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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1959-04-23, Page 3Twenty Hours Of Terror For the Baldwin family of South Charleston, W, Va., the hours of terror began in tranquil innocence, They were all in the living room watching TV, John Baldwin was eating a peanut- butter sandwich, His wife Elm., was crocheting, Their three chil- dren - Kenneth, 10, Danny, 7, and Susan, 5 - were sitting around a little table they had been given for Christmas, The doorbell rang. The man to whom Baldwin, M a1h innocence, opened the, door of his modest bungalow Was Richard Arlen Payne, 23, our days out of Moundsville, the state's maximum -security peni- tentiary and- according to the state police afterward. - "a dan- gerous mental ease." "He seemed nice enough when 1 opened the door," Baldwin ex- plained. "He asked if he could use the phone, I said sure and I went back tq the sofa. I heard him dialing a long time, but he said the number he was trying to get was busy. Then he said: "This is a stickup,' I thought he was joking." It was no joke. Payne had a pistol -a loaded German, Luger. The hours of terror had begun. There was a lot that Baldwins didn't know about Payne. Payne had „gone to prison in 1952, when Was1 for the five G armd holdup' of'a motel just outside South Charleston in* which the owner was critically wounded. ' In prison, one of Payne's cell -mates was a convict named Burton Junior. Post, a man for •whom Payne conceived a deep and blinding hatred. "I hate him with all my exist- ence," Payne 'said. "When I' see' him it's like being almost over- come by a blinding light. There - isn't room in this world for both of us to live." When Payne was released from prison, his twisted mind con- cocted a . truly fantastic scheme. To murder Post, he would have to get him released from prison. The man who could release him was the governor of the state, Cecil. Underwood.' But the gover- nor - Payne thought - could be forced to act only if he were faced with a deradful alterna- tive. Payne decided to kidnap some innocent victims,, and to murder. them, one hg te,: to tome gover- nor to releaseost to him. It was 'entirely by accident, and on the spur of the moment, that Payne chose the Baldwins, "It was horrible," Baldwin said. "He said he had • to have a car, BACK IN THE FOLD - Lin Yutang, an avowed pagan for some 30 years, has re -embraced Christianity. Reason given by the 64 -year-old world-renown- ed scholar -philosopher -author; he believes that Christianity is the only civilizing, influence that can save the world. • ISSUE 16 - 1959 so I gave him the keya Andmy wallet. Then he said he'd have JO tie me up. He made me be on the Moor and made my , wife tie me. Then he tied her up, then the kids , "He had this letter he'd writ- ten to the governor and he start- ed. to read it. It was all about how the governor was to release Post, and where he was to re- lease him, and how - it was long, page after page, and he read slowly. He was sweating, the sweat was running down his. forehead. "He had gagged me with a torn pillowcase, He hadn't gagged my wife, and she kept pleading with him not to dd anything to the children, He said he had to take them, The two little ones had just had bronchitis, and my wife said she wanted to go along so she 'could take care of them, Finally he took them all out of the house leaving me there, and I heard the car drive away." Baldwin worked himself free, and called the police, He handed over to them the five-page let- ter to Governor Underwood that Payne had left behind. It gave the governor a three-daydead- line to deliver Post, or the Bald- wins would be murdered. For the next twenty hours, it. is ,hard to determine who had a i'at ho worse time •- Baldwin rne hoping against hope, or Mrs. Baldwin riding the back roads of West Virginia with her three children in a scar driven by err armed 'ricin who was obviously insane. "He threatened to torture the children, to kill ,them," Mrs. Baldwin said. "It was so horrible I didn't know what to do. He kept driving all over the back roads. We almost came up on one roadblock (by this time,. nearly every police •officer was looking for the car),, but he saw it in time and turned back. "I kept trying to talk to him, I wanted to take his mind oft the children. He kept saying that he didn't want to hurt anyone, only kill that convict ... He said. he had tot kill him. I was afraid to go to sleep. Ile didn't' sleep either." The end came suddenly,. Two state troopers' spotted the Baldwin car and gave. chase. Payne drew his Luger and turn- ed tei fire back at the police car; Mrs. Baldwin saw her chance' and suddenly drove her foot down on. the brake - and pulled the steer- ing ,wheel over. Payne- threw the•rLuger` out of the windovtr':._ ancr meekly put ' up his hands. The 'terror was over. Royal Typist Will the Prince of Wales soon • be learning to use a typewriter? It is quite possible, for the young Prince has always been fascin- ated by the. machines. As he grows up he will be . writing more and more private and business letters and will find -it a help to rattle off some on a typewriter rather than rely en- tirely on handwriting. The former Prince, of Wales (now the Duke of Windsor) was a typist in his younger days. It was reported in 1922 that he had "a dainty little typewriter." which was specially made for him by a British firm. The first typewriter ever to enter a royal home in Britain belonged to Queen Victoria. in. 1890 she read:a newspaper inter- view with a businessman who was then introducing typewriters into Britain and was specially interested in his statement that "women are ideally suited for typing." As a result, the man took a typewriter to Windsor Castle, Queen Victoria examined it with great interest and saw a specimen of typewriting. The Queen desired that the machine should be left at the castle and in due course learned to use it herself. CROSSWORD PUZZLE ACROSS 1. Reef 4. Agreement 18. Back Lyrto A.2, 3, Scent 14. Impel 15. Cut 8. Harems 16. Mistreat 0. Baseball team 1. Counsel 2. Calif. rockfish 23. American Indian 58, Insertion 28. Ellin sake ;80. Degraded 82. wen -bred people 3. Balloted 4. Protect a bet I already made 5. IVenerat ' 0. Lilylike plant 8, rormerly 41, Commotion 42. Man's name. 43. Soorned 47, Exist 48, Appellation of Athena 19. Persian fairy 60. Bronze 1n the sun 51, Equal 62, Proofreader's mark , 53. Popular auDOWN 8, Clayey 2. Sun-dried brick B. Disclaim 4. Attitude 6. American humorist 6. Musical instrument 7. Means of 30. Bird transportation 81. Looped kno 8. Standard of action 9. Silkworm 10. By 11. Matter flaw) 17. Nibbled 19. Meaning 41. Headliner 22 -Color 42. Prepare for 23. Second crop 'pointing 24. Of this girl 41 Pxptoslve 25. Attempt device 27. Sober 44. Palm lest 29. 0leavenl9 45. Born bring 48 n'tnrt 21. English letter 34. Wasp 37. Goes lame 39. Oriental inn, 40. English river ®®®4°i eke:®■®11� h°e9i®®■ 1111■:...r,'. 111®111 E®®� 14114111111011111M111111111111111 111®....°`''l9®..... 1111111111111116111111111111119S1 1a®a°e°t1i®■.®:t 50 ®® 40 Answer elsewhree on this page FOR THE BIRDIES, STRICTLY - Only creatures other than golfers and spectators allowed on the grounds of the Augusta country club during tournament play are "birdies," one -under -par scores for any particular hole. Joyce Ziska, explains all this to a nongolfer who'. is fond of birdies of another feather. IIEFARM 1'RONT .s.,Jahn'Rusnll ._ It Isn't only in Ottawa that Government "big shots" wish - NOT audibly, of course - that a lot of farmers would either 'drop -dead or be stricken dumb. The • following :• message s-om' Washington will telt ,you -:what I 'mean• * , Secretary of Agriculture Ben- son is on the firing line ;• again. He is being fired at, and he is shooting back, He is being blam- ed for the $9 billion accumula- tion of surplus - farm products the government will hold by July 1. Columnist Joseph Alsop at- tacks Mr. -Benson ,on the ground that, the cost of 'farm programs is .going up instead of down and ' hishthat it has increased vastly dur- ,:mg Mr. Benson's tenure. He .sug- •' gists that a. Brannan -plan, di- rect -subsidy type of program would lower food costs in the. market place, cost less, .and still help the farmer. Secretary Benson, in reply; de- clares the present farm program is largely inherited from previ- ous administrations. " Be points , out that it is not his program. He has to administer the 'laws:: - Congress m a k es and he. has - , .urged 'lower price supports. Had his advice been •,fully heeded, there probably would have been smaller surpluses today. But it appears that. he, too, underesti- mated the production born of mechanized American agricul- ture. Mr. Benson also declares that a Brannan -plan program would make the present one look like peanuts, costwise. * * Now, there would be far less basis for criticism of the present program's cost if farmers were in the depths of a farm depres- sion; if they had been hard hit as a group, by crop failures; of the farm economy were sagging. But farmers t oda y, on the 'whole, are .a prosperous lot. Farms have been getting .bigger and bigger; they have become highly mechanized; many are classed .in the category of big business One big commercial cotton plantation received, more than $1,500,000 in price -support loans in 1957. This represented the value of the crop at price- support level - obviously a big business farm operation. * * * Not that all farmers are well- to-do. But, ironically, it is not the small farmer, nor the poor farmer, who benefits most from the farm price -support program. In fact, many receive no price support at all because they do not produce the kind of crops wovered by the program The present lopsided, top- heavy, indefensible farm pro- gram, might indeed be termed a freak of nature - a freak in which man also played a consi• derable part, For by offering what, in effect, amounts to a bonus for production, price sup- • port along with the new won• der -fertilizers - has encouraged that production to a point where the government has to pay $1,000,000,000 a year for stor- age, interest charges, end losses on surplus supplies Going back a bit, price -sup- ports originated in the dark days of the farm depression. Um dier that program, wheat. cotton, and corn rated a price -support • level ranging from 52 to 75 per cent of parity. In 1940, before thio country entered the war, wheat end cotton were being supported at 57 per tent of parity, corn at 75 per cent. Cott of the price -support program was then $738,000,000. *, a * At the beginning. ,of World War i1, -price -support was boost: - ed tch oosted.toh high, fixed levels to en- -courage more production for war needs. Fixed supports were abandoned some time after the war. 'Today "price -support,, in general, has a range of from 75 to 90 per cent of parity, ex- cept for corn now •computed under a different formula. The price -support level for wheat today is 75 per cent o'Z parity, cotton 80 per cent (or 65 per if the farmer.grows more than the restricted.' acre- age needed to qualify for, the higher rate). ,It is estimated that by midsummer the govern- ment will have more • than $9,000;000,000 tied up in price-, support operations. All this re. suiting in production of huge surpluses for which there is'no market. * a * Who is to blame? Secretary Benson, to be sure, has been pleading. for •a program which would permit him to 'lower sup- ports make It less attractive for, the farmer to. overproduce, Buteven a measure of flexibility has failed . to bring about the desired results. Now he is asking for author- ity to reduce -the price -support level in another way by changing the parity formula. Had : he gone to bat for this at an earlier date, he would have been in a better position to de- fend himself from his critics to- day. But Mr. Bensonobviously ask- ed for what he thought he could get. Also, any drastic reduction in price -supports would mean a corresponding drop in the in- come of many farmers. Secretary Benson would hesitate to advo- cate a cut in farm income. So would any member of Congress representing a farm state or dis- trict. Just the s a m e, somedaj su: ehow, something has got to give. Even many farmers, them- selves, are fearful of a taxpayer revolt that might wreck the pro gram, its good features along with its faults. Over Eighty Yet Walked 300 Miles Not long ago newspapers car- ried the story of a sixty -three- year-old New Zealand woman who walked from John o' Groats to Land's End. A remarkable feat of endurance, but not quite so impressive as the achievement of Mary, Kelynack who. .a .hun- dred years ago, walked Irate Cornwall to London - 300 miles - when she was nearly eighty five! Mary was, born at Hoicarne, :n Madron, a remote part of Corti - wall between Penzance and Land's End. Het sensational jour. ney was the result of a wager by a neighbour that she wound never see the Great, Exhibition at the Crystal Palace Mary vowed not to accept any 'help on her ,tourney, except in •-the form of alms from passers -bp. She Intended to walla every yard rut the Way, and' not put up for the night unless she had earned, or been eieen, the trice 11 anom mode Lion. On a sunny day inwards the beginning of autumn, Mery hely neck set out on her record lour, ney, carrying only a staff and a small bundle of clothes, and with only a few shillings, She passed through Cambornt and Truro, over bleak Bodmin Moor, then across Dartmoor and night through Devonshire to the hills of Somerset. In those days; parts of the so-called, main road were just rough lanes which Were very hard on the feet. As she could not write, no newel reached her relatives in Cornwall. But at last she reach- ed London, after thirty-six days of walking, with only fivepence- halfpenny in her purse. • She slept out for the first. night, and on the next day, as she had wagered, she arrived at the Great Exhibition, which was attracting visitors from all over the world. Almost penniless, she wonder- ed how she could possibly re- turn home, Had she the strength to walk all the way back? She forgot the problem for the time being and resolved to greet the Lord Mayor of London person- ally before her return. The next morning carrying her bundle of belongings on her head, she walked up to the Man- sion House and asked to see the leading citizen. She was duly presented to the Lord Mayor in the famous Justice Room. Shetold himthe story of y her vow and her journey The Mayor was greatly impressed and when she confessed that she had only a fewers left,he gaveher a golden sovereign. Mary Kelynack was so overcome' with emotion that she broke down and wept with gratitude: The next morning she spent some of her sovereign on a visit to the Crystal Palace; and while she was there she was told' that Queen Victoria and Prince Al- bert had heard her story and wished to see her. So, once again, Mary Kelynack was received in audience - this time by the Queen of England and her Consort. They listened to her story with interest, and` she was given a hearty meal., Later, journalists came to vises Mary at her lodgings in Craw- ford' Street, Marylebone, and a famous ,artist asked her to sit for a portrait. , A leading, London paper car- ried her story in these- words: "Mary 1felynack was born in the parish of Paul, by Penzance, on Christmas Day, 1768. To. visit the present Exhibition she walk- ed the, entire distance from Pen- , zance, nearly three hundred miles. She possesses her faculties unimpaired. She is fully aware that she has made herself some- what famous; and among other things she contemplates a re- turn to ,Cornwall, to end her days in Paul parish." It is pleasant to learn that Mary Kelynack did not have to return on foot. She travelled back to Cornwall by rail and 'coach. What is more, she lived an, in good health, for several more years. When she died she was buried in the churchyard of Saint Mary's, Penzance, as was her wish. OFF BEAT Summoned to court for speed- ing, Murray Schneider, of New York City, indignantly complan- ed to the bench that he couldn't have been speeding since he was holding the steering wheel with one hand and playing the har- monica with the other. Replied a sceptical magistrate: "It's a lucky thing you were not playing the drum," and fined him one dollar. NDAYSC1100i. LESSON By ltev (1 0• Wurreii B.A. B.it. Seal's Tragic Failure 1 Samuel 15: 11-26 Memory Selection: Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice. 1 Samuel 15:22. Why did Saul's life end ih. such tragic failure? IM was "a choice young man, and goodly: and there was not among the children of Israel a goodher person than he: from his shout dens and upward he was higher than any of the people," On the day that Samuel anointed him king, "God gave him another heart: -- and the 'Spirit of Gud came upon him, and he pro- phesied. He was humble." Late: when chosen by lot before all Isreal to be king, they finally found him hiding among the stuff. He proved his worth as a leader. He raised up an army to relieve the people of Jabesh against the shameful oppression of the . Ammonites. And he led this army to vic- tory. But years later, the night be- fore he died by his own hand on the battlefield he made this sad lament to Samuel in the hut of the witch of Endor, "Gud is departed from me, and an- swereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams." Why such a tragic failure? The answer is: - disobedience. First, although already a king and a prophet, he usurped tae office of the priest and offered a burnt offering when Samuel's coming was delayed Then he failed to carry out God's coin - mend to slay King Agee of the Amalekites and all their flocks, He and the. people had spared the best of the flocks for sacri- fice. Samuel reproved him; say- ing, "Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, 'se obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams:. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubborn- ness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee from being kind." One- sin led to another. Saul became jealous of David, the cne God ,appointed to succeed him. On many occasions he sought to slay him. Once, in a burst of what proved to be, only a temporary repentance, he exclaimed, "I have sinned! return, .my son David:. - be= hold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly." One act of disobedience se often leads to another. How far sin will lead us, we never know. Let us obey God! Upsidedown to Prevent Peeking ©UM BOMB mum MOB HOOMITATIMQ ©0k 0®®®©M©OQ DEIMM ODM© MEM 11101EliT:11:1W ©®Ll 1w MEOW MOM©®® OMB000 0©®0© M®®©0' M©k 0©©L 1 UMW @MEM OUM0 ©ODW000©© COW ©MOW GOON OWO 0000 ®WOO OOf ROAD HOGS - Nine little porkers make happy pigs of them- selves at a reasonable facsimile of a mother, One fellow is. helped by Fred Scott, who bedded them down in the trunk of an auto after they were orphaned.