Friday, December 11, 2015

'Everything Worth Knowing About Old North State Folks and Things' December 1919

“A Digest of Everything Worth Knowing About Old North State Folks and Things,” from the Dec. 26, 1919 issue of the Elizabeth City Independent

--Here then is the way the compulsory school attendance law works in Beaufort county. Two fathers of children within the 8 to 14 years compulsory age limits who refused to send their children to school have been fined $25 apiece in the courts of Washington. The school law will be strictly enforced in Beaufort county, it is announced, and violators will be punished to the limit of the law.

--A recent order by Judge Guion of the Superior Court requires that Jeff Snuggs, Raleigh boy, acquitted of the murder of a Raleigh merchant in the October term of court, must show cause why he should not be taxed with the costs of the case as covering his hospital bill of $117.An effort is now being made to locate Snuggs, which, if unsuccessful, will bring up an interesting point of law as to whether the city of Raleigh or the State should pay his hospital expenses.

--The tobacco market of Kinston, which has just closed for the season, reports a total of more than 3 million pounds of tobacco sold there this year. The market has only been established in that city for two years.

--North Carolina continues to lead the Union in the number of illicit distilleries seized, according to the annual report of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1919. The total for the State was 814, with 789 for Georgia, 356 for Virginia, and 348 for Alabama. The value of the captured stills in North Carolina was a little over $50,000.

--A donation of $10,000 by Mr. James B. Duke wealthy Durham manufacturer, is intended to provide gifts to superannuate preachers and widows and orphans of deceased preachers of the Methodist church of the State. The money is being given thru Trinity College, and the donation will be supplemented by other moneys now in the hand of the president of the institution which will be used for the same purpose.

--Before closing for the Christmas holidays, the Durham tobacco market passed the 8 million pound mark in the total quantity of the crop sold there since the opening of the season September 15. This is a new high record for that tobacco market.

--Convicts serving time on the Durham county chain gang were given a holiday of four days during the Christmas season, and a big Xmas dinner with turkey and all the trimmings were served them. The way of the Durham transgressor does not entirely correspond with the oft-quoted adage.

--The theft of many gallons of milk from front doorsteps in Kinston during the past few days is grounds for the belief that a band of juvenile thieves are at work in that city. Several attempts to break into school buildings, supposedly by purposes of theft, have likewise been made there recently.

--Deferring action for 60 days, the standing committee of the Diocese of North Carolina has taken temporary action upon the case of Rev. B. Marshall Maynard, pastor of the P.E. church at Chapel Hill. Maynard’s resignation has been requested by vote of the vestry of the church, but he has refused to resign on the ground that the vestry does not fairly represent the sentiment of the members of the congregation.

--The extension of Fayetteville’s street car system that will bring Fayetteville in touch with many neighboring towns as well as Camp Bragg is planned for the immediate future. Work on the laying of the rails and the overhead construction of the Camp Bragg line has already begun.

--The biggest single contract yet awarded by the State Highway Commission was let a few days ago, when a bid of $705,000 for the building of the Lenoir county link of the Central Highway, 21 miles long, was accepted by the Commission. Some delay has been caused by the controversy that has arisen in Lenoir over the type of road that was to be built, asphalt finally being decided upon.

--Herbert Newbold, formerly of Elizabeth City, who for some time has been assistant cashier of the Merchants National Bank of Raleigh, will on January 1 become vice-president of the Bank of Commerce at High Point. He is spoken of by the Raleigh press as being one of the most experienced young bankers of the State, and he has been both a State bank examiner and a national bank examiner.

--As a most acceptable Christmas gift to men serving terms at State Prison, Governor Bickett issued pardons to 18 of the prisoners, all but two being conditional upon good behavior. The sentences of all life termers were commuted. Prison records of the men pardoned were carefully considered by the Governor before the pardons were issued to them.

--After having served two years of a 20-year sentence for second degree murder, Allen Fie of Haywood County has been granted a conditional pardon by Governor Bickett. Strong doubts are entertained as to Fie’s guilt, and in the Governor’s opinion, the man has been punished sufficiently in any case.

--Tobacco sales at the Rocky Mount tobacco market, which closed recently, amounted to a total of 19,589,402 pounds for the season of 1919, which sold at an average of $51.57 per 100 pounds for the entire crop. A gain of 2,468,381 pounds over the 1918 sales is recorded, with a gain in the average price received of $14.41 per 100 pounds.

--Clyde Hoey, Democratic nominee for Congress from the Ninth District of North Carolina, was elected over his Republican opponent, John M. Morehead, by a considerable majority last week. The contest had more of the real campaign flavor than anything of its kind which has occurred in the State in many years. The election was held to provide a successor for Yates Webb, who has been appointed to the bench of the Supreme Court in western North Carolina.

--Replying to Republican charges of crookedness in the handling of election returns in the Ninth Congressional District, in which Clyde R. Hoey, Democrat, was elected to Congress over his Republican opponent, John M. Morehead, the chairman of the Democratic executive committee of Burke County has demanded that Morehead and his adherents bring specific charges against the men they claim were concerned in the alleged illegality.

--The president of the American Cotton Association, J.S. Wannamaker, in a statement made public last week, says to the cotton growers of the South: “Due to the probability of an early cotton shortage, amounting practically to a world cotton famine, I urge the members of the association to hold their spot cotton. The absolute pressing world demand for cotton has been enormously increases as a result of the World War.”

--Lieut. Belvin W. Maynard of transcontinental air fame has decided to resign his commission in the army aviation service, to resume his ministerial work about January first. He states that he is taking the advice contained in anonymous letter he received recently, which said in substance: “I am now an old man over 80, but when I was a young man an old man told me not to be a fool. Go back to your pulpit and give up your flying and newspaper fame.”

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