North Carolina Newspapers

Page Two The Chapel Hill Weekly Chape] Hill North Carolina 12S E. Ba«f Telephone $-1271 or Pabltshed Tpesdat and Friday By The Chapel Hill Pabliekinr Company, J»t. Lons G«a - .xs Conmb«Jtnp Editor Jo£ Jones Stanagme Editor Bru.v Agree* Associate Editor Ow.tloe Cavtoxu. Cw’i y.zncgr- O T Watxxvs .... Aarr*T-r.nc Di-eet-cr* Chaulton Campseu. Mechanics; Sup: tairr« i! nccnd-cUor ” Fr -,i: Si IVZ- it tfc* poilotixf »• Chart Hill Nortf Carotr-j -.rxler tft« art of Marc- j. ;r~. subscription rates It Orang* Cocr.ty, Year _ - s4.C<t (6 months $2-25. c month.* $1 Bf>i Oou-A of Orar.gt County by tec ear S:*:* of N C., Vi., and S. C ' 4-50 Other State* »r.c bit: of Co.um’i* 600 Cataci. Mexico South America 7.00 Europe 7.50 The ( uimination of a Career Archibald Henderson determined to be a mathematician when he was still ar undergraduate her- in *hc- Univer sity. His first schoia-tio distinction was the winning of a mathematics prize. He took his Ph. D. degree m mathematics. He started as an instructor and rose through aii the ranks and he had served fifty years and wa.-. head of the mathe matic- department when he retired in 194fe at the age .of Tl. . But 'for all that most 7>eopie' know about his career it has not been in mathematics. That is for the simple reason that oniy an infinitesimal frac tion of the population can understand his mathematical treatises such as “The Twenty-Seven Lines upon the Cubic Surface,” while anybody can under stand the writings in other fields that he has turned out in tremendous vol ume. There is a story about Queen Vic toria that can pardonably be retold here because it is so old that most of my readers have never heard it and those who have heard it are sure not to mind bearing it again. This is it: The Queen, having been charmed with “Alice in Wonderland,” commanded that the au thor, Lewis Carroll, be presented to her, In the course of their talk she asked that he send her a copy of his next book. If she had ever been informed that he was a professor of mathematics she had forgotten it, and naturally she expected something with the same fla vor as “Alice.” The book delivered to her soon afterward was “A Theory of Determinants.” It was all mathematical and so, of course, when she opened it and saw the pages of mystical symbols A Sonnet Inspired by a Skyscraper Dear Louis Graves: The Horten.se Flexner poem on the United Nations Building reminded me of a similar—and not so good— one I wrote in the early 1930*8, when the Chrysler Building was going up. From my New York office window day by day I saw the steel framework rise. The Empire State Building was: be ing put up at the same time, and there wa<- more than cursory interest in how the two buildings would be topped. The architect’s solution, of the Chrysler problem intrigued me, arid I worked out the inclosed sonnet. Having written it, and with pleasure in the exactness; of composition called for by the form, I filed it carefully away; after some twenty-five years I have now dug it out. It may interest you as another exam ple of how skyscrapers may have un expected by-products. Yours sincerely Robert M. Lester To the Architect of the Chrysler Building Beyond your task to build a place for man To do his daily work, much you have wrought; A peak on tapering domes, how clear a plan Os aim and state of struggling human thought! On him below who treads the clanging ways And sees blue sky upon your spire im paled You wield a goad: he wills to live his days Above the walls by fate and chance en tailed. Bold hopes then rise upon an earthly base, Their plan, straight paths by which to reach what’s hid, But frenzied life and nature’s charming face Deflect the lines: an arch, no pyramid. No building, this, where men may for tunes find, But, drawn in steel, a chart for human ndad. she was utterly bewildered. Nowhere to be seen was a line of that Queen’s Eng lish she had been given to understand adorned all the books in the Queen's realm! . Substitute the reading public for Queer. Victoria in the story , ar.d books and articles about George Bernard Shaw for “Alice in Wonderland.’’ and you have ir Archibald Henderson a figure parallel to Lev.;- Carrol! as a winner of far greater fame in a pursuit adopted as ar, afterthought than came to him hi- original profession. Thus it i- pr ;“-r u call the appearance of “George Bernard Shav. : Man of The Century" the culmination of Archibald Henderson’s career. The book contains 969 pages of type, including Preface and Index, and aboim U"i page- of pictures. There are chapters: “A Hazard of New Fortune.-." aboim Shaw s ancestry, hi.- birth in Ire land. hi- childhood and -chooiing. and hi.- move to London . . “Cultural Ex plorations.” about his writing of novels, hi.- entrance .nto politic- and his music m'.' . n. . . "Fabian.-n , .*&Mk#he Social Upheaval.’ influenc* of the- American, Henry G<- rge upon him, his social;.-tic e--ay-, delivering street corner orations, hi.- acquaintance with H. G. Wells, and his “search for 7 top,a". . . ".Shaw and tp<- Webbs,” t 'hi rresponderici r a oci ation with Sidney and Beatrice Webb... "The Dramatist to the Fore about his. drama criticism, the impact of Ibsenism upon him. the beginning of his writing of plays, and his difficulties, with cen sorship .... “Early Successes,” about the production of “The Devil s Disciple,’ "Candida.” “Arms arid the Man,” and “You Never Can Tell” .... "The Dramas,” about his collaboration with William Archer, his “dramas; of man’s ascent,” his new interest in the social struggle, his comments on dictators and billionaires .... “Shaw’* Way with a Play,” about him as actor, director, and producer, his mastery of stagecraft, his remarks about Shakespeare, and the in fluence upon him of Bunyan, Dickens, and Moliere .... “Mode! for a Super man,” about various of his qualities, his temperament and personality, his friendships, arid his “faiths, fads, and vagaries” .... “The End of the Begin ning.” (Many of the topics are not named here. There are 65 sub-headings.) J haven t had time yet to read much of the book but I have read enough passages, to know that I ami going to be intensely interested in it from start to finish, and I predict the same keen satisfaction for everybody who reads it. (rs course it will have its special appeals for specialists, but I am thinking about its appeal to the general reader, to the man or woman who wants a complete biography of one of the greatest figures in all literature, written in a lively style, with ari abundance of well selected anec dotes, and rich in letters and statements from Shaw? and his friends about all manner of subjects. Friends of Henderson’s everywhere will be peculiarly interested in his Pre face because it is there that he tells of personal associations with .Shaw from the time he wrote his first letter to him in 1904 till shortly before his death in 1950. One of the most entertaining passages in the book is Shaw’s reply, re produced almost in full, to that first letter. Then came postcards at long inter vals. The one written in January 1905 said: “I had hoped to send you a letter by this post, but it is not yet finished; I have only arrived at the 41st page, so when it comes it will keep you busy for some time. If this business is to come off, we may as well do it thoroughly. Have you a spare photograph of your self? I should like very much to see you. Failing that, your picture would be a help.” It was in response to this invitation that “the young would-be biographer” (as he called himself) Bent his photo graph to Shaw and later went to Lon don to have a series of interviews with him. # A year before the trip to London he received this reply from Shaw to a letter with which he ha(F#ent the drafts of several chapters of the coming bi ography: “I received your manuscript just as I was starting for Paris to sit to Rodin. So I sent it to the typist’s to be copied and have since kept the two copies in different houses, to reduce the risk of loss by fire, etc. I shall presently send you back the original, but I shall work THE CHAPEL HILL WEEKLY Chapel Hill Chaff (Continued from Paxe 1) could well be described in some such phrase as you see in crime stories; for example. House of Mystery. Not that it is dark and and scowling like Charles Addams’s famous dwelling ijn*he New Yorker. Its style of architecture is cheerful and it is kept in good con dition. But there is always something of a sinister fla vor about a deserted house. I have just learned from a University official that this era s'»on coming to an • mi. Whatever repairs and renovations are needed are about to begin, and Presi dent Friday and his family ar* i-xpected to move in by Christma- or soon after. * * * * Roulhai Hamilton and I use-: to meet in the post of fice lobby a few minutes befort midnight when we went to get our mail. Nowywe tree* tv > hours earlier because the U. S' (/< emmgr.t has r.ri-red the lobby closed at 10 o’clock. Three or four right.- ago, after he had slammed r. lockbox shut, he said: “I don’t know why I keep on coming here—l don't get any mail.” With him a* with me, maybe it’s the same old story: hope springs eternal in the human breast. Who knows but that anybody will find a letter from a lawyer in Texas informing him that a cousin he never heard of before has. bequeathed him a flock of oil wells? Or something else equally miraculous? But no: more likely, continuing to go to the post of fice at night is just a matter of habit, like getting up in the morning or going to work or eating dinner or doing ••’ring else according to schedule. It used to be that a large par. of the population of the village came to the post office at mail time to enjoy a social gathering. Nowadays the lockbox holders strag gle in at any old time. I hope Roulhac Hamilton won’t stop coming at night: I enjoy having his company though itV only for a few minuter He says the lobby-closing hour doesn’t mean any inconvenience to him, and it doesn’t to me. either. I wonder if it does, to the other two men who used to come to the post office at night, Benjamin Swalin and Edgar R. Rankin? I don’t see.- them there as: often a- I did when the lobby closed at midnight. ! nmv into My iiurdvn By Mrs. L. L. Huffman It it becoming very popular to grow a vegetable plot even on the emailest city lot Why do we want to grow vege table* ? In the firrt place, they have a better flavor when picked fresh from the garden. They lose no vitamins, and they save the cost of buying something fresh for the table. From fresh vegetables we get thiamin, riboflavin, calci um, and iroif, ail of which we need to make “brain ar.d brawn.” A very small patch of mixed greens will give us good eating throughout the winter. greens arc especially wi I supplied with iron content when picked fresh from the garden. Cabbage and eoliard plants ran be set now, in soil well supplied with organic matter, such as barnyard manure arid leaf mold. Onion sets ran go in the ground. Sugar peas are hardy ar.d can \* j planted now ar.d will produce much earlier next spring. Prepare soil in rows, by mix ing leafmold and rotted barr yard manure with it, rake on th<- typed copy and correct it. It is a remarkable work; but there is no use being in a hurry about it, as it will im prove in value every day. I have a bib liography, a genealogy and deuce knows what not for it. You must come over and see me some time or other.” Henderson’s trip to I/mdon took place in 1907. Formally constituted by Shaw his authorized biographer, he published “George Bernard Shaw; “His Life and Works” in 1911, "Table Talk of G. 8.5.” in 1925, “Bernard Shaw : Playboy and Prophet” in 1932, and other books and articles about Shaw. With the arrival of the day of publi cation of “George Bernard Shaw: Man of the Century,” November 15, 1956, constituting myself the spokesman of the people of Chapel If ill (authorized by nobody but myself but confident I am speaking with the approval of all) I convey to Archibald Henderson our hearts full of esteem and good wishes. —L. G. Don’t Be a Sucker Every time we turn around we seem to be on somebody’s sucker list. If it isn’t a piece of third-class mail asking us to subscribe to a magazine or to buy a necktie hand-made by a Pueblo In dian, it’s a plea for a contribution to a worthy cause. Sometimes we wonder if it’ll ever end. But at other time we think. And when we do that we realize we ought to be thankful to those of our fellow citizens who have unselfishly volunteered to give their time and effort to so pester us. And that there are worthy causes we ought to be thankful we are asked to contribute to. Such a fellow citizen is Jim Davis, and such a cause is the annual TB > rr.oothly ori top, ar.d plant beet ano carrot see/ln. They demand ver. light, loose and rich soil rich in organic matter, and when you grow them like this you w.ll be delighted wi*h their < risp freshness. Make a special well prepared bed and now a mixture of kale, mustard, rape, spinach, tur r.ip, tender green and lettuce seed* In a few week* you car. a delicious tossed salad, and "greens” for cooking If you have never grown vege table- . just try this once and you will lie amazed at >our Kucce-*! Set a row of strawberry plarita even though you have to edge „ flower bed with them. That is. just what I did iast year ar.d we picked a few berr.es every day last summer Dig into the boil home old well rotted manure or leafmold Mulch around plants and not over them with pine straw < needles; or buckwheat hulls. Plant some dwarf fruit trees at intervals around the back lot. They pay big dividends, in shade, beauty and fruit A Book Reviews By Robert Bartholomew THE- MAN WHO LIVED TWICE: THE BIOGRAPHY OF EDWARD SHELDON. By Eric Wol'encott Barnes. Charles Scribner'.- Sons. New Y’ork. 3G7 pp. $5.00 a , Ar. excellent introductory chapter to this work has been written by Anne Morrow Lind bergh, which previously ap peared in The Reader's Digest. Edward She-don enchanted thousands with his plays ail over the world. ‘‘Salvation S "The High Road" and "Romance" were dramatic ma.- terp.o es However, his great est triumphant jyas. over h:.- Paraiyzed, bedridden and b..rr; f r over 20 year-, he was. a leader of the New York ir.t* iectual world. From 1910 ur.t . h death in 1940 he -way a iivtr.g legend in the theater. Ned, a- he was affectionate ly called, ass rded all who knew him a revelation of the poten tial:’.,e- 1 f the human spirit. ll.s bedside became the focal point it. a widespread network of human lives. There he di • ■ profit v.-e • playwrights-"fend play er-.,js,and novelist, comfort to h jmar, being- in sorrow ancT trouble and fresh courage to everyone who came within the orbit of Jii.- personality. To that bedside were drawn maty of the great of our time fr- rn a walk- of life in many lar, :- There also came friends le-s noted, men and women, o,d s.o : young.-for mere celebrity was never a pas-port to Ned's heart. The life of Edward Sheldon leaves you with a warm feeling inside and a realization that your own troubles: arc minor ones. * * * RUSSIA WITHOUT STALIN: THE EMERGING PATTERN. By Edward Urankshaw. The Viking Press, Inc. New York. 204 pp $2.75. The author is; no new stu dent of Russia affairs. In 1941 he wrote “Russian and the Russians” followed by “Cracks in the Kremlin Wal.” in 1951. In the current work he makes a survey of agricultural fail ure- and industrial successes, j jvrTrpje asdiri'joer.cy, the state of theUdOireh, the personalities of th<9 men in power arid nu merous other aspects of Rus sia today. The most interesting and in formative parts of the book concerns the youth of Russia now that .Stalin has been dis credited For the young brought up to believe a! their lives in Stalin as, the grea’, the iri falliable tear her arid leader, friend of rnir.e has ar, apricot tree at the edge of her back lawn It ir 20 years old, has never been sprayed or fed, and it produces abundant fruit ev ery year. She ha- plenty to eat fresh from the tree, to ran, to preserve, arid to give away. Another friend with a -mall garden has canned 75 quarts: of apples from her one tiee Christma:-. Sea) Sale now being staged under his chairmanship. Through the help of the.se little pen ny-apiece .seals, tremendous blows have been delivered against, tuberculosis. These are not enough. One out of every three persons still carries tubercular baccili, and the trend is that more peo ple over 40 are being affected by the disease. So don’t feel you’re on another suck er list when you receive your Christmas seals in the mail. Because, at the last mark-up, you yourself might be a suck er. A sucker on TB’s list. It’s Up to the Courts <Asheville Citizen) It is pretty generally agreed that the answer to the highway speeding men ace be it drag racing or otherwise— lies with the courts and it is equally true that the great majority of our judges have failed to furnish the an swer. Refreshing and hopeful, then, is the attitude shown and action taken last week by Superior Court Judge J. Frank Buskins when he sentenced a fifth of fender to six months on the road for speeding at more than 100 miles per hour. "Jail or the roads,” is the motto of the judge who belittled the idea of set ting up legalized drag strips. Said Judge Huskins: "That’s just like providing a practice murder place that would cut down on murders by letting them get it out of their systems.” The only thing that will curb the evil, Judge Huskins said, is "for juries to have the intestinal fortitude to convict them (the drivers) and the courts to put them on the roads.” —= f Like Chappi Hill Whenever I see no one around the Bank of Chapel Hill s drive-up teller window, I sneak up in front of the thing and yell into the microphone. It is sensitive enough to pick up normal voices from a car and carry them inside to Paul Lytle. Therefore, when I yell, the sound just about knocks him out of the place. Therefore, when I saw no one around Monday morn ing, 1 crept alongside the building and hollered. No response. So I gave out with an even louder call. no response. Therefore, I took a deep breath and really screamed. At that very moment it dawned on me that no one was in the receiving station, because Monday was a bank holiday. Disgusted, I turned and started away and then saw the Town of Chapel Hill garbage truck boys looking straight at me as if thinking to themselves: What’s the matter with that fellow? Is h/nuts? Had we better call a psychiatrist to get an explanation why some squatty individual would be yelling into an unoccupied building from an empty parking lot? I didn’t run away, but I felt like it. * • * * Bill Thompson observes 4hat this is a big month for the banks—three holidays "Election Day, Veterans Day, and Thank-giving. * * * * Bill Hobbs saw a lone brant circling over Clark’s Ser vice Station Monday morning, and became fascinated with its circling and circling. Suddenly he saw it strike one of the power lines and fall to the earth. Bill rushed to it, discovered its neck had been broken in the collision. So, Sir William, who’s fond of wild game, took the bird home, dressed it and plans to have it for dinner soon. “I can't explain what it was doing out there,” he says, “unless it was about to stop at the filling station and ask for a road map.” * * * * Mrs. Louise Lamont found this ad in the current sue of the N. C. Agricultural Review: "WILL TRADE: Used lavatory and commode, with all fittings, good condition; for beef type cow or top bird dog. J. Forest Mt. Vernon Springs. Phone 3333. (Chatham)” *" * • • * Bob Bartholomew owns the only automobile in which the anti freeze represents six per cent of the cost of the auto. The car cost him SIOO, and it cost $6 to have it filled with anti-freeze. * * * * Look at a three-cent stamp. Its usefulness depends on sticking to one thing till it gets there. * * * * People who have 10 minutes*to spar«*go bother those who don’t the shock /nus.t have been pro found and at the same time complex in its effect. The en tire effect of this major change has not had time to show fully, the author believes. The book is well illustrated with political cartoons from the Russian press and carries many news stories from the press of the Russian news papers Don’t think the Rus sians are below having a bit of good natured fun at the expense of their government, some of the political cartoons reproduced here would do cred it to Unblock. Highly recommended. * ♦ * GEORGIA’S LAND OF THE OOI.DEN ISLES. By Burnette Varistory. The University of Georgia Pres- Athens, Ga. 202 pp $2.75. The mainland of Georgia is separated fiorn the Atlantic Ocean by a chain of barrier i- lands. These islands:, scat tered along nearly 150 miles of coastland, are known as the Golden Isles. Os these, Ossa baw, St. Catherine's, Sapelo, St. Simons, Sea Island, Jekyli and Cumberland are the best known. This story begins with Ossa baw and ends with Cumber land, taking into account the towns of Darien, Midway, Old Sanbury, Brunswick and St. Mary’s together with the coast al plantations. The author traces the historical and eco nomic developments and de scribes in graphic detail the life of the people. Mrs. Vanstory has traced the history of the islands in lively text and pictures from the early times, through the plantation era and to the pres ent day. Blue Monday (Goldnboro Newa-Argua A pharmacist friend tells us that Monday is always blue Monday at the drug store. fin that day the prescrip tions floor! in at a rate some times twice that of any other day in the week. The ailing ones send in their old prescrip HOME OP CHOICE CHARCOAL BROILED HICKORY SMOKED STEAKS—FLAMING SHISK EB AB—BUFFET EVERY SUNDAY Friday, November 16, 1956 tions to be filled again. Along with them comes a flood of new prescriptions' from folks who have spent mornings or after noons at their doctor’s. Explanation for Monday be ing blue Monday at the drug store lies in the Sunday break from the workaday world. Give many of us 24 or 48 hours with no routine, no task, no respon sibility, and we turn in upon ourselves. The suspicion of a palpitating heart we wouldn't notice if we were at work grows into a certain conviction. Not only is the idle brain the Devil's workshop, it is the place where groundless feuirs are bred. T raffic Suggestion The following comments about the traffic lights at the Post Office corner are from a reader who identifies hirnself as a motorist who drives through that intersection an average once a day and a pedestrian who crosses Franklin Street at the Post Office once or twice a day: “I find it difficult to under stand the town’s policy of ar bitrarily changing the light at this intersection to a yellow blinker during daylight or early evening hours. For example, Sunday morning when the church traffic is veiy heavy in both directions, it is quite difficult for a pedestrian to cross over from th<- campus. The same thing is true even on University holidays and during vacation period?. “Since our motorists are about the most ir/onsiderate 1 have ever seen (not excluding myself), it is very hard for a pedestrian to cross when he is totally dependent on the good will (and law abiding in stincts) of drivers. Likewise, this situation puts a burden on the driver's conscience that can easily be removed by keeping the lights working the way they’re supposed to—at least until the late hour when the other lights are changed to yel low blinkers.”