PAGE SIXTEEN
THE PILOT—Southern Pines, North Carolina
PINEHURST NEWS
By MARY EVELYN de NISSOFF
Honors Engaged Couple
Mrs. Henry H. Harper enter
tained Sunday afternoon at Lin
den House honoring Mrs. W. A.
Wright and her fiance, J. Stephen
Becker of Baltimore, Md., who
plan to be married August 1 in
Washington, D. C.
Birth Announcements
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Henry J.
Wilson, a son, Stephen Wheeler,
on June 17 at Odessa, Texas. This
is their first child. Mrs. Wilson is
the former Dorothy Cheney,
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. T. P.
Cheney who are presently in
Odessa.
Mr. and Mrs. Donald C. Miller
announce the birth of a daughter,
born Tuesday at St. Joseph-of-
the-Pi'nes Hospital. They have a
son, Donald, and a daughter,
Judy.
Born, to Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd
P. Tate, a daughter, Nela Cannon,
two weeks ago at the hospital
in Blowing Rock. They have a
son Jock and a daughter Kathy.
Brief Mention
Alfred S. Bourne, who has been
visiting his daughter and son-in-
law. Mr. and Mrs. John von
Schlegell, for ten days, has re
turned to his home in New York
City. Mrs. von Schlegell’s son, Al
fred Smith, left Tuesday for Camp
Susquehannock at Brackney, Pa.*
where he will be until August 28.
Pvt. Edmonde “Corky” Buck
minster has completed his course
at Disaplinary Guard School, and
has been stationed at Aberdeen
Proving Grounds in Maryland.
Capt. and Mrs. George H.
Browne spent this week with her
mother, Mrs. Cabot McMullen, on
their way from Newport, R. I., to
Norfolk, Va., where they will be
stationed.
THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 1955
VACATIONING!
THE SHEARWOOD TRAVEL SERVICE
Will Be Closed
July 2-9 Inclusive
REOPENING JULY 77
Service
Shearwood Travel
PINEHURST. N. C.
Mr! and Mrs. William C. Sledge
returned Sunday from a wedding
trip on Cape Cod, and are occupy
ing an apartment at Mystic Cot
tage. Mr. Sledge is employed at
the General Office of Pinehurst,
Incorporated.
Mrs. Thomas C. Lyons of
Scranton, Pa., is visiting her son
and daughter-in-law, Mr. and
Mrs. Milton A. Lyons, at their
Midland Road home. Mr. Lyons
attended a meeting of National
Homes, Inc., Thursday • at the
John Marshall Hotel in Richmond,
Va.
SHOP THIS WEEK
—at—
TOTS’ TOGGERY
—and—
MRS. HAYES SHOP
We will be closed
week of July 11th
\
Lt. and Mrs. Colin McKenzie,
Jr., and their small son, Seawell,
who have been visiting Lt. Mc
Kenzie’s parents here, have gone
to Fort Bragg where he is sta
tioned.
J. W. “Mike” Pierce returned
home Sunday from a month at
Camp Morehead at Morehead
City, where he was a junior coun
selor. He left Wednesday for a
visit in Blowing Rock with his
uncle, F. C. Page, Jr., and his
family.
Mrs. George Bishoff of Ant
werp, Ohio, is spending a month
here with her daughter and son-
in-law, Mr. and Mrs. James E.
Gilbert.
Mrs. S. A. Hennessee and her
daughters, Mrs. John Barry and
Mrs. C. A. Huntley, and their
children Johnny Barry and Andy
and Tommy Huntley, leave Sun
day for a month at Myrtle Beach,
S. C.
Mrs. Washington Innes-Taylor
and her sister-in-law, Mrs. Rob
ert Washington, and Robert
Washington, Jr., left yesterday to
return to Fredericksburg, Va.,
after a week’s stay with Mrs.
Hargrave Vail.
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Gouger
have as their house guests Mrs.
N. I. Sloan, and her two daugh
ters Ursula and Vivien Douglass,
and Miss Margaret Courtner, aU
of Oklahoma City, Okla.
Belinda Gilbert and Linda Hin
son are spending a fortnight at
Camp Keyauwee near Sophia, N.
C.
Misses Nancy Campbell of
Asheville and Frances Campbell
of Chapel Hill are spending this
weekend with their parents, Mr.
and Mrs. Herman A. Campbell.
Calvert Wilson, Former Resident Of
Southern Pines, Dies In California
Succumbs In Desert
While Seeking Help
For Stranded Group
Calvert Wilson, 49, formerly of
Southern Pines, died an agoniz
ing but heroic death last week in
the burning sands of California’s
Mojave Desert.
According to inforrnation reach
ing his parents, Mr. and Mrs.
Frank H. Wilson, Saturday, and
ensuing press dispatches, he was
one of a party of four men which
went out Wednesday across the
desert on a journey which was to
have taken a half a day, to survey
some land for possible develop
ment.
Their four-wheel drive jeep
bogged down in shifting sands, in
120-degree heat. They decided to
Wait until nightfall for cooler
digging weather. They they dis
covered their differential had
broken, and they would not be
able to drive out.
They had brought water in
bags, but no food. Wilson, who
knew some celestial navigation,
offered tO' try to make his way
across the desert to seek aid for
them all. He planned to follow
the stars to a highway about 15
miles away. He did not make it.
The other three men, one dead,
the others nearly so, were discov
ered by the pilot of a private
plane near the broken-down jeep
Friday. Tljey were brought to
Twentynine Palms, near the edge
of the desert, in a helicopter from
nearby March Air Force Base.
A search party discovered the
body of Wilson Saturday morn
ing, about five miles from the
jeep.
Wilson had lived in California
about 20 years, and was promi
nent in the business and political
life of that State. He ran for Con
gress several times as an inde
pendent, and was also in a num
ber of local races. He was vice
chairman of the 42nd Assembly
District Democratic committee.
He was a close friend of Roderick
J. Wilson (no relation). Demo
cratic candidate for Governor in
1953, and was active in his cam
paign.
He headed a wholesale restau
rant equipment business in Bur
bank, Calif., called the House of
Calvert, and just before the ill-
fated desert expedition had mov
ed to Sunfair and opened a rela
ted business, selling linen sup
plies.
His companions on the trip
were two other Sunfair business
men—Chester Buner, 67, a real
estate developer, and Lyle W.
Robertson, 49, hardware store
owner and rancher, who surviv
ed; and a retired business exec
utive, James R. Thompson, 75, of
Joshua Tree, who succumbed to
FROM THE VISIONS OF SOOLCRAFT:
A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN
A man owns a business, inherited from his forebears. For a num
ber of years he has known reasonable prosperity. But the business
tempo of the country slows. Markets dry up. Capital is hard to get.
Yet the man’s expenses know no lessening. He discharges certain
workers and assumes their work himself. This is called “cutting ex
penses.” But it means more labor devolving on himself. He works
early and late. Lines of anxiety and care begin to show on his face.
His eyes have an harassed expression.
Finally comes the morning when he fails to appear at the office.
The doctor’s C2ir has been in front of his residence half the night.
“Poor Jones,” says the man next door. “He’s been working under
a terrible strain the past few weeks. Now he’s cracked up.”
“Cracked up?” cries a sympathetic friend. “What do you mean,
cracked up?”
“He’s reached a nervous breakdown.”
“What’s a nervous breakdown?”
“Everybody knows what a nervous breakdoAvn is. His nerves have
gone haywire.”
“What dd you mean haywire?”
“I don’t know. But they have. The doctor gave him sedatives and
told him he’ll have to stay home for at least a month. Which may
mean that his business goes bust in his absence.”
What actually has happened to Jones, the harassed one? Viewed
from the angle of true enlightenment, it is not enough to say that he
has driven himself beyond the breaking-point. Nerves do not break
in the sense of something like a knife blade severing them so they
cannot perform their functions. Jones has simply arrived at a point
of sustained ordeal where the profits from life fail to balance his
expenditures.
He has decided the flame is not worth the candle. To the capabil
ities of the spirit he has bowed out in a huff.
The moment of his letting-go seems to be the moment of /‘break
down.”
There is really no “breakdown,” of course. His body is still lying
weak and spent upon his bed. The nerve-strands and the cells are
still in place.' But something has suddenly refused to function. His
spirit has refused to put driving-force into nerve-performings. His
spirit has suddenly decided that it has no incentive to do so.
Jones was not personally responsible for the national economic
state that made it impossible for him to conduct his business further
at a profit. Conditions came upon him over which he has had no con
trol. Nonetheless he has suffered them. He resents this injustice.
Deep in the heart of every human is the understanding that one is
strictly responsible for his own acts, and when one suffers grievously
for conditions that have in no wise come about from one’s acts, the
effect is rebellion, a challenge to the law of celestial compensations.
Jones’ way of rebelling is to idle his own organism in so far as he
can, to withdraw itself from the race of endeavor until times get bet
ter. A sort of spirit-induced paralysis descends over him, which is
rather a spirit with-drawing of vital content that nerves and muscles
may no longer waste themselves futilely . . . meaning without com
pensations of any sort. He lies inert and inept on his bed, exulting in
the realization that he has found a way to get back at circumstances
by doing nothing. True, a paralysis of a sort has seemingly been pre
cipitated. But that is merely Jones thumbing his nose at mortal activ
ity and saying within the depths of his own being, “I’m not buying
anything more until I receive some compensating value for my pur
chase.”
“Poor Jones, he’s ‘broken-dowii’,” say the neighbors.
“Poor Jones, he’s declared a moratorium on unmerited worldly
treatment,” would be the more accurate way of describing it.
Jones is feeling very, very sorry for himself, would be the true
way of describing it. He is executing this self-pity in a type of star
vation of nerve cells and bloodstream. True, he may have every
legitimate reason for feeling sorry for himself, but the fact remains
that his physical frame has gone static and his wife is weeping fit
fully that “daddy has broken down.”
Jones truly is playing a colossal canard on the whole of them. He
wants a holiday from burdens heavier than he thinks he can carry.
So he goes inert upon himself, saying to the whole (Jam cosmos, “I
won’t play ball any more tiU you make matters easier for me.”
Cosmos doesn’t get excited about it. A lot of overburdened
Joneses may lie inert till Kingdom Come if they please, what is it to
Cosmos? So after a time. Cosmos paying no particular attention to
him. Cosmos and Jones go their separate ways. Cosmos keeps the
processes of life operating. Jones decides that he’s had a long enough
holiday, calls for his trousers and gets up.
Everybody is glad to see him bqck at the office . .. where the firm
has lost $1,300 because of his absence.
Jones doesn’t indulge in a second or third break-down.
Break-downs are too expensive . . .
Nervous prostration is precisely what the term implies. The
nerves have become prostrated by too heavy a load of emotional
remonstrance upon them. Prostration means reclining on the ground
in either humble adoration, or thrown down and fallen prone, other
wise laid low. It means complete exhaustion, submission, impotence
or defection. But all of these things have first befallen Jones in his
own spirit. „ ,
Exhaustion means that vital force has failed to dehver at the point
where it was expected or most needed. Jones really has sold himself
on the fact that he has little or nothing to live for. Nothing in the
way of awards and merits could possibly be equivalent to the effort
that must be expected to obtain it. These are all strictly spiritual im-
(This space purchased by the author)
pulses with which Jones is dealing.
Jones reaUy could say to himself at any point in his emotional
paralysis, I’m fooling everyone but myself. I could command myself
up and out of this as readily as drawing a breath, but what’s the use?
What compensation can come to me? Better to lie inert thus, and
have the family and neighbors pity me. At least they don’t expect
me to get up and battle with ruthless circumstances, making a siUy
show of my incompetence.
But of course the moment comes when Jones says in the depths of
his own subconscious, “What’s all this really getting me? I’ve got to
face the earthly situation and vanquish it. I’ve had my hohday from
my fatiguing emotions.” ,
• The neighbors thereupon get the doctor’s bulletin, “Mr. Jones is
responding to treatment from Dr. Imayja Grunt, the celebrated nerve
specialist.” Jones bestirs himself and gets upon his feet. He has
recovered miraculously from “nervous prostration.” Actually he’s
wasted enough time feeling sorry for himself and decided to battle
onward, just to see how the contest comes out. Dr. Grunt submits a
bill in three figures. Jones can’t win. The bills catch up wjth him,
coming and going. . . .
But the real contest has transpired in his own mind. He has
wanted a vacation from care, responsibility, and strain, and he has
had it. Fair enough. Now it’s time to come back to realities and pick
the fight up again.
The same nerves and nerve-cells fimction anew, as they were al
ways ready to function at spirit’s behest. Jones has simply inhabitated
them in his rational mind. NOBODY SUFFERS A NERVOUS
BREAKDOWN WHO DOES NOT WANT TO SUFFER A NERVOUS
BREAK DOWN.
What they’re truly after is a holiday from the slings and arrows
of outrageous fortune. . . .
THE POINT to register is, that spirit is not required to undergo
anything that it does not wish to undergo, even though the wish em
brace nothing more than surcease from ordeal. The most “prostrated”
man who ever lived—and flopped suddenly on his chin—^has secretly
been able at any instant of the bogus coma to declare unto himself,
“I can quit this stalling any instant that I choose; . . . only for a time
yet I do not wish to choose. I merely wish to lie supine and REST.
A nurse comes in at $15 the hour and administers this nostrum or
that nostrum. Jones continues passive, feeling very sorry for him
self. Ultimately he will snap out of it, meaning that he wilt bestir
himself, yawn, put his soles upon the floor and bellow for his bath
robe.
All of which has accomplished very little for his ailing business,
yet nevertheless has given Jones a respite of nerves and nerve ex
penditure to exhibit his physical self as very hot and bothered.
The funny thing about it all is, that it’s entirely legitimate and
sensible. Jones could have quit his worrying, accepting that his busi
ness was heading to the dogs anyway, gone home, gotten into bed,
and announced that he was going to sleep around the clock and let
anyone disturb him at his peril. He would have had a moratorium
from hecklement just as effective but not so dramatic.
What he was really trying to do was let his jaded senses have a
chance to replenish themselves. Everything concerning his body was
going out and precious little coming in. So what? Parking the doc
tor’s car outside and having a woman in uniform hop around at a cost
of $15 the hour, really has buttered few therapeutic parsnips. He’s
still got the country’s economic doldrums to face and whip.
There was precious little satisfaction in any of it, but of course
that's just one viewpoint. ’
ANOTHER VIEWPOINT
'Three monkeys sat in a cocoanut tree
Discussing things as they’re said to be.
Said one to the others, “Now listen, you two.
There’s a certain rumor that can’t be true.
That man descended from our noble race—
The very idea! It’s a dire disgrace.
No monkey ever deserted his wife,
Starved her baby and ruined her life.
And you’ve never knowir a mother monk
To leave her baby, “That’s sure the bunk.”
Or pass them on from one to another
’Til they hardly know who is their mother.
And another thing! You will never see
A monk build a fence ’round a cocoanut tree
And let the cocoanuts go to waste
Forbidding all other monks a taste.
Why, if I put a fence around this tree
Starvation would force you to steal from me.
Here’s another thing a monk won’t do.
Go out at night and get on a stew
Or use a gun or club or knife
To take some other monkey’s life.
Yes! Man descended, the ornery cuss.
But, brother, he didn’t descend from usi
Signed «
THE HIDDEN COLLAR BUTTON
sunstroke sometime Thursday.
Robertson and Buner were hos
pitalized after their ordeal.
Calvert Wilson was born in
Germantown, Pa., and moved
with his family to Southern Pines
when a child. He attended South
ern Pines schools and graduated
from Georgia Military Academy,
where he prepared for entrance to
the U. S. Naval Academy. He was
a student at Annapolis for two
years, but left because of color
blindness. He went to California
on acceptance in a flight school
at March AFB, but his poor vision
caused him to lose out there also.
He served in the Merchant Ma
rine during World W)ar 2, from a
base on Okinawa. After the war,
he remained in California.
He was twice married there.
His first wife was killed in an
automobile accident. He was di
vorced from his second wife,
Elaine, of Burbank, only last
week. She was the mother of his
two daughters, Brenda Alice, 14,
and Tamara Dawn, 11.
Surviving also are his parents,
Mr. and Mrs. Frank H. Wilson,
and one sister, Mrs. Clyde Phipps,
of Southern Pines.
Tentative plans were being
made for his burial at Mt. Hope
cemetery. Southern Pines.
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NOTICE
Due To Tax liKrease
AD Beer Will Be 30c
per 12 Ounces Over Counter
By Case $6.00
Effective Friday July 1st
RETAIL DEALERS OF SOUTHERN PINES
F.H.A. and G.I.
LOANS ON HOMES
LOANS
Conventional Loans on Farms and
Business Property
>
Take Advantage of Our Experience
GRAVES MUTUAL INSURANCE CO.
HENNRY L. GRAVES GLADYS D. GRAVES
Graves Bldg.—E. Penn Ave.—Phone 2-2201
SOUTHERN PINES. N. C.