Figure Skater, Actress Vera Ralston on Cover of True Story Magazine, 1951

Vera Ralston was a Czech figure skater and actress. 
She later became a naturalized American citizen.
She worked as an actress during the 1940s and 1950s.

Personnel Changes at Camp Greene, Charlotte, N.C., 1918

From Trench and Camp, printed weekly for the Y.M.C.A. by courtesy of the Charlotte Observer for Camp Greene, Charlotte, N.C., February 4, 1918

Two New Majors

The men of the medical department take great pride in announcing the promotion of two of their officers to the rank of major. The latest advancements among the base hospital officers gave that rank to the former Captains George A. Renn and D.C. Wiygin.

Major Renn has been at the Camp Greene hospital since its establishment. He saw the buildings reared and tenanted. Since he came here in September he has acted adjudant of the hospital.

Major Renn was born and reared at Raleigh, N.C., but later moved to Norfolk, Va., where he was in active medical practice when war was declared on Germany. In civil practice, he had gained notice as an eye specialist. He served three years in the medical department of the army prior to 1902 and at his re-enlistment last August was given the rank of captain.

Major Wiggin came to the Camp Greene base hospital in November. He had served four years in the medical branch of the regular army prior to his re-enlistment on June 17 of last year. His home is at the Rosebank quarantine station in New York state. He is a specialist in the treatment of contagious diseases and is at the head of the isolated wards in the base hospital.

Came From Washington

Lieutenant Colonel Montcrief of Washington, D.C., assistant to the surgeon, was at the base hospital last Tuesday. He spent almost the entire day in conference with ocers (?) and in an inspection of the grounds.

New Nurses Arrive

Fourteen women nurses arrived at the base hospital last week and are now serving in the various wards. These women, who make up the latest addition to the efficient nurse corps, are from California. They have been brought across the continent by the government which seeks to place all the working forces at points of vantage.

They deserve the deepest admiration and respect from all the enlisted medical department men who are serving at the base hospital. The nurses are entitled to a dignified salute from each medical soldier who passes them on the hospital grounds. From all ward masters and orderlies the nurses merit the deference of having their requests carried out promptly and with good will, without the goad of military order to that effect.

Make Cullowhee Normal and Industrial School Fulfill Its Mission, 1913

“Is Cullowhee Fulfilling Its Mission?” from the editorial page of the Jackson County Journal, Sylva, N.C., Feb. 14, 1913

Charity and Children, in a recent issue in discussing the proposition of a Western Training School, takes occasion, either without knowledge of the facts or through malice, to knock the Cullowhee Normal and Industrial School. It states that “the west has two other training schools, which pull the treasury for a round sum every year. One of these is located at Boone and the other at Cullowhee. We are willing to grant that the latter is not much of a school, being run largely in the interest of the denomination to which the principal belongs, but it costing the people of North Carolina $12,500 a year, and if it is not fulfilling its mission it ought to be made to do so.”

We concur with the opinion of able editor of Charity and Children that if the Cullowhee School is not fulfilling its mission it ought to be made to do so, but we believe that we know the facts, and we contend that the Cullowhee Normal and Industrial School is one of the best preparatory schools in the State. It has an able faculty among whom are numbered some of the foremost educators of North Carolina and they are doing a noble work in preparing teachers and educating young men and women of Western Carolina. If the Cullowhee School is being run in the interest of any denomination we have never heard of it. Among both the student body and the faculty are members of several denominations. One teacher being a daughter of one time prominent minister of the denomination to which the editor of Charity and Children belongs.

No, brother, the Cullowhee Normal and Industrial School is not conducted in the interest of any denomination, but is working in the cause of humanity and the education of the boys and girls of the mountains and it is to a marked degree fulfilling its mission.

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R.A. Lamb's Take on Life in Quaker Town, Feb. 8, 1935

“Pick-Ups From Quaker Town” by R.A. Lamb, from The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., Feb. 8, 1935

Of all the fair young creatures that toil and spin hereabouts, none are more lovely than the charming group of maidens employed as elevator operators by a large department store. Methinks they have the beauty of face and figure that Hollywood is crying for; that Earl Carroll is dying for. Their smiles are like the sparkle of sunbeams on snow. Their voices are the lovecooing of the nightingale, the hushed notes of a flute, and the far-off ringing of old bells. They have the height, the hair, the dimples, the dress—everything in fact that it takes to make a man love shopping.

Kinda funny about those local braves, some of the town’s 300 full-blooded Indians, gathering without war paint to hear a paleface from the West lecture on the habits and customs of the red man.

Sign outside a dingy flophouse on Eighth Street: “An individual room, 25-pound mattress, springy bed, clean linen and heavy wool blankets. Including hotel service and choice of tub or shower bath—30 cents a night or $2.00 weekly.” Yeah, but what about those little fellows that bite like the devil? And, pray tell me, why do guests sleep in their clothes, including hat, shoes and overcoat?

Rather sporting of those 15,000 Roosevelt admirers, who gathered at Convention Hall to celebrate the President’s 53rd birthday, not to eat the massive birthday cake themselves, but to send it to a large hospital instead.

There oughta be a law to prohibit those up-to-the-minute specialty shops from displaying men’s straw hats—against a tantalizing background of green palms and blue sea—during the Winter months, especially at a time when all such shops are half-buried in snow. And most of us window shoppers have no more chance of getting into a Palm Beach hotel than a moth-eaten donkey has of getting into Lady Astorgilt’s scented boodwah.

That overgrown, apple-cheeked STOP-GO policeman at Twelfth & Market better wake up and get rid of those heavy leather mittens which he wears strapped tightly around his wrists, ‘cause in an emergency he wouldn’t be able to fire his gat without first removing his right-hand mitten and by that time it would be jest too bad for his dependents, these gangsters up here being what they are.

Mighty nice of the young man in the pet shop on Market Street to allow that threadbare old lady, with the worn carpetbag and high-top button shoes, to come in and talk for an hour with the canaries most every afternoon late.

Strange that the majority of wealthy men are eccentric in one way or another. Take A. Atwater Kent, the millionaire radio manufacturer, ‘tis said he owns no less than 58 private automobiles. . . none of which were new when purchased.

But stranger still that a number of those present in a movie audience should loudly applaud a news-reel statement by Edward J. Reilly, in which he said the defense was positive that Hauptmann did not write the ransom notes.

A bed that is also a cedar chest and bookcase is one of the new ideas in furniture. Two large storage drawers are built into the foot of the bed near the floor, while the head is provided with narrow shelves for books, a lamp, radio, or whatever else is desired.

It will be impossible for more than 20 motorists to park their cars in Convention Hall lot this evening, Inspector Rankin warned today because the parking ground, normally able to accommodate 60 cars, is snowed under.

Infirmary at Camp Greene Gets Gramaphone, 20 Records, 1918

From Trench and Camp, printed weekly for the Y.M.C.A. by courtesy of the Charlotte Observer for Camp Greene, Charlotte, N.C., February 4, 1918

Music Hath Charms

The ward of Isolation No. 3 has been shown a spirit of fuller service which deserves attention. Through the generosity and efforts of the ward orderlies and the giving of small sums by patients, a gramophone has been bought for the building. Twenty records have been purchased during the few weeks that the musical instrument has been in use. Private Wallace Judd has acted as purchasing agent for the ward and his selection of records proves his judgment.

Every one of the records are played in each of the five departments of the ward each day. Figuring from the scientific fact that it requires 126 revolutions of the disc to render the selection “She Is the Sunshine of Virginia,” one of the number, it is estimated that the revolving base must make at least 12,600 turns in amusing the patients during each 24 hours.

Making Insurance Drive

Top Sergeant P.J. Dempsey is bending every effort to induce all men of the detachment to take out government life insurance. He has delivered talks on the subject to the men assembled at the medical classes. He calls attention to the fact that February 12 is the last day for securing the valuable protection.

More than 30 per cent of the men have already taken out “safety first” policies. All the amounts secured by the soldiers so far are between $5000 and $10,000.

Interesting News From Across the State, 1935

“General State News” from The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., February 8, 1935. A yegg is a burglar or safecracker. The last item is about an 11-year-old boy facing trial for manslaughter after he tripped a classmate. Her skinned knee became septic and she died.

Asphyxiation

 Undiscovered for nearly a week by relatives and friends who had knocked without answer at the door of his locked home, the body of William M. Boylan, 48, member of a prominent Raleigh family, was found Monday at noon on the floor of a gas-filled bathroom in the residence. All indications were that Mr. Boylan, who lived alone in the ancestral home in Raleigh, had tripped over a tube leading to the gas heater, loosening it, and then was asphyxiated by the escaping gas, Coroner L.M. Waring said after an investigation.

Robbed Again

Expert safecrackers, using methods similar to those employed by robbers who carried off loot worth over $4,000 from the same store last December, drilled into a new safe at the Hudson-Belk Company’s department store during the week-end at Raleigh and made a $2,000 haul, it was discovered Monday morning. Raleigh police said Monday night they had no clues as to the identity of the yeggs, but believe that the same robbers were responsible for both jobs. The store is within 250 feet of the police station.

Off to a Good Start

“We start 1935 with indications of a successful year in child welfare work,” was the observation made Tuesday by John J. Phoenix, superintendent of the Children’s Home Society of North Carolina. He added that January’s activities were outstanding because of the large increase in the number of applications for children.

Beloved Rector Dies

Stricken by the virulent type of influenza-pneumonia that took such a ghastly toll during the days of the World War, the Rev. Theodore Patrick Jr., beloved rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd, died Monday night at Rex Hospital after a desperate 48-hour battle to overcome the fatal grip of the dreaded disease.

Brave Woman

Leaving her sick bed, Mrs. Will Braswell of Fremont grabbed an iron fire poker and racing bare-footed to the hall, knocked senseless the 150-pound Negro burglar who was struggling with her husband late Saturday night. When Mr. Braswell returned home Saturday night, he heard someone moving abut, but thought it was his wife. As he entered the hall a big Negro, later identified as Will Lane, seized him, and the two men fought back and forth in the hall. Mrs. Braswell, who was ill with influenza, terrified by the noise, got up, ran to the scene and gave the timely blow.

Poisoned Liquor?

A filling station operator is in jail in Edgecombe County without the privilege of bail, and the Wake Forest Medical School has been called upon to assist officers in the investigation of the mysterious death of Eddie Witherspoon, 21, plush mill worker at Rocky Mount, Sunday morning. Witherspoon died after a drinking party in which he participated with several other young men from that City. An autopsy was performed on his body in an effort to determine whether the liquor he drank was poisoned. Dr. Roy Norton, city health officer, who performed the autopsy, said he believed Witherspoon’s death was due to acute alcohol because he was an inexperienced drinker and because of the recovery of other youths who drank with him.

Dies in Raleigh

Alexander Smith Carson, 68, who was for 12 years cashier of the State Revenue Department, died at Raleigh Monday night at his home, following an illness of over a year.

Many New Nurses

Two hundred and seven of 325 applicants who took the State Board examination for nurses several weeks ago passed according to Miss Lula West, R.N., secretary of the North Carolina State Board of Nurses. Twenty nurses from other states and one from Canada were admitted to practice in North Carolina reciprocity.

Trip for Some Girl

The outstanding girl in senior classes of North Carolina high schools is to be selected during February and awarded a free trip to Washington, D.C., in April by the North Carolina Daughters of the American Revolution. Local contestants are to be chosen from each town in this State, where a D.A.R. chapter is located. Each chapter will submit her qualifications and achievements before February 20 to Mrs. T.C. Turnage of Farmville, chairman of the State D.A.R. committee on student organization.

Manslaughter Charge

A manslaughter indictment against Edison Britt, 11-year-old son of Curley Britt who lives near Boardman, was returned last week by the Robeson County grand jury. The boy, a second-grade student in the Orrum School in Robeson County, is charged with tripping on the pavement Ella Bass, daughter of Von Bass of Orrum vicinity, causing her to fall and sustain a bruise to her knee which resulted in septicaemia, from which she died in a Lumberton hospital December 15. The injury was caused about a week before she was carried to Lumberton in a dying condition.

Celebrating Groundhog Day in 1913

From the Farmer and Mechanic, Raleigh, N.C., January 14, 1913. And yes, it really did say “swow.”

Oh, Christmas Day is past and gone, we saw New Year’s depart; and Groundhog Day full soon dawn, the day that stirs the heart

So let us wear our Christmas grins and do our shopping now, before the groundhog rush begins—the sanest plan, I swow.

Oh, Groundhog Day, I sing your praise throughout the busy town, and if the groundhog hears my lays, I hope he’ll jot them down.

On Groundhog Day we don’t suspend our dietary rules, and gobble rich things without end, like 40 kinds of fools.

No indigestion racks our frames when Groundhog Day is past, we do not dope or fast. No games, we do not dope or fast.

No slippers come by very mail from climes where slippers grew, no cheerful chumps come up and wail, “A groundhog box on you!”

No presents on a groundhog tree stir up your guilty ire, no foolish Santa do you be, with whiskers all afire.

Oh, Groundhog Day is safe and sane, a festive day and kind, which doesn’t jar your soul or strain your body or your mind.

So let us sing the groundhog bell; the day is o’er, and may the groundhog spirit dwell with us forever more.