East Texas Special

In Texas, an "East Dallas Special" is a thin, sharp knife wielded by Negro desperadoes. An East Texas Special is the fat, dull extra-section edition of the Longview News, published annually to celebrate the "natural or man-made resources of East Texas," among which are oil, roses, yams, timber, tomatoes, ribbon cane. Last year, the News claimed the world's record for a daily's volume with 350 pages. Last week its East Texas news, boosting editorials and local advertising swelled up to 370 pages, a new high.

For readers' convenience the massive sheet had been printed in two sections, the first reaching subscribers last April, the second, last week. Explained lively Publisher Carl L. Estes: "The second annual East Texas edition of last year . . . received much praise and only one complaint: that it was 'too big.' One subscriber, who had spent years training his dog to bring in the paper from the front porch, irrevocably canceled his subscription, saying that in a vain attempt to make good on the enormous issue the dog had torn it to ribbons and then died of a broken heart. Seriously, papers of 350 pages or more are too big to be read at one sitting. . . . For this reason we have taken a leaf from the technique of luxury-train dispatchers, and have 'made up' in two sections, identical in circulation coverage."

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