Americana

MANNERS & MORALS

P: Brought to Manhattan by the Museum of Natural History to pose for its diorama of a Southern pine forest, Willie Williams, 63-year-old scout and gamekeeper on South Carolina's Possum Corner Plantation, stuck it out for two days and then declared he had to get back to his game preserve. "Chewing tobacco is my main satisfaction," he explained, "and that's why I have to get out of New York City. No place to spit." P: After serving nine months as district director of the Office of Price Stabilization in Baltimore, Hugo R. Hoffman got a letter from the main office in Washington: "There have been no vacancies in the Economic Stabilization Agency or the Office of Price Stabilization in which we could use your services." P: Saks Fifth Avenue offered the chic Manhattanite a black tiara hat and choker trimmed with rhinestones and a matched leash and collar for her dog--$55 the set. I. Mangin suggested an electric-driven "magic pillow," to support the back of the "tired-busy woman," the head of the "tired businessman." "Its pulsating motion reduces nervous tension," explained Magnin, and asked $89.50 for it. P: Ann Payson, toy manufacturer of Hackensack, N.J., announced that her firm would stop making penny banks, concentrate on toy banks that took coins of higher mintage. These days, she said, "most children do not show much appreciation for anything less than a dime." P: The bug shield--that plastic gadget on the snouts of innumerable cars, designed to deflect bugs (and snow) from the windshield--received a legal setback. Connecticut banned it on the ground that it obstructed the driver's view of the road. P: The city of Frederick, Md. (pop. 18,000), whose place in literature was made secure by the legendary skirmish between Stonewall Jackson and Nonagenarian Barbara Fritchie, tidied up some leftover history. Two years after its encounter with Jackson, Frederick was threatened with the torch by Confederate General Jubal Early, bought him off by putting up $200,000 in ransom money which the town borrowed in haste from five local banks. Ever since, Frederick's taxpayers have been paying off the debt. Last week, with a final installment of $20,000, Mayor Donald Rice paid the last of the ransom. P: In Los Angeles, James and Harry Kazan ian had a 1,318-carat sapphire, valued at about $250,000, carved into the likeness of Abraham Lincoln. The Kazanjians, who plan to have three sapphires carved with portraits of Andrew Jackson, George Washington and Henry Ford, explained that they were of Armenian ancestry, had prospered in the U.S., and wanted to do something worthwhile with their gems. P: The National Safety Council reported that a record 3,560 Americans were killed by traffic accidents in August--highest of any month this year, and the highest August toll since before the war.

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