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.”