Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1853-07-01
Our Drawer.

The pressure Of various things upon Us IN the alb
sence Of one of the EDITORS who left for the North
ern cities upon business, about week since, has
caused an accumulation of snndry little matters in
the way of communications etc, which we have
not sooner been able to attend to, but will try
and make up in bunch. Diving into our recepta--
Gle, we find first, a very interesting account with
which our friend Edward Vail, ESQ., of Spring Vale'
Sampson county, has favored US concerning VISIT
which he himself and Mr.. Faison of the same coun-
ty, lately paid to Is Old DELPHI" an aged negro be-
longing to Mr. Williams of Sampson. DELPHI Will
be one hundred and eleven years old on the coming
Fourth of July. They found him, cheerful and in
fine health, and busily engaged in making himself
pair of pants, without spectacle-he being tailor
by trade His first master, Archibald Bell, died 50
years ago, at which time DELPHI was Is years ofage
He remembers seeing Lord CORVALLIS and his army,
we'll other persons and things of note In those
early days. He was taken prisoner near the resi-
dence of William Fryer. He saw the Tories kill
John Thompson-he (Thompson) lingering some
three days The old fellow lives by himself, not
another soul being near him; he is sort of Doctor
and travels much as fifty miles to see sick per-
sons, and many persons visit him for medical aid
Mr. Vail observed him closely and found his facul-
ties good and apparently unimpaired. He cooks,
washes milks and makes his own clothes, in q very
independent manner He is four feet high and
weighs one hundred and five pounds His present
owner, Mr.. A. Williamson, is seventy -four, and
therefore an old man to the rest of the world, but
quite youth in comparison with DELPHI. There is
little reason for doubling the old negroes age Of
which he himself is confident, besides his having
been known in Sampson for time immemorial al
npt.
BY the way, we learn that Mr.. Vail has finished
or is about finishing for Sampson county the copy
ing of the Registry Books of said County, which he
employed to do some three years since at very
small fee, some Is cents per page we think. The
whole work will make near if not quite seven thou
sand pages about fifteen inches long by ten to twelve
wide and we learn that there is not a mistake il
the whole work, which is done, notwithstanding ad
vancing age, in neat, smooth and legible hand
While engaged with this MIR. Vail has taken tn
census of Sampson County once, and has ATTENDED
the duties of small post Office.
The compensation for this service was very moder
ate, and we do think that our liberal friends of Samp
would be doing just and generous action by vo
ting some extra compensation to Mr.. Vail, as toxic
of their appreciation of the excellent and faithful man
in which he has discharged his rust and the ben
eft which his abors will confer upon posterity.
Men don't like to be thought ugly whit more tina
the women, and who ever dreamed of a woman t
whom such an insinuaon would not be considered
mortal offence. We have half dozen communica
lions complaining of the author of little article abou
pic mic in Dupn, published some time since in th
paper having evidently without proper consideration
made remarks rejecting upon the personal pu
chritude of some stranger guess-a delicate subjec
be it understood. However, the matter is not yer
serious one, but just sufficiently to incucate eau
ton in the use of pen, ink and paper. They are a
dangerous edge tools, with which it has been sage
" remarked that children should not play.
Daily Journal, 25h int