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THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 1956 THE NEWBERRY SUN MATTIE BUILDS A HOUSE By Madge Olinger Adams A T first everybody gasped when they heard the news that Mat- tie McClannahan was building a house on the lot she had inher ited from her father almost twen ty years ago. It was right next to the school house and the kids used it for a baseball diamond and almost everybody had forgot ten that she owned it until the day they found her pouring cement for the foundation. Some of the men who had boys on the baseball team were pretty mad about her using the baseball diamond to build on. They planned to make a stink about it. But they found out she had offered the land to the school board for just enough to buy a smaller lot in an other part of town and had been refused. Then someone thought maybe a petition could be gotten up and have it torn down because ft would be an eye sore, especially after it was rumored that she had run out of money before she got to the roof. Everybody agreed— something should be done! **I think it’s a sin, a woman doing a man’s work!” the drug gists wife stated at bridge club. •There should be a law!” the doctor’s wife waved her soft fat hand about and complained. “She always spades up the back comer of the yard for us every year. Doctor never has time, you know. But this year she came one day and said since she was building a house she wouldn’t be able to help us until fail. And frankly, I don’t see how she has enough to eat! She isn’t working for any body, except old Grandma Mar tins, since Grandma fell and broke her hip. And they say Grandma Martins hasn’t any money to pay her with.” “You just can’t tell about people can you?” The storekeepers wife pouted. “You’d think she’d be content to keep on living at the board ing house, where she wouldn’t have to bother about things,” someone reflected. “She won’t have much more space, anyway. Three rooms and a bath!” By the time the rafters were up everybody had had his say. Not to Mattie of course, but she couldn’t help overhearing some of it. But she went hbout her build ing, a nail apron tied over her dark cotton dress, sober and silent as ever. You’d never have known to look at her that she knew half the town was scheming against her. Then one day a city reporter and a photographer appeared in town. They didn’t want to take a picture of the new school build ing, or the new church or the banker’s new $50,000 home. They wanted to take a picture of Mat tie's house. When the story and picture came out on the first page of the Sunday Supplement some famous architect was quoted as saying it had pleasing proportions, was interestingly compact and an in spiration to those who wanted to build a little house. But the article dealt mostly with the staunch noble spirit of Mattie The fine stoic American quality of doing for one’s self. It was b heart warming article that sug gested the nobility of the town, and perhaps the whole region. In church that morning the banker sat behind Mattie and won dered how he was going to tell her he’d changed his mind about loaning her money for the roof. It wouldn’t do the bank any good for the world to know he’d refused Mattie such a small request. And on the way out the pudgy wife of the store keeper squeezed Mattie’s hand and whispered a little too loudly, “Mattie, I have some nice dresses I’ve been saving for you. I don’t get to see you much since you’ve been building your new house.” » A ghost of a noble stoic smile played for a moment on Mattie’s lips as she replied, “Thank you, mam. I’ll be past to get them as soon as I get the roof on my house.” E, P. C:\TERFUL \Y«)Rh.B -x <->.-> By FRANKLIN J. MEINE Editor, American Peoples Encyclopedia S UCCESSFUL campers have little right to consider themselves outdoor pioneers. Ingenious manu facturers have in recent years pro vided such things as complete camp cooking utensils, all nesting into one another and carried in a canvas bag; patent collapsible table-and- seat combinations; grids, broiling devices, patent camp stoves; pic nic baskets with ice compartments; two-gallon size vacuum jars; port able electric compartment cookers; special tents for automobiles; fuel tablets to insure quick fires on damp days; portable small Dutch ovens in which to bake, or folding ovens. Shades of the Conestoga wagon pio neers! # • » Today’s playgrounds for the small fry, complete with such entertain ing devices as carousels and swings, hark back to a sandpile is the yard of a Boston chapel in 1885. It was the first supervised playground in the United States. From that year until 1808, when the Playground Association of America was found ed, not more than 10 cities in this country are known to have estab lished playgrounds. In 1898 the Chi cago City Council appropriated the sum of $1,000 for “temporary small parks.” Hus was one of the earliest examples of what has become an accepted responsibility of govern ment—the establishment, mainte nance and operation of play grounds. WORLD’S BEAUTY . . . Swe den’s Hillevi Rombin, who bears the title “Miss Universe,” ex hibits her pulchritude at Miami Beach. Florida. / SEEKS PEACE ... UN Secre tary General Dag Hammarsk- jold visits < troubled Middle East, with main focus on friction be tween Arabs and Israelis. *• r ienun ...oops, heavily armed, land in Algiers a& part of 100,000 soldiers „uied to arrive to quell rebellion of colonials. Enter now... enter often... NOTHING ... TO BUY! PARIS • A 10-Doy Cook’s Tosr t» F08 TV0 IT All ofl w Midi loon arranged by Thos. Cook A Son, Largest Travel Agency '.n the World. RADIO'S BIG LITTLE MAN CONTEST VIRGIN ISLANDS F08 TWO BY Alt aN expense* paid! s • A 7-Day DCDUlinA K* TWO BY Alt Cook’s Tour to DlHlYlUUft oil expenses paid! i 4 and complete this sentence in 25 words or less... Newberry Fed. Sav. & Loan Assn. Southern Auto Store Novelty Shop Prosperity Furn. Co, * •/ v_ Get rules & entry blanks at these stores: T. Roy Summer Inc. Belk-Beard Co. For Better Listening’ For Better Buying, tune to W K D K CAMERA GIRL . . . Joni Ross, 21, of Chicago, was named Miss National Press Photographer of 1956 from 25 candidates at con vention in Chandler, Ariz. REV. ROBERT H. HARPEP TAe Church Reaches Out. Lesson for April 29: Acts 8: 4-8, 14-17. 26-28, 14-35. Golden Text: John 13: 35. After the disciples received the power of the Holy Ghost at Pente cost, they began to go out to dif ferent parts to spread the gospel. The lesson gives several incidents in the early ministry of the Chris tians. The persecution of Chris tians, following the martyrdom of Stephen, instead of stamping out Christianity only served to scatter the disciples abroad and to spread the gospel farther A feature in the work of evan gelism at that time was the serv ice of laymen and the service of those fine men should be an in- stfuctive example to consecrated laymen who can be well employed in winning men to Christ. The re port of the gracious work in Samaria led Peter and John to visit the city. Great good was done and it appears that on their return to Jerusalem they preached in several Samaritan villages along the way. Philip was next led to convert an African, a eunuch who was a high officer of the court of Can dace, queen of Ethiopia. He was evidently not a pagan, for he had been to Jerusalem, and was sit ting in his chariot reading from the book Isaiah. Invited into the chariot, Philip won the eunuch to Christ. These are a few ex amples of ancient evangelism, and they should inspire us to redouble our efforts to win men. “BOY OF THE YEAR” . . . Boy’s Clubs of America selected Frank Boyce, 13, of Elisabeth City, N. C., for outstanding serv ice to home, church and r m unity. ri REMEMBER BY IKS OLD TIMERS From H. T. Day, Big Fork, Kentucky: I remember when, ex cept for the cooks in the kitchen, all the family and boarders went to the branch morning, noon and night to wash their hands and faces in preparation for the meal; un less of course^ it was during the season of the year when snow was on the ground. Then it was permissable to wash in the snow. Just a matter of choice for the ones who washed. Through the kindness of husbands, arrange ments were devised for the accom modation of the cook to wash in the kitchen. The only “brought-on” soap at that time was a kind they called “Toilet Soap”, and it was kept under lock and key six days of the week; but on Sunday mornings, it was displayed where everyone could have free access to it; then faces would light up and smile, as the lather disguised them. Yes, there was- week-day soap, made by mothers in the home, by recipes of their own. There was a notice able difference of quality of the soap in different homes, as each probably had its own recipe; or more probably, the difference might have been due to the posi tion of the moon, and its influence on soap making at the time, rath er than to a faulty recipe. Just in case a soap shortage flared up, in supplies of the “home made” product, as could at any time be determined by taking an inventory of the “soap gourds” and their contents; then those who washed in the branch or the snow would have to use sand, which though a little bit rough, would give a very neat shine. , WHITAKER j FUNERAL HOME AMBULANCE PHONE 270 Day Service ON LAUNDRY and DRY CLEANING BY REQUEST Damp Wash, Fluff Dry or Finished Bundle Your Garments receive FREE MOTHPROOFING with our Fine Sanitone Dry Cleaning. Newberry Steam Laundry and Dry Cleaning Co. Is Your ting If So ! Give Us No Job Too Large or Small PHONE NO. I Newberry, S. C. FOR SALE!! 1956 New Pick-up 1-2 ton. Will give good trade. Hayes Motor Co. Newberry, S. C. 1504 Coates St. Phone 372 AUTO TRUCK HOME OFFICE Windows — Mirrors — Table and Desk Tops Curved or Flat Windshield Installation \ See BOLL for ALL your GLASS needs and MECHANICAL WORK Bill’s Glass Shop 1311 Caldwell St. Phone 266 You Can Place Your Confidence —In your INSURED Savings and Loan Association. When you buy things for yourself, you buy at a place where you have confidence. WHEN YOU SAVE your hard-earned money, you want to save it at a place where you can have confi dence in the fact that your Savings are secure .. .when you know your money will be safe, even in times o: economic stress. You can place your confidence in your INSURED. SAVINGS AND LOAN ASSOCIATION. Open a Savings ccount Today. Newberry Federal _ Savings & Loan Ass’n. “An Institution Devoted to Thrift and Home Ownership’’ ASSETS OYER $8,000,000 John F. Clarkson, Pres. J. K. Willingham, Sec. NEWBERRY, S. C. DIRECTORS John F. Clarkson M. 0. Summer J. K. Willingham E. B. Purcell G. K. Dominick Waldo C. Huffman