“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 36th Senatorial District. Mr. Wilson was a
Republican. An election will be held January 20th 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 7th,
and will elect a United States Senator on the 20th. 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 1st instead of June 15th, 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 25th, 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!
