Tabor City tribune. (Tabor City, N.C.) 1946-1991, 1957-02-27
Arthur
Says
By-Billy Arthur


NAL messages to the people
Governor Hodges not only
drew passages from such not
able Tar Heel syllable singers
as Paul Green and Waite,
Hines Page but also proved
himself to be a rhetoric and
epithct acrobat.
My contemporaries of the
press already have praised his
performances; SO nothing is left
TO me but TO introduce to you
another work of considerable
elegance, which has been gen.
orally overlooked through the
ages. l am happy to the saga
cious person capable Of de-
scribing what is beautiful.
guiding public taste and rails
ing merit from obScurity.
/ refer to a beautiful poem
which opens:
Jack and Jill.
Any writer's first duty is to
introduce his subject, and there
is no part of writing more diff
ficult. He should get into the
business at once. An ordinary
writer would have told us the
ancestors of Jack and Jill and
catalogued his aunts and I'M
cles. But not this talented au-
thor. The choice of names, too.
is worthy of praise. He could
have called them Dwight and
Dick, or Foster and Benson.
but those names might have
dazzled the reader and pre-
vented his enjoyment of the
poem.
Now that we know the peo-
pie, what are they doingl
They
Went up a hill.
Instantly we see in our minds
two people climbing a barren.
a rocky, a heavily wooded, or
whatever il is we want
TO see ascent. The poet does
not tell us how they climbed.
whether in wagon or
Thunderbird. The omission Of
these little details is high ne
gativc beauty.
Now that we know the names
OF the two principal charact-
erS and their location, we nat
urally want to know next wha.
they're working at and wheth-
er their labors are worthy OF
their effort. Our curiosity is
satisfied in the succeeding
lines, because
Jack and Jill
Went up the hill
10 fetch pail Of water.
The plot now is gradually
developing, and the dcscrip-
ton Is beautiful. We see two
old friends cheering each Other
IN their work. Eailv ascending
the hill. anxious TO reach IN,
top and to-fill their bucket
Here, too, is now elegance THO
writer could have introduced
dragons and VILLAINS to thwart
the heroes. who would draw
their swords or six-shooters
But he did nothing Of the sort,
he armed them with only 4
bucket, and set them TO climb
ing TO show that they did not
oeSpiSe manual labor. They
went up the mountain TO draw
water, which is certainly NOR.
pleasant than drawing blood
drag racing on the highway, or
dancing to calypso music.
Now the author hastens In
the climax. 1t happens:
Jack fell down
POOR Jack Psychologists
would have said that he took
a bad step. Scientists wound
nave said that his center nj
gravity fell beyond his base
Our author, however, lets ne
'hihk that it was only an ac-
cident to which all OF us in
uhls life are daily liable. and
we move on the the next line
hoping Jack will get up i'm
medlately and continue HI.
climb. But no.
And broke his crown.
NO" we must worry and
weep at his unhappy fate. and
wonder what happened to his
companion. Alas,
AND Jill came tumbling after -
me distress mounts. Unable
10 help his friend, Jill followed
MN determined TO share hi
disaster and resolved that as
uney went up together tbov
,iIouio come down togethe,
What loyalty!
VI the bucket, we are toll
nothing. II likely fell also and
we nave a scene of action and n
misery Of Jack rolling over AMI
'Ver down the hill, the buckct
TuHnDllng along cpiII;,o IA II