Items of Interest from Currituck to Cherokee, 1903

“State News From Currituck to Cherokee,” from The Progressive Farmer, Raleigh, N.C., Tuesday, January 6, 1903

Items of Interest Gleaned from Our Correspondents and Exchanges

The people of Anson will shortly put up a $1,200 Confederate monument in the public square at Wadesboro.

The State Hospital for the Insane at Raleigh will ask the Legislature for an appropriation of $80,000 for enlargement.

The people of Dunn and vicinity are agitating the question of forming a new county with Dunn as the centre and county seat.

The first annual debate between Trinity College and Emory College of Georgia will take place in Durham at Craven Memorial Hall, Trinity College, on Easter Monday night.

The Charlotte Observer says that Mr. J.A. Abernethy of Lincolnton Saturday sold the Lincoln Cotton Mills located near that town to Mr. R.C.G. Love of Gastonia, the amount involved begin approximately $300,000.

The death of State Senator Zeb Wilson of Burnsville, Yancey County, who was killed by his brother, Hiram Wilson, two days ago leaves a vacancy in the 36^th Senatorial District. Mr. Wilson was a Republican. An election will be held January 20^th to choose his successor.

The Supreme Court as now constituted is: Chief Justice, Walter Clark of Wake County; Associate Justices R.M. Douglas of Guilford County, Walter A. Montgomery of Wake County, Henry G. Connor of Wilson County, and Platt D. Wilson of Mecklenburg County.

Asheville Courier Post: Congressman Moody is here in conference with his attorneys and others relative to his contest with Mr. Gudger. He asserts that when the returns of the recent election are properly readjusted and counted by a fair tribunal it will be shown that he has a majority of 800 over his opponent.

High Point Dispatch: The large silk mill for this place, mention of which was made in this correspondence a few days ago, is a certainty. Interested parties are here and have bought five acres of ground from Mr. J. Elwood Cox on which to erect the plant. Work on the buildings will commence at once.

Llewxam’s Raleigh Letter: Overman stock is rapidly rising in the Senatorial market, and some astute politicians tell me they now expect him to be the successful candidate for Pritchard’s seat. There has been a little talk in certain quarters about a “stampede” to Judge Walter Clark, but there is absolutely nothing in that sort of noise. It is predicted very freely here, however, that Judge Clark will be a candidate four years hence, when an eastern man is to be chosen. Indeed, Senator Simmons was told a year ago that Clark would contest with him for the seat next time.

Charlotte Observer: The Legislature is to meet week after next on Wednesday, January 7^th, and will elect a United States Senator on the 20^th. As near as the date is, there is not a man in the State who would bet on the result, except from a pure love of gambling, as two men will put two lumps of sugar on a table and make a bet as to which one a fly will light on first.

Asheville Citizen: $225,000 will be expended on the Asheville division of the Southern Railway in the way of improvements. These improvements for the most part will be in grade reduction work which has been in progress for some time, track ballasting and the laying of new steel rail. The laying of 80-pound rail between Asheville and Spartanburg will commence next week.

Charlotte Observer: That was an interesting items in the Wilmington correspondence of the Observer this week which noted the fact that four of the leading white citizens of that city were pallbearers at the funeral of a highly respected colored man. The incident ought to be told far and wide. It shows that at Wilmington, the storm center of the revolution against putting the negro in place and power, the colored man who demeans himself properly is highly regarded.

The North Carolina Association of Academies, in session in Raleigh last week, elected the following officers: President A.F. Sams of Cary, Vice-President Martin H. Holt of Oak Ridge, Secretary Professor Aldrich of Trinity Park. The Association decided to meet next year with the North Carolina Teachers’ Assembly, and to ask the latter to be given a day and night on the programme. If this request cannot be granted, the meeting will be held in advance.

Washington Correspondent, Charlotte Observer: Richmond Pearson will go to the land of the Sultan. Official announcement has been made of his appointment as Minister to Persia, one of the really attractive posts of the diplomatic service. Mr. Pearson, who has held the consulship at Genoa, with a salary attachment of $1,500, will hereafter wear the official title of Minister Resident and Consul-General to Persia, and, according to the government Blue Book, will receive a salary of $10,000 annually.

Asheville Correspondent, Charlotte Observer: The emigration movement from this section has set in and the indications are that the exodus from western North Carolina during the next few months will be the largest for years. A large number of residents form this immediate section, it is understood, will seek homes this spring in the West. The majority of the emigrants from this section go to Oklahoma and Indian Territory. Large numbers go from here to the West every fall, but as a rule they return disappointed and declaring that “there is no place like western North Carolina.”

The A. and M. College Summer School for Teachers will begin July 1^st instead of June 15^th, and will last four weeks. Instruction will be given in Agriculture and Nature Study; Manual Training; Public School Branches and Pedagogy; Model Practice School; College and High School Branches—Languages, Literature, Mathematics; Child Study, Kindergarten and Nature Study in reference to Child Training; Music, vocal and instrumental, especially sight singing and chorus. Board and lodging for four weeks, $10. Separate buildings for ladies, with baths, etc.

Colonel Olds: Being with a party of well-known North Carolinians the other day, the writer was deeply interested in their conversation, which was about the negro. One said, “We have simply cut loose from the negro. Are we doing our duty by him? Have we not two standards of morals, etc., one for the whites, the other for the negroes? If I were to employ a white woman in my house I would make strict inquiry into her character. Do any of us inquire into the character of negroes we employ? Then, too, if a white man who was about to be employed were told to be on hand the following morning and did not show up, we would be done with him and drop him, but we would not expect the negro to be punctual, and when the latter came along, say the next day, we would put him to work.”

Greensboro Telegram: The proposed trolley line connecting Greensboro with High Point and Winston begins to look as if it is going to be a sure thing. What more than anything else causes the belief that the promoters of the scheme mean business is the fact that substantial business men representing other substantial backers appeared before the Greensboro Board of Aldermen last night and secured the passage of an ordinance giving the right, privilege and franchise to locate, lay, construct, operate and maintain the portion of the line which will lie in Greensboro. The High Point-Greensboro-Winston trolley system will consist of a line from High Point to some convenient and suitable point between Winston and Greensboro. From this point one arm of the system will extend to Winston and the other to Greensboro.

The annual meeting of the State Literary and Historical Association will be held on the evening of January 23d in the music hall of the Olivia Raney Library, Raleigh. The programme is as follows: Opening address on the “Work and Possibilities of the Association” by President Henry G. Connor. Report of the “Hall of History” by Fred A. Olds. “Rural Libraries in North Carolina,” (a) Extent and Operation by J.Y. Joyner; (b) Utility and Possibilities by Mrs. J. Lindsay Patterson, (c) Discussion and Suggestions. North Carolina Biography for 1902: (a) History by D.H. Hill; (b) Poetry by H.J. Stockard; (c) Periodic Literature by I.E. Avery. Claims of a State Literature and History of our Public Schools. Election of officers. Organization of an Authors’ Club in the Association.

Concord Times: It has been generally remarked that there was more drunkenness on the streets of Concord on Christmas day than on any occasion for years. Many unthinking persons have gone so far as to say that open bar-rooms could not have been worse. Such a statement is extreme folly, and no man who thinks for a moment would make it. To show how much truth there is in this statement, we cite the fact that in Durham, which as bar-rooms, there were 33 cases in the police court December 25^th, while in Concord, which is not much smaller than Durham, there were only four. Of course, whiskey is sold and used to a certain extent as long as it is made, regardless of restrictions; but it is a fact which no one can successfully controvert that local option has been a signal success here. And it will continue so to be, so long as public sentiment is behind it.

It will interest every one who has attended a State Alliance meeting in recent years to know that our good old chaplain, Rev. W.S. Mercer, is to be married to a Norfolk lady, Miss Fannie C. Lee, this week. Long life and happiness to them!