Newspapers / The Pilot (Southern Pines, … / Aug. 14, 1958, edition 1 / Page 2
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Page TWO THURSDAY, AUGUST 14, 1958 ILOT Southern Pines North Carolina “In taking over The Pilot no changes are contemplated. We will try to keep this a good paper. We will try to make a little money for all concerned. Wherever there seems to be an occasion to use our influence for the puUic good we will try to do it. And we will treat everybody alike.”—James Boyd, May 23, 1941^< Keep Park Block Free From Business Every effort should be made by the town council to keep the park block free from business property. To do this will apparently throw a heavy financial burden on the town. But in the end we think it will be worth the cost to the tax payers. To have this entire block devoted to recre ational and municipal purposes, except for one Corner lot, 60 by 110 feet, as location for business, casts the die in a form that we feel sure future residents of the town will regret. The residence type of building, used as a physician’s office, which is now on the lot is a not too unsuitable structure for a park cor- ner^-ibut who is to say when, or with what, this structure might be replaced? A business building totally out of keeping with the park background might well be placed there at some future date, possibly to be occupied by some business altogether unsuitable for a lo cation next to park property. The Pilot did not like to see the municipal center—which is after all a type of business. too—placed on the park block, as we believe that any town lucky enough to have nearly a square block of park space just off the busi ness section should do everything it can to maintain the park as a place for people to enjoy—a place to rest or play, a green, shady, flowering place, a place in welcome contrast to the business area nearby. This is written before Tuesday night’s coun cil meeting, at which a request by the owner to zone the corner property for businfess was to be considered. We don’t know at this writing what action can be or may be taken. Our news columns today may shed more light on this subject. Now is the time of decision. Once the die is cast by zoning the corner lot for business, it would be difficult and probably much more expensive for the town to acquire it in the future. We trust that the council, as well as the citizens of Southern Pines, who will have to pay the bill, will take the long view on this matter of keeping the park block intact. Woods Arson: Problem For The State Thoughtful Southerners have been shocked and puzzled by a. Harper’s magazine article pointing out that 80 per cent of the nation’s forest fires occuV in the South. But that’s not the worst of it: many of these fires are delib erately set. The U. S. Forest service has made a study of woods arsonists who have been apprehend ed and finds that they are frustrated, resent ful people whose “basic needs” in life were not being met. After the Harper’s' shocker camq the Asso ciated Press in North Carolina with the news that one out of every five forest fire in this state is purposely set. This happened 430 times last year—more than 20 per cent of 1957’s 2,- 293 recorded \)voods fires. Tar Heel forestry officials say that resent ment against a landowner is the most promi nent reason that forest arsonists go to work: tenants angry with landlords, one farmer re senting the larger holdings of another, or maybe an absentee owner angers a neighbor ing landowner because he won’t sell out. Speculating on what can be done about this costly and vicious business, The Greensboro Daily News suggests that education and pub licity campaigns may reach some of the ar sonists—and then leans over backward to wonder if sometimes there may be some real reason for the woods burners’ rebellion. The News suggests that the valuation of forest lands owned by foreign corporations may well be too low in many counties. Revaluation for tax purposes, with full publicity given to same, might allay much re sentment, the News thinks. Of course, as the News indicates, the prob lem is much bigger than that. Provision of schooling, jobs and recreation for potentially frustrated and resentful people provides the only long-range solution. Adding 9 Million Years To Our History? The discovery of the skeleton of a man-like creature, thought to be 10 million years old, has anthropologists in a dither. If what has been found is really so ancient, we can all add some 9 million years to our family gen- eologies. How worthy old Charles Darwin must be spinning in his grave! For what the find shows, according to the anthropologists who made it, is that man did not descend from the apes after all but that both developed from a common ancestor resembling neither. We must say the theory adds to the dignity of man. We have never enjoyed the thought that some ancestor back in the mists of time swung through the trees. No wonder nobody has ever found the “missing link.” Under the new theory, there isn’t any. And this too: how unquestioningly we have accepted Darwin’s theory of evolution. Start ling and controversial in the 19th century, it was becoming a staid, old-fashioned dogma, like the law of gravity. Now somebody has stirred the calm waters and all is speculation and confusion again. Interesting. Other concepts of life, man and history may also change. Take Darwin’s business about “the survival of the fittest.” We all pretty much believe that and we think it means the rule of tooth and claw: the survival of the roughest and the toughest. But is this true? That brilliant and interesting 19th Century Russian liberal. Prince Peter Kropotkin, thought Darwin was dead wrong. Between exploring in Siberia and ! getting thrown into the Prison of Peter and Paul for his political notions, he wrote a fascinating book called “Mutual Aid” which contends, with hundreds of illustrations from the history of man and the life of animals and insects, that the species that survive are those who learn how to co operate and help one another for their mutual benefit. The real tooth and claw creatures, seeming ly the fittest, like the sabertooth tiger (or say Adolph Hitler, in the modem world) become extinct because they can’t learn to live with other creatures or with themselves. All this gives the late Mr. Darwin a hard time, but it dovetails much more sensibly than the other theories with the conviction that there is some Divine spark in the lumps of clay which form mankind. Reading: Elfrida’s Secret (The Winston-Salem Journal) There has been a good deal of hand wring ing of late about the way television alleged ly has caused the downfall of reading. How*- ever, for those thus disturbed, some comfort may be gleaned from a couple of news items which appeared recently. One was a report from the Public Library of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County that the demand for books by youngsters of all age groups this summer is greater than ever be fore. That can be taken to mean that Mickey Mouse, Captain 'Kangaroo and Wild Bill Hick- ok haven’t played quite the dastardly deeds some may have imagined. The other is a story by Elfrida von Nardoff about how she came to know enough about so many things to win close to a quarter of a million dollars on television’s ‘‘Twenty-One.” “My success would never have been pos sible,” she said, ‘"without that secret mystery ingredient, the reading habit. From my earli est childhood, I’ve been a reader. I loved to read, my parents encouraged my reading, and I had access to all the books I wanted. . . A lot of recommendations came from my father: Henry James, the Restoration plays, Voltaire, Dostoevski. I read modern American writers, too—Hemingway, Faulkner and O’Hara were my favorites. “You might not think (aside perhaps from Shakespeare) that these writers would stand me in very good stead on ‘Twen ty-One.’ But the truth is that reading, is a tool. When a child learns to love reading, he learns how to read—^how to get the most out of a printed page in the least time. He learns. “And I Say It’s Spinach And I Say T’Heck With It!” r/ [ \f^ / »6S^es 'r.w •r V, ‘ A SENTIMENTAL LINK WITH THE PAST Superstitious? Many Tar Heels Are in short, how to learn. I think this is the sin gle most important thing that my whole mad, whirlwind and wonderful experience on ‘Twenty-One’ has proved.” Now here’s an up-to-the-minute testimonial for you—and maybe a very effective one. For if today’s TV-addicted youngsters won’t listen to their old-fogey parents and teachers, they may very well heed a television heroine like Elfrida von Nardoff. And if she can inspire them to read—well, then, maybe television isn’t such a threat to the cause of reading as some have let themselves think. Hail To The Broiler! Wie hereby pay our respects to ^he broiler— a bird that brought Moore County a nearly $2 million increase in farm income for 1957, as compared to 1956, thus putting Moore at the head of the state’s 100 counties in per cent of increase in farm sales volume. And this in a time of generally declining farm income, be cause of tobacco acreage cuts, too. So—hail to the broiler, a friend indeed to the Moore County farmer and to all the rest of us with whom the farmer spends his in come. While we wouldn’t go quite so far as the suggestion of one enthusiastic citizen and place a statue of a broiler on the courthouse lawn in Carthage, we can with justice pay tribute to this prosperity-producing bird—and to the farmers and Extension Service workers who made broilers so important to the coun ty. In the current 25th Anniver sary Edition of The State maga zine, Bill Sharpe relates a num ber of North Carolina supersti tions. The State’s article extends a list of 'folk sayings and supersti tions that appeared recently on this page. Mr. Sharpe’s list in cludes some of which we had not previously heard. The State’s 25th Anniversary Edition, titled “Omnibus of North Carolina,” reprints items that have been especially well receiv ed by readers during the past 25 years. Mr. Sharpe’s article follows: Do your kids still “stamp white horses”? How about pulling the wish bone? And in your house do you throw salt over your shoulder to ward off bad lu$:k for having spilled it in the first place? If such foolishness goes on, it doesn’t mean your family is hopelessly superstitious. It is just clinging close to some old folk customs. North Carolinians continue' to do these things more as a senti mental link with the past than with any idea of their merit. Es pecially in the country and small town, where congestion, hustle and bustle have not rubbed off all the folkways of the people. Every now and then I’m with someone who shows real concern if a black cat crosses his path. You still see men cross the fin gers of their left hand in a dice game, confident it will bring them luck. Rabbit’s feet repose in many a Tar Heel pocket. It may be just modesty or a social act, but most people still rap on wood after making a boastful remark. And a man in a card game will get up and walk around his chair or table in an effort to break a streak of bad luck. pin is found the following day, the spell is likely io be broke i, it is said. If one should unwit tingly spill salt, in order to avert the “evil spirit” that is about to descend, a pinch of the salt must be thrown over the left shoulder. someone > either ascending or de scending a flight of stairs. There’s a story behind the horseshoe’s luck, too. Some North Carolinians believe that if you find a horseshoe, the thing to do is to spit on it and then throw it backwards over your left shoulder. Others hang the horseshoe over their doors, the open end up “so the good luck won’t spill out.” According to legend, a long time ago a saint, while attending his duties as a blacksmith, “was annoyed to see one of his reg ular, but unwanted customers coming in the door. However, he greeted his old customer, the devil, pleasantly enough and began shoeing one of the devil’s hoofs. Hoping to rid himself of the devil, the saint bared one of the nerves in the devil’s foot which caused the devil such agony that he prom ised never to enter a dwelling as long as a horseshoe was hung over its door, “points up.” Most everybody agrees that the devil never kept his promise. To drop a dishrag is the most lamentable of misfortune. Others claim that if a soiled dishrag can be successfully stolen and con cealed beneath the house of the kitchen from which the rag is taken, the action will remove warts forthwith. To ward off nightmares, place your shoes under the bed, toes out, before retiring. Or place a flour sieve beside the bed. The witches for some reasons cannot attack the unsus pecting sleeper before they have counted every hole in the sieve and by that time, it is said, dawn has come, bringing the rule of the nocturnal visitors to an end. A sign of bad luck is to meet IN N. CAROLINA 160 YEARS AGO Frontier Wedding Lively Event There’s some merit in stamping white horses or mules. When you see one of these critters, moisten the tip of your right forefinger with your;tongue, place the tip of this finger in the palm of your left hand. Now double up your right fist, and smack down hard into the left palm. The smarter the noise, the better the luck. If your nose itches, it’s a sign some unexpected “company” is coming. Children used to chant: ‘"Cream and peaches. My nose eatches. Yonder comes a man with a hole in his breeches.” If either a man or woman drops a fork at the table, it is a sure sign that a visitor of the opposite sex soon will appear. Some people regard the sight of the moon under certain cir cumstances to be an omen of bad luck; that is, to get a sudden glance at the lunar sphere through a tree or glass poi^nds an unspeakable doom, but if a Writing in the Sanford Harald, W.E.H. (Publisher Bill Horner) says that an article he saw about the high expense and complexity of modern weddings—^leaving the bride virtually a wreck by the time the vows are said—^re calls something he read about weddings on the North Carolina frontier 160 years ago: Communities had no public di versions and weddings were an ticipated eagerly, both for the sumptuous feast served at the bride’s home, where the vows were usually exchanged, and for the merry-making and fiddling and dancing afterwards. On the day of the wedding, the groom and his attendants assem bled at his home, set out to reach the bride’s heme by noon, often the hour of the wedding. When they got a mile front the gal’s home, the men raced horseback to her door; the first one, there won a bottle of liquor. After the ceremony, the com pany sat down to a backwoods feast of beef, pork, sometimes bear meat, or venison, with veg etables, spread on a table made If two friends should permit a tree or post to separate them while walking, it is a sure sign/ that they will “fall out” before the walk is over, but if one of the friends will retrace his steps and go around the tree or post, taking the same path taken by the friend, the spell will be brok en. If two persons should acciden tally speak the same words simultaneously, they can close their eyes, clasp fingers, make a wish and have that wish come true; but if either of them speaks before the wishes are made, the spell is broken. Here’s the story back of the belief that Friday the 13th is a bad day. When Jesus was carrj'- ing to a conclusion His mission. He was being tortured and cruci fied; the day was Friday. Just prior, Jesus was at supper with 11 of His 12 disciples when a thirteenth man came in and be trayed Christ; hence the belief that Friday and the number 13 signify ill luck. It is also said that the people “close at hand believ ing that it would bring to them good luck, tapped upon the wooden cross.” Out of this, it is said, arose the belief that knock ing upon wood would ward off bad luck. of a large slab hewed out with a broadaxe and supported by four legs in augur holes. Meanwhile the younger members of the com pany were trying to steal the bride’s shoe; it cost a dollar to re deem it and the bride could not dance until the forfeit was paid. After dinner, dancing began, pasting till morning. During the ^ate evening bridesmaids slipped the bride out and put her to bed; the groomsmen then stole off the groon^ and einsconced him snug ly by her side. The^ instead of the bride throwing her bouquet as now, the attendants amused them selves “throwing ’ the stocking.” The maids stood in turns at foot of the bed, threw a rolled up stocking over their shoulder; the fist to succeed in touching the bride’s head with the stocking would be next wed. Groomsmen did the same. Meantime festivities, dancing and drinking continued down stairs with this typical toast: “Here’s health to the groom, not forgetting myself; and here’s to the bride, thumping luck and big children.” Grains of Sand On 'Writing Spiders' In view of this column’s inter est in oddities jind in wildlife, we pricked up oiu: ears when Henry Belk of Goldsboro men tioned “writing spiders” in his Greensboro Daily News column, about two weeks ago. We didn’t know then, however, that a sequel to Mr. Betk’s item would be written by a Southern Pines resident. Mr. B elk’s column dealt with the reminiscences of a group of Goldsboro men who met in a barber shop. Among the things recalled was a writing spider— “a big spider an inch across”— which one of them said was a family pet in his youth, with a web in the back yard. When somebody asked what a “writing spider” was, the man explained that they write names and letters in their web. . . “and if you knew how to read them and understand such things, you can explain many things. ‘‘The spider at our old house,’’ the man said, “once wrote on his web in big letters, ‘PAUL’ just as plain as printing. We never tore up that web and the word PAUL stayed there a long time. Paul was my brother.” Then in his News column Sun day, Mr. Belk expatiated further, quoting a letter on the subject of writing spiders from Mrs. Kath arine McColl of Southern Pines. Mrs. McColl write: “The writing spider comes late in Summer and is a sign of ap proaching Fall. He is large and his web, spread on a hedge or a flat bush looks like a page fpom an old-fashioned pocket book. With a littlp imagination, you could stretch the ‘writing’ into letters, though I was never able to get a word.” This comment from Southern Pines is, we must say, a little dis illusioning—but it adds to the in terest in the subject of writing spiders. General Gavin “War And Peace In The Space Age,” the book that Lt. Gen. James M. Gavin wrote largely during his stay of several weeks in Southern Pines last Spring, has been published and is getting fine reviews. It was the featured book on the front page of The New York Times Book Review on Sunday. Comment on the book is not the purpose of this column which tries to see the lighter side of life—but we were interested in the Times reviewer’s summary of some personal information about General Gavin, from the book:— “Orphaned at the age of 2, he was brought up by rough but kind Irish people in the Pennsyl vania anthracite country. Hard at work at tender years, and his school over at the eighth grade, he was an Army recruit at 17. The Army opened his way to West Point. He caught up in studies by rising at 4 a. m with ‘lights out’ to cram/ on his recitations in the lavatory, where the lights were on.'. .” ' Persons who met General Gavin in Southern Pines may not know this aspect of his personal background. We didn’t—and it only deepens our respect for this brilliant man. Ads From 1919 Advertising phrases seen in a Sandhill Citizen of January, 1919 (then published in Southern Pines): For the Royster Guano Co.; “Fertilizer with personality.” For the Dixie Opera, a movie theatre that had shows three times a week: “Not a bad place to spend an evening.” For the Maria Sandahl shop: “Antiques, cards, pottery, jewelry, toys, jokes.” (Wonder what the price of a joke was.) For Chandler’s (dry goods, etc.) “We invite you to visit our store before buying elsewhere.” (Now they didn’t really mean that, did they?) The PILOT Published Every Thursday by THE PILOT, Incorporated Southern Pines, North Carolina 1941—JAMES BOYD—1944 I Katharine Boyd Editor C. Benedict Associate Editor Vance Derby News Editor Dan S. Ray Gen. Mgr. C. G. Council Advertising Mary Scott Newton Business Bessie Cameron Smith ...... Society Composing Room Lochamy McLean, Dixie B. Ray, Michael Valen, Jasper Swearingen Thomas Mattocks. Subscription Rates: One Tear $4. 6 mos. $2: S moe. 11 Entered at the Postoffice at South ern Pines, N. C., as second class mail matter ^ Member National Editorial Assa and N. C. Press Assn.
The Pilot (Southern Pines, N.C.)
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Aug. 14, 1958, edition 1
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