Berea High School - Prima Luce Yearbook (Berea, NC)

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PRIM A LUCE Berea in 1950 1 he day after the special tax election for a longer term had failed to carry I ate a large dinner, and, without any dessert, went to my room. I lay across the bed and dozed. I stood on Mount Shasta. It was the year 1960. I saw a stately gentleman with unemotional countenance coming toward me with scroll in hand I asked him if he were a writer, and he replied, “Only a historian. I am writing a history of Berea, North Carolina, for 1950, which I have not completed I under- stand that you were once there and I want some information.” I answered in the affirmative and asked him if he would read what he had written After turn- ing a page or two, he read as follows: J Ills I EOI LE . 1 he native inhabitants of Berea were of an unkown race In earliest times they dressed in skins, dyed or tattooed their flesh, drank out of the skulls of their enemies, worshipped sticks, stones, trees, and thunder, and strangled the stranger that wandered into their midst. Later, however, they became a very civilized people and perhaps were over-fed with vanity. Fond of personal display, they wore showy garments. If we are to believe tradition, the early inhabitants of Berea married their daughters by auction, the money brought by the handsome ones being given as a dowry to their less favored sisters— in other words, the wealthy nobles would buy the beautiful girls at the beginning of the sale and then the auctioneer would give the money received to the less attractive ones with which to buy husbands. Consquently all were mated. 1 he marriage festival or auction took place once a year and no father could give his daughter at any other time or, in any other way. 1 he early inhabitants of Berea had no physicians. The sick and infirm were brought out into the public places, where the passers-by prescribed remedies which had proved effectual in their own experiences or that of their friends - it being against the law to pass by a sick person without inquiring into the nature of hi ' s disease. This custom m reference to the sick and afflicted has long since been discontinued, but there are a few, -at least one in Berea today who frequently gives advice to the sick and prescribes medicine for their maladies. “The fashionable man now wore a large starched collar and a long-waisted double-breasted coat and many of the more prominent ones, like government officials wore rings in their ears The men usually went bare-headed and wore long flowing hair, parted in the middle. The ladies have long since discarded the boyish bob and recently appeared in caps, hats, and hoods of every shape The hair was dyed, curled, frizzled and crimped in a variety of forms and colors. Alma DaS who, it is said, had eighty wigs, was seen sometimes in black hair and sometimes in red; Clyde Hobgood wore successively black, yellow and auburn hair But [ Pack 74 ]

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I I Billy (With his hands in his pockets and m cigarette in his mouth comes walking along as big as pie) Oh ! Wood, don’t be so babyish, you little town bird. Cecil I rather be a town bird and be good than a country bird and be as mean as you. Billy (Taking Cecil’s arm as if to force him to cross) Get across that street. Cecil I shall stand here until all have crossed the street and then I will go. If 1 fall, no one will be to blame. Billy I’ll stand here as long as you (puffing his cigarette). Cecil Yes, and if you throw me down you will be a naughty boy. Mother said when one boy throws another boy down he is naughty (looking as if he wished Billy to go on and not bother him). Billy Your mama doesn’t know everything (pausing). Why, my mama said she would whip me good if I ever tried to hurt a boy less than me. But she doesn’t see everything I do. Cecil Do you mean to say that you do what your mother tells you not to do ? Billy I do what I want to when she is not looking at me. I take Johnny’s drum, Helen’s doll, and Willie’s horn, and they cry. Cecil I would be ashamed to tell that I Billy Would you? (Catching him by the collar aiming to throw him, but as it would happen Mrs. Garwood appears on the scene, having become uneasy about Cecil.) — Willie Lee Hobgood. [ Page 73 ]

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yellow was in most favor; and many a street blonde or country lass was decoyed aside and shorn of her locks, to furnish a periwig for some fine lady. “At table all wore their hats, as they did also in church or at the theatre. Dinner was the formal meal of the day and was characterized by formal decorum. The old ceremonious custom of washing hands was still observed ; perfumed water was used, and the basin and hand towel were ostentatiously displayed. The favor- ite dishes were a boar’s head wreathed with rosemary, and sucking pigs which had been fed on dates and muscadines. Bread and meats were presented on the point of a knife, the food being conveyed to the mouth by the left hand. Music and masquerading enlivened the feast. “GOVERNMENT : At the time about which this is written the government of Berea was in the hands of its mayor, Mr. Briggs. The new mayor received public attention wherever he went, not because his personal appearance is especially pleasing to the eye or that he possessed any particular charm of manners. On the other hand it was his homeliness and extreme youth that put him in the limelight. His youth alone prompted much speculation as to his qualification to hold high office. Mr. Briggs, the successor to Mr. Russell as head of the government, has barely turned sixty-one. In Berea age has always come before beauty and at the time of Mr. Briggs’ election there was a grave concern among the conservatives as to whether Mr. Briggs on account of his youth would prove capable of coping with the tremendous problems of the town. An earlier Solon of the city was ninety years of age when he was mayor, and Mr. Russell, Mr. Briggs’ predecessor, was sixty-seven, and many believe that he had not attained unto the years of discretion. “LAW : The law recognized two hundred and twenty capital crimes. For stealing to the value of five dollars, for shooting a rabbit, or for cutting down young trees, the penalty was death. Prisoners were forced to buy from the jailer (who had no salary) their food and even the straw, upon which to lie at night. They were allowed to stand chained by the ankle, outside the jail to sell articles of their own manufacture. Punishments were barbarous and severe. The gallows and the rack were ever at work. Chopping off hands, putting out eyes, and cutting off ears were common affairs. The most ingenious tortures were devised and hanging was the mildest death allowed to criminals. “The town and the surrounding community were divided by factional feuds between the White Caps and the Red Shirts that terrorized the community and many of the houses were built with lofty towers, and having, instead of windows below, only apertures covered by huge wrought-iron grates. “The Feme was a tribunal of justice that sprang up in Berea. During these troublous times it attained great power and spread far and wide. The proceedings were secret, and the deliberations were often held in desolate places. The sentences were always secretly and mysteriously ' executed. To the southwest of Berea a feud arose over a special tax election. A battle ensued. Later a traveller de- scribed the surrounding scenery as follows : ‘The land was a wilderness overgrown with brushwood and black with stagnant pools. Its once cultivated fields were r Page 75 ]