.DECEMBER 27, 1962

The Texas Observer O AN INDEPENDENT FORTNIGHTLY 25c

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The Bounty of Nature . . . . Ralph Yarborough Famous Arthur Goes Home Again to Dallas Brammer 11110 • n. ef)e aA 4._ Liberals, your turn has come. kind of job he does in the legislature. Not a turn to beg a job from a gov- We do not need them seeking patron- The New Format ernor who needs you: a turn at con- age that might compromise them for The extra week between issues is trol of your own political party in the good fight. All the reform move- killing me, but just to keep the Ob- Texas. Not a turn at hobnobbing with ment needs right now is a tight grip server around is worth it. I am very the social upper crust of Texas poli- on its own integrity. favorably impressed with your new tics: a turn at writing the Texas Let liberals stand quietly for what format. Democrats' platform and naming the they believe in, support Connally Helen Hill, 2311 W. Main, Apt. 2, Texas delegates for the Democrats' when he is right, oppose him when Houston 6, Tex. 1964 presidential convention. he is wrong, and seek, in every city Someone said to us the other night: and hamlet, steadfast liberal candi- It looked very good. I particularly "Now our turn has come to get some dates for every elected office from liked the article on civil defense in- of the gravy!" That's what the new constable to—should it appear to be struction, and the political piece by shape of Texas politics meant to this wise—governor in 1964. Goodwyn. I do have one suggestion : bemused fellow. Gentlemen, let us not If Connally wishes to impress the the gray strips above and below the neglect the obvious. A man who falls minorities with his liberalism, let him cover picture are somewhat gloomy. silent about what he believes to get start, say, by integrating the state Perhaps they might be in color, if some political job has sold out. parks with an executive order. Why cost permitted? Gov.-elect Connally needs — must must Negroes always wait for a court Charles Langford, Mt. Enterprise, try to get—the liberals' support ; but order? If he wants the support of lib- Tex. they do not need his. In the legisla- eral legislators, let him propose a lib- ture, still hung over from the muddled eral program, including permanent Your new format is both good-look- one-party era, Connally will be more voter registration and a liberal tax ing and comfortable. I like being able influential than he is among the program. But if he wants the integri- to read one item straight on through, voters. The truth is he was the liber- ty of the reform movement in Texas, on successive pages, instead of hav- als' second choice last June and the now is the time to let him know it's ing to turn back through later pages conservatives' second choice last No- trying to find it. not available. Whenever liberals and vember. labor and the minorities meet with Tom Miller, 711 W. Sycamore St., What we need at the moment is not Denton, Tex. this man, as they will, for example, complicated. We, do not need liberals during the Democratic coalition meet- I read the new Observer last night or labor or minorities making deals ing Jan. 5, let them make the one and like it—but not quite as well as with Connally before they see what thought plain to him: No deals. the old form (perhaps nostalgia en- ters here). I am delighted that you put that picture on the front. . . . Let's THE TEXAS OBSERVER work harder to get Don Yarborough An Independent Fortnightly in next time. . . . Vol. 55, No. 2 7c, I'm always sorry when you men- December 27, 1962 tion drinking beer and whiskey. Keep Editor and General Manager for does not necessarily imply that he it a secret. You should not have put Ronnie Dugger agrees with them, because this a journal Partner of free voices. that pint back in Willie's car. He gave Mrs. R. D. Randolph it to you so he would not be tempted The Observer solicits articles, essays, Business Manager and creative work of the shorter forms, to drink while driving. That habit Sarah Payne having to do in various ways with this grows, especially for writers. Contributing Editors area. The pay depends; at present it is Marion Snuggs, 128 Main Plaza, Bill Brammer, Chandler Davidson, token. Unsigned articles are the editor's. Larry Goodwyn, Lyman Jones, Willie San Antonio, Tex. Morris, Charles Ramsdell, Roger Shat- The Observer is published by Texas tuck, Bob Sherrill, Dan Strawn, Tom Observer Co., Ltd., biweekly from Austin, Oh jolly! Got my new Observer to- Sutherland, Charles Alan Wright. Texas. Entered as second-class matter, day and thought it was The Baptist Art Editor April 26, 1937, at the Post Office at Aus- Standard. Charles Erickson tin, Texas, under the Act of March 3, Subscription representatives: Dallas. 1879. Re-entry applfcation pending. De- Carolyn Boyd, 224 Granada* El livered postage prepaid $5.10 per annum Paso, Tex. 416 Mrs. Cordye Hall, 5835 Ellsworth. TA- 11205; Fort Worth, Mrs. Jesse Baker, for subscribers living in Texas (this in- Best wishes. "This is a journal of 3212 Greene St., WA-72959; Houston, cludes sales tax), and $5.00 per annum Mrs. Shirley Jay, 10306 Cliffwood Dr., for subscribers living elsewhere in the free voices"—I like that. United States. Rates for delivery to for- Bro. Ira V. Lott, O.M.I., 285 Oblate PA-38682; San Antonio, Mrs. Mae B. Tug- gle, 531 Elmhurst, TA-27154; Austin, Mrs. eign countries available on request. Sin- Dr., San Antonio, Tex. Helen C. Spear. 2615 Pecos, HO-51805. gle copies. 25 cents each; special prices The editor has exclusive control over for orders of ten or more are available Hell! the editorial policies and contents of the on request. Bulk rates are usually lower if orders ,are placed in advance of an Larry Goodwyn's article jObs. Dec. Observer. None of the other people who are associated with the enterprise shares issue's publication. 13] is a very good one, but still an this responsibility with him. Writers are Advertising rates available on request. (Continued on Page 15) responsible for their own work, but not Editorial and Business Offices: The for anything they have not themselves Texas Observer, 504 West 24th St., Aus- The Texas Observer written, and in publishing them the edi- tin 5, Texas. Telephone, GR 7-0745. The Bounty of Nature

Ralph Yarborough

I have many memories of hunting, recorded winter since St. Denis bites. I ate from the field and forest fishing, and camping. Growing up as camped at Natchitoches in 1717. Ice- and fried my fish on the river bank, a boy in East Texas between the covered limbs broke off of trees, kill- carrying only salt with me; As I sat Neches River and Kickapoo Creek, on ing several of our men in our division alone on the banks of spring branches the western edge of the eastern tim- and injuring a number of others. or creeks and fished and watched the ber zone, I watched the pileated wood- While I still camp out on deer hunts, birds and other wild life, Virtually pecker hammer, saw the great flights I do it for the hunting, not for the as free as an Indian boy except for of ducks and geese and blackbirds camping. my store bought clothes, the wind that filled our skies fifty years ago, Before I announced for governor rustled the leaves of trees; and I im- and marveled even as a boy at their ten years ago, I spent something like agined, as a boy will, that the trees numbers. The frogs, the copperhead, four to six weeks each year hunting were talking to me, but they seetned the moccasin were near the borders and fishing. Since the day I an- to be saying Indian words, like I had of our sloughs and ponds there, and nounced for governor against Allan heard from Hiawatha, that I didn't the gar and trout were near their Shivers on May 1, 1952, I have spent understand. But now I understand, surfaces, herons and egrets and cranes only six days hunting and fishing, they were crying out for the sal- waded their shores or perched on one day for deer, one day for turkey, vation of our trees, our wildlife, our lookout points, kingfishers and water one day for doves, one day for ducks, heritage. turkeys sat on the bare boughs of dead one day for geese, and one day fish- trees over the water, more patient ing. Six days in ten years are not T HAS BEEN DISAP- than human fishermen. The virgin enough. I want to hit the fishing and POINTING to me that so few of the hardwood forest was unfenced. Not hunting trail again. candidates for • the governorship of Texas have seemed to have much old enough to possess a gun, I roamed But I don't want to create the im- recognition of the need for a large the woods with my fish hooks and pression that I am only interested in number of parks in Texas to serve my dogs, alone, and watched the hunting and killing animals. Nature our more than ten million people, not birds as I fished for catfish and perch. is greater than the chase. Man's habi- to mention the millions that we hope I feared only the wild, razorback hogs tat is the outdoors and all living to lure into our state as tourists. 'If and the scrub cattle which ranged things, and if he destroys a part of we expect them as tourists, we must the river and creek bottoms. I mud- it, he destroys a part of himself. If have something for them when they died the waters and grabbled for fish he recklessly kills off species of birds reach Texas. Some Texans seem not in hollow logs and holes in the bank and animals, he impoverishes the .hu- and got hold of loggerhead turtles to have realized that. Texas screams man race forever. Although a fenced- for tourists, but our state govern- and snatched a powerful moccasin, up America has ended wild, free, and came out of all of it without be- ment will do nothing to attract them. open, uncrowded woods forever, I People will go where there are attrac- ing bitten, although a few times I still feel akin to the things I saw, was very much shaken up. tions and opportunities for recreation. hunted, lived with, and loved in those Someone with vision is needed in On fishing trips when I was a boy, East Texas woods half a century ago. the state government who will push we just slept on the ground under the There was food in the woods for a a program of state parks to supple- trees, without benefit of any camping boy, wild plums and mulberries in ment and complement the one na- equipment, and slapped the mosqui- spring and summer, grapes in abun- tional park that we now have and the toes all night. I. enjoyed camping dance in summer and fall, muscadines second that we are about to obtain. ever after that until World War II, and persimmons, red haws and black With our population and an area of when I had to sleep on the ground, haws, chinquapins and hickory nuts, more than 265,000 square miles, Pa- even though in a sleeping bag, for a mayhaws and the kernels of nettles. dre Island, the Wheatley Ranch, if it hundred consecutive nights on Louis- Wild birds sought all the wild fruit, iana maneuvers during the coldest and I raced with them for choice December 27, 1962 3 is available, and the Big Thicket area per on the 27th of June, 1958, in the combined will not accommodate all snake is near its margin ; no snowy 85th Congress. I re-introduced it in heron, no rose-colored ibis ever is of the recreational needs of Texas for January of 1959 in the 86th Congress the future. seen here, wild and charming; no and re-introduced it in January of sprightly trout, nor waiting garfish, Of the 110 recognized independent 1961 in the 87th Congress. We had while above hovers no vulture watch- nations of the world, Texas is larger four senatorial hearings, and it has ing for the spoils of the hunt, nor than each of 78 of them and has more taken an almost incalculable amount eagle perched on dreary cypress in a population than each of 84 of them. of work to get it through. gloomy silence. No! I am in England, Texas is incomparably richer in gross The bill as passed does not preserve and I cannot but long with unutter- national product per annum, or aver- as large a part of the island as I had able longing for America. . . ." age per capita wealth, than each of hoped for, but it is approximately 90 more than 80 of them. No wonder his homesickness for per cent as long as we had asked for ; America, with the living birds and Such being the case, Texas needs most of the island is included. I am animals abounding on its lands and in parks, schools, universities—facilities glad that at least there will be an 81- for people. We have had a few great its waters, and around their margins! mile-long seashore recreation area, We must not let destructiveness and and generous souls who have donated 78 miles fronting on the Gulf of Mex- money for universities, but far too pollution wipe out a great heritage ico and 66 miles covering the island that is America's. few, and virtually none who have from the east shore to the west shore. been willing to give money and prop- As proud as we are of our wildlife It will be the longest national sea- in Texas, we are restrained and sober- erty for outdoor recreational facili- shore area in the United States and ties for the people, so badly needed in ed in our pride by the knowledge that has been described as the greatest un- the Texas wolf, the black-footed this urbanized, industrialized, mecha- developed and largely unspoiled beach nized age. The Wheatleys are among ferret, the Texas grizzly bear, and in the United States. Furthermore, the Merriam elk are gone forever, the first forward-looking Texans to the South Gulf of Mexico coastal area recognize the need of repose and nat- that the buffalo is gone from Texas, is the bottom of a huge continental that the Texas big-horn sheep is near ural surroundings as an offset to the funnel in bird migration. It is said rackety - clackety environment in extinction and apparently doomed, that some 400 species of birds use and that the kit fox, river otter, and which people are forced to spend most portions of the island at some season of their lives in our urban living. black bear are nearly gone from our of the year. state. After four long years, the Padre Island bill passed the Congress. I re- It is acknowledged that national We realize that we in Texas have member the Observer's editorial for a recognition of the island will have a helped exterminate the Carolina para- national park on Padre back in 1958. favorable economic impact on Texas. keet and have helped put the Eskimo The late Bob • Bray, my press man, However, as those of us know who curlew and the ivory-billed wood- [formerly the Observer's associate have lived close to the land and have pecker at the edge or over the brink, editor,] brought it in. Bob and his a natural knowledge of the relation- while our own Gulf Coast Attwater's father once owned a newspaper on ships to be found in nature, there is a prairie chickens have dropped from the Texas coast. He wanted me to sense of rhythm in the sights, the a primitive population of one million introduce the Padre Island bill, and sounds, and the vast stillness of these to a few thousands and are now en- he advocated it strongly. He was very open reaches of sea, sand, and grass gaged in a losing struggle reminiscent fond of fishing. I didn't introduce it that once lost can never be recaptur- of the story of the Eastern Shore's at first, but he buttressed the edi- ed. To preserve all this is a matter of heath hen. torial with other ones from the Cor- fundamental importance. Audubon, Wilson, and others de- pus Christi Caller-Times and the A bill must be passed by the state scribed the great flights of passenger Houston Press. I knew something legislature, which holds title to the pigeons when there were more than a about the Padre Island fight of 1936, tidelands. It is inconceivable to me billion of them in America, number- when James Allred was governor, and that the people of Texas would miss ing between 25 and 40% of all bird wanted to look into that and study this great opportunity, this bounty life in America, and yet these passen- the legislation over title to Padre Is- offered them by the federal govern- ger pigeons are utterly gone, all de- land that went to the Supreme Court. ment, to achieve and own and hold stroyed by man. How great the boun- We finally pitched the bill in the hop- forever a strip of land as the great ty of nature! How profligate we in forces of creation built it. America have been with our re- sources! HAVE YOU EVER READ I am surprised over and over that Audubon's Journals? And his descrip- so few join with us in Texas in any tion of the bleakness of life in Eng- fight for these parks. Surely, I could land, when he went there in 1826 to not be that far out of step, with the finance his Elephant Folio of the thoughts of the people, but if I am, Birds of America and was staying as I am consoled by these sentences a guest in a home that had a pond f r o m Thoreau's conclusions in out on the estate? Walden: He describes walking out to the "If a man does not keep pace with pond: his companions, perhaps it is because "Immediately opposite Mr. Roscoe's he hears a different drummer. Let dwelling is a pond where I have not him step to the music which he hears,

4 yet seen a living thing, not even a however meaoured or far away." The Texas Observer frog. No moccasin nor copper-headed Protecting the Golden Eagle Senator Ralph Yarborough of Tex- statements from West Texans: Texas, flies high and is an easier tar- as wrote two conservation laws that W. J. Burns, Del Rio: "I trapped get than a golden eagle, which, Spof- passed Congress this year, one estab- eleven years for the Fish and Wild- ford said, "will work up one side and lishing Padre Island National Sea- life Service. . . . I have . . . killed go back down the other side of a shore Recreation area, the other pro- eagles with a wingspread of eight 'draw,' close above the rocks, wait- tecting the golden eagle. feet. . . . I have seen the eagle fly ing for a rabbit, and then it drops A bird with a wingspread of seven over the pastures and dive straight dawn, half folds one wing under and feet, a lifespan of 30 years, and a down like a bullet, and rise with a picks [the prey] up with a foot." In speed that has been clocked, occa- lamb in its claws." the spring the male decorates the nest sionally, at 120 miles an hour, the George K. Whitman, Marble Falls: with green spruce or green pine tips; golden eagle nests from Canada to "I worked for the U.S.D.A. foot and apparently he takes only one mate. Mexico. Yarborough's bill to protect mouth program at Langley, Tex. . . . Senator Keating it stirred the full support of the Na- and saw one eagle kill five lambs in of New York tional Audubon Society and the Izaak one day." supported the leg- Walton League of America and the C. F. Fox, Sanderson: "We have islation. He asked incensed, down-to-cases opposition of to bring our goats down out of the Spofford if golden Texas sheep and goat raisers, espe- mountains every year during kidding eagles attacked cially from the Trans-Pecos and the because of the eagles." him when he en- Edwards Plateau. Presented undoubt- Fritz Kahl of Fort Davis, speak- tered their nests. able testimony that the golden eagle ing for the Texas Sheep and Goat "You can handle preys on young lambs and kids and Raisers' Assn., said he personally lost them easily," Spofford said. "Of wild turkeys as well as the rabbits 122 lambs to eagles in his six pastures course you can get hurt by a foot, if and squirrels that are its staple diet, this year. "I have personally observed you are not careful. . . . You may Yarborough accepted an amendment [the golden eagle] descend and per- have trouble handling a small hawk, to permit killing the eagle to protect form his kill; I have heard lambs that is difficult, because they are livestock under regulations approved bleat in defense which was useless," excitable, like a small dog. But the big by the Department of the Interior. In he said. "It has been my experience birds are gentle, or gentlemen, we might say." Senate discussion, he accepted , a. fur- to have employees on my ranch rope ther amendment by Senator John eagles from horseback. These eagles Tower of Texas to require Interior [had] made a kill and were eating WELL, this was too much to prepare such regulations for states the lambs at the time they were for Dan Auld, a rancher from Kerr- whose governors request them. roped." ville, who spoke for sheep and goat Yarborough's legislation is predi- Yarborough drew from Kahl the raisers, for the national wool grow- cated on his belief that the golden fact that he lost about ten percent of ers, and most of all, for himself. "If eagle is in danger of extinction. West his lambs this year from winter these eagles are left in our country, Texas livestock raisers confirmed weather, eagles, and all other causes they won't let us make a living, I that they hire marksmen who go up on the open range. The senator told will tell you that," he said. They eat in airplanes, fly after the eagles, and Cong. Fisher that support for the skunks, wild turkeys before those shoot them out of the air. Dr. Walter golden eagle was just as avid in East turkeys flee to the brush to evade Spofford of New York State Univer- Texas as hositility toward it, in West. them, squirrels, small deer, and lambs, sity, testifying for the Audubon and Yarborough alluded to John Graves' he testified. Sometimes they will fly, Walton groups, told the Senate sub- description, in Goodbye to a River, of two or three together, at a fawn, run committee on the legislation, of which an eagle in a tree near the Brazos, it until it tires, and then close in Yarborough was chairman, that a and Graves' comment that eagles together for the kill. single bounty hunter working out of should be protected. "About three years ago," Auld said, "I was riding along the fence line and Alpine, Texas, killed as many as 25 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service I eagles in a day, more than 1,000 in testified that the golden eagle im- an eagle flew up in front of me. rode up to where the eagle had flown a single winter, and more than 12,000 poses little, if any, economic loss over up and he had caught a big turkey in 20 years. much of its range and supported the gobbler, full grown, a wild turkey, The bald eagle is the national bird bill. The president of the National weighing from 18 to 21 pounds. . . . of the United States; the golden Audubon Society said the fates of the He had already eaten half of him up eagle, of Mexico. Until a bald eagle is majestic bald and golden eagles are and he was still alive. three or four years old, its head does "inextricably entwined" because the "This is an actual experience from not turn white, and therefore often bald eagles are often shot for golden my own observation. I didn't read it it is mistaken for a golden eagle and eagles. But Professor Spofford gave out of a book or climb up to a nest to killed. The 1962 legislation protect- the most scholarly defense of the leg- learn about it!" ing the golden eagles takes the form islation. So in the end the ranchers and the of an amendment to extend to it the He explained that the golden eagles nation's protection of the bald eagle. bird-watchers carried their respective of Texas nest mostly in the Big Bend points in the legislation to protect the country; they migrate there from the CONGRESSMAN 0. C. golden eagle, except where it endan- Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of gers livestock. FISHER of Texas rallied the opposi- Alaska and northwestern Canada. A tion at the Senate hearing. He quoted bald eagle, which is rarely seen in December 27, 1962

called a "Republican" (possibly some sort of new code label for IBM data processing techniques). These people campaigned ceaselessly on an issue they characterized as "the Austin-to- Boston Liberal Axis." My own abysmal ignoran6e in this area suggests that perhaps I have not been sufficiently exposed to direct sunlight for some weeks. Though it is reassuring to think of our new "Republican" legislators bombing off to Austin next month to clean up that mess of the Liberal Axis in the State House. To these reformers, I say "Godspeed" (which is another new 4 4%._ 11141 4441 "0I , 1• 1 I ,r k la, 7 AZ MP( f4t C *TA /11.. 2-31 ."70,4"› thing I have learned about in Dallas • • —*or- • • • -- and which I intend to use a whole lot DALLAS the nosewhales with red beans and more of in the months ahead). Unless memory fails, there are Nehi Grape, and shipping water fast) only two really glamorous and un- a certain profoundly disturbing truth WE HAVE COME, finally, reservedly chic things that Famous about our old home. to realize that in this man's Dallas Arthurs are always trying to do. One It came back to me in a queasy it isn't enough to stand up and pro- of them is they are always trying to flash of nostalgia—our home is now claim one's monumental witless ignor- go home again. The second thing con- and always has been situated in a ance and old guilt—not 'even enough cerns repeated attempts of Famous city by the name of Dallas. to sign loyalty cv.ths or turn oneself Arthurs, down through history and over to the F.B.I. for periodic grilling a lot of other odd places, to eat reg- HOW TO DESCRIBE my and chest X-ray. These things help, ularly. of course, but they don't cut the mus- I am not a Famous Arthur, of turbulent emotions of this period? You could have knocked me over with tard. course. But it is pretty to think so This is because Dallas is still a now and again—and it was on just a tureen of H.L.H. petits fours. The wonder is that I survived at all. It Can-Do, Wheeler-Dealer kind of one of these madcap occasions not so city, where a man with vision and long ago (when I was saying the hell rather takes one back (it has in fact already given me the tic) to find one- determination and a good line of with everything and kind of balling credit can make a bunch of money it up and wearing funny hats and self plunged into the enigma that passes for modern life and thought in and wear Countess Mara cowboy surrendering completely to my fan- boots and get all vomity drunk at tasies) that I decided I might as well Dallas. One ultimately forgets, for example, how Dallas reached its full Cotton Bowl games and talk like go on home again. Daddy Warbucks. Provided, as we My motives in this connection were urban flowering under such decisive cultural influences as Daniel Drew said, he's got the stuff it takes. pretty complicated; some of them A good many of the citizens here- . . . John Wilkes Booth . . . the Everly even vaguely Freudian if you happen abouts do indeed have that stuff. to dig that sort of thing. But the Brothers . . . Father Coughlin . . . and the Wooly Mammoth. I see these savage, self-made enter- really compelling reason for going prisers all over town, building their home again was that I suddenly be- But it is perhaps the spooked fate own post offices, dredging 'the Trin- came very, very hungry. I remem- of all pure esthetes and terminal- ity River, dropping coins into foun- bered that home was one of those stage masochists like myself to dis- tains and first-class pay toilets, under- charming old-fashioned places where cover—often too late in life—that writing the crash-program develop- one could go and have a whole bunch one has drifted irrevocably too far ment of their own nuclear weapons. of food shoved into one's mouth (I from the mainstream of things. I I believe, in all modesty, that I pos- am alluding here of course to the realize now I am pitifully out of sess that kind of stuff, too. Perhaps kind of food Mothers reportedly used touch. I am suffering from what is not in such abundance as to trans- to make, the kind wildly popular in known today as "alienation" (a term form me into 27 1/2 -percent Petroleum the old days for purposes of staying instantly familiar to students of Kier- Jelly or a Greasy Kid Stuff king— alive and not to be confused with va- kegaard or Kafka or Bruce Alger). but enough, surely, to hoist me up rious modern stopgap fetishes such I had never, for example, bestirred from the mediocrity of my days and as frozen pizza or Shiner Beer or myself to participate in any of the plop me down again in the best Dal- radioactive dairy products). city's wide-ranging cultural activities las salons and oyster bars. I'm not so So I came on home again, all (just the other day I slept straight much bent on great wealth as on steamed up with notions of literary through an impressive organized mob greatness—winning the respect and greatness and feeling more than a of demonstrators protesting a local high station denied me all these years little hungry. All of which may ex- production of a Howard Fast play). in the city of my birth. plain why a number of weeks elapsed Nor have I managed to stay re- My plan is to become a Famous before I finally remembered (still motely well-informed on political Playwright (a refinement on the Fa- googly-eyed and abstracted, stoked to matters. There were these funny elec- mous Arthur bit) by writing a series 6 tions last month, you see, in which of decent, instantly comprehensible The Texas Observer nearly every candidate that won was playlets—all of them with these ter- ribly weighty and real-life patriotic defense alerts, and (hasten the day!) themes like Christian Anti-Commu- any public appearances of Billy Jack nism Crusades . . . and the demoral- Hargis, Dr. Fred Schwartz, Dick izing effect (on our school children) West, Ray Zauber, Clarence Manion of federal hot-lunch programs . . . (his Forum and his Orchestra), Gen. and the long struggle to defeat Mayor Walker, Gen. Weatherred, John Cabell's Urban Renewal schemes. Wayne, George Lincoln Rockwell, These playlets will be suitable for Conde McGinley, and Evita Peron. production at fairs, festivals, style (Subscribe to the Texas Observer shows, pigeon-hole parking lots, all- NOW and read Bill Brammer's thrill- night bowling alleys, John Birch ing and fateful virginal dramatic ef- pageants and seminars, debutante fort, "Glooey," complete with multi- balls, Cotton Bowl intermissions, civil ple choice titles, in our next issue.)

Jo • Texas Now: Texas New • I 0 A Special Report

Events of the last six weeks char- boxes and the giant Memorial Drive delegates in the seven test boxes. acterize a changing state. Texas now precinct 265, also silk-stocking. The If this puzzles you, it may be that is Texas new, the old order is pass- figures dramatize the basic dilemma you are not considering the key fact ing away. Whether the new will be of the conservative Democrats: they from which the strength of Demo- good living in—that, for tomorrow. cannot count on Republicans for votes cratic factions in the conventions pro- Liberals and Republicans are corn- in November, even for state offices, ceeds. An area's number of delegates ing to from their defeats in the No- yet the liberals are liberal. is based on its total vote for the Dem- vember elections to discover to their In the seven property-owners' box- ocratic nominee for governor in the disbelief or amazement that they are es in Houston, John Connally led Don last preceding general election. The the new antagonists in Texas politics. Yarborough in the primary runoff effect of this can be tested by the Integration of the races is proceed- last June, 2,831 to 647 votes, but in precinct returns on file in every coun- ing, unremarked, at a rapid rate in November, Jack Cox beat Connally ty courthouse in Texas. this once-Confederate state. Cities of in these same boxes, 6,767 to 1,565. The implications are not lost on the Texas show a certain new vigor in This turn-about is only slightly less planners in conservative Walter Ster- trying to solve what, five years ago, amazing than the voting pattern in ling's office in Houston. One of them, they might not have accepted as prob- the seven Negro boxes. Yarborough who does not wish to be named, says lems. Some of the daily newspapers beat Connally, 3,349 to 1,544, in June that the conservative Democrats' had continue, in feature reports and on in these boxes, but in November, study shows that, although they their editorial pages, to undertake Connally beat Cox, 8,066 to 307. a majority of 288 votes in the 1960 Harris County convention and 337 in certain respectable causes that never- This pattern—repeated with varia- 1962, they will lose to the liberals by the less qualify as crusades. Right- tions in the other major cities to the 656 votes in 1964 if the boxes vote as wing forces continue to bug this and extent one can find clear instances of they did this year. In 1962, Negro that school board and authority. All alignments—makes Connally's situa- precincts had 14.5 percent of the this is going on amid the indescrib- tion obvious. The more he plays to the Democrats' convention delegates; in able welter of events that make up liberals, the more he loses ground to 1964, they will have 26.3 percent. the news; but once seen, the shape the Republicans. In the event of a The political scene is similar in the continues to make sense of these vigorous Republican contest or two events. in the 1964 primaries, he could dis- other cities: In San Antonio, the Light's Don appear into a non-existent middle. The Observer has inquired in the Politico has discovered that liberal five major cities of the Texas urban The most important consideration Bexar will have almost as many dele- triangle, San Antonio, Houston, Dal- nationally is the likelihood of a lib- gates as conservative Dallas in the las, Fort Worth, and Austin, for pre- eral Democratic presidential conven- 1964 Democratic state convention and cinct figures that illustrate the politi- tion in Texas in 1964. As to the Hous- that, within Bexar County, "the cal change. They bear out the preca- ton situation, for example, the seven strength pendulum has swung strong- rious political position of Gov.-elect conservative boxes had 149 delegates ly toward the west and east sides," John Connally and conservative Dem- at the Democratic county convention where Latin-Americans and Negroes, ocrats generally. of 1962; yet because their Democratic respectively, are concentrated resi- • Harris County, Houston, is a clear vote dropped so drastically in Novem- dentially. The voting strength of the example. Seven large Negro voting ber, their total delegates in 1964 skid tony Alamo Heights district, says boxes can be compared with their to 63. Meanwhile, the Negroes will political opposites, the six River Oaks hold steady with a slight increase in December 27, 1962 Don Politico, "has dwindled to laugh- the inaugural ball and the associated may express alarmed conservative able proportions." necessity of having to decide whether Democrats' attempts to counteract In Dallas, the figures show signifi- it would be integrated. The fact that the menace of a national G.O.P. con- cant decreases in Demdcratic conven- Connally's appointments to boards of vention in Texas, as well as liberals' tion strength for the Republican regents will be closely studied as to desire for a national convention here. boxes. Thus Dallas must pay, in Dem- academic freedom and integration ocratic politics, for going for Cox. The step-up of the pacing of inte- may explain why the politically old- gration in the state could not be In Fort Worth, Connally's strength fashioned chairman of the University against Cox (he won his home coun- missed in the events of the last six of Texas regents, Thornton Hardie, weeks. ty narrowly by 545 votes) came from resigned his chairmanship before his the working class north side, working term as regent ran out and the board's When it came to light that the people's neighborhoods on the east conservative majority then elected Texas Education Agency was deny- side, and the downtown slums, the W. W. Heath, conservative attorney ing $26,000 in state school funds to Negro boxes, and the declining middle and businessman, their chairman—an the Freer schools because they had class neighborhood known as the old appointment a new majority might enrolled two Negroes in a previously south side. Cox carried the exclusive find it graceless to set aside. Most all-white school without holding an suburbs and subdivisions and the definitely the new figures help ex- election as required under a 1957 small towns on the east side of the plain the unreported fact that Vice state law, Rep. John Alaniz of San county : the Republican precincts President Lyndon Johnson this month Antonio wrote Education Cmsr. J. W. went to Cox, not to Connally. invited key .Negro leaders from all Edgar asking bluntly whether he had Clinching the pattern, Mrs. Jean over Texas to his ranch on the Peder- taken the action unilaterally. Edgar Lee, a liberal leader, assessing Austin nales River—leaders from Houston, says he replied to Alaniz that the in- precinct returns, says: "Connally is Dallas, East Texas, for a meeting fraction of the law turned up in a in a very delicate position. He car- which stirred statewide consternation routine audit and that his agency had ried over Cox because he was sup- among the insiders and liberal politi- no choice but to deny Freer its funds. ported by such groups as labor, Ne- cians who heard about it. The well- As a result of this case, the 1957 gro, Latin, low and middle income heeled Republican bid for the Demo- law now stands discredited as uncon- people, brass collar Democrats, inde- cratic National Convention for Hous- stitutional. Duval County school au- pendent liberals, university faculty. ton in 1964 expresses the Republicans' thorities asked Atty. Gen. Will Wil- Should he woo these elements, or new confidence in the state; the offer son for a ruling; he held it invalid in should he try to gain conservative of the Houston Sports Assn. to give language that was not shaped to con- support? It is going to be a tight the Republican and Democratic par- ceal his contempt for it: "It goes rope." ties half a million dollars each if they without saying that recognition and The Belden Poll of public opinion will convene in 1964 in the proposed enforcement of constitutional rights produced some inconsistent figures in Harris County domed sports stadium cannot be made contingent upon the two polls this month. At face value result of any election." Edgar said they made the Republicans' strength his agency will comply with the rul- seem less solid than it did the day ing. Cox' vote was totted up. Joe Belden The U.S. Commissioner of Educa- reported that while a majority polled tion, meanwhile, notified 53 Texas (about two to one) believe Texas is school districts that they must inte- a two-party state now, only nine per- grate or forego present federal "im- cent of Texans said they were Repub- pacted area" aid. Some of the districts licans last November compared to so advised are located in such staunch seven percent earlier in the year. segregationist towns and cities as However, another Belden poll pub- Karnack, Texarkana, Orange, Sher- lished this month showed 13 percent man, McKinney, and Bonham. Mean- giving as their reason for voting for while, Dist. Judge Sarah Hughes or- Cox, "Votes the straight party dered Carrollton's schools to integrate; ticket." the Negro attorney in that case, W. J. Durham of Dallas, pressed a suit for WHATEVER the polls mean integration in Longview. The South- —and liberals and Republicans alike ern tradition of East Texas education are not entirely trusting of them—the has, therefore, finally come under realignments recited are real and direct pressure. ramify into many fields of public The Dallas News' expert on inte- affairs. They underlie the rumors that gration in Texas, Richard Morehead, the liberals' defeated candidate for renorts that Negroes are attending 36 lieutenant governor last summer, of the 54 Texas public colleges; that Speaker James Turman, is being con- more than 20 public school districts sidered by Connally for his Secretary have desegregated in Texas in 1952; of State. They may explain why Con- and that in all, 173 of the state's 919 nally,has decided on a ticketless inau- districts which have both white and gural, open to everyone without re- Negro students have done so. gard to r(e, while dispensing with "Yeah, he's in the drilling When Rev. Martin Luther King vis- ited Houston this month, 3,000 peo- 8 The Texas Observer business" ple, mostly Negroes, gathered in a church to hear him say that they feated, 11 to 9, a proposal that would a magistrate for arraignment before should conduct economic boycotts of have financed an $8 million interna- questioning them, as required by the sit-in kind for integration. Almost tional center and would have been state law; a series deploring the neg- unnoticed, a group of 30 Negro doc- a preliminary to establishing El Paso lect of the state parks in the San tors, lawyers, and other professional and Juarez as an international city Antonio Express; an editorial in the men protested during King's visit that with most national barriers down at Houston Chronicle stating that Mis- the Ramada Inn had refused to honor the river. Austin's city urban renewal sissippi's Gov, Ross Barnett was a banquet reservation they had made:, director announced that action on the wrong to defy a federal court order; King was to have been their speaker. city's first such program will get and the reprinting, in the Chronicle The Inn's explanation : a sliding door started within three months. Tyler and the Express, of a Mauldin car- got stuck. recently rejected, in a plebiscite, a toon showing a gentleman confront- Readers will recall the Observer's federal aid program for public works; ing a lady who carries a sign, story Nov. 23 about the Fort Worth petitions have been circulating in "Peace," the man asking, "What are police department's program of lec- Marshall to call for a similar election you—some kind of nut or some- tures for policemen on the equal rights on federal funds for street improve- thing?" of citizens. At the conclusion of those ments. The city of Garland filed dam- age suits totaling $3.3 million against '. ectures last week, the police chief, RIGHT WINGERS, con- Cato Hightower, announced he has 15 of the largest electrical equipment firmed in fears that creeping people appointed three Negroes to receive makers, an outgrowth of the 1960 are taking things over in all these Negroes' complaints against the po- criminal convictions of those firms developments, have not retired, but lice and pass them on to him when for monopolistic price-fixing. Dis- have rather, during this period, cre- they think this necessary. Hightower count stores in Corpus Christi and ated, in Texarkana, a "Committee said race should play no part in po- Fort Worth pressed litigation aimed Against Sale of Communist Slave lice work; his action was commended at invalidating the legislature's spe- Products in America"; induced the by the mayor and the city manager. cial interest "blue law" prohibiting Pecos chamber of commerce to offer, Obviously Texas is integrating, bit the sale of certain items in such stores free to the citizenry, a course in by bit; but more significantly, this is on more than one of the two days of "freedom vs. communism"; and gath- happening without causing outcries the weekend. ered to hear Robert Morris, president from Texas politicians. In San Antonio, Cong. Henry Gon- of the Defenders of American Liber- In fact, one of the state's most in- zelez pushed for a "HemisFair" in ties and columnist for the Dallas tense segregationist politicians, a man 1966-1968 in conjunction with the News, attack, in an Austin speech, who has customarily referred to Ne- city's 250th anniversary. The idea is peaceful coexistence, decolonializa- groes as "niggers," has recently ef- a hemispheric fair that would attract tion, and disarmament. fected an astonishing flip-flop on the to the city people from all over the The Texas Maufacturers' Assn. con- issue. He is Cong.-elect Joe Pool from Americas. Senator Ralph Yarborough vened in San Antonio recently and Dallas. and Cong. Pool have pledged support. heard an El Paso minister on its pro- "I was for segregation as long as it In Houston, unionism scored a sig- gram, Dr. J. H. Jauncey, warn against had a chance to win," he said. nal advance with the unionization of business being "swamped by social- "There's no use beating a dead cat. the Ben Milam Hotel, the first hotel ism," and Mississippi circuit judge . . . I certainly do not favor mob rule in Texas to .assent to such an agree- Thomas P. Brady charge that 21,000 or disobedience of the law." ment. Strikes among longshoremen American grammar and high schools In 1957, as a member of the legisla- and also among workers at Shell Oil use a socialistic line in their text- ture. Pool sponsored a law to require and Shell Chemical in Houston called books. They also heard Robert Mor- county judges to require organiza- attention to the state's still relatively ris, who told them that the United tions that tried to influence public small but aggressive labor movement. States should stop preventing Chiang opinion to reveal their membership The Texas peace movement—still in Kai-Shek from invading the Chinese lists. This was aimed at the National swaddling clothes—was heard , from mainland. As though to confirm the Assn. for Advancement of Colored through Houston for Peaceful Alter- firm preference of Texas business or- People. natives, which issued a statement ganizations for the traditions of the critical of the House Un-American past, South Texan, the organ of the South Texas chamber of commerce, N LEVELS more concrete Activities Committee for "intimida- O tion" in its investigation of Women's reprinted an excerpt from President than the political, Texas is moving Martin Van Buren's 1837 address that at a perceptible pace away from the Strike for Peace and endorsing that group's refusal to "ask an oath of began with a contention that those sleepy-square conservative traditions who look to the government for spe- of the South toward the jammed ex- loyalty to any set of beliefs" except "loyalty to the race of man." cific aid to the citizen to relieve em- pressways, hypertense recreations, barassments caused by losses during and progressive preoccupations of the The evolving impact of Texas news- economic recessions mis-conceive the industrial-commercial cities. papers is illustrated, these last six nature of government. Corpus Christi voters approved 3-1 weeks, by series on welfare programs In these polarizations of the daily a new public golf course. The city —clearly accepting in orientation and events of the times in Texas, clear fathers there have resolved to buy, liberal in thrust—in the D#11as News new choices—Democrat or Republi- for the city, the local facilities of the and the Austin American ; 'a story in can, liberal or conservative, peace- Houston Natural Gas Corp., but the the Dallas News calling attention to seeking or nationalism—continue to state attorney general's office plans the standard practice of Dallas police appear. R.D. to join in a private person's suit to in jailing persons illegally "every try to stop this. El Paso voters de- day" by failing to take them before December 27, 1962 9 Three Men on War and Peace

Texas' three leading federal poli- side anticipated my question and an- jungle hills, swimming a river with ticians, Lyndon Johnson, Ralph Yar- swered it before I asked: their hands tied behind their backs, borough, and John Tower, returned " 'Less than five minutes, sir.' " and living on the land with only to Texas during the winter congres- Johnson told Austin Rotarians that compasses, knives, and canteens, and sional interregnum and made speeches their city would have been just four he does not worry about the politics and statements, laced with exotic and a half minutes away from the of collegians when he sees such ideal- references to their travels around the Cuban-based missiles and that Castro ism motivating them. world, about war and peace, bombs would have used them. His point was To the A&M assembly, as well as to and butter, and the various nations. a contention : that but for the $498 other groups in Texas this December, Standing back a little from what they billion for military defense and se- Johnson has repeated figures that were saying, one sensed, vis-a-vis the curity and the $34 billion for foreign apparently have made a deep impres- Cuban crisis, their relief, pride, op- economic aid spent by Americans sion on him. The United States and timism, and fear. from 1949 through 1961, "Fort Worth only five other countries have a per None of them mentioned Adlai —like most of our cities—would be living under that threat tonight, in- capita income of as much as $80 a Stevenson, whose behind-the-scenes month, but 38 other nations have less stead of living as we do in a world stance against an invasion of Cuba than $8 a month per person, and two did not qualify his advocacy of a mili- at peace from which this grave threat has been removed." of these, China and India, contain a tary blockade, yet may have caused third of the world's people. With A group of Dallas reservists who the latest damaging public snafu Americans outnumbered in the world visited Strategic Air Command facil- about him. (The only words about 17 to 1, Johnson said in Austin, "If a ities this month in Colorado Springs, Adlai spoken audibly by Texas politi- peaceful revolution is impossible, Colo., were told by an Air Force cians were San Antonio Congressman then a violent revolution is inevit- Henry Gonzalez' judgment in Dallas general that there is no defense now able." that to call him soft on Cuba was against Russian intercontinental bal- listics missiles and that such missiles At Bryan he said the U.S. must "absurd" and the declaration by help fight the world's poverty or lose G.O.P. Cong.-elect Ed Foreman of can be shot from Russia to the United States in 25 to 30 minutes, facts the competition with Russia ; he spoke Odessa that Adlai should be fired for of a capital deficit of $3 billion a being "too soft . . . on the Reds.") Johnson did not, in the Cuban con- text, mention ; but the Vice President year in what the capital-producing Nor did the Vice President or the countries should provide the back- senators broach such questions as did say that although a Russian at- tack on the U.S. could knock out 65% ward nations. Foreign economic aid nuclear testing and disarmament, comes back to the United States in though Yarborough, in a tone that is of S.A.C., enough U.S. striking power would be left to disable Russia. trade with the aided countries, he new for him, called for peace and for argued. "Tensions of the world will the spending of money for it. In 1947, Johnson told the Fort Worth businessmen, the civilized not be relieved until the world ex- The Vice President from Johnson world seemed to lie at the feet of the periences a genuine explosion of hu- City bore to his fellow Texans an advancing Red tyranny, but after 12 man justice and recognition of indi- oppressive particular, which he re- years, communism has been contained vidual rights," he said. ". . . political lated at a chamber of commerce ban- in Europe, the Arab world, Africa, leaders are having too few ideas for quet in Fort Worth in these words: and Southeast Asia and the Far Pa- answering the world's ancient prob- "[On Oct. 10], when the intelli- cific. The Russians were wrong as- blems with . . . modern technology." gence photographs had first confirm- suming the West would collapse; the ed the Soviet installations [on Cuba], West has been proved correct in "the SENATOR YARBOROUGH, I was looking over maps in the meet- concept, purpose, and conduct" of its bracing his supporters for his 1964 ing room of the National Security policies. re-election test, hit Texas running like Council. On these maps had been What now? Johnson stressed his a candidate upon his return from 15 plotted the range and possible targets belief in the Peace Corps and foreign days on active military duty in Ger- of the missile installations under con- economic aid in speeches before the many, Iraq, and Pakistan. After tell- struction in Cuba. Various distances student body of Arlington State Col- ing reporters about his group's urging and times were being cited. I pointed lege and 9,000 students assembled President Ayub of Pakistan to fore- my finger to Fort Worth—knowing during the annual student conference bear impatience with U.S. aid to the strategic importance of the instal- on national affairs at Texas A&M. Pakistan's rival nation, India, because lations here. A military expert at my He had seen, he told the Arlington of the Chinese invasion of the latter students, Peace Corps members in country, he embarked upon a series 10 The Texas Observer Puerto Rico running up and down of foreign policy speeches that were, until a speech in Houston, in sub- by the flames. There must always be stance identical. a place in this world for men of rea- In Rockdale early this month, about son. I believe that this Democratic 300 Central and East Texas Demo- administration has shown that it is crats gathered in the junior high led by strong men of reason . . . and school for a banquet in Yarborough's that having shown that we are not honor. The preliminary program to be pushed. we can move forward lasted longer than his speech and was with the great domestic problems .. . not the sort of political palaver one just as we move forward on the in- might expect on such an evening. ternational front and boldly plan for Little girls dressed in pink flared peace in the eyes of the world." blouses and black tights danced ballet. Then, not to overdo this display of THE REPUBLICANS' Tex- culture, three older girls costumed as as leader, Senator Tower, had pro- male hicks pantomined and mouthed vocative things to say upon his re- songs on hillbilly records that were turn from his world tour, which he being played off-stage. Samples of the a break." The senior senator has financed, by the way, almost entirely light-hearted lyrics: "She had nine contended that the administration of with his own funds. buttons on her nightgown, But she the foreign aid program needs the He told the Houston Post in Wash- could only fascin-ate," and, "Now skeptical investigation that apparent- ington that he had met with Salazar, you're too fat, in the first place, and ly is coming in 1963. the Portuguese premier, and that you're too fat in the second place, In Houston, addressing perhaps Salazar is piqued, and "probably too." The older girls harmonized their 1,000 persons at an appreciation ban- justifiably so," by U.S. policies that performance with the senator's sub- quet, Yarborough spoke mainly on favor the Portuguese colony of An- ject, however, by telling about a fel- parks and education, but in closing gola. Tower advocated giving "ap- low the State Department wanted to he enlarged the latter theme into a propriate attention" to the dictator's send abroad: He said that would be discussion of war and peace. case. fine, "if you'll send one for Homer, He had been saying that he favors In Formosa, Tower said, he talked too." outright grants to worthy, needy col- to Chiang Kai-Shek, whom he found, Recovering as well as could be ex- lege students and massive support along with several of Chiang's offi- pected, Yarborough delivered a talk for education from local, state, and cials, "dedicated to the idea of return- which, although interspersed with national public treasuries. In 1958 he ing to the mainland." The AP said references to the gravity of the had co-authored the National Defense Tower "lauded the Chinese troops on nuclear danger during the Cuban con- Education Act, which has provided Formosa and Chiang Kai-Shek's poli- frontation, meant simply : We won loans for 250,000 U.S. college stu- cies." the main test between the major dents. Tower happened to be in Africa powers since the war, and it is not when the Democrats' Senator Ellend- to be forgotten that Democrats were "Everywhere we speak of 'educa- tion for defense,' " he said. "The only er insulted African leaders by saying in charge. he had not seen any part of Africa "Many people thought the Rus- way we could get it [the 1958 act] passed was to say it was education that was ready for self-government sians were not going to back down, or capable of leadership without as- and we knew we weren't going to for defense." Fields in which the loans could be granted were restricted sistance from whites. Tower said in back down, so if they didn't this was Washington that Ellender had made it, the nuclear war that mankind to science, engineering, and other such fields, "something for war," he an "unfortunate choice" of time and dreaded," Yarborough said. President place to say this. As to his own posi- Kennedy made "one of the most dan- recalled; and then he closed: i4 tion, Tower agreed with Ellender to gerous, boldest decisions in American • • • It is not too much to hope that some day peace will break out. . . . the extent that the Africans would history," and "with the world hang- need "a substantial amount of west- ing in the balance, they backed off," "Some speak of the 'outbreak of war' as one of the inevitables of our ern assistance." giving the U.S. "one of the great Passing through Dallas, Tower told _times. It is not necessarily so ; it is diplomatic victories in American his- the Dallas News he hopes. no agree- inevitable only if in our thinking we tory." The decisive factor, he said in been made with Russia believe it to be inevitable. Peace in ments have Rockdale, was the U.S.'s "overwhelm- that would preclude "freeing Cuba." our time is possible if we work hard ing superority in the weapons and the He backed Kennedy's blockade and for it and spend money to prepare means to deliver them." said the Republicans had been for it for it, as we spend money to prepare "I am proud that we had a gov- long before it happened and were for war. Peace in our time is a shore ernment that had the courage, great called war-mongers for their pains. dimly seen. But it is not wholly blot- though the risks were, to take that He allowed that it seems the Rus- ted out, and if we push for it, pray risk and re-establish American dom- sians have withdrawn their Cuban for it, work for it, educate for it, inance in the Western hemisphere," missiles, but advocated "the closest spend our money for it, all long and he said. "They've lost. We've won." scrutiny" of the island. diligently, we can achieve it. Speaking to the Tyler Lions Club Such is the substance and tone of on the same theme—his title was "There has always been a sort of the most influential Texas politicians' "From Cuba to Khyber Pass"—Yar- magnetic attraction about danger. . . . statements on war and peace these borough urged that "We should cut I hope the human race is wiser now— fantastic days. R.D. the fat out of foreign aid and give that we will not do like the moth, and the overburdened individual taxpayer go seeking fire only to be consumed December 27, 1962 1 1 A Story

Terence Austin

He was awake without opening his the dull gray that had been the in- were still in church. The campus was eyes. And he knew that soon he side of the box. The remains of the would have to get up. He lay quietly very still and the few people he cut- on - the - dotted - line - here's would passed made loud quiet sounding on his bed, without moving. The pil- have tufted places on the indented low had gotten from under his head footsteps as they passed. The Tower cardboard where the scissors had was over the rest of the campus. He during the night. It huddled beside been dull and torn a little. him from the night's cold and it was could see it rising from the buildings warm where it touched him. He knew and trees at its base. He saw it from the clock was above his head on the THE ALARM began to ring. an angle and so he could see two dresser and that it had either just It seemed to be a buzz. But closely sides of it. One of them was slightly gone off and wakened him or that it listening he could hear the clapper bowed in, as if it was old, and had would soon do so. If he opened his striking the bell. The bell touched not been properly braced. But it was eyes he would have to reach his arm against the side of the case and so funny. It was painted on the blue sky. into the cold air to take down the the sound was dull, the vibrations It was so very painted, yet it seemed clock and make it stop ringing. He dead. With a supreme effort of will of cardboard, bowed in and old. It would fumble while the clock rang he made the alarm stop. He could had been so laboriously and realis- and would finally push the button see the barbed wheel that rotated as tically painted on the blue sky and and then the alarm would stop. He the bell rang and he could see it stop, it had been made to look like card- could imagine opening his eyes and as he had before. The alarm quit. He board. trying to see what time it was. The knew that now he was officially He walked to the biology pond, small, indistinct face would not be awake. He was warm. As soon as he right close under the tower, where seen at first, despite his efforts, and got into the coldness he would begin the tree hid the giant clock. Under he would have to see sideways at it to be dry. His hair was like gray dust the tree only the bongs of the card- and turn it this and that way until when he tried to comb it in the mirror board bell told time. for a moment the hands would ap- and his skin looked like canvas. His He lay face down on thick Augus- pear, saying their time so that he eyes were muddy, too, ink-blots on tine grass with softly sharp blades. might close his eyes again. He knew dusty parchment. He thought he was The grass was thick and supported that he would be unsure, as soon as dead when he watched the mirror in him well. He would have slept there he could not see, of what the clock the morning. at night but for the cold and the campus police. had said, and he would be irresistibly Now he swung his feet from under attracted towards opening his eyes the covers. He watched the ceiling The grass was a thin cushion over the hole that dropped away beneath again. Then he would very forcibly and then put his feet on the floor as relax and see the clock again in the he sat up. His feet felt a thousand him. Sidewalks laid concretely down dark behind his eyelids so that he years old, horny claws, on the bare- were too hard to notice but he felt, wouldn't have to open them again. boarded dust of the floor. He looked on the grass, the gentle yielding. He He stayed in his bed with his eyes out the window; It was a beautiful could have pulled enough grass out closed. day with the sunshine clear in the to enable him to fall through but he air. He knew what the air would be didn't. His clenched fists full of grass He preferred to remain closed, to had the power but he was afraid to not look at the unreality of the like when he walked out into it. His jump. things. He could stay in his bed claws scraped on the boards as he which did not own the fright of be- walked by the window. He plugged in ing somewhere. He did not have to the tea-pot and moved his cup nearer feel anything. His body was able to to it. While the water became hot, he put on his bluejeans. The air outside as tl become a limbo in which he rested, P Pinnt /3JP alone, as he slept. He did not have was beginning to come into him. a D 0 aaa to see the terrifying reality of the He drank the hot tea with sugar II a a04 tall cardboard buildings, wherein in it, so that it filled his mouth and O D dwelt and labored earnest cardboard chased the dryness, from a sponge, 4 tIna I 1E1o j i any a DOD ➢ people. They were so utterly earnest and cleaned the dust. When the tea Iva qua D D D and his body shivered as they scraped was gone he put on his sneakers and 1611114 tiD PP11 ti their dry cardboardness together. shirt and went out through the hall- 1113 lap He knew the people and things were way into the outside. cut from cereal boxes and he was It was 11:30 and all the people afraid to look behind them to see Terence Austin of Fort Worth is a 12 The Texas Observer student at the University of Texas. the biology pond. He could smell the away again. S LOW FOOTSTEPS came biology odor. Dead fish still cold and The grass seemed to be supporting along the board walk behind the slime, but it only came slightly, and her now because she had stretched drama offices. They were silent on the it was lost barely noticeable. out flat on the ground, like a boat. firm mud along the edge of the pond She was looking at him when he The green nails all held her up by her and when they came up behind him, turned to her and then after a mo- back. He could think of the green he said "Hello" stressing the last ment she turned away. She would grass twitching and carrying her syllable. He dropped his face into the turn away until he forgot about her along with it in some journey that ground and when it tickled he rolled and was no longer looking and then she would not know about and would over slowly and looked up at her. she would watch him again until he not notice until suddenly! she had The grass tickled on the back of • his turned to her. She would look at him arrived. She did not know what to neck, too. as long as she could and then look say to him either. "Hello." She stressed the first syl- lable a little. The branches of the tree above her head were dark against the sky, and the sky was greying The Damn Fine Funeral through the leaves. She sat down so that he could see her by straining his eyes downward. Of Charley Surprise He could feel the muscles beginning to break as she smiled at him. He Lyman Jones looked back up at the tree. The leaves moved softly, carrying the strong When I go, finally, I hope I can do box amidships serving as alfresco limbs with them. He smiled too. it like Charley Surprise. bar and extra sitdown space. Two or Something crawled onto him, down Charley was a seaman. For 40 three miles offshore, they heaved at the end of his foot. He felt it going years he sailed—in wooden bottoms Charley over—unceremoniously, as up to his ankle and then inside his and iron bottoms—over all of the big instructed by the departed's last mes- pants, through the dark forest. He and most of the little seas of the sage. didn't move to stop it until it reached world, from Corpus Christi. The hell of it was, the box refused his knee, then he raised and bent his to sink. It bobbed, seaworthy as the leg, stretching the cloth tight. A few years back, Charley got sick. His doctor told him he had four, five, SS United States, up and down in the She fell back onto the grass. He gentle Gulf tide, ready as the Flying could hear her shoulders rustling in maybe six months left. Charley, unmarried, alone except Dutchman for circumnavigating the leaves. She breathed two or three eternal voyages. for a sister, made a will and de- times and then did not say anything. There was a conference: an especi- posited it, together with $400 or $500, He turned onto his side and saw her ally taken-drunk brother stripped to at his union hall with instructions skirt stretched tight too over her hip his skivvies and, three bells and a that it be opened upon his going. where her leg was bent, and she jingle, leaped overboard with a brace On the day of his death, it was. moved back and forth with her eyes and bit in hand, swam to the coffin, His union brothers were instructed closed and singing. The sound came and began boring holes in its bottom. to have his body cremated and his out of her chest, deeply soft. He could Like many another piece of plaster- barely hear it. ashes strewn at sea—in the Gulf, ed planning, this one, too, went awry. "Sing louder?" since that was the handiest salt Air pressure or sea pressure, or She laughed, caught in the act, and water. But before all that, said something, built up inside Charley's was silent. She said she was hum- Charley's testament, "I want every- box—and blew its lid off and blew ming. body to get together • and throw a Charley's body, dressed in his shore- He watched her and thought of big party. Everybody get falling- side duds, free. genuine human cardboard reactions. down drunk, then get a boat, load it The box sank, but Charley floated The tree over them rustled dryly in with me and enough booze for the trip away and gradually out of sight into its coat of orange. Dryly, mustily, —out and back—take me out into the the semi-tropical night—bound for ruminatively muttered the old tree, Gulf," and, said Charley from his Tampico or Vera Cruz; some Fid- mad in its moult. memories of many a sea burial, "com- dler's Green. He did not know what to say to mend my soul as a brother departed All hands had another blast, and her. She quietly lay humming on the unto the Deep." another, warm and straight; decided ground, insistently being a necessity Charley's seagoing buddies made their obligation to. Charley had been to talk to. He was very sure that he ready, bought the booze, and, made an fullfilled, and headed ashore for the did not want to talk to her. He didn't appointment at the crematory. But union hall and what booze had been want to under the blue sky in the then Charley's sister intervened. thoughtfully cached there against shadow of the huge paper tower. Charley, she said, couldn't be cremat- their return. The deep cardboard groanings ed; his religion—and hers—forbade In the morning, it developed, they came from within the building as it it. Otherwise, she said, have at it. had misreckoned the tide. An irate twisted, moved by the wind. It The boys shifted arrangements and Coast Guard officer, a city sanitarian groaned slowly because it twisted got Charley properly laid out in a in tow, descended on the union hall slowly. The wind was not fast. wooden coffin, and the binge laid on. Someone came out of a door right and the dry-mouthed, huge-headed About midnight, aglow with boiler- mourners. Charley's body had once at the very bottom of the building makers and memories of Charley, the 4111111111111•1111• and walked past on the other side of mourning brothers set sail, Charley's December 27, 1962 13 more made port—on a municipal bathing beach. You guys just can't go around burying people in our bay —and words to that effect, at length Miscellany and in heat, they said. A story we don't have anywhere "01' bachelor got tackled on the one- So Charley was taken up and dry- else to put: yard line." docked, lubber-style, in a grave, but not too far from salt water. And Congressman Henry B. Gonzalez of San Antonio was making a speech in now, in Corpus Christi, there's an THE LEGISLATURE ordinance prohibiting burial at sea at Alaska, just as likely a place as any for him these days. When he finished The January 10 issue of the any point from which bodies are Observer will be devoted mainly likely to come bobbing ashore within a man came up and complimented him knowledgeably on his career. He to reports on the work of the the city limits. They call it "Charley's 1963 Texas legislature. Law." knew all about it because he sub- But the brothers had done their scribes to the Observer, he told Gon- best for Charley. I talked with some zelez. Henry forthwith gave him the This month's headline of the year: of them not so long ago. They think big Stetson hat he was traveling with, In Manuscript Hunt Charley would understand their fail- and our Alaskan subscriber, not to be UT ACQUIRES ure to do exactly as he'd asked: he'd outdone, gave Henry his hundred- HEMINGWAY been "around the world eight times; dollar sealskin headpiece. —The Daily Texan, University of been paid in yen and pesos," and he Texas student newspaper, Dec. 4, knew that a seaman's notions have a Social Note: Maury Maverick, Jr., 1962. way of colliding—at 30 knots—with and Julia Orynski were married shorebound decorum. Shocking headline over un-read without to-do in San Antonio Christ- editorial in the Houston Post Dec. "Anyhow," they told me, "Charley mas by Judge Jim Marryin' Sam Se- had a damn fine funeral." 23: well of Corsicana. "I want a social "Communist Party Fine" 14 The Texas Observer note in 'the Observer," Maverick said. Headlines from different pages of the San Antonio Express Dec. 19: "JFK's Flawless TV Performance Dismays GOP" AMERICAN INCOME "Major Powers End Try to Halt Nuclear Tests" Here's wishing all our readers a Possible New Year. LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY CLASSIFIED ROOMMATE WANTED — One female roommate needed to share apartment beginning spring semester. For informa- tion notify Jean Hubbard, 4039 Cole Ave., OF INDIANA Apt. 102, Dallas 4, Texas.

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P. 0. Box 208 DALLAS—Downtown: 407 Olive, Across from Southland Life. Bldg. Waco, Texas RI 1-0019 FORT WORTH: 3132 East Lancaster JE 4-3687 Bernard Rapoport, President Topolobampo, Anyone? aged! Davidson is appalled that a statewide independent in Texas must If any adventurous reader of the secure 15,000 signatures on his peti- Observer is interested in taking a ride tions ; in Massachusetts, a state one- on Mexico's new railroad from the third Texas' size, 1500 volunteers Texas border to the Gulf. of Califor- (one-third students and one-third nia, it's a real experience. The round (Continued from Page 2) housewives) and a small, underpaid trip takes four or five days, and a staff secured for just such a man as understatement. Like my good friend, first class Pullman ticket is less than the honorable editor of the Observer, Mr. Davidson envisions, liberal (pro- $30. The food is excellent and rea- socialized medicine, disengagement, my good friend Larry errs in assess- sonable in price. ing the political temper of the minor- tougher equal housing and employ- Once you are aboard in Ojinaga ment opportunity laws, etc.) Senate ity groups; that is, in underestimat- (Presidio), you don't worry about ing their potential, a potential that aspirant Stuart Hughes, a required traffic, expressways, taxes, world 72,000 signatures with 46,000 to can become reality with devastating news, or anything. You just ride, en- suddenness. spare. . . . joy the excellent Mexican beer, and Surely you can think of at least The Observer made this mistake in food, and scenery. . . . Hotel repre- one or two Texas congressmen who the Henry Gonzalez case. I hold no sentatives meet all trains and drive "never would be missed"! you either to Los Machis or Topolo- brief for Henry, my very good friend Charles L. Gholz, Box 5412, Bur- also. I have .supported Henry consist- bampo. . . . ton, 420 Memorial Dr., Cambridge, ently, but not because he is a cham- I like the new fortnightly. Mass. pion of the mexicano or liberal causes E. E. Elliott, Box 143, Canyon, Tex. but rather because he has symbolized, Is Patriotism Gauche? Shabby , Oppressive in his district, the revolt against the I think the Observer misses the old guard. But, as Larry points out I am a sophomore at Sam Houston point about the criticism of Pete See- (not strongly enough), the liberals State Teachers' College. . . . Your ger's concert [Obs. Nov. 16, 30]. I can, by default, throw the Negroes very complete report [Obs. Nov. 30] agree with the editor that Seeger and the mexicanos (for cat's sake was the first real knowledge I got of ought to be free to propagandize, but don't change my use of lower case!) the. actual mechanics behind Profes- is he not doing the liberal cause a into the old guard camp. sor Koeninger's dismissal. These ma- great disservice by laying himself The Observer, through inadvert- chinations can at best be called shab- open to the charge of doing harm to by, and the atmosphere here now ence, has been guilty of alienating this country? Is patriotism too gauche some of the mexicanos who funda- seems oppressive. and old-fashioned for the modern mentally are liberals. Labor has made Earl Noe, P. 0. Box 2195, SH Col- liberal anymore? I don't know if See- lege Station, Huntsville, Tex. its mistakes in its treatment of the ger's program constitutes unpatriotic "minority" groups. If memory serves At Least One or Two propaganda, (as I've said, I didn't me right, the Observer (among oth- Re Chandler Davidson's "Independ- hear him,) but I wish that the Ob- ers) has taken me to task for saying ents Boxed" [Obs. Nov. 30] deplor- server, or someone who knows, would (cryptically, really) that only the ing the barriers facing an independ- be more critical in their comments. mexicanos can speak for the mexi- ent candidate—don't be so discour- I think that the Observer ought to be . canos. I will reiterate that seeming as quick to criticize the unpatriotic chauvinism by saying that only the as it is those phony patriots who try Negro can speak for the Negro. Now, to inject the ideas of the extreme if labor and the self-anointed liberals SUBSCRIBE right wing into our schools. want those several hundred thousand Donald Norton, 119 Knibbe, San votes of the Negroes and mexicanos, OR RENEW Antonio 9. they had better seek counsel from Wrong Spelling those Negroes and mexicanos who THE TEXAS OBSERVER I have read in the Nov. 16 issue of really know their people. The opposi- 504 West 24th Street the Observer several references in tion, better-heeled, more politically Austin, Texas your article "Compulsory Patrio- sophisticated, and more ruthless, is Enclosed is $5.00 (or if the tism," to statements I supposedly not marking time. subscriber lives in Texas, $5.10) made. May I suggest you use my The Negro vote, as Larry implies, for a one-year subscription to the name correctly and be sure of your defeated Don Yarborough. What a Observer for: quotes. You designate me as Mrs. tragedy for the Negro! Then we find Name Morris and you use quotes once re- P.A.S.S.O. [the Political Association Address moved that are incomplete. of Spanish-Speaking Organizations] Mrs. Fred B. Norris, past president, endorsing and then un-endorsing City, State Texas State Teachers' Assn., 1057 John Connally! So where did the Chamberlain, Corpus Christi, Tex. mexicano vote go? Sender: Name (The Observer regrets having mis- If the liberals have the gift of lead- spelled Mrs. Norris' name. The point ership, they had better begin using it Address of the story's reference to the quotes now and not play the last-minute City, State was the fact that they were being game of "after all, under the skin, repeated by the Dumas school super- we are brothers." Hell! This is a renewal. intenden t.—Ed. ) George I. Sanchez, 2201 Scenic Dr., This is a new subscription. Austin, Tex. December 27, 1962 15 Personality cultists among our sub- gating the migrant labor problem. scribers have remonstrated with me Dan Strawn, the Kenedy squire, is my failure to identify the writers in 11 Observations well known to our readers, many of the first issue of the Observer as a fortnightly. of which were permitted publication whom remember him for his news report on the inactivities of the Runge When Larry Goodwyn, at 15, and I, by the estimable Harrell Lee, the fire department the day the Runge at 14, were the sports writers in Texan censor. Davidson studied a fire station burned down. Strawn charge of vivid verbs at the San An- year at the Sorbonne and returned to owns a farm and has a stock broker, tonio Express, we chalked many a cue a four-month turn as Observer asso- establishing him as the one authentic together at a little bookie joint in a ciate editor. entrepreneur among us. In Kenedy he basement across the street from the As for our contributing editors, in can usually be found at Nuevo Laredo Express. Goodwyn went on to the oil addition to Goodwyn, Shattuck, and or Reynosa ; those who wish to com- business in Dallas; thence he came to Davidson : municate with him in Austin should the Observer as associate editor, pro- Bill Brammer, at first a journalist write to him care of Couch, Living ducing important studies of the Texas for Texas dailies, then Observer asso- Room, 1017 West 31st St., Austin ; legislative syndrome; and subsequent- ciate editor, then a staffer for Lyn- the Flea Circus, General Delivery, ly he was a publicist for the Texas don Johnson in Washington, arrived with The Gay Place, Austin ; or Scholtz Beer Garten, Aus- Independent Producers and Royalty the Houghton- tin. All that failing, take a walk up Owners' Assn. More recently he egg- Mifflin $10,000 award-winning novel, the University Drag, keeping a sharp headed Don Yarborough's campaign now in paperback. At present he is at look-out for corners from which a for governor ; he is now putting out a work on a second novel and is living rube might be ogling the passing Democratic newsletter for a group in Dallas, although occasionally he sorority pledges. Strawn is serious of people who participate in the Dem- ducks down to a friend's house in about writing, also. He is in the office ocratic coalition of the state. Austin for the weekend, causing twit- terpation in our city's lit'ry commu- now and just said, "I believe I'll start Roger Shattuck is the author of writing like Shakespeare." The Banquet Years, nity. first published by Tom Sutherland is the next teach- Harcourt-Brace, now in paperback. Lyman Jones has also worked for er on our masthead: of English, at He is a rare college teacher who, several Texas dailies and has written Arlington State College. Apart from though he does not have the M.A. or for the Christian Science Monitor, articles in the Saturday Evening Post the Ph.D., is a full professor. New York Times Magazine, and like and such, his noteworthy work as (Romance languages, at the Univer- national periodicals. He was a staffer executive officer of the Texas Good sity of Texas.) His avocational spe- for Senator Ralph Yarborough in Washington ; he, too, has been an Neighbor Commission, and his ca- cialty is pataphysics, an interdisci- pacity for civilized discourse, his prin- plinary study originally conceived in Observer associate editor; presently cipal accomplishment is a collabora- Central Patagonia and involving he is public relations director for tion with Lois Sutherland, seven E.S.P., bird watching, and post-Hiro- the Texas State AFL-CIO. When he daughters. These girls now dominate shima metaphysics, especially Zen- writes for the Observer, he writes, of the Registrar's Register at the Uni- Catholicism, I think. course, strictly in his individual ca- versity of Texas, the Texas State Georgia Earnest Klipple is a school pacity, as does everyone else in these columns. Teachers' Assn., the Peace Corps, and teacher in Corpus Christi. She has In California Willie Morris, a the University of Khartoum. written for us before, and I have an- Charles Alan Wright is best known other good article from her in hand. Rhodes Scholar, our former editor, and a free-lancer for Harper's, Na- for the fact that his wife, Custis, won, At the University of Texas, Chan- tion, and other magazines, will read, along with her partner, myself, the dler Davidson, a graduate philosophy write, study, and continue to free First and Only Annual Eggheads' student then, was active in Students lance; he intends articles for the Ob- Invitational Tennis Tournament of for Direct Action, the University of server as soon as he gets settled. Austin. In his own right. however, Texas branch of Southerners for Charles Ramsdell, the historical he is the only liberal Republican in Maximum Agitation. Davidson also writer (his latest was the University Texas. "If we can find one more, wrote columns for the University of of Texas' book on San Antonio, neces- we'll have increased our strength Texas students' ex-newspaper, many sarily mislabeled a guide book), used 100%," he says. Wright has written 16 The '"--was Observer to abide in San Antonio and Austin, definitive law textbooks in federal but he has abandoned these parts for procedure (and is still writing them) ; 1:ty Chihuahua, Mexico, whence he in- he has appeared in many magazines, tends to -send us some more essays. including Progressive; and his arti- o 0 0 Bob Sherrill has worked on various cles in the Observer have provoked #:!`z-; ;:;b' little dissent because it is rso difficult '' 6 • daily newspapers, was an Observer associate editor, and occasionally has to challenge his facts or dispuV his n° reasoning. This is well known to Atu- / published poetry in the local daily; 42, / Q) 0 but he is best known as a former dents in the University • of Texas 0 0 member of the English faculty of school of law, where he is a professor. 0 Texas A. & (Sing-Sing-on-the-Brazos) Charles Erickson, our art editor, M. Tossing in a nickname between is from Perryton, Texas, which he parentheses reminds me to' mention says exists. that he is also Time-Life's stringer Hereafter we shall identify writers, for this area. This year he worked other than the contributing editors, for a legislative committee investi- in notes with their articles. R.D.