The Charlotte News
Saturday, April 26, 1958
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page
reports that at Fort Campbell, Ky., bad weather had caused a 24-hour
postponement in the mass parachute jump planned for dawn this date in
war games. Maj. General William Westmoreland, commander of the 101st
Airborne Division, had planned to lead the jump, to test wind and
weather for his men. A jump of 1,400 men the prior Wednesday, in the
first of the two scheduled jumps, had wound up in tragedy with five
killed and 137 others injured after their billowing parachutes had
been caught by winds of up to 8 knots when the men reached the
ground, dragging some of them helplessly along the rough terrain. We
suppose that the answer, friend, was blowing in the wind
In Edmonton, Alberta, a 10-mile long
ice jam had plugged the Peace River this date, backing up water 10
feet deep over 500 square miles of northern Alberta bushland. Four
strong winds…
In Rome, Samuel Cardinal Stritch, Archbishop of Chicago, had been rushed to a surgeon's private clinic this date, suffering from a circulatory ailment of his right arm.
In Jakarta, the Indonesian Government reported this date that rebel Premier Sjafruddin Prawiranegara had narrowly escaped capture by its advancing troops and had fled north in Central Sumatra.
In Tehran, the Iranian Government announced this date that three Americans and an Iranian, missing on an aerial mapping mission since Tuesday, had been found safe.
Near Denver, Colo., a wealthy lawyer, his wife and daughter had been killed the previous night by a n'er-do-well relative, bent on getting money, four days after his release from prison. The 28-year old accused had been caught by neighbors moments after the rifle shootings had climaxed a four-hour reign of terror in the home of the lawyer in swank Greenwood Village, a suburb 14 miles southeast of downtown Denver. The lawyer, 45, a former president of the Denver Bar Association, and his 43-year old wife and 15-year old daughter had been killed, as the assailant fled with $187. The 18-year old son of the deceased couple had escaped, although the assailant had fired one shot at him. The assailant, who had been freed from Leavenworth Federal Prison in Kansas the previous Tuesday, had been booked at the Arapahoe County Jail for investigation of murder, with the district attorney indicating that he would file formal charges the following week. He said that the accused had written out a brief confession in long-hand after dictating a lengthy statement to a shorthand reporter. The accused had described himself as the nephew of the lawyer and had served aggravated robbery terms at Leavenworth and Canon City, Colo., prisons, the district attorney indicating that he had been in trouble all of his life and it was not known immediately whether he was paroled or released from the prison. He had readily talked to reporters and police officers about the shootings and had even taken part in a taped recorded interview, describing the crime, which was to be broadcast on a Littleton radio station, KUDY. The boy had smiled as he listened to officers describe the crime to reporters and after the radio interview, told newsmen: "I did a favor for you on the radio, now you get me some smokes." He was the while chain-smoking. The sheriff related that the boy had come to Denver after his release from prison and registered at the YMCA, that about noon the previous day, had taken a taxi to the residence of his uncle, where no one was at home, but entered through a basement door and waited about 2 1/2 hours until his aunt arrived at home. He brandished a .22-caliber rifle and forced her to her bedroom where he bound her hands and feet. She had told him to take $60 from her purse, but he wanted more money and decided to await the return of his uncle from work. Meanwhile, the children had returned from school and the assailant forced the girl into her bedroom and tied her up. The boy was also bound with silk stockings in his mother's room at the foot of her bed. The uncle returned at around 5:30, after which the killings occurred, starting with the uncle, who, according to the assailant, had lunged at him during a visit to the three rooms to check to make sure each person was still tied up and gagged. At that point, he said, he shot his uncle without thinking and then decided to shoot the others because they were witnesses. While he was in the daughter's room, after killing his aunt, the son was able to break his bindings and run from the house, at which point the nephew shot at him, and then the gun jammed.
In Erie, Pa., five young children had died late the previous night in a fire which had swept a crowded two-story frame home, and two other children had been burned, one critically. Fourteen children under 15 years of age, the members of four families, had been sleeping when the blaze erupted shortly before midnight. The survivors were dragged out of the fire by neighbors, some of whom had formed a human chain, entering the building and passing out the children hand to hand. One neighbor, who turned in the first alarm, said that he could hear them screaming, that the children were in a back bedroom but they would not have known which way to go as the fire was so bad. A detective sergeant said that the fire apparently had begun from an overheated kerosene heater. The dead ranged in age from eight months to 11 years.
In Rockledge, Fla., a three-year old girl had been found this date, mosquito-bitten but otherwise unharmed, following 12 hours of wandering lost through woods surrounding the community. A posse of 1,000 men had searched for the child through the warm night, aided by four light airplanes. The girl was standing in a palmetto thicket only about 300 yards from her home when searchers from Patrick Air Force Base had found her. Every available man had been on the search through tangled orange groves and the woods surrounding the community on the mainland, just southwest of the Air Force Missile Test Center at Cape Canaveral. Police, National Guardsmen, airmen from nearby Patrick and volunteers had started the search late the previous day when the child's parents had reported the girl missing. The local police said that the girl's mother was provided a sedative by physicians the previous night as the search pressed into the hours of darkness.
In El Paso, Tex., frantic rescuers the previous night had dragged a sobbing three-year old girl from a narrow abandoned well in which she had become trapped for an hour. The girl had plunged into the well while playing in her backyard after her father had uncovered it to fill it in as a danger to his children. The girl had become trapped in a standing position with her hands above her head. Her six-year old brother said that she had been walking and did not see the hole, tried to hold on but could not, and so he ran and told his father. Neighbors had lowered her 13-year old uncle head first to reach her, but failed in the effort. The girl was wedged in tight about 8 feet down from the top of the well. At that point, the girl began to cry to her father that there was sand in her eyes, to which he instructed her to close her eyes and that they would have her out in a minute, encouraging her not to cry, that they would get her some candy. Both the mother and father had remained calm, though the mother appeared pale and terror-stricken, but without tears. Police had sent a dozen units to the scene, and firemen had brought equipment, including a resuscitator. A parallel shaft was dug to the well opening and a detective had dug through from the area across to the little girl, telling her to hold very still, which she had done, calling her "a brave tyke". A detective had then thrown down a borrowed religious medal to the girl, and an hour later, the unharmed girl, from a hospital bed, was demanding the promised candy. You don't get no candy, you stupid spastic. Look where you're done going next time, dummy. Running around, all crazy like that… Candy...
In Burnsville, N.C., a Tennessee man had been arrested by police this date following a three-mile chase out of town which ended when he wrecked the car he was driving. According to the State Highway Patrol, the car had been stolen in Johnson City, Tenn.
In Pantego, N.C., it was reported that the battle of man against a forest fire had continued this date with fresh efforts to control the blaze which had thus far covered 6,000 acres of marshy Hyde County woodlands. Everything will be copacetic as long as it doesn't reach Jekyll Island, as then, surely, havoc will ensue, reaching then all the way to Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay and north, into the hills of Sonoma County, where a battle could erupt over how "To Build a Fire".
In Raleigh, the Central Telephone Co. wanted to increase rates for customers in the Hickory area by $360,000 annually. Customers in Hickory, Valdese, Granite Falls, Catawba and Hildebrand would be affected by the proposed rate hike. The company had told the Utilities Commission in an application filed the previous day that it had spent a total of more than 2.4 million dollars since December 31, 1955, to improve telephone service in the area. We don't care. That is no ground for increasing rates by $360,000 annually to each customer. Do not stand for it. Rebel. Disconnect your phones. They are wealthy enough.
John Borchert of The News reports that the Southern Presbyterians meeting in Charlotte had paved the way to ease restrictions for remarriage of divorced persons. The vote had been 307 to 115 against the motion to throw out the report of a committee regarding a new approach on marriage, divorce and remarriage. In the presbyteries, the first part of the report, which revised part of "The Confession of Faith", had to be approved by three-fourths of the presbyteries. The second part of the report, which would be inserted into "The Book of Church Order", had only to gain simple majority approval. Both then had to be approved by the subsequent general assembly. Under old church law, ministers would consider for remarriage only those divorced persons who were in that state by reason of their mate's desertion or adultery. Under the new provision, if approved, divorce would be given sanction when a "marriage dies at the heart and the union becomes intolerable." The report said that such separation or divorce was accepted as permissible only because of the failure of one or both as partners, and did not lessen the divine intention for indissoluble union.
In Charlotte, local voters were turning out in less than handfuls this date to decide a couple of bond issues and an extra two-cent assessment per $100 of property valuation for support of the two community colleges, Charlotte and Carver. Voters traditionally stayed away from the polls by the thousands during bond elections, but this date's turnout appeared to be shaping up as one of the highest on record. The newspaper had checked 17 of 33 Charlotte precincts with a total registration of 28,258, and in those precincts, only 657 had voted by shortly prior to noon. Charlotte voters were deciding on issuance of 4.8 million dollars in bonds designed to finance extension of City improvements to the perimeter areas which would be annexed at the end of 1959, and the issuance of 6 million dollars in countywide school bonds to finance school buildings designed to cope with the rising school population. The countywide two-cent tax levy for support of the community colleges was also on the ballot, a levy which city residents were already paying.
Julian Scheer of The News suggests circling the date May 15 on the calendar, when the state Democratic convention in Raleigh would take place, certain to be accompanied by fireworks over the appointment of Senator B. Everett Jordan by Governor Luther Hodges. It appeared, however, that the forces of the late Senator Kerr Scott did not have a candidate to throw into the fight to challenge Mr. Jordan. There had been some urging an attempt to get Terry Sanford, the expected 1960 gubernatorial candidate, into the Senate fight, but Mr. Sanford was remaining out. There had also been talk of getting Agriculture commissioner L. Y. Ballentine into the fight, but enthusiastic support from Senator Scott's forces would be lacking. There had been a big question about the staff which Senator Jordan would have in Washington, it appearing that Bill Cochrane, at least temporarily, would remain in the office and Bill Whitley would definitely stay, while Ben Roney and Roy Wilder had quit. Meanwhile, the supporters of Senator Jordan were not standing still, having a couple of goodwill ambassadors making the rounds of the Scott supporters, trying to smooth things over. A major question mark was Dr. Henry Jordan, the brother of Everett, who had considered entering the gubernatorial race against Governor Hodges in 1956 before finally deciding not to run after consulting with many people in Charlotte. He would have been the Scott candidate, having been aligned with the Scotts for years. But now that he was in the Hodges camp and his brother in Washington, insiders believed he had been edging that way for some time anyway. It also indicates that a major lift in prestige for the Democrats in the area had been Mrs. Charles Tillet's honor in Washington the previous week when she was asked to introduce Eleanor Roosevelt at a party gathering.
In London, Queen Elizabeth was recovering normally from a heavy cold, having been advised to remain in bed during the weekend, according to Buckingham Palace officials.
In Hot Springs, Ark., a municipal judge had said that he had seen an accident and dismissed charges of negligent collision and driving while intoxicated against a black defendant before him, indicating that the driver of the other vehicle was in the wrong by failing to yield the right-of-way. The other driver, white, had not been arrested and officers said they were trying to find out who he was.
In Los Angeles, a 26-year old man
was sentenced to between 10 and 40 years in prison after pleading
guilty to burglarizing churches
On the editorial page, "Israel: Ten Years of Independence" indicates that gunfire had again been echoing through the Hula Valley, a border clash which again involved the spilling of Arab and Israeli blood. Jewish Jerusalem was understandably jittery, wondering whether it was the spark which would ignite another war. Even the minor Israeli official who had come late to address a small gathering of American visitors showed signs of discomfort with something other than the heat.
He also showed signs of something other than merely anxiety, a chronic condition in the Middle East. When asked about the swift, almost automatic pugnacity with which the unprepared Israeli villagers from Gonen had reacted to the latest threat from Syria, the message of his face was translated into words. He had said that self-defense for the Jews was a new experience, that they had only known it really in the current generation, that the great tragedy of Jewry under Nazism was not that six million Jews had died in the furnaces but that the Jews had no capacity to defend themselves against that kind of treatment. He said they had now learned that they could not be free unless they had the capacity for defense, the whole point of Israel. "For us, the big thing in the recent border clashes was that the people of Gonen did not run away. For too long we have solved our problems by running away."
It finds that it was the quality that had made it possible for Israel to celebrate its tenth anniversary during the current year, as it was not running away, was here to stay. It was remarkable that it had survived for a decade. Not only outsiders but Jews shared a certain sense of amazement that they were able to do so. Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion had dramatized something of the enormity of the achievement in 1954 when he had written: "It seemed as if these global tremors, and its own disasters, would at length shatter the foundations of this strange people after it had survived 20 amazing centuries of exile, amazing centuries, if indeed they were not miraculous. The dreadful tribulations which overtook it—severance of Russian Jewry, extermination of the Jews of Europe, slamming of the homeland gates—would not these have been enough to break the will of far stronger nations? And in spite of all, out of all these monstrous buffetings of fate, there has come this incredibly fantastic renewal and recrudescence, this birth of the state of Israel, a new incarnation that is not only a tremendous and ultimate turn in the affairs of the Jewish people, but one of the most positive and astounding phenomena in the contemporary history of mankind."
That the young democracy had found a permanent place among the nations had been an inspiration to many throughout the world. Yet its sternest tests were still to come. The problems of the Middle East still could be likened to a basket of snakes. The Israelis would have to answer to history for some of the very audacity of the spirit which had colored its major triumphs. Whatever history's verdict might be, the fact was that Israel existed and would continue to exist. It had the strength to do so, moral as well as military. That the Jews should be "driven into the sea", as some Arab nationalists still threatened, was unthinkable. The reason was simple, "because the stern and audacious resolve demonstrated last summer by the villagers of Gonen is not peculiar to one corner of Israel, but to all."
"Tar Heel Farmers Are the Losers" indicates that Governor Luther Hodges had apparently not convinced his party's Senate leadership that B. Everett Jordan would be much more than a transient in Washington, warming a seat for the Governor to run in 1960.
The new Senator Jordan had only second-rate committee assignments awaiting him, according to the best Democratic sources in Congress, probably to the Post Office and Civil Service Committee and the Public Works Committee, two relatively quiet committees, as the more choice assignments went to Senators considered to have a "future".
The late Senator Kerr Scott had an important seat on the Agriculture Committee, but that had already been reassigned. He regards it as one of the minor tragedies of the transition, as the state, despite some hopeful progress toward industrialization, was still primarily a rural state, and a small one at that. With all of the agonizing problems which an oversupply of small farmers had to endure in a nervous economy, the state needed a seat on the Agriculture Committee, where most of the basic structural work was done on agricultural legislation in the Senate.
It indicates that if Senator Scott had other shortcomings, he knew and understood the problems of the small farmer from the state and elsewhere in the South and represented their interests authoritatively, intelligently and with rustic persuasiveness. It thus finds it regrettable that the small-farm North Carolina view would not be aired in that Committee again soon.
But perhaps the industrialist, Senator Jordan, could give some North Carolina flavor to some vital post office or civil service legislation before his term ended, which it regards as being better than nothing.
"The Presbyterian Heritage Grows" indicates that the rich heritage of local Presbyterianism was ornamented by the choice of Philip Howerton as moderator of the 98th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.
Mr. Howerton was a devoted leader of both church and public affairs in Mecklenburg County and now held a position of great honor and responsibility which had once been held by his father, the Reverend James Howerton, also a pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. The son was now the ruling elder of that church and his election to the new position was an example of the strength and rewards of family and church tradition and service, and a reminder of the dedication required to keep the lamps of enlightenment trimmed and burning.
After his election, Mr. Howerton had said to the assembly: "The greatest human heritage anyone can have in the world is to be the son of a Presbyterian minister. The greatest honor that can be conferred on any man, the greatest call to responsibility, is to be called as moderator of the Presbyterian Church."
It provides congratulations both to the church and Mr. Howerton for his selection.
A piece from the Raleigh News & Observer, titled "Only a Wagon Will Do", indicates that the hayride had been to small-town rural North Carolina what the roulette table had been to Las Vegas, that even in present times there were sporadic hayrides, but trucks were now used instead of wagons. It finds that trying to have a hayride that way was silly, as much so as "trying to grow chickens by planting chicken feathers", that the wagon was imperative and the older and slower the horse, the sweeter the night and the nearer the stars had been. "The rattle of an engine is indecorous when you're out for laughter, music, and gentle love words. And the little dirt roads, the sandy paths that go on forever in melodic semi-circles to nowhere, are the only proper routes for poetic pilgrims out to steal the fragrance from the honeysuckle."
It indicates that in earlier times, elaborate preparations had been made before the hayride, with the girls making lunches and drinks, being careful that there was not too much chicken and too little cake, plenty of chess pies but not so many sandwiches that someone had to eat a soggy one made of tomatoes. The informal choirs and quartets were arranged meticulously and places were reserved for heavy daters in the front of the wagon so that the chaperones were in the rear with their backs or sides turned to the surreptitious pecking. The mandolins and banjos were placed together and the boy who played the bones sat on the high seat with the driver.
As soon as the first star appeared, the trip began, ending, amid a riot of poignant song, at about 11:00, the time when the night policeman knocked off and went home. "You never told the mayor that the cop always went home at 11 (everything being so quiet and all), but, then, again, he never told your girl's mother that a wagon wheel didn't break and you really didn't have to walk back and get in at eleven-thirty."
Drew Pearson, touring the Midwest, has his column written this date by his associate, Jack Anderson, who says that the President's military reorganization plan, supposed to stop interservice feuding, had begun some new feuds, the first of which was between the armed services behind the scenes regarding the best way to halt their feuding. The Air Force favored the President's reorganization plan, but the Navy was against it and the Army was split. The Navy League and Naval Advisory Council were waging an undercover campaign on behalf of the Navy against the reorganization plan. Retired Admiral J. W. Reeves, Jr., chairman of the Council, had called on his members to bring pressure on Congressmen to defeat the plan. He had advised his members not to speak as members of either the Council or the League, but rather as individual citizens in addressing members of Congress.
The second feud was between the White House and Congressman Carl Vinson, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, holding hearings on the reorganization bill, regarding who should write the final version. Mr. Vinson had said that he appreciated the President's interest but that Congress was going to write the reorganization bill. He had prepared a speech the previous week criticizing the President for talking about reorganization while sending to Congress no formal recommendations. The White House had gotten advance wind of the speech and, to thwart Mr. Vinson, had rushed the proposed bill to the press a couple of hours before Mr. Vinson was scheduled to take the floor. It remained to be seen whether the reorganization battle would be a feud to end all feuds.
Mr. Anderson indicates that whatever the outcome, it promised to be the greatest military debate since the Air Force had been split from the Army in 1947 and the three services were combined under one roof at the Pentagon in the Defense Department, supposed to be a unification of the services. Instead, they had put on a display of back-biting which had driven the first Secretary of Defense, the late James Forrestal, literally out of his mind, winding up in his suicide, jumping out of a window at Bethesda Naval Hospital. Interservice rivalry had gone so far that the services now kept secrets, including vital missile information from each other. Thousands of classified documents were stamped for Army, Navy, or Air Force eyes only. At the same time, the defense machinery had become hopelessly clogged with red tape. General Maxwell Taylor, Army chief of staff, had complained that 19 civilian officials stood between him and the President. All 19 had a say in how the Army was run.
Former Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson had surrounded himself with 29 deputy or assistant secretaries, similar to the vice-presidents at General Motors, of which he had been president before becoming Secretary of Defense in 1953. Each of those 29 deputies or assistant secretaries could say no but the structure did not permit them to make high policy decisions, only to block them, and they were still functioning. Mr. Wilson had built up a gigantic, unwieldy staff of over 2,400 employees, divided into empires within empires, headed by deputies and assistants who kept adding more employees on the theory that the more people they commanded, the bigger the higher-ups became. The result had been to impede and obstruct decision-making, such that any new idea had to pass through numerous layers of bureaucracy and by the time it had run the gauntlet, was weighted down with so many comments that the Secretary of Defense had difficulty wading through the memos.
The President and Mr. Vinson had different ideas about how to correct the abuses, the President wanting to downgrade the three services and give the Secretary of Defense more power. Mr. Vinson wanted to bolster the independence of the three services by bringing the secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force into the policy-making National Security Council.
Meanwhile, the battle lines were drawn and Washington was settling down to a good fight.
Robert C. Ruark, in Seville, Spain, indicates that there was a strange type of camaraderie among the large bullfighting festivals in Spain, the san fermin in Pamplona, the feria in Seville, and the formal festival of San Isidro in Madrid.
"They gravitate unerringly to each other, in the big pavilions in which a million gallons of sherry is drunk, in the bar and dining room of the better hotels like the Andalucia Palace, or the Alfonso XIII, or the ancient mansions which throw open their flowered courtyards and noble balconies to temporary paying guests."
"It resembles the secret society of people who stride the world. My gypsies, at a flamenco we gave in the panoleta, or Gitanillo de Triana, were old friends of mine from Barcelona—transplanted Andalucians who had come home again but were happy to see their old friends from the north."
"At the flamenco given by Juanito Belmonte, it was no accident to see Generalissimo Franco's daughter and son-in-law and the Duchess of Alba drinking manzanilla with some of the most unshaven, shabby gypsies yet unhung. It was no accident to see anybody, from anywhere, caught in the spell of the fiesta, the throb of guitars and wild dancing."
A letter from State Senator Seavy A. Carroll of Fayetteville indicates that in America, the privilege of the ballot was the most dramatic symbol of freedom, but that the right to vote had been gradually watered down. He expresses surprise at receipt of a report of the subcommittee on judges and solicitors from the Bell Committee, that under the guise of improving and expediting the administration of justice in the state, the Committee and the North Carolina Bar Association had recommended elimination of the ballot as a means of selecting judges in the state, including Supreme Court justices, Superior Court judges and all others. He suggests that it could next lead to appointment of the governor or of the head of the Bar Association. He asks whether appointment of judges would actually remove the taint of politics, obligating them to a handful of politicians with power sufficient to swing a deal for an appointment. He hopes that the recommendations to the Legislature concerning the appointment of judges would be defeated and he vows to be on the front lines to help to do so. He says that no one could have a quarrel regarding the ballot system which had enabled State Supreme Court Justice R. Hunt Parker to obtain a position when he had run against and defeated a man appointed to fill an unexpired term, indicating that while he was certain that both men were well-qualified, it was helpful to the democratic system to give the people the right of choice.
A letter writer compliments the editorial page, which he read often, but found an editorial on Monday to be disappointing beyond words, concerning the appointment by Governor Hodges of B. Everett Jordan to fill the Senate seat of the late Senator Kerr Scott. He was distressed by the attempt of the editorial to cast suspicion and doubt on the motives of the Governor in making the appointment, to hold the seat for the Governor so that he could run in 1960 for the seat. He says that some of the most able leaders had been men who had proven themselves in the competitive field of private enterprise and not necessarily in political office, and so the newspaper's criticism of Mr. Jordan for not having had any political experience except in party organization, was not well taken. He indicates that Governor Hodges, himself, had come out of business to be Lieutenant Governor only a few years before, elected in 1952. He indicates that despite what the "branchhead boys" of the late Senator Scott had to say about the appointment of Mr. Jordan, there were, in his opinion, none more qualified than the latter for the post.
A letter writer indicates that Battle of Cowpens: The Great Morale Builder, by Kenneth Roberts, was well titled. The writer wonders whether the author knew that the other ten states were supposedly plotting with England to drop both the Carolinas and Georgia as barter for their own freedom, and that the Georgia-Carolina leader demanded a fight before crossing the state line to show the people they were not being betrayed. The Continentals had been warned that the token battle would be fought without them if necessary and thus joined and helped to win the most brilliant tactical victory of the war. Historians boastfully enumerated the slain without naming them, as if they were telling of fish speared or rabbits gunned. With 10 or 12 Americans killed at Cowpens, depending on the authority, the writer believes that at least they might be patriotically listed in some of the many accounts of the battle. But none had done so. He says he had thus begun his own list. Delaware's Blue Hen's Chickens had furnished half of the martyrs, including John Cornwall, William Haigans, James Scott, Richard Treasure, Thomas Walker, Capt. Henry Zeller of Maryland and Charles Kinsolving, sometimes spelled "Consolver", of Virginia. The Carolina-Georgia group had lost Aaron Smith, Lt. Samuel Watson, and James Wilson. James Caldwell, uncle of future Vice-President and Senator John Caldwell Calhoun of South Carolina, had received 30 wounds and was left among the dead. James Lee, a North Carolina kinsman of Robert E. Lee's family, had been so severely wounded that he may well have been counted as dead, but both of the latter had been rescued and survived. The cane-brakes were also mentioned in Santerra Lang's Skyagunsta to Cowpens Came.
A letter writer finds the remarks of Mr. Whitlock on the subject of "funeral business" to be absurd and utterly ridiculous, suggesting that he first familiarize himself with each phase of the business before commenting on it. She questions whether it was actually the fact that a particular building could not be sold because of ghosts or whether it was the "asininity of such a statement being made by an adult living in the Twentieth Century that 'convulsed' those attending the meeting." The entirety of his statement before the City Council meeting, she finds, had amounted to "'juvenile gibberish'", and concludes that it would be to Mr. Whitlock's best interest to "'back up and start over.'"
That sounds like a scintillating
Framed Edition
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