Mrs. Eugene Ashcraft Takes Critical Look at Monroe, 1916

 “Union County” by Mrs. Eugene Ashcraft, from the editorial page of The Monroe Journal, June 16, 1916 issue, which had many stories written by members of the Woman’s Club of Monroe.

Topography

Union county lies in the southern part of North Carolina, about midway between the coast and the mountains. The general features of the county consists of broad gently rolling interstream areas, which become more rolling, broken and hilly as the larger streams are approached. The area is 630 square miles, and there is less untillable soil in Union than any other county in the State. The highest elevation is 725 and there are no swamps.

Union county was founded in 1843 from parts of Anson and Mecklenburg. The western part of the country was first settled by Scotch-Irish and Germans, the eastern part by Virginians and North Carolinians, mostly of English descent.

Union county has now a population of nearly 38,000 about 9,500 being negroes. Less than one per cent of the entire population are of foreign birth.

Cotton is the staple product of the county. About 30,000 bales are marketed each year.

Church Statistics

The county is well supplied with good church and school buildings. The following statistics of the different denominations are very near accurate:

Baptists, 9,378; value church property, $63,950.

Methodists, 5,715; value church property, $130,500.

Presbyterians, 1,501; value church property, $55,680.

Episcopalians, 110; value church property, $10,750.

Lutherans, 60; value church property, $10,300.

These figures leave more than 21,000 people out of the church.

The amount of taxable property in the county is $10,425,338, the white people owning $8,118,048., the remainder $2,307,287 belonging to the negroes.

The tax rate of Monroe township is $1.03 2/3, and in other parts of the county it is .88 2/3.

Health of the County

Number of deaths a year are about 400. Two-thirds of these are among the white people, one-third are negroes. The death rate is then about 10 ½ per 1,000. Making allowance for failure to report and record deaths, we will say the death rate is 14 per 1,000. The deaths in Union county each year are due to about, tuberculosis, 60; typhoid fever, 12; pellagra, 10; bright’s disease, 20; senility, 30; cancer, 10; infants under two years of age from various diseases, 130; pneumonia, 22; paralysis, 15; heart disease, 15; syphilis, 25.

Various other diseases and accidents cause quite a number of deaths annually. And quite a number are preventable. Union county has 1,300 births each year, or a net gain in population by births in excess of deaths of 900 annually.

Union county has 300 marriages yearly.

Monroe

In thinking of the word Monroe there is a feeling of love and pride that comes into the heart of every person in Union county, and why? Because it is the county seat of Union. It is situated at the junction of the two main lines of the Seaboard Air Line Railway, near the center of the county.

The discussion of Monroe may be taken up from the following view points, hotels, schools, cemetery, churches, streets, and general improvement.

First comes the question of the hotel. If a traveling man was asked what he thought of Monroe, no doubt he would say, “Monroe seems to e a hustling town as far as business goes, but oh, it’s ‘Best Hotel!’ Why, it’s a disgrace. How the manager can make it as good as it is, is more than I can see. I leave as soon as possible after my work is over to avoid spending much time in the stuffy little hole.” A speech of this king and there have been many, should make these same business men think. They have the money and why won’t they make a paying investment of building a hotel that would cause the traveling man to linger as long as possible and also to hurry back from his other trips.

Many other advantages may be gained by such a hotel. Great religious, educational and other meetings could be held here if we had any place for the people to go.

Monroe is behind the times, some say. Someday she will wake up and have such a hotel, and why not now? This is a question for every man in town to answer for himself.

Next we come to our schools. What about them? If any person would go out and see one of our grades perched on the stage of the school auditorium, with a teacher, at this disadvantage, trying to put knowledge into the heads of the boys and girls, they would leave with this thought uppermost in their minds, the school needs more room and better equipment. This is just one of instance out of many. Some say, beautify the grounds, buy more land while it can be gotten cheap, but the first and most important step to take is to buy more room and better equipment. No sewerage in our school buildings. Let’s hurry on so the stranger will not notice the fact.

In passing, a word about our cemetery. Look at it and profit by the view. Grass is pretty in its place, but is grass knee high in place here?

The churches are such that any town of this size should be proud, and yet more room is needed in most of them.

The streets are another point that should receive our careful attention. Why should our level headed aldermen use such little judgment in this matter? This seems a rather strong statement but we have proof to back it. Money is spent in making macadamized roads, right behind comes men to lay the sewerage pipes, or larger water mains. Is there any reason in that? The only answer is just a way of spending money without much gain. The town’s money is spent by one set of aldermen to lay a cement walk from the street to the high school building without ever planning for future improvements. Along comes another set and wants it laid another way, which all will admit would be a great improvement, but why not pay a little bit more, and get some one who knows his business, to come and plan such things in the beginning. Over the town streets appear little stakes and what are they for? Confidentially, an alderman would say, to fool the people and get me my job back for another term.

Many dollars are spent for just such things when they could be used more profitably. Another remark is so often made, “Oh! I see you haven’t an alderman living on your street,” because they need to be cleaned off.

If the men we have cannot or will not use better judgment in spending the town’s money, it is up  to the town to find men that can and will.

Monroe has $1,830,284 of taxable property.

The health of the town is remarkably good considering the sanitary conditions that exist in some parts of the city. We have a population of 6,400 with suburbs having 1,500 more people. Monroe has 1,500 negroes. Out of the 6,400 inhabitants there are about 60 deaths annually. The death rate being 9 1/3 per 1,000. The cause of a large majority of the deaths in Monroe each year are, bad sanitation, bad drainage and carelessness on the part of the people and the doctors.

                                --Mrs. Eugene Ashcraft

Movies Corrupting Young People, Should Be Used to Teach Bible, 1916

“The Moving Picture Situation,” from the June 16, 1916 issue of The Monroe Journal.

A study of the moving picture shows, from the standpoint of their influence upon our young people, and of what the harvest will be in five or 10 years from now, is not only an intensely human and interesting study, but one of very vital importance upon the immediate future of this city and country, because the people’s ideas and tastes and standards of life are affected, or even sometimes formed by them. Fifty per cent of all films now deal with marital infidelity or illicit love.

The president of the Universal Film Manufacturing Company, the largest in the universe, has recently announced in the Motion Picture Weekly of Nov. 2, 1915, that he published a talk entitled, “What Do You Want,” asking the exhibitors to state whether they preferred clean, wholesome pictures or smutty ones. He says more than half of the motion picture exhibitors of the country want smutty films.

Shall we allow this to be so? Shall we allow the moving pictures to be prostituted to such use when their possibilities for good are so great, and their entertainment so refreshing, and their instructive power so wonderful?

In her report at the recent biennial in New York, Mrs. Pennybaker, president of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs of America, said “We realize this institution has come to stay; that it can be made a great educational force; that no one is wholly to blame for the state of affairs that now confronts us; but we realize also that the average motion picture tends to degrade rather than to uplift the moral status of the spectator.” If any moving picture proprietor in Monroe would undertake to run an absolutely clean and wholesome show and only that, I believe that he would have the hearty support and patronage, not only of parents, but also of the vast majority of all the decent citizens of our city.

Bishop James Atkins says: “The time has come for the organization of a great church syndicate—interdenominational and national—for making effective this form of Bible teaching.

Housewife Laments Constant Dust in Monroe, 1916

The Housewife’s Lament

“Bebe”

Oh what’s the use of working and slaving,

I might as well be resting, and saving

My strength and energy for something better,

Letting time hang on my hands like a fetter!

I sweep and dust and dust again,

And I dust some more, and I wish for rain.

Here go the wagons and automobiles,

Bicycles and everything else on wheels;

Each seems trying out run the other—

What care THEY for dust—let the women bother!

And here it comes in lovely (?) clouds,

Everything in the house it enshrouds.

You can write your name just anywhere,

On piano and sofa, on table and chair.

The men talk about us playing rook,

I’d much rather stay home and read a book,

Out on the porch where the cool winds blow—

But the dust is so fearful, I daren’t do so.

Some day perhaps in the mind of man,

Will e conceived a most wonderful plan

Of how to get rid of the dust in Monroe,

Then it’s “goodby dust,” for you’ll have to go.

We hope the time will not be long,

When the housewife’s lament will change to a song,

When Monroe will be full to overflowing

Of nice new people who come here knowing,

That on the pure air no dust will rise,

But Monroe, at last is a Paradise.

The Ladies List Wrongs in Monroe, 1916

“Eggs,” from the June 16, 1916 issue of The Monroe Journal. The paper had two columns entitled “Eggs” and I have combined them below. The title seems to refer to an old custom of throwing a rotten egg at someone or something as a form of protest.

Man (supposed to be), “Does your wife belong to that Woman’s Club? No indeed! I’d rather see her dead than have her join.”

“These women had better be at home sewing buttons on their husband’s clothes.”

Some non-members riddle the Woman’s Club for all it’s worth because they think it is responsible for the enactment of some of the city ordinances. Say these non-members: “They better be at home ‘tending to their children.”

A traveling salesman came to Monroe not long since, got off the train and looked about. Said he, “I don’t like the looks of this place. The conditions around the station are not very inviting. I don’t believe I can sell this town anything in my line.”

His goods were of the highest class, so he boarded the train and passed on to a more attractive place. First impressions are most lasting and the conditions around the station are certainly not attractive to traveling salesmen, home seekers or manufacturers. If we are asleep on the job there are other towns that are wide awake.

There are a great many towns in North Carolina no larger than ours that are more attractive, more progressive, and new people are going there. There’s no reason why Monroe couldn’t get in line. A little effort, a little time and some money spent in the right way would put us right up with this class. Right here is where the Chamber of Commerce is going to step in and do things. All hail to the Chamber of Commerce! Long may it live; to be the greatest blessing in a material way that Monroe has ever had. Every business man in town should be an active member and do all in his power to lift Monroe out of the rut.

“The man who will not lend his brains, his energy and some of his money to the efforts of his fellow citizens in directing the constructive efforts of his fellow citizens in directing the constructive forces of his community along the course that is best for the city as a whole, is not a useful citizen. No man has the right to refuse his support to a community movement any more than the community has the right to refuse its protection to any man.”

A committee from the Woman’s Club, with the major and an alderman, made a sanitary survey of the city about two months ago and found the following very unsanitary places in town.

A really dangerous drain ditch about two feet deep near Mrs. Hargett’s residence in east Monroe. Drains from bath tubs and sinks stagnating on Windsor street, Church street and Hudson street. The surface closets and comfort conditions at the graded school is a disgrace to any decent town. The burnt block on Main street, now being used for a dumping ground and other various conditions calculated to cuase malaria and other diseases.

Monroe is the only city that bears the unusual distinction of having a guano warehouse right near the square from which the most disgusting odors go out according to the course of the wind.

It is said that vagrant negro prostitutes walk our streets and congregate around the depot at train time. Why is it our police force is inadequate or incompetent to cope with this situation? These women ought to be locke dup or put to work; they will injure the good name of our city.

The sanitary conditions in some parts of our city are fearful. The stench that comes up from the direction of Bryan street and around Central Methodist church is something fearful.

We want to know very emphatically why the aldermen don’t enforce the ordinance requiring sewerage to e installed in the sewage zone. Numerous individuals had to spend hundreds of dollars installing sewerage and certain favorites were allowed to openly violate this ordinance. They were quietly granted immunity. This is an injustice to those who have complied with the ordinance. Not only should the others be forced to comply at once, but the sewerage zone should be still farther extended so as to take in certain very unsanitary places in the city.

There are certain streets that ought to be extended. Sanford street ought to be extended from Lancaster avenue to the G.C. & N. railroad. Washington street ought to be extended from from the cemetery to Crowell street. Crawford street ought to be extended from New Lawn to the intersection of Windsore, Franklin and McCauley. Burke extended to East Franklin and Houston to M.K. Lee’s.

We would suggest that the city fathers cut expenses, quit wasting so much money and save some for permanent streets and park work on a more economical and efficient scale.

We are going to stick out for the conservation of our shade trees.

The main thoroughfare, Hayne street, just back of the Sikes’ stable is blocked nearly all the time. It is used as a blacksmith yard, a warehouse and storeroom. The same street just across from the Methodist church is occupied by old wagons all the year and Sunday too. There is a city ordinance against this.

It is a shame the way the auctioneers, negro bands, emancipation crowds, voters and healers are allowed to trample the lawn of our courthouse square. We insist on stopping it and protecting our lawn.

The carnival, consisting of an aggregation of gamblers, women of doubtful character and other crooks, is very degrading. The Chautauqua, consisting of numerous valuable lectures, very excellent musical entertainments and scientific teachings, is very elevating. Hereafter the Women’s Club will vigorously oppose any effort to bring the corrupting carnival to our town.

We have it on good authority that some merchants are selling cigarettes to minors. We are going to insist on some detective work and some prosecution in this matter. In fact, we think the next Legislature ought to be petitioned to stop the sale of cigarettes in Monroe and in Union county.

The ladies of the woman’s Club suggest that all meetings of the city officials be made public and be held in the court house so that all our citizens may have the opportunity to attend in the interest of public questions.

Monroe Is In Need of Much Improvement, Says Woman's Club, 1916

Editorial from the June 16, 1916 issue of The Monroe Journal.

Woman’s Club Staff

Editor, Mrs. J. Frank Lancy

Associate Editor, Mrs. Roscoe Phifer

Contributing Editors, Mrs. W.J. Boger, Mrs. E.M. Griffin, Mrs. W.A. Lane, Mrs. F.B. Ashcraft, Mrs. C.D. Meacham, Mrs. H.L. Laney, Mrs. Eugene Ashcraft, Mrs. R.W. Allen, Miss Lottie May Blair, Miss Jean Ashcraft.

We wish to extend our thanks to the Editor and Manager of this paper for their courtesy and kindness in extending these columns to us and their interest in the work the Woman’s Club is trying to accomplish.

Editorial

“O Woman, in our hours of ease,

Uncertain, coy and hard to please;

But let disaster crown the brow,

A ministering angel, thou.”

Fearing the disaster which must befall our city through carelessness, indifference and poor sanitation, the good women have organized themselves into a working band known as the “Woman’s Club of Monroe.” The object of our club is the social, moral and spiritual uplift of the people, and our slogan, “A cleaner, more sanitary, more beautiful Monroe, a city of roses.”

No doubt, at one time, in the dim, distant past, Monroe was a lovely spot, for as Pope says, “All nature is art, unseen by us.”

God created all things beautiful, clean and good, but man desecrates His forest temples, begins his settlements, others are attracted either by family or business interests and in a few months or year we have a town of several hundred or perhaps thousands of human beings and the question of health and sanitation must be considered.

No man can or does live unto himself. We are all interdependent one upon the other. It is an erroneous selfish notion to imagine that an unsanitary drain pipe, barn, stable or ditch in one part of the tow does not effect the whole town, and no loyal, Christian citizen will allow any condition to exist around his premises that could prove a menace to his neighbors or town.

So few of us realize the value of neatness. Neatness and cleanliness of person and surroundings are aesthetically attractive. All progressive business men appreciate this and make it a rule that everything shall have a place and be in that place.

We have a very fine set of rules or ordinances for governing our city of Monroe, but every one of these ordinances is violated every day. Why is loafing allowed in and round our station? Why are our alleys and sidewalks blocked with wagons, boxes, chicken coops and barrels reeking with filth and maggots?

Why is the sewerage law not enforced within the sewerage zone and the surface closets put out of commission by being knocked down and burned for kindling wood?

Why are cigarettes sold to minors? And on and on ad infintum

Why haven’t we more sewerage and permanent paving and sanitary closets in our graded schools, and a decent auditorium and a hotel building commensurate with the ability of the fine lady and gentleman who manage it? You ask the city fathers WHY and they tell you they haven’t the money.

I have been quoted as saying I am not in favor of Foreign Missions. Let me correct this right here by saying I am most emphatically in favor of both Home and Foreign Missions, and if I had $50 million I’d send a teacher and build a sanitary school, hospital, kindergarten and home in every heathen city and at home if I could. But in the name of common sense, why do we send thousands of dollars out of Monroe every year to China, Japan and South America for these purposes when we haven’t money to build a decent toilet for our own little children at our own little Graded School? What would the Japs and Chinks think of us if they could take a walk not only through our back alleys where the kitchen drain pipes empty and the flies hold high carnival, but down our main street, littered with papers, stifling with dust and unmentionable odors permeating the atmosphere? How could we explain that part of our blessed gospel which says, “He who provides not for his own household has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel?”

Wake up, fellow citizens, bestir yourselves with us and clean up this town and help your health officer keep it clean. If we want to have a genuine, old-time revival of religion at our big tent meeting in July we must procure some means to keep down the dust and get rid of the flies. We need a material “disinfecting” bath in order to receive a spiritual bath. Let us get out from under our moral umbrellas, catch the spirit of civic righteousness and boost our Chamber of Commerce. This is the greatest agency for commercial development ever organized in Monroe.

We have just as fine people in Monroe as the Divine Creator ever made and I love my city not because of what it is, but rather because of what it may become through our concentrated efforts. Let us yield unto our city that same measure of affection which the Hebrews of old yielded unto their Holy City, Jerusalem: “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.” It is because of this love and veneration for our homes and city and the uplift of our children and community, that the good women work, strive and pray for an awakening among our citizens.

My city, ‘tis of thee,

Poor land of slavery

To filth and flies.

I hate thy microbe rills,

And they mosquito stills.

My heart with longing thrills

                To clean thee up.

(Tune, “America.” Everybody sing.)

Do Not Allow Females to Teach Math or Latin; Keep Religion Out of Selection of School Superintendent, 1916

“Our Local Schools,” from the June 16, 1916 issue of The Monroe Journal.

Read before Wednesday Study Club April 26^th, and published by request.

The mothers and fathers of Monroe should take more interest in our schools. If the parents were more interested, the children would be also. Surely they should visit the schools often and show their interest. Where our children spend 6 hours every day, 30 hours every week, 184 hours every month and 1,620 hours ever school year, there we should be interested—in the buildings, the grounds, the teachers, the superintendent and the school board—and none should be satisfied until the very best results possible have been attained.

Those who visited the school building during the county commencement were obliged to have been impressed with the many good points about our schools, and realized that there are good, conscientious teachers and a wide-awake superintendent in our schools from the appearance of the neatly kept rooms and the splendid exhibits. Especially was the grammar school building clean and well lighted, but entirely too crowded and seemingly ill arranged. The high School building is abominable for school purposes. An up-to-date building would appeal to our young boys and girls.

One very noticeable thing about our schools this year is that all—teachers, pupils, parents and superintendent—are striving to work in harmony, which is a wise move. It was too bad that there should have been so much confusion and so much talk—“telling tales out of school”—for a year or so and we should be happy that there has been a change.

Now the needs are legion. The board should be the back-bone of the school. It should be composed of our best informed, best educated, the deepest thinkers, and most progressive man the town affords, regardless of denomination. One of your own men, who lives in another town, in asking about our schools in Monroe—the church trying to run them.” Now it isn’t exactly the church, but the three leading denominations as the Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists call themselves here, and, there MUST be SO MANYT of the board of the three denominations, and so many of the teachers—and if the superintendent is Presbyterian one term the next one must be a Methodist or a Baptist. For example, the two superintendents preceding the present one were Presbyterians. They were both good Christian men and thoroughly acquainted with their work, the last one being very progressive. He meant well, but as Monroe isn’t, or wasn’t progressive, and he wasn’t a Baptist or a Methodist he was a misfit and a mistreated man. None stood by him except the Presbyterians, when he should have had the sympathy and co-operation of all.

Our present superintendent is wise and has brought About one great redeeming feature and that is keeping the troubles and trials to himself and the school this year is very successful, but when the time comes for a change the next superintendent must be a Baptist—unless all the members of the different denominations, in the meantime, wake up and realize that they are CHRISTIAN PEOPLE and that the one great thing in the sight of God is that all followers of Christ are Christians (the essential thing), and that all denominations must lay aside pride, prejudice, envy, jealousy and all those things, and all work together as becometh Christians, and that we must look to God, who is the AUTHOR and FINISHER of every GOOD THING, for guidance and direction if we wish success. Not only is this the trouble with our schools, but with Monroe. It is all right for the Christian people of Monroe to work for the betterment of the town and the proper way is for Christians to work together and have mass meetings in the court house during the week and have the ministers make lectures and addresses. It is because we are Christians that we want to have a clean town and work for the uplift of this generation and generations to come. Monroe will never get together any other way.

But back to our schools.

After electing the best board possible it is its duty to look about and take pattern from the best school boards the state affords and follow their rules and regulations and take an interest in the superintendent, the teachers and all the school children, and then after the superintendent is elected, he should have a voice in electing or recommending the teachers, for surely he knows who are competent much more than the board.

There should be weekly teachers meetings and the superintendent should know just what each teacher’s work for each week has been.

All teachers in city schools should be experienced teachers and they should get their experience in training schools or in country schools. In the country, children are not usually so hard to control and there are not so many attractions and distractions for either teachers or pupils.

The teachers should not only know the subjects which they are to teach, but should know how to study the nature and disposition of children. They must teach children how to study. When a child once knows how the hardest work has been done for both teacher and pupil. The teacher must not do all the talking—in fact, she should do only the very least, but make the pupils do the explaining and reciting, and she must not try to each all she knows the first year. The teachers must learn the gospel of the second mile, that is, if need be, do extra work after school hours.

In the schools today more attention should be given to the “three Rs”, Reading Riting and Rithmetic. Have you noticed how many poor readers there are today among the children? It is distressing.

As to writing—from appearances one wouldn’t think it taught at all. The board should decide upon what kind of penmanship is to be taught, and then see to it, that it and none other is ever taught in the school.

Arithmetic. When a child reaches fractions, then he should have a male teacher. Very very few women can teach arithmetic. Why? To be sure they can solve problems and understand mathematics as well, perhaps, as the men, but they cannot teach it—because a woman never reasons very much—her mind is soon made up without much reasoning, and in teaching mathematics to a child it must be taught to reason form the beginning. Therefore a man should be employed to teach mathematics from the fourth grade to the eleventh. All the Latin should be taught also by a male teacher.

Then, two very important teachers should be added to our schools—music and art. Our country has never produced musicians and artists as other countries, as we have been studying. All the schools all over our land should begin at once the training of the children in there two important things. Music taught correctly from the first grade and all the children taught how to sing correctly and all good music taught would soon bring a great change in our nation. The two channels by which our minds are trained are the eye and the ear, and it stands to reason that both of these should be trained—and so they could—the ear by music and the eye by drawing. In drawing the child is taught to be a close observer, the straight and curved lines, the lights and shadows, and later, coloring, all train the child’s eye as nothing else can. It teaches children to be close observers in all things, especially in nature, and can anything be found to rival nature?

If drawing teaches our children to see correctly the straight lines, the curves, the lights and shades, and to be close observers, wouldn’t they soon know the best in everything? And the ear trained by pure musical tones their understanding would be more perfect and they would soon only like to listen to the beautiful and good and then their minds would be filled with grander and nobler thoughts, and not many years hence America would be producing great musicians and great artists.

Jean Ashcraft Proposes Improvements in Education, Enforcement of Health Laws, Establishment of Public Park, 1916

“Civics and Health” by Jean Ashcraft, from the Friday, June 16, 1916 issue of The Monroe Journal—“The Union County Paper—Everybody Read It”

Education along the lines of hygiene is the basis for the crusade against the unsanitary conditions of the community today. Dr. Emerson, the department of health of New York City, says: “Education is more powerful than the police force.” And education, like charity, begins at home.

Today the teaching of hygiene is compulsory and it is the only study in the grammar school curriculum for the neglect of which a teacher may be removed from office and fined. It is the subject most vital to the child, the home, to industry, to social welfare, and to education itself.

Because the problems of health have to do principally with environment—home, street, school, business—we see the importance of relating hygiene instruction to industry and government, and to preach health from the standpoint of national efficiency.

We find, however, there’s many a slip ‘twixt the making of laws, or setting of standards, and their enforcement. “Failure to enforce health laws is a more serious menace to health than drunkenness or tobacco cancer.”

Instinct was the first health officer and made the first health laws—by warning man, through the senses, against offensive odors and sights. Today we have organized board of health and the law makers of our land pass laws regarding health, food, the standards of living and the control of menaces.

A menace in this sense is anything interfering with health. The number of things listed as nuisances by the day reach into the hundreds. Among the most common are: (1) garbage and sewerage disposal; (2) drainage; (3) polluted water supply; (4) flies, mosquitoes, etc.

In general then, “use your own property so that you will not injure another in the use of his property.”

In the discussion of “preparedness” now raging throughout the country, only one side of the problem is being considered, and that, battleships, submarines, aeorplanes, guns, munitions, etc. No attention is being paid to the human machines. The war in Europe has shown that the men who use the implements of war are as important as the implements themselves. To get the great amount of strength and endurance needed, their bodies and their environment must be looked after. This human preparedness is as important in time of peace as in war.

The greatest step in health is raising the standards of living. Hygenic living and surroundings are the greatest enemies of disease and do more toward raising the vitality of a person than anything.

The new civic spirit is still in its youth, having originated in the last decade of the last century. Formerly all improvements came through individuals and the churches. So this new conception of public responsibility is comparatively new. Under this administration marvelous developments have taken place—the establishing of free libraries, health regulations, factory legislation, interstate commerce provisions, and the extension of municipal functions. Such as street paving, cleaning, lighting, water supply, sewerage disposal, parks, playgrounds and drives, and the uplift and beautifying of the town in all possible lines.

Another phase of city making is the establishment of parks, playgrounds and boulevards. They are organic parts of the city, and Charles Zueblin of Chicago refers to the m as “the respiratory system” of the city.

The lack in our cities of architecture having unity of purpose and harmony of design is said to be “due to the desire for immediate percuniary results. The dominance of commercial motives and the assertiveness of powerful individuals lacking artistic, education, and they have succeeded in making of the typical American city a miscellany of dingy warehouses, shops, tenements, and tasteless mansions. There is not only no unity, but a pronounced restlessness.”

The use of color is another important phase. The possibilities of nature are well illustrated in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, where sand dunes that seemed helpless have been transformed into one of the most beautiful parks in America.

John Burroughs says, “nature in all things to all men. If we will enslave her, she will be our servant, though if we abuse her she may desert and starve us.”

                                --Jean Ashcraft

Editor of Monroe Journal Lets Woman's Club Propose Reforms, 1916

“This Issue of the Journal,” Friday, June 16, 1916 issue of The Monroe Journal—“The Union County Paper—Everybody Read It”

It has been previously announced that this issue of The Journal would be given over to the use of the Woman’s Club of Monroe. With the exception of a little necessary run of news, matter of the articles were contributed by the club. The Journal wishes to bespeak a kindly reception for this effort of the ladies. The width of vision, the variety of subjects, and the excellence of treatment are all sufficient to stand for themselves. What we wish to speak of is the motive for the undertaking. We believe that there will be a general agreement with the statement that this motive, as well as that of the club at all times, is solely for the unselfish interest of the town. There is a deep running current now in this locality which means general advancement. The men have caught the spirit and are themselves hustling. The women themselves are responsible for this fact. They are the prime movers, and set in motion the generous rivalry which is the beginning of a new era of progress and development. Properly the men are taking up the side of the business situation, and properly the women have assumed the aggressive in the matters pertaining to the homes, the schools, the sanitation, and the cultural life of this community. So far as this paper is concerned, we cannot emphasize too often that in its opinion, this agitation and all its resultant efforts are not directed towards any individual or set of individuals, past or present, nor for the future for that matter. And we wish to ask the people of Monroe to look at it in the light of an impersonal and unselfish effort to find out better ways of doing the things that we are doing and to do new and better things toward making our town a better place here and now for ourselves and our children. In an undertaking of this kind selfishness, unkindness, and personalities are out of place, and any use of them would be unworthy, and any one who assumes them fails to catch the broad and patriotic significance of the situation. We do not remember to have heard any one accuse any past or present officer of the town of any conduct more serious than an error of judgment, and errors of judgment are what we are seeking to find out and remedy by substituting a more general interest in all movements and a greater co-operation for the general welfare. In this spirit we believe the ladies are acting, and in that spirit we have been glad to give them the use of the columns of the paper. A reception of their efforts in that spirit is what we bespeak of the readers of the paper.

                --The Journal

News From Across North Carolina in the Henderson Gold Leaf, 1903

“Our Raleigh Letter” from the Henderson Gold Leaf, Thursday, June 18, 1903

Wilcox Safely Landed in Penitentiary…Trinity College Commencement…Combining Business and Pleasure…Who Will Be Next Governor of North Carolina?...Pertinent Paragraphs

“Jim” Wilcox, the murderer of Nellie Cropsey, is at last safely landed in the State penitentiary here—for 30 years. The Supreme Court last Thursday decided his appeal against him, whereupon the Pasquotank county authorities brought him to the State’s prison—probably for life—and this is the final act in one of the hardest fought criminal cases that has figured in the courts and statute books of North Carolina.

Eruditio Et Religio

With a score or more of the most distinguished and useful men in North Carolina occupying seats upon the rostrum and each of them an alumnus of that great institution, including both of our United States Senators, Trinity College last week concluded the greatest “commencement” in the history of that grand old storehouse of learning, and sent out a large class of graduates (including six young women) equipped with a Christian education not to be surpassed by any college of the South.

Of course Rev. Dr. J.C. Kilgro, under whose able and brilliant administration has come the remarkable growth and great good fortunes of the college, was re-elected president, and equally of course was Hon. J.H. Southgate again chosen president of the Board of Trustees—he to whom the success and prosperity of the institution is also largely due.

No institution has ever had, or will ever have, more efficient, devoted and successful officers filling these two most important positions.

And the splendid faculty, magnificent and unsurpassed, remains the same—each one of the more than a score of the ablest and most practical and useful educators in the land having been unanimously re-elected.

Trinity has for a number of years been surpassing itself each scholastic year, and brilliant and successful as was the one just closed, the next one (which begins Sept. 9^th) will be even more successful and brilliant. When the low price of tuition (only $50) and other expenses are considered (being only $168 to $231 a year, including tuition) and with these reduced to $118 to $181 in many cases, everything included, surely the young men of North Carolina are indeed fortunate in having such a grand and advantageous opportunity to secure the best education to be had. And of course all this is largely due to Trinity’s noble benefactors, chief among whom are Mr. Washington Duke and his sons.

Combining Business and Pleasure

“Greensboro is the outgrowingest place I ever seed!” declared a bucolic acquaintance of mine some time ago.

After a personal investigation I now fully endorse the strong statement embodied in the above expressive words. It does beat everything how that town has grown and continues to grow of late. If it keeps up the present lick a few years longer it will pass Raleigh, Charlotte and Wilmington and become the largest city in North Carolina.

“There is the finest ‘summer resort’ in the State for hundreds and thousands of men who are ‘run down’ like I was last summer,” said my companion, as we were walking out East Washington street. He was pointing to the large and picturesque brick and stone building, with its perfectly large lawn of several acres, so long known as the “Governor Morehead mansion,” but which now bears over its front portals the words: “Keeley Institute.”

We crossed the street and went up the green, breeze-swept, shady and cool grounds into the large, generously proportioned main building; into the former reception room of the rich old Governor, know the club room of the Institute; thence through the business office and the modern-improved dining hall, physician’s laboratory and the bed-rooms, with their new appointments and furniture.

We met that genial, whole-souled man who established it, Col. W.H. Osborn, still its president, and now Mayor of Greensboro as well; the obliging and competent manager, Mr. C.D. Cunningham; Dr. Williams, the chief physician, who has been here nearly ten years, and the patients, then numbering some thirty odd—nice, gentlemanly men, all of them, many of them fine looking and of extraordinary ability—lawyers, doctors, politicians, merchants, business men and farmers.

And everybody so cool and comfortable. Domiciled in the first-class summer resort and at the same time being cured of their physical appetite and ailments—and all much satisfied with the happy idea that has enabled them to kill two birds with one stone.

Said my friend: “I did that way last summer. I came to Keeley and built myself up during the hottest part of the summer—instead of dissipating the time away and ruining my constitution at the usual ‘summer resort’—and that is why you see me looking and feeling so well now. And I enjoyed myself here as much as if I had been at any of the other places.”

Our Next Governor and Lieutenant Governor

Within twelve months the next Governor of North Carolina will be practically named, and yet we have heard and read very little discussion of the subject, so far. Who will he be?

As it is more than probable that the Democratic nominee will be a “Western man” this time, I have been looking into the matter lately and judging by the expressions of scores of representative citizens of the West, I find that Lieut.-Gov. Wilfred D. Turner of Iredell, and ex-Lieut.-Gov. Charles M. Steadman of Guilford are the two most-talked of gentlemen for the position up to this time—and either of them would make us a splendid Chief Magistrate. But others have their friends also, of course, and not infrequently you will meetup with those who champion Col. John S. Cunningham of Person, Hon. R.B. Glenn of Forsythe, Hon. Theo. F. Davidson of Buncombe, et al. It seems to be understood that Gen. Julian S. Carr and Hon. Cy. B. Watson will not enter the race.

For Lieutenant-Governor an Eastern man will be named, if the usual course is pursued, and there are two men who seem to stand head and shoulders above all others, so far, for this honor—two of our leading State Senators, viz., Hon. J.E. Woodard of Wilson and Hon. Joseph A. Brown of Columbus county (the latter being the present pro tem. of the Senate) and there is no better material in the State. Indeed, either of them is highly qualified and would make a first-class Governor of North Carolina, if the mantle of that office should fall upon his intellectually broad and patriotic shoulders.

Pertinent Paragraphs

Chas. F. McKesson will edit the Free Lance, a new newspaper to be established at Morganton. It will, therefore, be a very readable sheet, for “Charlie” McKesson is as fluent with his pencil as with his tongue and he announces in advance the names of some of those for home he intends to make it warm—State chairman Rollins and other Republican leaders being among the number, and including also the directorate of the institution for the deaf and dumb at Morganton.

The press and people of the State generally seem to agree in denouncing the recovery, be Seawell, the Republican-Populist spellbinder, from a railroad company, of several thousand dollars because some bad boys of Shelby “rotten egged” him while on the platform or premises of the railroad company. It was the Seaboard that was muleted this time and even the severest critics of corporations declare that this decision, rendered by the Supreme Court last week, is “the limit,” and that “the law is a ass”—if this is law.

Today the special term of Wilson court begins, and it is understood that the slayers of Percy Jones will be put on trial this week. The case attracts almost as much attention and general interest throughout the State as the Haywood-Skinner homicide.

The Virginia-Carolina Chemical Co. has decided to erect a big fertilizer manufacturing plant in Raleigh to cost about $200,000.

If President Venable of the State University should be choses president of the faculty of the University of Virginia, at the election to be held July 28^th, as some seem to regard as possible, many are already demanding that our “Educational Governor” shall take charge of the University of North Carolina. But what about the unexpired term of 1 ½ years of the governorship? Will Gov. Aycock be willing to relinquish that? If so, Lieut. Gov. Turner would step into the Executive Office—and, in that case, others would find it up-hill work to defeat him for the nomination next year.

The matter of “merging” our North Carolina cotton mills is again revived and a meeting has been called for Thursday, June 18^th, at Charlotte. New York capitalists asked for the meeting.

An anti-saloon league will be formed here tomorrow and Raleigh will vote on the dispensary question some time this year. The retail liquor dealers have formed a separate organization (State) for fight dispensary projects. So the campaign is likely to be a warm one.

Turn Back to Old Antebellum Ideals Says Tom Watson, 1910

“Back to Old Ideals” from the Hickory Democrat, June 1910

Tom Watson is back in the Democratic party saying that he is convinced the South can get what it needs politically through no other channel. He declares his aim shall be henceforth to restore the old antebellum ideals of Southern statesmanship.

Joseph W. Folk’s boom for the Democratic nomination for the presidency has been launched on the anti-graft platform in general. He declares that the protective tariff is legal graft and favors an income tax. What is needed, he says, is not a new party but the preservation of the ideals of the old Democratic party to which the public is looking for relief from present conditions.

With the ablest of the ‘outcomers’ returning to the fold; with the best of the stay-inners demanding the old ideals; with the President and congress who have “fallen down” on their platform and pledges; with the best men in the Republican congress allying themselves with the Democrats in order to stay the arrogance of entrenched power which disregards the people’s rights—the people of the country can do little less than to give the Democracy a chance.

Happy Father's Day

If You "Say It With a Gun," Texas Will "Say It With a Noose," 1921

“Say It With Noose,” from the editorial page of the Amarillo Tribune, as printed in The Clovis News, Clovis, N.M., Dec. 29, 1921.

“Say it with a gun” seems to be popular as a slogan for many Texans. There is an alarming number of homicides in the State. The murder rate is certainly on the increase although definite figures will probably not be known until a summary is made at the close of the present year.

“Say it with a noose,” is the most effective answer to those who “say it with guns.” A few legal hangings will do more to check the murder game in Texas than anything else.

One authority has said that a murderer in this country is in less danger of being executed for his crime than a locomotive engineer is of losing his life in the regular routine of his work.

America has been made pretty safe for criminals but it is time for us to begin to give some thought to making it safe for the rest of us. The best way to do it is to “say it with a noose” a little more often.

Society of Medical Jurisprudence Examines High Murder Rate in U.S., 1916

“Murder in the United States,” from the editorial page of the Arizona Republican, Dec. 28, 1916

Startling not because of their novelty, but because of a serious condition of affairs which they reveal, are the statistics compiled by Henry A. Forster, a New York lawyer, which he used in an address in New York before the Society of Medical Jurisprudence, to show that the United States leads the world among civilized nations, in the number of homicides committed annually, while the number of convictions is in proportion very much smaller. The number of executions was only 119. The murder rate in the United States for the period of 1909-1913 was 6.4 per 100,000 of population. The murder rate in England and Wales for the same period was 0.8 and for Italy 3.6. It is a notorious fact that the murder rate is higher in the United States than it is even in Canada, and that the percentage of convictions is lower. Lynchings, which are of such frequent occurrence in the United States, and the number of which in the 10 years ending with 1903 was 3,337, are unknown elsewhere in the civilized world except in remote regions of Russia. Human life is held in lighter esteem here than in other civilized nations, and the law more often proves inadequate for the punishment of capital crimes.

Memphis, Tenn., Most Dangerous City; Reading, Pa., the Safest, 1915

 “8,000 Murders in U.S.,” from the Topeka Daily State Journal, Dec. 23, 1915

Memphis, Tenn., the Greatest Crime City in Nation; Reading, Pa., Safest Place to Live

New York, Dec. 23—Eight thousand persons were murdered in the United States last year, 80 per cent of the victims being men. Memphis, Tenn., was the most dangerous of American cities from the homicide viewpoint, with a murder rate of 72.2 for every 100,000 of population. Reading, Pa., with a corresponding rate of 1 for 100,000, was the safest. New York had a murder rate of 6.1 for 100,000; Chicago’s rate was 9.1.

These and many other interesting facts are recounted in the article on “The Homicide Record of American Cities for 1914,” which appears in today’s issue of The Spectator, an insurance journal.

Might Executing All Who Are Convicted of Murder Lower the Murder Rate in U.S.? 1922

“Murder Rate Is on Increase in United States,” from the Albuquerque Morning Journal, New Mexico, Oct. 19, 1922

Is Partially Due to the Fact that Capital Punishment Is Not Inflicted in All Cases, Is Claim

Detroit, Mich., Oct. 13—The murder rate is increasing in the United States because, in the opinion of leading statesmen, capital punishment is not inflicted in all cases of deliberate murder and because misguided sentimentalists are interesting themselves in behalf of the murderers, Henry Barrett Chamberlain, operating director of the Chicago Crime Commission, declared tonight before the American Prison Association.

Crime, though incurable, can be minimized and controlled and capital punishment is a deterrent and does reduce murder, he asserted, speaking on the subject “The Importance of the Death Penalty for the Murderer.”

“The right of the state to execute a murderer does not exist because of the gravity of the offense, but solely because of the necessity for protecting itself from the murderer,” he said. “Abolition of the death penalty for murder in this country usually has been for short periods, followed by its restoration when the murder rate rose.

“Some, who admit the capital punishment is just, deny that it is ever necessary. They deny that the death penalty horrifies the criminal. The murder rate in the United States is rising, not because capital punishment is not the proper penalty for murder, but in the opinion of our greatest statesmen because capital punishment is not inflicted in all cases of deliberate murder and because sentimentalists, well meaning and sincere but badly misguided, are giving most of their attention to the consideration of the murderer rather than to his victim.”

If Young People Are Taught Prompt Obedience, Might This Reduce Murder Rate in U.S.? 1916

“Obedience and Team Work,” from the Hopkinsville Kentuckian, July 15, 1916

Only in a few American homes is prompt obedience required. Only to a limited degree is the habit of prompt obedience cultivated in the school. The boys have done something to cultivate the spirit of team work by their voluntary athletics, but only a minority get this training. Organized industry does something to compel team work, but not much to inspire it. Corporations and labor unions do something to develop it, but it is team work for a class, not for the community. It is not easy to conceive of anything which would do more to develop these two needed virtues—prompt obedience and team work—than universal military service. General Wood tells us that in this country the murder rate is 124 per million; in Switzerland it is 12 per million. What is the cause of this difference? One cause is the American vice of self will. What is the remedy for this defect? One valuable remedy would be the soldier’s habit of respect for authority and of regard for the comrade at his side. 

–Outlook

Might Speedy Trials Cut Murder Rate in U.S.? 1921

 “Early Trials for Criminals Advocated,” from The Bourbon News, Paris, Kentucky, Tuesday, Sept. 13, 1921

Cincinnati, Ohio, Sept. 9—The history of organized government demonstrates that the speedy trial of criminal cases and the swift and certain punishment of criminals effects a reduction in the volume of crime, Edwin W. Sims, president of the Chicago Crime Commission told the American Bar Association at its meeting here recently.

“On the other hand,” Mr. Sims continued, “Increased crime follows closely on the heels of delayed trials and deferred punishment. In short, crime increases of decreases in the proportion that punishment is swift and certain. The speed with which a crime is punished has a great deal more to do with the preservation of law and order than the severity of punishment.

….

“Three years ago the Chicago Association of Commerce appointed and financed a crime commission. It does not of itself undertake the apprehension nor the prosecution of criminals. The Commission limits its activities to an investigation of crimes of violence: murder, burglary, and robbery. It early reached the conclusion that the principal avenue of escape was the delay in the trial of criminal cases.

‘The commission was organized in the year 1919. Data collected for that year showed there were 100 murders to 1,000,000 of population in Chicago, as against 9 to 1,000,000 in Great Britain and 13 to 1,000,000 in Canada. This meant that during 1919 there were more murders in Chicago with a population of 3,000,000 than in the British Isles with a population of 40,000,000.

“For years in Great Britain and Canada, murder cases generally have been disposed with 60 or 90 days. In American cities there practically are no murder cases being tried within 90 days.

“April 1, 1920, 135 persons previously indicted for murder were awaiting trial in Chicago. In 104 cases the accused were at liberty on bond. The situation was brought to the attention of the courts and officials by the Crime Commission with the result that four Judges, then in the civil courts, volunteered to sit in the Criminal court and try cases until the murder docket was cleared. The trial of these cases resulted in sentencing of 12 to hang and 12 to the penitentiary for from one year to life.

Murder Rate Cut In Half

“The effect on the number of murders in Chicago was electrical. Immediately the murder rate there dropped 51 per cent, where it has since remained. The record for the first seven months of each of the last three years is as follows:

1919: 232

1920: 87

1921: 91

….

·         The Bourbon news. (Paris, Ky.), 13 Sept. 1921. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86069873/1921-09-13/ed-1/seq-6/>

Honor Killing to Save Daughter From Her Shame, 1915

“Mother Strangles Child to Save Her From Shame,” from The Day Book, Chicago, Dec. 23, 1915

Cincinnati, Dec. 23.—Mrs. Minnie Schmitz killed her 17-year-old daughter Gertrude yesterday to save her from life of shame.

“She was better off dead than alive, so I strangled her with a necktie,” she told police.

“All night long I brooded about Gertie. She had threatened to leave home. Last week she remained away all one night.

“It was 4 o’clock this morning when I finally decided she would be better dead than alive. I went to her bedroom. She was asleep. I slipped the tie under her neck. I had made a slip knot.

“I was pulling it tight when Gertie awoke.

“’What are you doing to me, mother’ she said.

“I told her I was going to do what I said I would do if she didn’t mend her ways.

“She begged me not to kill her. I pulled the tie tight. She struggled for awhile.

“When she didn’t struggle any more and the blood began running from her mouth I left her and went back to my husband.

“Yes, I did it. That’s all. I did it. It had to be done.”

Mrs. Schmitz said she had been taking whiskey because of worry. Schmitz said his wife failed to understand why the young girl desired company of those her age and that she had overestimated her daughter’s waywardness.

Highest Murder Rates in U.S. Found in Memphis, Charleston, Savannah, Atlanta, New Orleans, Nashville, Louisville, St. Louis, 1915

“If You Are Interested in Murders, Read This,” from The Day Book, Chicago, Dec. 23, 1915

New York, Dec. 23—Murder rate in U.S. has now climbed to 8.6 persons killed each year in every 100,000 of population, according to an article written by Frederick L. Hoffman for the number of the Spectator which will be issued today. That is to say, about 8,000 residents of the country are murdered each year.

Mr. Hoffman has the murder rates of 30 cities, having in 1914, the last year with which he deals, a population of 17,416,540 and he averages results obtained from these figures for the whole country. New York city as a whole is omitted from the tables he supplied.

The highest murder rate for any year was that of 1913, when 8.7 persons were killed for every 100,000 people in the country.

Memphis leads all cities. There the murders in 1914 amounted to 72.2 persons for every 100,000 persons in the city. Charleston, S.C., is second with 33.3.

Chicago had in 10 years 1,955 murders, the average murder rate there being 9.3 persons in every 100,000 population.

Most of the southern cities stand well at the top of the list. After the two cities named come Savannah, with a 10-year average of 28.4; next is Atlanta, with a 10-year average of 26; New Orleans, 25.3; Nashville, 24.3; Louisville, 16.6; and St. Louis, 12.9. Following are San Francisco with 11.8; Cincinnati, 11; Seattle, 8.1; Spokane, 7.8; and Washington, 7.5.

Manhattan and the Bronx together are 16^th in the list of 30 cities. The rate here is 6.1, or less than the average.

South Is Murder Capital; To Prevent Murders, Disarm Private Citizens, 1915

“How to Lower Murder Rate,” from The Spectator, an insurance industry journal, as reported in The Bisbee Daily Review, Arizona, Dec. 31, 1915

The Spectator, an insurance journal, has made an impressive study of American murder records in the last 10 years. The result isn’t flattering to a country that prides itself on its superior civilization and humanity.

The review covers 30 cities in all sections of the country. The south makes the most unfavorable showing, due doubtless to its large and comparatively irresponsible colored population. Memphis, Tenn., wins the unflattering title of the “most murderous city in the world.” For the decade of 1904-1913, out of every 100,000 residents of Memphis, 64.3 were murdered every year, on an average. Charleston, S.C., comes next in the list, with 32.7 homicides a year per 100,000. Savannah, Atlanta, New Orleans, and Nashville follow close after. Then comes a sudden drip, in Louisville, to 16.6, and the rate sinks to 11.8 for San Francisco, 9.3 for Chicago, 6.1 for Cleveland and New York, 5.3 for Pittsburg, 4 for Buffalo, and a proud minimum of only 2.4 for Milwaukee.

The average yearly murder rate for the southern cities was 18.4; for the Pacific Coast cities, 12.8; for the central cities, 8.6; and for the eastern cities 4.9. Thus in this respect, at least, the East may lay unquestionable claim to higher civilization, in spite of the supposedly deteriorating effect of recent immigration.

The most distressing thing about the situation is that the murder rate in every section seems to be increasing. The figures for the year 1914 are found to be uniformly higher than the average figures for the previous decade. The increase is most marked in the southern and far western states.

The homicide eminence of the nation as a whole is seen in the fact that, for the same population, 100 persons are murdered in the United States to 56 in Italy; 31 in Prussia, and only 13 in England.

What can be done to blot out this shameful record? The Spectator makes a pertinent and practical suggestion. Nearly two-thirds of the murders examined with committed by firearms. The chief reason for the increase of homicidal crimes is given as the inadequacy of laws regulating the carrying of deadly weapons. “The means of murder are entirely too convenient, and the pistol-carrying habit in many sections of the country is an evil of the first importance.”

The way to bring the American murder rate down to a less disgraceful level, then, is to disarm our private citizens and make it impossible for them to buy weapons.

·         Bisbee daily review. (Bisbee, Ariz.), 31 Dec. 1915. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024827/1915-12-31/ed-1/seq-4/>

'Things Personal and of a General Nature' Column, High Point, June 1, 1916

"Things Personal and of a General Nature,” from the front page of the June 1, 1916, issue of The Review, High Point, N.C.

--Vote Saturday. Remember the Main point--to show your disapproval of being disfranchised last year.

--Next stop--primary Saturday.

Supt. and Mrs. Thornwell Hayes leave today for a visit to Mrs. Hayes' mother, Mrs. Bowers, at Prosperity, S.C.

David Steinhofer of Havana, Cuba, is visiting at the home of Dr. H.C. Pitts, having accompanied Darrell Pitts here from Atlanta. The gentleman from Cuba is contemplating spending part of the summer in this city.

Lest you forget--don't forget to be loyal to your town industries, where you and your daddy or brother makes his living. And this calls to mind that there are no better brands of flour than the White Frost or Eclipse, made by the High Point Milling Co.

Memorial Day was observed here Tuesday by the post office and the banks.

Married Sunday morning Miss Lelia Epps and Horace Miller at the home of the bride on West Green street, Rev. F.L. Fiddler officiating.

Three nurses from the High Point hospital, Misses Kelly, Nichols and Anderson of High Point, passed the Board last month.

Durham gets the 1917 Federation of Women's clubs.

J.B. Rector, manager of the Langren hotel at Asheville and one time in charge of the Elwood, will assume the managership of the Selwyn at Charlotte.

Oscar Cunningham, brother of Mrs. H.W. McCain, died at Waxhaw Saturday, aged 19 years. Heart leakage caused the death.

Miss Marguerite Kirkman has returned from Converse College.

Dr. J.C. Rowe of Salisbury is visiting his son Rev. Gilbert Rowe.

W.F. Ellis, formerly with Allen Bros., will travel for a New York lace concern, having North Carolina and Virginia as his territory.

Wanted At Once--Girl to do cooking and house work. Reference exchanged. Apply Mrs. C.E. Wagner, 404 Grimes Street.

J. Allen Austin is president; J.R. Barber, secretary of the High Point township Sunday school convention, being named at the meeting Sunday afternoon at Wesley Memorial M.E. church.

Chas. L. Thompson and family of Mocksville and Mrs. Walton Watkins of Lexington motored over from Mocksville and spent Saturday night and Sunday with Mrs. H.U. Oakes, Mr. Thompson's sister.

The friends of W.G. Burnett of Atlanta were pleased to see him on the streets this week.

You can now be vaccinated free against typhoid fever at Dr. H.W. McCain's office between the hours of 1 and 3 and 7 and 8 p.m. There are no bad after effects and it is a positive preventive against the disease.

C.S. Carrol has purchased the bowling alley from Kirkman and Dyer on South Main street.

Rev. Gilbert Rowe preached the Y.M.C.A. sermon at Guilford College commencement Sunday night.

Messers. A.M. Rankin, V.W. Idol, H.A. Garrett, R.T. Pickens and C.A. Cecil have returned from Zanesville, Ohio, where they attended as delegates the General Conference of the M.P. church. Messers. Rankin, Idol and Pickens served on important committees. The matter of uniting with M.E. church was brought up and the M.P.'s are favorably inclined and now think the next move is up to the Methodist Episcopals.

Wondering how the Boy Scouts have been making out the past few days of copious rains?

Country Store in Gordonton, N.C., 1939

This picture of a country store on a dirt road in Gordonton, N.C., was taken by Dorothea Lange in 1939. Those are gasoline and kerosene pumps. It is part of the Library of Congress collection of historic photos. Lange worked for the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression. 

Improvements to High Point's Rose Theatre Include Fans, Sanitary Water Fountain, 1916

"Improvements at the Rose Theatre," from the front page of the June 1, 1916, issue of The Review, High Point, N.C.

The painters and decorators have been engaged in beautifying the Rose theatre this week and will finish their work in time to open the theatre to the public Friday afternoon at 3 o'clock. Ventilating suction fans have been put in over head and ventilators going through the top of the house. Sixteen wall fans have also been added which will make the Rose theatre one of the coolest places to be found anywhere and thoroughly sanitary. This with the decorations and other modern "fixings" makes the Rose one of the very best moving picture theatres in the state. The public is invited to judge for itself.

A sanitary water fountain for the patrons had been installed.

'Talk of the Town' From the Henderson Gold Leaf, 1903

“Talk of the Town,” from the Gold Leaf, Henderson, N.C., June 18, 1903

The ice man grows more popular with the lengthening days.

Hon. James R. Young of Raleigh was here for a short while Tuesday.

The street sprinkler is doing business regularly now and the effect is marked.

Miss Rosa Kerner went to Littleton Friday to visit her aunt Mrs. S.J. Stallings.

Mrs. J.F. Harris returned from Raleigh Saturday where she had been visiting her sister Mrs. Theo Hill for some weeks.

Misses Mabel and Myrtle Harris left last week for Westminster, M.D., to attend commencement exercises at Western Maryland College.

Miss Fannie Sater of Halifax and Miss Dora Sater of Charlotte have been guests of Mrs. F.C. Toepleman during the past week.

Little Miss Madeline Moore of Greensboro came Saturday to spend awhile with her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. H.J. Hartmaier.

Rev. Dr. Morton will preach in the Presbyterian church next Sunday morning and night. The public cordially invited to hear him.

Miss Jewell Simpson of Westminster, Md., returned home last week after a pleasant visit to the families of Messrs. G.B. and S.R. Harris here for some time.

Mr. and Mrs. N.P. Strause and little daughter left Saturday for their home in Madison, Wisconsin, after staying awhile with Capt. And Mrs. W.B. Shaw in Henderson.

The Ladies’ Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal church will give an ice cream supper at W.T. Whitten’s old stand on Friday evening, the 19^th. Everybody invited.

Mrs. S.P. Cooper left Wednesday for Atlanta accompanied by her infant son David Jackson and nurse to spend awhile with her parents Mr. and Mrs. Howell Cobb Jackson.

Mrs. J.E. McCraw went to Durham Tuesday to visit her sister Mrs. H.C. Linthieum, and will be gone for two weeks probably extending her visit to Winston before returning.

Mr. S.S. Parham left yesterday for New York whence he will sale this week for Europe on a pleasure trip. “Bat’s” friends wish for him a pleasnt sojourn abroad and safe return home.

Prof. L.B. Edwards came  last week from Live Oak, Fla., to spend vacation at home. He has been teaching school there for some years and reports last year’s work the best he has had.

Capt. Joe Dunn of Ceredo, West Virginia, returned Monday to his work as freight conductor on the Norfolk & Western Railroad after a ten days’ visit to his father’s family in Henderson.

Mrs. George L. Adams leaves today for Waynesville to spend the summer. She will also visit her son Wesley at Salisbury and relatives and friends in Charlotte and Greensboro before returning home.

Among the class of pharmacists who have just been granted certificates of graduation by the examining board were Mr. Biscoe Bass of Henderson. Mr. Bass took the course at the University and passed a highly creditable examination.

Mrs. T.H. Chavasse came home last week from Philadelphia where she has been in a hospital for treatment, having undergone a serious surgical operation. She is much benefited and is improving rapidly her friends will be pleased to know.

Mrs. Dr. Willie Wilson of Dallas, Texas, with her four children came last week to spend the summer with relatives here and at her old home in the Williamsboro neighborhood. Mrs. Wilson is a sister of Messrs. John and Phil Thomas of Henderson.

Mr. C.H. Turner will build a handsome residence on his lot recently purchased from Mr. N.H. Chavasse on Chavasse Avenue. Architect L.H. Lewis is drawing the plans which show it will be a commodious and beautiful structure—one of the finest residents in that section of the town.