ustxtxb_obs_1959_07_04_50_00008-00000_000.pdf

Make the next fishing trip YOUR most successful. FITZYou can by using DEEP SEA SPREADER LEADER IT’S NEW, designed to prevent tangling; lose less bait, and improve your catch. NONE BETTER for surf or snapper bank fishing. Made of the highest quality materials. 250 lb. test leader cable for maximum durability, flexibility, and service. SPECIAL OM Order direct or see at your tackle store. FITZ LEADER MANUFACTURERS 124 No. Estelle St. CA 7-8383 Houston 3, Texas Jazz and Silas Not Enough \(Mr. Dobie said he thought this review might “stir up some of THE RAINBOW SIGN: A SOUTHERN DOCUMENTARY, By Alan Lomax, 209 pp., New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce. $4.00. Not everybody would agree with Alan Lomax, in his introductory essay to “The Rainbow Sign,” that if America were stripped of the Negro’s musical creations “we would appear un Get a Friend to Subscribe to The Texas Observer THE TEXAS OBSERVER Page 8 July 4, 1959 expressed in the world’s eyes, for jazz clothes our vast technology and our Puritan democracy in humanity.” It may be that when a Negro field hand called a mule a son-of-a-bitch he was actually characterizing his white boss. This kind of interpretation of the are now told, in the Mother Goose Rhymes of the Old World; but that does not make the blues wide enough, deep enough, and high enough to clothe the heritage of Western civilization “in humanity.” Also, it seems to me absurd to hold, as Alan Lomax holds, that a gathering together of Negro preacher sermons of “the past century would make a volume of literature as fine as the King James version of the Bible.” “The Rainbow Sign,” following such lofty recommendations, consists of the autobiographical nar rativestaken down by tape and edited by Alan Lomax of a Negro woman singer named Nora and a Negro preacher named Renfrew. He was born on a farm in Louisiana in 1871; she on a farm in Alabama. She came to New York and by her voice and personality captivated great audiences. The Reverend Renfrew has grown large in his home parish. Both incarnate “the old time religion.” It was good for Paul and Silas, And it’s good enough for me. This religion is pleasing to many romanticists. Upon receiving her first real dose of religion, Nora shouted, and “when I come to myself my clothes had all come a-loose.” To her, “just believing” is the same thing as “just knowing.” The Reverend Renfrew is a “God-called preacher,” in contradistinction to “college-called” and “church-called” preachers, neither of whom he considers authentic. He was called “to preach hellfire.” The climax of his narrative is a reproduction of one of his sermons. Reading it, I suddenly realized that the old-time silver-tongued orators of the Southmostly politicians and the “God-called” Negro preachers were of the same patternall sound and no fundamental brainwork. What is called fundamentalism in religion Is anti-intellectual. It is the same thing in Negro religion as in white religiononly the Negro is more picturesque. This quality is strong in “The Rainbow Sign.” If the “clothing of humanity” can’t get beyond jazz in music and fundamentalism in religion, there is no need for apostles of what is called “Christian civilization” to worry about interference from an Age of Reason. J. FRANK DOBIE unsimmammlimsammommeamin Mr. Tax-payer: Which of these pipes will your city use? Texas-made Lone Star cast iron pressure pipe will last over a hundred years! Officials of most Texas municipalities know that when they buy and install cast iron pipe they are helping to support the American economy and the high standard of living we all enjoy. They are buying products made in America for use by Americans. They are not fooled by the slightly lower initial cost of foreign goods because they realize that this “paper savings” will be more than offset by the cost of excessive maintenance. Domestic cast iron pressure pipe is time-honored, centuriesproved, and is backed by strong, resourceful American companies that will be in business for years on end to guarantee their product. Really, who backs foreign-made pipe? Who answers for it when it fails? To whom will the few ill-advised pipebuyers look for the answers to these questions when trouble develops? Were they penny wise and pound foolish? Take a look at some of these important factors back of the initial price tag, then pick up the telephone and call the first city official you think of and tell him you appreciate his good judgment in buying American-made cast iron pipe with your tax dollars. If he has been buying Lone Star pipe, tell him that we, too, appreciate the business ! Foreign products used in America deprive Americans of work The use of cheap substitutes, such as foreign-made cement-asbestos pipe, is wasteful and means probable replacement in a very few years. \(This pipe was taken from.a Texas TEEL COMP AN Y EXECUTIVESALES OFFICES W. Mockingbird Lan. at Roper P. 0. Box 12226 Dallas, Texas DISTRICT SALES OFFICES Houston, Texas 1 Midland, Texas 1 Tulsa, Oklahoma Cast iron pipe, such as Lone Star’s dependable pressure pipe, will last for over a hundred years. It saves millions in tax dollars by eliminating repeated repairs that are inherent in cheap, foreign-made substitutes. Lone Star pipe bears the “quality check” of the Cast Iron Pipe Research Association and the approval of Underwriters’ Laboratories, Inc. 1