THE YANCEY RECORD
Established July, 1936
ABNEY and THEN A BOX CO-PUBLISHERS & EDITORS
... MISS HOPE BAILEY ASSOCIATE EDITOR J
T. L. BROWN SHOP MANAGER “
Published Every Thursday By
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Second Class Kail Privileges Authorized at Burnsville, N. C.
RANDOM THOUGHTS
by Doris Burton ~ ““
Last week, as I sat and watched
the television broadcasts of the
demonstrations our people were
giving all over the country in sup
port of the presidential candidates,
X thought of the words I’ve heard
so often, “Man is a fighting
animal”, and realized how true
that statement is.
Our people are well known, all
over the world, for their pugnacious
attempt to keep peace. And it’s
also a well known fact that we’ll
fight to the death for anything in
which we believe strongly enough,
be it our political convictions
merely the right to express our
selves in our own homes.
seems to be some
thing for which one has- to fight,
and to put up a battle for the
"right thing” is always good. But
the fact that we are "fighting
animals’’ can catise trouble. Once
we begin to use that urge to
frighten our children, or to make
others tense, whenever we come
near with the fear that we may
embarress them, then that’s some
thing else!
Without determination, once
we lose the aggressiveness re
quired to master our own personal
lives, the small clearings we’ve
made around ourselves on this in
different earth will close in again.
But if we. aim that drive, like a
flame-thrower, against our friends,
family, and neighbors we’ll soon
find ourselves with no one left to
aim at
The same has held true through
all the pages of history. The cave
man, who' first thought to use a
club, became conscious of his
power over his fellow-man. He pro
bably became the ruler of all he
surveyed until his fellow-men
learned to use one too. The Spanish,
French and English were able to
take, by force, this land of ours
from the Indian simply because the
weapons of the Indians were ob
solete.
In 1942, five hundred airplanes,
each with a crew of eight men,
THE BIBLE
CATHOLICS honor and revere the Holy Bible as the Word of God,
and any statement to the contrary is in opposition to Catholic teach
ins. The principal difference between the Catholic and The “Reform
er" attitude towards the Bible is that the one recognizes, while the 1
othor rejects, the need for an infallible authority to be the guide and
Interpreter of the sacred text. Catholics accept the Bible on the au
thority of the Catholic Church, which originally drew up the "Canon,”
or list of writings which make up the Bible.
Without the Church there would have been no Bible. Although
there were a large number of sacred writings, these required to be ex
amined, collated, and selected; Catholics believe that the Church, in
raaldng the selection, was aided by the Almighty God, and thus they
have a logical and sufficient reason for saying of the Catholic Bible,
as interpreted by the Church, “This is the Word of God.”
Others hold that individual interpretation will reveal God’s Word
to all who truly seek it. The effect of the two principles may be wit
nessed In the fact that all the millions of Catholic Christians, in every
part of the world, accept exactly the same dogmatic teaching; whereas,
since the time when the “Reformers” began to teach private Judgment
of Scripture, their Churches have split up into a multitude of sects,
each claiming to be guided by the Bible.
Often we hear the time-worn calumny that Catholics are forbidden
to read the Bible; Catholics are not forbidden to read the Bible, but
am encouraged and urged to read it. How, then are we to explain that
several centuries ago the Church from time to time restricted Bible
reading by the common people? The explanation is simple. Such action
WM taken for the protection of the people themselves against the
false teaching of the “reformers.”'These men sought to interpret the
Scriptures in a sense contrary tMthe teaching of the Church, and
erroneous versions of the Bible were Issued for the purpose of helping
their views; and these versions, constituting a menace to the faith of
the unlearned, were rightly condemned by the Church. But the Church
has ever been the gusrdian and preserver of the Bihle. How, except
ter ttie labors of the monks, would the sacred writings have been
handed down as they were, for many centuries, before the era of
printing? When printing wss discovered, first fruits were offered to
dod. The first printed book was the Catholic Bible printed by John
Gutenberg, and known afterwards as the Mazarin Bible. There were
many Catholic editions of the Bible in print before Luther’s time.
St. Lucien’s Catholic Church
SPRUCE PINE, N. C.
- . -w— • -a, PAH) ADVERTISEMENT j
. **—“ « ■*—■————-—».|| —II ,r> :
♦
could in twenty minutes wipe out
the larger part of a city of half a
million souls. Then came the
'Atomic bomb and it required only
one plane for the same job. Now
the power of our bombs is so tre
mendous the imagination cannot
grasp the full extent of the damage
one plane could do.
Yes, we can fight, and we will
always fight for our .beliefs.
Through fighting we have made of
this country the greatest single
power in the world, and we’ll fight
to the death before we’ll give an
inch to any aggressor who threat
ens to deprive us of our hard-won
status.
But our own farm of ’ govern
ment has proven to us that such
aggressive creatures as men are
can live together in harmony.
■ Given the right leaders and time,
i the whole world will discover this
i truth, -but will we have to fight
■ again before this lesson is learned?
We learn, through the study of
’ history, that men of originality
were quite often considered fools,
but they used their fighting
s strength to cling with tenacity to
■ their ideals, and today we know
I hat not they, but those who scoffed
> were the fools.
Today we know that so much
. time has been wasted on the study
i of what man has accomplished
, when much of that study should
l have been spent learning about
i man. He is the enigma. Why can
one man be so different from
l another? Why are no two of us
! alike? Why does one man stride
i through life with never the slight
i est waver in his step, when another
■ falls flat on his face with every
• attempt he makes?
i The field of science has only re
, cently begun to delve into such
1 matters, and with the fighting
1 spirit of all science the day will
come when they’ll know most of
the answers, if not all of them.
In the meantime we’ll have to
be content with wondering why
other people are what they are,
--Overlook On Life-- t
; c
By WARREN S. REEVE '
Note: The idee of "Overlook” is taken from the Overlook# j
provided for viewing panoramas along the Blue Ridge ,
Parkway. \
V r-== a i
Through having lived for a
long time in the state of New
Hampshire, I have an unusual
Thanksgiving story to pass on to
you this week. It is a true story,
tragic, yet splendid in its culmina
tion and enriching in its disclosure
of character.
Some generations ago cousins
and uncles and aunts and all the
family came to the spacious and
rambling home on the old farm for
Thanksgiving. Fire in the great
fireplace blazed all day; the" table
was laden with bountiful, rich
viands, and all the people enjoyed
themselves to the fullest.
Now it was night; the guests
had departed, and the tired family
was .about to disperse to their
rooms for the night.
The father said to Frank, the
14-year-old boy, whose job it was
to have logs and kindling brought
in from the woodpile outside, to
fetch a heavy backlog and put on
the .fire and then to rake the ashes
over in order to keep the fire
through the night.
Frank, like other 14-year-old
--r
--boys, hadn’t done his job of bring
ing in wood earlier in the day; he
had put off his tasks, and now he
found himself in trouble. It was a
lather bitter night, for the New
Hampshire winters often settle on
to a community even in November.
Frank had to go out into the dark,
freezing cold to find a suitable log.
But, alas, almost every piece was
frozen solid and could not be
wrenched loose. Only one small
stick of wood he could get.
When his father saw that he
had brought in only this piece o
kindling, he became furious, and
in a fit of anger, seized a horse
whip that hung on the wall, and
lashed his son u number of times;
then saying, “Now go out and get
a backlog, and don’t bring in a
and why we, ourselves are what
we are. There is one thing I can
add which might bring comfort to
, those of you who might be wonder
ing why you are what you are.
The adjuration, “Love one another”,
is much older than any existing
religion. It dates back to the first
societies of the earth and is a
clear recognition that aggression
must be kept out of our dealings
with each other if we are to live
happily, and even more so jf the
world is ever to know a lasting
peace. i n*.
If we practice those three little
words constantly, the course of
events will have to change. There
cas be no survival for ourselves
<’* |=my other people unless that
>ove becomes universal.
i
Beautiful 1
Long Lasting ” ■ - - |
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toothpick again!”
Frank was a boy of some mettle, ’
for never a cry or murmur escaped
his lips during the lashing that
he received from his father. Silent
ly he went out.
He did not come back, and he
did not come back ail that night,
nor the following day. He never
came back, though they searched
and inquired, and though his
mother was almost beside herself
with grief and ajnxiety.
The years went
them and again it w asV9§9raH
giving Day. Night came aSW -
darkness fell. Frank was. coming
home, now a tall, fine-looking
young magi of 21. This story does
not tell where he had been or what
he had been doing, but he had
made good; he had a little money
saved and was entrely self-reliant.
Once again in the dark on a
Thanksgiving night he hunted
around for a backlog, and this
time he found one. Peering in
through a window he saw the
family there - yes,, changed some
what, but not too much. Shoulder
ing the log, he opened the door,
. strode in, and before the astonished
. eyes of his father, put the log on
i the fire, saying, “Here, Father,- is
r your backlog!” “So it is”, replied
, the old man, but I have almost a
mind to whip you again for having
been gone so long to get it.”
‘‘You are not big enough to do
. that now”, said Frank.
> “No”, said the father, “and even
I if I were, I wouldn’t; for- I did it
just once too often.”
, Tears were streaming down the
mother’s face as she embraced her
I long-lost boy, and every one of the
, family were overcome with deep
! emotion.
The story depicts the tragic end
ing of one Thanksgiving Day but a
L splendid end to another. In my
. opinion, the one who in the long
: run was the greatest sufferer in
1 the story was the father; for his
i was the pain of self-reproach, his
the tragedy of feeling he was to
. blame for an experience that was
, terrible for the whole family. Yet
[ even he showed some greatness of
: character, in acknowledging his
wrong-doing. Chastened and hum
bled by his confession, did not his
character gather greatness as it
went? Another enriching result
was the vastly enhanced , apprecia
tion of one another that came to
each member of the family. Thus
the final result was the gift of a
thanksgiving spirit far deeper and
more meaningful than it had ever
been before,
Though saying that, I could
never concede that they might not
have been better off had the inci
dent «*v»r occurred.
The etery Uluatra*ee to me how
Qod can take even the errors and
offences of people and make them
work together for good in the long
run, provided the people concerned
have a modicum grit and faith
within them.
It would be well for us, also, to
•be warned of the possibility that
any of us might, by a sudden slip,
spoil an otherwise wonderful
Thanksgiving Day (or any other
1
s'
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day, for that Matter) by a sudden
sUp just at the end of the day; by
sdmtf outburst of passion cr ‘by
same neglect or lethargy or fear.
We all need to pray God not “to
lead us Into temptation (or
trouble)”, but if we get into trouble,
to “deliver us from evil”, even as
He did the father and Frank- and
the rest of that family we have
described.
J (I am indebted for this story to
• “New Hampshire Folk Tales” com
from that of a costly car. GMC’s ex-
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You ride jp style, tpq! CMC Ejlpg Chip
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THURSDAY, NOV. 22, 1956
»
piled by Mrs. Guy E. fepeare,
under the auspices of the New
Hampshire Federation of Woman’s
Clubs)
SINGING CONVENTION
The next Yancey County Singing
Convention will be held at the
Jacks Creek Methodist Church,
Sunday, Nov. 25, at 2 p. m.
All singers, pastors of churches,
and other visitors are cordially in
vited to attend.