waters, pilot of the spotter
plane for the Biunswick Navigation Co., and Capt. Monroe Pot
ter teamed to rescue a fisherman whose small boat had capsized
off Wrightsville. Waters had thrown a couple of life-jackets from
his plane to two men he saw floundering in the ocean, and when
he reported the situation to Potter by Way of radio telephone,
the latter was at the scene within a matter of minutes. One man
already was past the point of being revived.
This was a front page story in our issue for Sept. 5. 1951.
It was a bad week for water accidents, for one fisherman had
drowned off Shallotte Point when he fell overboard while troll
ing; and a Cerro Gordo man had been killed when he fell over
board from a shrimp trawler at Holden Beach. This had been
during the Labor Day weekend, which also had seen one highway
fatality, a murder and a rape case.
Five years ago this week a total of six sailfish had been
brought in by fishing parties in a single day, setting an all-time
record. Mrs. Betty Prevatte had been named tax collector, suc
ceeding M. D. Anderson in this position.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was requesting reports on
banded marsh hens that might be killed that fall in an effort to
check the migratory habits of these birds. David Adams, gradu
ate student at N. C. State, had spent the summer here banding
the birds. Bolivia Lions were planning a Livestock Show and
Sale on Saturday. A Southport chartei boat skipper had earned
the title of nautical good Samaritan when he dived overboard and
swam to a disabled boat owner by a Wilmington party and lying
helpless of Balcihead Island. And, having accomplished his mis
sion, the mechanical-minded captain had swam back to his own
craft.
Letters To
Editor
Editor,
State Port Pilot
Dear Sir:
The enclosed check for $3.00
is for renewal of my subscription
to “The Pilot’’ which keeps me
up to date on the happenings of
the county in which I have a home
away from my regular home.
I read with great interest the
many changes that are being
made at Tranquil Harbour and
elsewhere in that section of the
state.
I love the quietness, natural set
tings, including rest, at my home
at the “Harbour”. It turned out
to be far greater than I expected
it to be when I bought the lot
and built a house there.
Best regards to you and my
other friends down there.
Sincerely,
F. M. Aycock, M. D.
Princeton
State Port Pilot,
Southport, N. C.
Dear Editor:
It was with very much pleasure
that I read your editorial in the
August 9th. State Port Pilot, with
reference to Senator Sam Ervin.
I hope “ you will keep this up
because your influence in his di
rection will go a long way toward
keeping a good, acpable man as
our senator. If their ever was a
time that we need a man of the
caliber of Senator Sam, it is now.
I shall do what I can to support
him.
Whilst I am about this letter I
should like to mention another
subject about which we all need
to be concerned, and that is:
creeping socialism and increasing
federal patronage. We need, down
here in this country, some more
“Newburg Mayors”, it seems to
me. I believe in helping others
less fortunate to help themselves
but I do not think they ought to
be paid to do nothing. By way of
a different expression, it looks
like the day has come for the
AMBULANCE “gJJ Ph. GL 7-6161
GILBERT'S FUNERAL SERVICE
GILBERT'S MUTUAL BURIAL ASSOCIATION
P.O. BOX 94 SOUTHPORT, N. C.
sloven, careless, illiterate and in
competant persons to demand
wages and opportunities handed
to them far beyond their ability
to manage or earn such things.
This trend seems to be world
wide and I do not oppose the en
lightenment and betterment of all
peoples, but I think we are work
ing on the wrong end of the han
dle. The taxing of the energies
and wealth of those who are will
ing and able to be industrious
enough to lift themselves up
should not be allowed to be poured
down any rathole, be they foreign
or domestic.
I do not profess to have the
solution to these kinds of prob
lems but I believe, that part of
the answer could be obtained by
sticking to such men as our genial
Senator Ervin.
Yours very truly,
W. G. Butler
Fayetteville, N. C.
Not Exactly News
mm . .
One of the finest tributes we have heard paid the Brunswick
County Library Service came this week from a couple of Raleigh
girls who spent the summer at the family cottage at one of the
nearby beaches. "Guess we'll go back to looking at television
next week,” one of them said, " and I sort of hate it. I have en
joyed so much the good reading I have been able to do for the
past few weeks without distraction. I really have taken advan
tage of your library service, and I never cease to be amazed at
how good it is.” . . . Some of the biggest menhaden catches of
the season have come in during thepast few days, and the tell
tale blowing in the river must have caused visitors to wonder
what was . going on. The boats usually have come in late in the
afternoon, and each night they have set out for the fishing
grounds at about 10 o’clock. Seems to us the men in the crew
deserved the good luck they were enjoying.
Several weeks ago we heard a lady say that she hated to see
crepe myrtle in bloom, for to her it meant that summer was al
most gone. Now we know why: This must be the longest-lasting
blossom we see in this part of the country, because crepe myrtle
trees still are the most spectacular flower in evidence right now
in Brunswick . . . And there are other signs of autumn, like the
maple leaves that are beginning to turn.
This morning there was a haze on the river, and that, too, re
minded us of fall. But as we rode toward Supply the haze turned
to fog, and pretty soon we met Fats Cumbee coming down the
road in the mail bus, with headlights burning. We decided that .
it must be worse up ahead, so we followed his example an€&
switched on our own lights . . . That reminds us that during the
holiday weekend driving with headlights burning day and night
evidently helped the traffic fatality score, because it was lesSi
than had been predicted for North Carolina. But the drain on
batteries took its toll, as witness the fact that Sunday morning
after church we saw two cars that had to be pushed off.
Highlight of television entertainment this week will be the
Miss America Pageant Saturday night. Last year when Ann Her
ing was representing North Carolina there was an unusual
amount of interest. This year, however, Brunswick county resi
dents have been made more pageant conscious than ever because
of the fine program carried out in this county by the Shallotte
Jaycees . . . Incidentally, President David Gause told us this
week that the budget for the series of Brunswick county page
ants came to $2,500. He added that plans already are underway
for next year’s event. . .
Thunder showers in the early afternoon Sunday did two things
to the regular water skiing schedule: 1. It kept a lot of local
boats from making their rendezvous. at the Yellow Banks: 2. It
quieted the rough water in the river so that late in the afternoon
there was a revival of the ski show in the Southport harbor. . . .
On the movie front, "The Sundowners” is playing this weekend
at the Amuzu in Southport . . . At Holiday Drive-In they have
“The Naked Edge” playing Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday of next
week—and it’s a good one!
READ THE WANT ADS.
ONE OF WILMINGTON’S LARGEST AND MOST
MODERN FURNITURE STORES SERVING
BRUNSWICK COUNTY.
L. SCHWARTZ FURNITURE CO.
“Your Credit Is Good”
713 N. 4th St. WILMINGTON, N. C.
Deposits Made On Or Before
September 10th Will Earn
Dividends From Sept. 1st.
Save It Steady...
Have It Ready!
Southport Savings & Loan Asso.
W. P. JORGENSEN, Sec’y-Treas. SOUTHPORT, N. C.