Newspaper Page Text
Page 14
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jFIitgpoIc iHaganfne
October 30, 1991
William Orten Carlton
Special Correspondent For The Flagpole.
ORT.
D(r)acula and death! Death by chopping apart! Egad,
what morseis these be for a Hallowe’en column! It is
enough to...ha, ha. spook one...yessss.
Death will come later, as it does...eventually...for every
one. There! That’s written to be read in a sepulchral voice.
Use your imagination. Sure, the Grim Reaper awaits us all,
but that isn’t quite our concern...yet. Let’s do first things
first. I’ll tell you about D(r)acula, and explain why it might
should be written that way.
On U.S. 29 between Athens and Atlanta, or more
specifically, between Winder and the previous end of Ga.
316, is a small town named Dacula. Sure, you've made
many a joke about its name, likening it to something sinister
and Romanian. I’m going to make a connection that isn't
even there, dear folk!
Years ago, Dacula was known as Freeman’s Crossing
The railroad was one of the factors birthing the town, like
Lilburn up the track heading west (named after a railroad
engineer, kin to the folks who gave Lilbourn, Missouri its
name, too) and Winder down it eastward (named for John
Winder, a railroad magnate). Winder had earlier been
called Jug Tavern, and Lilburn (when it was established)
was a suburb of Luxomm — but I digress...slightly. Lux-
omm is a mighty good digression anytime. I'll explain in
another column
Mr and Mrs. Freeman ran a large brick store right where
the main road (as of then unpaved) crossed the tracks. The
crossing came to be known by their name, as would be
obvious. The postal service wouldn’t buy the Freeman’s
Crossing name, so Mr. and Mrs. Freeman set to to re-
christen the place. Local folks had several different sug
gestions, but none stuck. They even went so far as to
suggest a couple of these to the postal authorities, but
neither was a taker. Exasperated and wanting to establish
postal service in the community, Mr. Freeman took the three
destinations of the railroad line: Atlanta, Decatur, and
Athens, and wrote their names out in big block letters on
cardboard and cut it all apart and put the pieces in a hat.
The first two draws produced sheer gibberish, but the third
draw came up C-L-A-D-U-A. “Looks like someplace in
Spam," Mrs. Freeman scoffed. The letters were rearranged
twice and D-A-C-U-L-A was the end result. Noting that
there wasn’t another Dacula post office in the United States,
they sent it in and it was accepted by the postal folks... but
here’s the variable. Mr. Freeman arbitrarily held himself to
a name of six letters. Imagine, if you will, if he had opted for
seven instead, and drawn C-L-A-D-U-A-R. Upon rear
rangement, these letters can be made to form D-R-A-C-U-
L-A. Too close for comfort, folks? Heh-heh! What would
Uncle Creepy think of that spine-tingling one? — I am
indebted to Vanessa Briscoe Hay of Pylon, who initially told
me the story, and whose late grandmother, Mrs. Waters,
added wonderful imbellishments. Three visits to Dacula
filled in the gaps and produced the rest of the information
herein.
Dracula was apparently a real person, but his name was
Count Vlad. He lived in some castle near Cluj in northwest
ern Romania. Several years ago, there was a fellow here
from Cluj, a French teacher (remember, Romanian is a
Romance language just like French or Spanish!) named Ion
Cretu. (There was a cedilla under the t, so his name was
pronounced CRETsu... there could not possibly be such an
option on this keyboard as a cedilla t!) Ion Cretu told me
that The Devil was known as »ll Dracul” in Romanian,
From Dracula
to murder.
Walter Hussman
is the culprit. . .
hence Dracula He ventured to D(r)acula once while he
was here and got the biggest charge out of the town’s
name. "Too close for comfort," he muttered once. Cretu
was a great guy; I hope he is well over there... wherever he
is.
From Dracula to murder. Walter Hussman is the culprit,
and he did not do it with the lead pipe in the library.
Professor Plum was not the victim, either. Last week, I
mentioned Little Rock, Arkansas’ two-newspaper Mexican
standoff situation. The Democrat (est. 1850) has now
indeed kneed The Gazette (est. 1819) into submission.
Y'see, Walter Hussman is the publisher of The Democrat.
For years, it was the weaker newspaper in both the city and
the state. Famed for its segregationist stance during the
1957 Little Rock Central High School crisis (while The
Gazette was pro-integration and on the side of non-vio
lence), nobody took him seriously when Hussman bought
the then-ailing afternoon Democrat.. after all, its circulation
was 50,000 to the morning Gazette’s 110,000... hardly a fair
fight. Hussman owns several other dailies in the region,
including Hot Spnngs. He made no bones about the fact
that he went in the hole in Little Rock to keep his Democrat
going. He gave away classified ads, cut his commercial ad
rates to the bone, worked in spare quarters, and cut
corners until everything was almost round in order to slice
into The Gazette’s lifelines. The Patterson family, Gazette
owners since the ‘40s, sold to Gannett and retired. Gannett
lost millions of dollars trying to keep the "grey lady of
Arkansas journalism" afloat. They spruced up the appear-
anceofthetypographically-drearyGazette.alienating many
old-time readers...and advertisers. Finally, one of the
majors, Dillard's stores, pulled out and sunk all its ad dollars
into The Democrat, which by now had become a morning
paper. The result was that last Friday, October 18th., was
the last day for The Gazette. Whether Hussman bought it
and silenced it or Gannett finally threw in the towel and
suspended it is as of yet uncertain, but it is known that Little
Rock's sole newspaper is now the Arkansas Democrat-
Gazette. Some of the staffs have been consolidated, but
only some The real outcome is that we have lost another
competmg-newspaper.market, a dangerous trend for a
free press loving people. Nashville still has both the
Tennessean and the Banner, operating out of the same
building with combined sales, printing, and distribution
staffs, but totally separate ownership and editorial person
nel. Nashville is one of only 9or 10citiesthatnowhavesuch
situations.
Breweries close; regional brands turn into nationals.
Then, as has happened of late, micro-breweries spring up.
making fresh lager and ale that tastes like something
instead of bland, watery stuff that tastes like nothing. Not
bad. But in newspapers, this doesn't often occur. As
papers consolidate and/or suspend, nothing moves in to fill
the void. We are lucky in Athens because we also get the
Atlanta papers, the Gwinnett Daily News, the Anderson
Independent, and U. S. A. Today. We have a bit of achoice
The only choice Little Rock now has is to read the combined
Democrat-Gazette or eise subscribe to the likes of The
Batesville Guard or The Daily Star of Hope or hope and
pray that The Log Cabin Democrat of Conway will institute
a Little Rock edition. Murder, that's what I call it. "Murder,"
he wrote...but on a computer terminal instead of a manual
typewriter.
And like that our Hallowe’en column writes itself, ghostly
hands clattering the keys, automatic writing sans seance.
After November gets cranked up, things will return to
normal. I’ll return next week with a less blood-curdling
story. Stay tuned for it. Now I sleep. (30.)
FLAGPOLE T-SHIRTS NOW ON SALE AT LOCAL COLOR AND OTHER FINE STORES
6 Wed—Grilled Duck Breast
w / Chantrelle Morel
Wine Sauce
Catch of the Day-
Fresh Fish <
Soup-Savory ^
Salmon
Chowder
mm
-(Scary Rare)
Grilled Lamb Chops w/ Madiera Wine Sauce
Devil Got Your Dover Sole w/ Halloweendaise
Soup-Borscht
1 Fri—Fresh Grilled Swordfish
w/ Crawfish Champagne Sauce
Appetizer Special-Fried Calimari
w/ Marinara Sauce
Soup-Seafood Bisque
Chef’s Specials
Cut Out & Save!
2 Sat—Fresh Grilled Wahoo 0
»/ Pineapple Mango CPn.ne, 51
Soup-Manhattan Clam Chowder Ve *J ^apere
Soup-Seafood
3 Sun—Blackened Mahi-Mahi
w/ Red Chili Hollandaise
Veal Picatta
Soup-Chef’s Choice
4 Mon—Arctic Sea Bass in
Orange Dijon Marinade
Vegetarian Special-
Fettucine Alfredo Del Mar
Soup-Black Bean
Firepot