The Mercury from Pottstown, Pennsylvania • Page 6

The Pennsylvania Story Children's Letters To God Will Gov. Shafer Be Brought Down? Like everything else, the Greeks had a word for it: They called the pride that goes before a In Greek mythology, the gods punish proud men, like Jason or Bellerophon, or bring down those who attempt to soar too high, like Icarus, who found his home-made wings of little use when he flew too near the sun (that was a hot one). The ancient gods of Greece don't govern America, but ha.f brought down many of our proudest, politicians. like President Johnson, Gov. Dewey, etc.

The question in Pennsylvania this week is whether it may brin" down Gov. Shafer. Late in January, the governor proudly produced a $2 5 billion freight. While many disagreed budget that called for an income tax to help pay ihe with his budget, including his own GOP legislative leaders, many applauded his courage in attempting to slay that dreaded fear of an income tax that exists in the heart of Pennsylvania politicians and taxpayers. While his own party was busy blasting his excellency, Democratic leaders were relatively quiet.

They did, at one time, ask him to review his spending program and to tr.ke action on an austerity program. That was hack in February, Last week, the governor ordered a freeze on hiring (in two and one-half years, he has already added 14,000 people to the state payroll), banned travel without specific approval and postponed the purchase of ecju'pment. A reporter pointed out that he has also had announced an austerity program in Februray and asked how much that one had saved. (He could have asked when the Commonwealth government had dropped that austerity program in order to embark on the new one.) But Shafer was unable to come up with a dollars and cents figure on the savings of his February program know that I can give you any dollars and cents However he has made no effort to reduce his bulging budget. In fact, his requests for additional funds have forced the budget to the $2.6 billion figure.

Now the question is whether the governor's pride will permit him to accept a lower budget that the House Democratic leadership has proposed. The Democratic budget has been proclaimed as realistic by many observers, although it cuts $155 million from the governor's requests. Unquestionably it is more realistic than the one produced by Republican leaders, which would ask the state government to live on the same amount of money it received last year. In view of expanded programs and inflation, it would be impossible for the state government td do so. Speaker Herbert Fineman has called upon the governor to support the Democratic budget He felt he had to do so because there is a bloc of a dozen or so Democrats who have stated opposition to the budget the speaker favors (disclosed by this column last week).

They may yet fall in line and Republican help be needed.) But if they remain steadfast and the governor provide help, one of two things will happen: A smaller budget wil be approved, or no budget will be approved. If no budget is approved, then his excellency will have to live on stop-gaps that are based on last year's spending which, in effect, means he will have to live within the budget his own legislative leaders have proposed. A smaller budget won't help the governor either unless he was insincere in his original budgetary proposal. That only leaves one way out for him: support the Democratic budget! Pott8town Mercury FOCUS Tuesday, July 8, 1969 Page 6 Helen Help Us! Popular Subjects For Early Summer By HELEN BOTTEL Dear Helen: Outside of answers to that nutty and the selfish "Not a what letters to your youth column brought the most response during early summer? ANOTHER CURIOUS TEEN Dear Teen: The supernatural still ranks way up there, with many comments on omji boards, white and black magic, age of ect. Sex has taken a hack seat (no pun intended) to seances these days Which is quite understandable, considering that witchery is still mystery whereas sex has been so exploited nothing but dull! Sex education in schools, however, remains high on the list and the vote is about 8 to 1 in favor but those write longer, much more wrathful letters! Boys came through with much mail on we like best about and both sexes answered my Question No.

"If you guys so admire the girls who stop your advances, why then do you To wit: Dear Helen: only 18, but I think I have the answer to why guys I once put the question to my boy friend when he became elated after my putdown, lie answered, a girl's favorite line is a demure, shy, wide-eyed ever touched So I try and she lets me I like to think I'm good, but I can't be so special that I'm the first guy every time. I figure got to be lying or would have stopped me too. So when I find a girl I think is good. I want to know. I guess it means a lot to me.

That's why I tested you. Now, do you want to meet my So I understand what goes through a mind when he makes like but wants a He wants to be sure got a special girl not just an ordinary date. TESTING 1-2-3. PS I LOVE that guy! Dear Helen: 11 1 two-fared society tells its young men on one hand, woman who allows liberties is a slut marry and on tiie other hand it whispers, "You aren't a man unless A man doesn't want a mere physical relationship, but our double standard middle class WASP attitudes force him into this until he marries and probably give him many hang ups after marriage JESS Dear Helen: Those girls who don't pass the test the so-called pushovers: men realize they fall because of loneliness? Everyone wants to mean something to somebody. If minds meet, then sex is a way of communicating Men take advantage of this.

Then they downgrade tin- women tliey I have no resect for the fellow who makes an automata oass at every date, just to her. The girls (many of them anyway) who fall, They just want to feel wanted. Men, if you know a girl who is not a forgive her. She needs you more than you could possibly suspect. Smile at her, take her to a walk-in movie and out to dinner.

Show her you are proud of her because she is a woman. Treat her with the respect you both wish she had. never forget you! DORENE ANNE This column is dedicated to family living, so if you're having trouble let Helen help you. She will also welcome your own amusing experiences. Address Helen Hottel in care of The Mercury.

Just What the Doctor Ordered On The Line Celebrities Spell Money to Irish By BOB CONSIDINE Ennis, County Clare, Ireland. The Irish papers front-paged the that President and Mrs. Nixon have some hopes of vacationing in Ireland later this year. Thus would mean dollars, and Ireland needs dollars just as every other country does. Celebrities are given an especially arm welcome here, but never to the detriment of the average tourist.

Charles de sojourn here during the interregnum in France resulted in a 300 per cent ri.se in the number of French travel inquiries at the Irish Tourist Hoard. Americans of Irish descent are still coming to Ireland because of John F. Kennedy's visit in and his reverent reception Mrs. Lyndon recent message to the tourist hoard also made top Ladybird wrote. would very much like to see Ireland I've heard so much about it Who blabbed Irish rince 'Hie The state-controlled television not carry the investiture of Charles as Prince of Wale official explanation was that program would not be general Interest to the peopU But the press played the sto prominently, with pictures Wit each picture, Prince Charli looked more and more like Jn mi Namath in one of his psychedelic outfits.

a long way to Tipperary, but a longer way from the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey's Circus to a quiet cottage near Kilconnell, Galway. But circus impresarios John Ringling North and his brother Henry made it. They sold the Biggest Show on Earth a couple of years ago to a group headed by Judge Hofheinz of Houston, Tex. who split the circus into two so it could be in two places at once and presumably double its gross. The North brothers remain associated with the shows as consultants.

The brothers have embraced Irish citizenship and reverted to Ihe trade of their ancestors They are fattening 400 head of cattle on their thousand acre model farm whose four towering silos are the tallest structures for miles around. Their farming forebears, who worked this land, hardly would the layout. The blending of hay, barley and varieties of vitamins and the a i (I systems of gathering the fodder, filling the silow and feeding the animals can all be done with one hand that of Henry's man-of-the son, John the Third, Fourth or XXIII. The brothers and young John recently rebuilt an ancient Church of Ireland chapel where the family worshipped in the early before the first of the brood took off for America. The stained glass family window, created in Dublin, is excellent.

But the stone skeleton of the old homestead Ls beyond repair, so the brothers will build a new home near it. They retain at least one symbol of their sophisticated lives in the big cities of the world: Their tightly rolled Bond Street umbrellas. Ilonry picked his from a rack at the cottage the other day before showing us the silos, about 50 feet away. My wife and I burst out laughing It was as anachronistic as an electric toaster on table of the Last Supper. can never tell about this weather," Henry said with great dignity.

Stopped overnight at the well- run I) i House, Blessington. Wicklow, the only hotel in the village, en route to the Irish Sweeps Derby, a wealth of activity neighboring terrain: shooting, sailing on the ake the Germans put or their hydro-electric ami horse and pony through the soft rolling beauty of the Wicklow Hills But Blessington itself seems to consist of one short street. the 1 asked Mrs. Byrne, the jaunty managing owner. It fluctuates from 389 to 400." Mrs.

Byrne said, looking me steadily in the eye. It seems dangerous to continue, but I did. What happens to the 11 fluctuators?" When work is slack they go off to England for Mrs. Bvrne said. Time does indeed have a way of standing still in Ireland.

Virginia Payette British are Tops In Pomp, Pageantry Presidents are all very weil and to the is always good for a fresh crop of patriotic goose bumps but when it comes to pomp and pageantry you just beat the British. All of us royalty buffs and there are more around than Patrick Henry might have wished for, have spent years keeping a close eye on the doings of Queen Elizabeth and her clan. There is something forever fascinating about queens and princesses and castles and such, Golden crowns with diamonds and rubies and emeralds are fun to think about. And who prefer an ermine- trimmed velvet robe to a neat, gray pin-stripe and a button- down collar? I have always had a sneaking hunch the fathers of our country short changed us just a little when they cut us off so completely from all royal rigamarole. If this be treason, may Benjamin Franklin forgive me, but there is something about the way the British marry and bury and crown their monarchs that makes our own state functions look more like Rotary Club luncheons.

During President visit with Queen Elizabeth the fact that he had a new pair of shoes nearly as interesting as the news that Her Royal Buckingham Palace is so huge she has to carry her handbag with her when she goes downstairs to eat lunch. Nixon's visit with Queen the fact that he had a new pair of shoes wasn't nearly as interesting as the news that Her Royal Highness Buckingham Palace is so huge she has to carry her handbag with her when she goes downstairs to eat lunch. There may be lots of down-to- earth Americans who couldn't care less about all this, but those of us who grew up on fairy tales are enchanted with behind-the-throne glimpses of Queen Elizabeth fingering a priceless ruby necklace and asking her lady-in-waiting if she's ever worn it. Could First Lady, Pat Nixon, say that? Could Elizabeth Taylor, bejeweled version of royalty, pull off such a line? For that matter, do you know anyone in this country who serves carrots to her horses on a tray with a starched linen napkin? More impressive, of course, was Prince investiture as Prince of Wales, a glittering ceremony that had many Americans hanging on every word. It was biggest royal splurge since Elizabeth's coronation 16 years ago.

And part of the enchantment was in realizing that this pageantry began way back in 1301, when our own country was still a forest primeval. This feeling of history quickened as the cavalrymen clopped down the cobblestone streets of the walled medieval town of Caernarvon, with their glittering swords, plumed helmets and bearskin hats, and brilliant livery of scarlet and blue. Then, in a gold-trimmed coach once used by his great- great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria herself, came Prince Charles, grown-up and probably royally grateful he didn't have to wear the white satin knee breeches the Duke of Windsor was forced to suffer when he was crowned Prince of Wales 58 years ago. As you listened to the silver trumpets on the 600-year-old battlements, you wondered about the hostility the Welsh nationalists feel about having the alien Charles as their Prince. (The last native in the job was Llywelyn Gruffvdd, back in the 1200s.) And while you are assured there, it show in the ceremony.

This ancient land of miners, poets and bards will probably yearn sentimentally for independence forever. But mostly it accepted Investiture in a friendly holiday spirit. And. Welsh, or English, or whatever, any ceremony that requires a 20-year-old to kneel before his mother and swear undying loyalty has to have a lot going for it. Cvmru Am Tv Cameo Boone Takes Glum Look at TV There in thr fishing, large there plant, trckkm Soliloquy by Hugo WHIM I ASKED FOR ALL UNfcS AYJ.

HOOVER IS "TAKING VTJ By MEL HKIMER Big, low-key Richard Boone, the Californian who for four years now has lived in interrupting his sailing and fishing now and then to come State side and make some movie in New York just before planeing back to the islands, and took a good, hard, thoughtful look at television today. He see much. course, it depends cn what TV aspect you take," he said. musical and variety shows, well, they've improved tremendously, which I suspect traces back to Was the Week That The situation comedy and drama About the same as always. I'd judge "It's in the field of straight drama, serious plays and soon, that we come to a disaster so depressing that it makes you shudder 1 honestly believe that if Studio One and Playhouse 90 were to be created now, at this particular time, they get on the Boone, of course, nas credentials to qualify as at least a rea sonablc expert and critic.

He has some TV shows under his belt, including rears of and six of Gun, Will Travel He has directed 37 television plays, including six on 'The Richard Boone Show," the hour-long draniat series that marked his laat sizeable chunk of performing in the medium "We are trying to do thing ami we had good shows and fine Boone remembers, "but wc only lasted a year. Maybe you wouldn't believe the program, the one we were bucking in the time slot dial sank us: Junction' All we could figure was, those Neilsen rating meters must have been located in an odd His withdrawal from television has been almost complete At a favor to a triend, he did one "Cimarron and a few months back he got hip- deep in a documentary for the Public Health Service called "The Mark Waters Story," an anti tape you mav he seeing one of these months if there's an KTV station in your neighborhood. "I think I ever will return to regularly," Boone said, "even if someone laid a gilt-edged, marvelous series in front of me. It's just as simple as whit can it do for TV really helped build my career, it gave me a lot of money in the bank and 1 learn ed a great deal in technique and discipline from it. "But now well, done ill that, and 1 don't see the sense in returning to do some more" An aerial gunner a Pacific torpedo squadron during World War was torpedoed on the earner Intrepid, bombed on Ihe Enterprise and on the Hancock Boone went virtually right from the famed Neighborhood Playhouse into summer stock theater and then a TV sportscasting job with Sterling at $75 a week.

"Seventy-five a week?" he grinned, rolling his eyes. "1 thought I had died and gone to heaven." He then became John Gielgud's understudy i Broadway's "Medea and began becoming a regular on the big TV dramatic shows. "What fantastic vitality and enthusiasm there was then!" he recalls, what players. I remember we once did a pilot for a proposed series about box inn, and the cast included Marlon Brando, Lee Tracy, Audrey Christie, J. Edward Bromberg and we couldn't sell it The plays was the tiling in those days; Boone remembers he'd do a hit part in a Kim Stanley starrer, or vice versa, Just finished work in two major films, Kremlin Let and "The Arrangement," Boone misses only one thing about TV, compared with pace.

only one or two movie scenes a day me up the wall," he said candidly. He. his wife, the for mer McAloon, a onetime ballet dancer, and their son Peter, live on the main islani of Hawaii, although Peter goal to school across the 9 Honolulu, our you (ivb ckJrch CA ur room lovt.