The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-01-18

he is supposed to have said lot of things that he didn't say at all. The news article goes on to say that Beardsley was called to Washington where he was given the Distinguished Service Cross. For the record, and for all time, Percy Beardsley received no DSC for his part in making Ten nessee hill-billy into what now seems to be top billing in one of Warner Brothers feature films i.e., Sergeant York"
 One of the initial lessons taught aspiring reporters is accuracy. To quote strong, silent gentleman like Percy Beardsley wrong is not good reporting. In the first place, Perce doesn't talk to most repor- ters, only to his friends; in the second place, that alleged inter view sounds lot like a visit with Nate.
 Percy Beardsley was here just last night. He talked about four year-old DevOns, about the supe- riority of Devon beef, about the hectic era on the hilltop when two airpIanes fingered in the pas ture lot where the DevOns used to be, and about seventeen men ar irving in one flock to eat dinner and to drink cider at the rate of a barrel a week. Perce told about towing a Curtis Oriole with a yoke of oxen, about Batch Pond and Gus Graf and a lot of other flyers, and he wondered why the U. S. Army hasn't found the hill- top that we both love and rigged up an eagles nest there Tor fighting ships.
 There's room enough up there on Good Hill to start a second West Point of the Air. There's room on Grassy Hill for another. From the control tower, an ob- server with good glasses could identify any hostile ship ap- preaching the Connecticut shore, and bombing the craft would be duck soup. Look at your topog map, and see for yourself.
 Not so far from Good Hill is Tophet, a land where magazines could be built under perfect cover and where, if an egg were laid on them, no damage would be done except to chipmunks and the im- mediate personnel. Tophet has
 water and woods and caves and deceptive slopes. It's an ideal hideaway. It's a stronghold that we could hold forever. It's a place that should be developed.
 That's the hard thing to url- derstand about Americans. They neglect the obvious things and spend millions trying to develop something that is inadequate after it's all graded. Take down half dozen fences and cut just little brush and Good Hill -Grassy-Hil would make an airport worth a billion for defense. Yes, and we'll sell you the prettiest forty acres in Tophet, headwaters of Jacks Brook, for only $2,200 and throw in the authentic history of the region to boot.
 After we had finished talking about the ships that pass Good Hill in the night, and the pOliti- clans that haven't ever heard a gun fired in anger. I asked Percy pOintblank how many clips of ammunition he got rid of the day that York became 3 One Man Army and conquered the world. Percy said he didn't know. He said he smoked 'em up 8 few, said the hostile machine gun fire was plenty heavy, and said that as near as he could remem- Der, lining up those German prisoners was just like yOking up Devons at Danbury Fair. Perce said that he remembered that it , was Fair Time (Oct. 8th) when he ordered the Huns into cOl- umn of tw0s and started lem down the road toward the stock ades and a square meal. Yes, MT. Alvin York was there, too, head up and tail over the dash, but what Percy was thinking about was shiny red calves, polished horns, and the crack of rawhide lash over the rounded backs of DevOnS.
 It's funny what guy thinks about, in the pinches <. Here's a rawboned Yankee with an auto matic rifle held against his hip. He swings that muzzle around to- ward an ugly-looking Boche and the Hun clicks his heels and cov- CTS off in file, soldier. l:lxa enE obedient. There's about 132 of