Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1935-05-03
~
from the
Democrats Pen

Well. I had a mighty good time on
last Sunday and Monday. l went up
to Salisbury to attend the annual Con-
ference of the Gath District Rotary
International. There were a whole
lot of members of what one good cltl-
zen of Pocomoke calls the ROTARY
club present. The meetings were held
in the building in which teachers are
trained for public school work. Some
time ago. they used to be called Nor
NAL Schools; now they are dignltled
by the name, Estate Teachers Col
lepes." Reckon that was done to
make 'em more attractive, but the
name doesn't seem to have attracted
an overflow to the Eatern Shore mil
lion-dollar structure.
That sho' is a mighty fine school
house. And I'll bet there were more
people in it at one time on Monday
than there ever was before. The
building just showed what it could
do when called upon. 1t revealed just
what it was built for, and I'll wager
it felt sort of lonely when the Con-
ference adjourned. The big gymnas-
ium was crowded with Rotarians and
Rotary AIMS, at luncheon IN the
afternoon and a banquet at night.
During the eats some girls and boys
came in to sing-and they sang well,
too. I asked whose Sunday School
class it was, and they said it was the
Normal School student body. l won
dered if they weren't scared to go
around that big building all alone
after the sun went down. 1t GER
tainly is too bad that the boys and
girls in the State don't know what
a nice house there is over here, and
more of 'em come to learn how TO
bend the young mind.
Well, I talked with Rotarians from
Keyser, from Martinsburg and Harris
burg; from Altoona, from Lancaster
and from Chambersberg; from Fred
erick, Hagerstown and from Cumber-
land; and asked them how they We're
enjoying their trip to the Garden of
Eden. They said, "Pretty Well"
Now. that didn't sound very enthu-
siastic. So, with little judicious cir
cumlocution, I found out they were
lust a little bit disappointed, and,
when cornered, they admitted that
things had happened just as had been
expected. wanted to know in just
what way and manner affairs had not
come up to anticipations.
"Well," they said, 1--WE haven't seen
any of those monstrosities of nature
in the way of human kind, which we
were led to believe lived over in this
neck of woods; those specimens of BIZ
pedal animal life which have been so
Interestingly described by H. 7. Men
eken, ct al; those really remarkable
forms of living, breathing, human
souls, which rumor said resembled
the distorted figures pictured some
times, as the denizens of the planet
Mars. Why" they said, "the Shore
men and women seem to be just like
the rest of us; that is, those we have
seen. Have you any curiosities in
hiding?"
"And then in the way of entertain
ment," they said, 1--WE haven't had
anything presented to US in the way
of a lynching bee. We haven't been
treated to a dress parade of State
troops. We haven't seen the novelty
of a battle between your Salisbury
firemen and the infantry. You
haven't had your Acknowledgement
over here in that rickety automobile
of his-the one that turns over so
easily. No, Sir, we haven't seen any
of those Bible reading Methodists; if
we have they look like other people.
Those clam diggers, morons, psalm
singin', rum-suckin', pistol-totin', back
woods, ignorant, classes of inhabi-
tants, have all been kept from us, and
we want to know the thisness of the
thusness, of the whichness of the
wherefore of this omission"
apologized as best could, and told
them that when they came again, we'd
have Mencken come over with select
company of MitchelPs and the like;
supplemented by Bernard AIDES; the
editor Of the Afro-American and the
anti-lynching crowd of legislators.