When George Robert Tebbetts first decided to break into baseball, he had to do some considerable plotting to get his first job. "I scared off three or four kids, and I was a better player than the others I couldn't scare off." So, at II, Birdie Tebbetts got to be mascot and bat boy for New Hampshire's semi-pro Nashua Millionaires, went on from there to become big-league baseball's "Most Voluble Player" and one of its best managers. For a report on how Birdie used at least part of his bat-boy formula to push into the tightest National League race in years, see SPORT, A Game of Inches.

A MINOR crisis was brewing in the ->> tiny British protectorate of Brunei as Paul Hurmuses, TIME'S Hong Kong staff correspondent, paid a visit there last week. The local Sultan, who rules that little nation of former wild men of Borneo, wanted his entire palace air-conditioned. His comely and strong-minded wife insisted that the bedrooms be left free of this 20th century improvement. "Don't worry," an aide whispered, "he'll win her over, but it will take time." For an account of some greater triumphs achieved by the Sultan of Brunei in bringing the benefits of civilization to his newly wealthy, backward land, see FOREIGN NEWS, The Well-Oiled State.

EVANGELIST Billy Graham's New York Crusade has been reported in TIME and the rest of the press from the opening hymn to the last bus home. Unreported so far has been the campaign's effect on the huge, complex, impersonal city, where the white Protestants who have made up most of Billy's audiences in the past are a minority group. Trying to gauge that effect, TIME spot-checked Protestant pastors of various denominations throughout the city, looked for other clues, e.g., Bible sales in a dozen bookstores. For the finding, see RELIGION, Crusade's Impact.

With the possible exception of a "man buying a gift for another man's wife, no one is more secretive about what he is doing than a Detroit auto designer. The men charged with producing the industry's annual model change work behind elaborately guarded doors, are not supposed to breathe a word of their latest creations until that great day each fall when the new designs are finally unveiled in showrooms. This year the security is tighter than ever--since competition among the industry's Big Three is at fever pitch. For what next year's models will be like, inside and out--and which way the tailfins are going--see BUSINESS, On to 1958.

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