University of South Carolina Libraries
VOL. 9; NO. 26 NEWBERRY, SOUTH CAROLI A, F RIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1946 $1 PER ANNUM Radio Announcers Like Auctioneers By SPECTATOR One t f the delightful gentlemen who honor me with their regard is the handsome young Managing Editor of The News and Courier, Thomas R. Waring. It is unfortu nate that Tom is named Thomas because his father was “Thomas”, also “Tom”, and also a newspaper man of ability and distinction. But this friend of mine, the present Mr. Waring, will burst through the parental renown and shine in his own light. In fact he shines now. Thereby hangs a tale, as Shake speare says. My friend Waring (the younger) has been roving the land “on a trip” fairly foraging — with a fat purse. Remembering what has been told me about the table de lights of “Guest-houses on Church Street, Charleston, I wonder if Friend Tom had “discovered” some thing jn New Orleans which is bel ter prepared in Charleston. Henry VIII mutton, King Richard horse- meat, Bobby Burns broth, Earl of Warwick Ox-tonque, Boose’s bread, Water (Iron and spulhur) from Meeting and Wentworth, Soda from Aimar’s. Tut, tut; I don’t recall any word of water. Few people speak of the water of New Orleans. Still, there’s water there, for it is a port. The News & Courier, as a great force for righteousness, is under the supreme command of a Grand Admiral because it leans toward water, but modestly restrains the Admiral from telling the world about the famed iron and sulphur waters. Or have these old elixirs which carried the founding fathers to the nineties—have they gone into innocuous desuetude with ground nut cakes and horse-cakes? My friend Tom, full of five dol lars worth of food, service and atmosphere, went out and saw all the world bowing and bending and smiling—courtsy carried to the nth. power. Knowing my handsome friend for the chivalrous Knight that he is, Tm sure that no ohe bowed or genuflected more grace fully than he. Even the taxi-men fell under his mesmeric glance. Why? Ohey hadn’t partaken of King Solomon soup or Queen of Sheba sherbert. I’m a base ball fan, but the radio announcers of the World Series jrked me; they always do. They run a lot of patter Lke a tobacco auctioneer—running on lest he stop and not start again. I’m exaggerating this, but here is about the sense (or nonsense) of it: “Teams warming up. Black Sox at batting practice; home team tossing the horse-hides around. Home manager full of confidence, expects to win; says no team ever lost all the games except the Man ning professionals in 1907. Mana ger of Six looks worried; gazes at sun and frowns. Home team takes field. Sox at bat. Big Bill X first man up. Comes from Mt. Pleas ant, near Charleston. Has six children. East clams and collards. Reads Charleston Evening Post and liktjs the funrties. Strapping; fel low; used to play for Murrell’s In let. Snag—A. on the mound. Sizes up batter, tugs at cap; pulls up britches; looks at ball; picks up dirt; paws around box; gets ready; first baseman playing far off, pitcher ready to cover the sack; second and short moving toward third; third baseman playing back for Texas-ieaguer; center-fielder chewing blade of grass, had ham burger for dinner and cold tea. Batter digs in; catcher signals; here comes the pitch. Ball—outside. Pitcher begins wind-up; throws out leg; comes forward from re cumbent position with all the pow er of his vigorous arm, fondly nurtured on Grand-pa oats at break fast, and Uncle Bill’s Soda-pop. Here’s the pitch—a beauty, coming a hundred feet a second, it stop ped dead and jumped over the batter’s head—ball—too high. Pit cher walks around mound; paws about; savagely rams a package of Life-saving gum jn his mouth; looks mean and growls as he rubs the ball on his pants. Batter nervous, swinging two bats. John Doe, next up is swinging three bats, while chewing a plug of Old Neigh bor’s Delight and forming a pool of juice at his feet and everywhere else within ten feet. Jack Does was voted the best tobacco-juice squirt- er in the East, next to two county office-holders in Clarendon who be came so expert that each set a cus pidor at his feet for his friend to aim at, even when dressed up for prayer meeting. Here comes the pitch A floater that seemed to stop and look back at the pitcher, then got up steam and nearly knocked catcher off his feet Strike—bust ed the plate wide open. Two and one! Pitcher looks at blazing sun. Blinks. Looks glass-eyed. Looks at batter. Batter doesn’t look as bright as sun. Here comes the pitch! Out! the ball popped up— an easy fly. Say, that horse-hide was spinning when it came up. Just a minute, folks; Umpire has called time; bleacher fans swarm ing on to field. Police rallying round. Leader of crowd calls President of Club and asks where horse-meat can be found. Leader asks O. P. A. man to arrest Presi dent of Club for butchering horses to make baseballs, without putting the meat on sale. President calls press-conference on field and asks all to avoid use of expression horse-hide, because the balls were made from the hides of a hundred rhinoceros which the ; club imported from Asia; and that this did not violate the rules of the O. P. A. As a matter of fact the rhinos had been shot only six months ago and the O. P. A. hadn’t fixed the ceiling yet. Fans all mollified, return to their seats and the pitcher swings a mighty heave of the rhinoceros sphere. And so on. Education!! Of all that js done in thy name! We have a line of pat ter—education, education, educa tion. But it has become patter. Some people need Information. Now that is a horse of another color. If you wish to appear to be a pro gressive, a liberal, a forward-look ing, up-and-doing leader, just say that what we need is education. Most of this is mere piffle, twaddle, if you prefer. But it takes more reckless courage to say that than to bare the breast to the javelins of Egyptian cavalry. The great reputation of the Ger man schools is known; no nation surpassed the Germans in what we call education, meaning ,of course, Academic Scholasticism, plain school work. But no nation of all the ages has embroiled itself more disastrously than the Germans; no nation has ever carried more mis ery and destruction abroad than the Germans. I know at first hand something of the excellence cf German school work, both primary and secondary; and I know German Collegiate and University excel lence. There is almost nothing in mere academic schooling to solve any great problem of the world. The basic problems are those of heart and enlightened spiritual vision. I do not undertake to criticise my fellow scribes; but sometimes I pay a price for what they write. Some time ago a writer wrote to many papers something like this: “As the Bible says, all men are created equal”. Does the Bible say that? Thomas Jefferson said that in the Declaration of Inde pendence. But I haven’t time to delve into the Scriptures to correct my fellow writer. Some one called me about the alleged quontation from the Bible; and now some one else calls me about an alleged writing by Robert Quillen. Friend Quillen is quoted as saying that the Declaration of | Independence says nothing about 1 S. C. Republican Leader Dies Result Auto Wreck Joseph Warrne Tolbert, former Republican boss of South Carolina, died in a Greenwood hospital Fri day, victim of a traffic accident. The 76-year-old deposed party chieftain was injured on a highway in his home town of Ninety-Six about two weeks ago, and was brought to the hospital suffering a fractured leg and other injuries. Officers who investigated exonerat ed the driver of the truck that struck him. Tolbert, a conspicious figure with a bristling walrus moustache and a collar never adorned by a tie, was more often than not referred to as “Tieless Joe”. “I don’t bother with nothing 1 can do without,” he once said in ex planation of hi s habit of going with out a tie. He attended the Republican equality, but says that all men are rented froe (and free only). Of course I don’t know about that. Some fellows are free, not equal, too free, and get called down. Whatever Bob said—and it’s all right with me—I was called to the telephone, and a lot of time was spent. The “Declaration” says: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal". Begin ning of second paragraph.) A venerable deacon (lin Ander son) rose from his seat in the Con gregation and addressed the pastor —who had called off all services because the heating machinery didn’t function—; “Brother Pastor: I think you are a little hasty. Now if you had consulted the deacons they would gladly have given you information." “Well/’ said the Pastor, ’’it isn’t information I want, but HEAT”! So, with Brother Truman; we can’t eat his speeches, though he may wish he could do so, some times. What we want is MEAT! I convention of 1888, which nominat- ' ed Benjamin Harrison for president, I and from then on he was present at ' every similar meeting. From 1900 to 1944 he was either a delegate or an unsuccessful contender for a seat at every GOP convention. In 1900, the year McKinley was , nominated, Tolbert became state chairman of the party. Eight years later he was made national commit teeman. He held both places un til the Hoover era of 1928, when he lost out to the Hambright faction, but he climbed back into the sad dle and remained until 1940 when the national convention recognized the faction led by J. Bates Gerald. Tolbert continued to head a group which came to be known as the Tolbert-Leevy faction. Early this month, while he was lying in the hospital for treatment of his acci dent injuries the faction held a con vention at Columbia and named B. L. Hendrix of Estill to succeed him. Tolbert was bom June 7, 1870, be tween Greenwood and Saluda in what wa sthen Abbeville county. He was the son of John Robert Tol bert, a captain in the Confederate army although opposed to se cession, and who was a staunch member of the Republican party from the sixties on. He was educated in the public schools and at Adger college, Wal- halla, S. C. MARINES TOUGH TO BEAT Marines are still tough to beat in any kind of competition, according to a recent story. Recently aboard the USS Miss ouri, then en route to Norfolk, Va., a drawing was held to determine which three enlisted men would re ceive Turkish rugs presented to the crew by the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce. The Marines won two and the sailors one. That is pretty good, considering there are 70 Marines and more than 1,500 sailors aboard the Missouri. The Future of American Freedom The rising tide of inflation is sending ominous chills tingling along the spines of the American people. It is not pleasant to see the value of savings and pay checks dwindle as the price indexes climb. Two thousand dollar autos and fifteen thousand dollar homes were not included in the post war plans of most people. They indicate hardship, not prosperity, in the fu ture, and not so far in the future at that. In fact hardship, real hard ship, is already here for the great number of “unrecognized” workers and those who live on fixed in comes. The feeling is inescapable that only now is the homefront begin ning to come face to face with the consequences of the “total” war. With inflation developing, the ques tion arises of how strong our ideals of free enterprise and free govern ment. Repeatedly, supposed real ists express fear that should depres sion sweep the country, it would in evitably shake the foundations of basic American institutions. They point to other lands where des perate, hungry people turned to des potic government for direction. The people at home, for the first time in over a century, have a chance to demonstrate their faith in the general idea of individual inia- tive and opportunity. If the realists are right in the theory that econom ic trouble will lead to the kicking out of private industry and de struction of principles of govern ment that have lifted the individual in this country to an eminence nev er before known, America and all her people will get just what they deserve—serfdom. It is difficult to believe that the future of American freedom will turn on material considerations. More than that, jt is fantastic. It is, in effect, believing that the soul of the greatest nation on earth will perish if the people cannot have all the refrigerators and automobiles and gadgets they want. n;V- I ’ ’’ ' H m M t. v.. ti LL CL UNDER DIRECTION POST 24 AMERICAN LEGION DAYS 5 NIGHTS 6 STARTS MONDAY, OCT. Ends Midnight, Sat., Nov. 2 C. KAUS SHOWS ON THE MIDWAY FEATURING 12 Gyrating Riding Devises Worlds Outstanding Acts Presented Each Evening 7 BIG Tented Theatres Plus BIG FIRE WORK PROGRAM WHITE CHILDREN’S DAY IS WED., OCT. 30