Western sentinel. [volume] (Winston [i.e. Winston-Salem], N.C.) 1856-1886, 1884-04-03
A CAPITAL SPECIMEN
OF OUR INDUSTRIAL AND SOCIAL
LIFE.
That tho Prosperity and Energy of Our
People are Fash ioninfs Into Crafty
ing and Hopeful shape.
IT. II. P. in Raleigh Chronicle.

" p in Raleigh Chronicle.
W1NsToS-SALEM, March 22.-Sa-
lem has for hundred years been the
most uniformly thrifty town in North
Carolina, and Winston is one of the
most rapidly built towns in the South,
whose prosperity is on an enduring
basis These plain facts everybody
knows, and they have for ten years
been a part OF current conversation
everywhere in the South. Everybody
knows, too, that the foundation of Sa-
LENS thrift, and the causes Of its per-
petuation was the excellent practical
doctrine and sturdy habits of the Mo
ravians and the cause of Wlnston's
rapid and permanent building was the
tobacco trade.
But there are other things than
these happy facts to be observed, and
to be said of those delightful towns.
At any rate have never fonnd SUBJ
ject of more fruitful study in our in
dustrial and social development than
weeks ramble and talk here.
Suppose | consider the subject seri-
ously and preach a sermon for once !?
[ should say then, first of all, that the
Moravians, wise as they were, and
frugal-though their more daring
next-door neighbors laugh at some of
their ancient ways-have for hum
dred years taught by their practice
what the most Of the rest of us have
been hundred years learning-the
value of thrift "There," said friend,
Il I,n
pean-like old town, 'there is shop Of
lock-smith who has made fortune.
When he says he will have saw filed
or gun repaired you may go to his
shop and find it ready-every time,
and there is 40 man living who could
do it better. You or l." he continued,
'would hardly have saved as much
money from his earnings in his young
or days. But he has saved, and now,
when he is comparatively rich, he
keeps to his bench, doing just such
work as he did years ago"
That is the whole story of Salem In
nutshell IF majority of our peo-
pie had this simple virtue, we should
now be one Of the richest peoples the
sun ever shone OH. The Mes>rs. Fries
great cotton and wooden mills, Mr.
Hege's large manufactory of saw-mills
the celebrated Salem Academy, and
all Salem's other note worthy enter
prises, are monuments of this slaveles:
thrift.
True, such a career as the lock
smiths is easily criticised. Anybod,
could say that he is foolish to work al
small jobs now, and silly not to hav.
built large establishment. But wher
you hear such criticism, consider
whether the critic himself is either a.
rich or happy as the lock-smith. Mos
likely not. The worst that can be saie
of such a town and such people i
that they. are not likely to have in /.
conspicuous degree the modern virtu,
we call public spirit
When Winston by the perseverance,
and pluck and foresight of few indi
viduals suddenly found itself one o
our great tobacco markets, evervbod,
made rush for wealth. And goott
many have got it. The town has a
many men who are rich (for Nortl
CaroIina) in proportion to its popula
lation as any other town in the South
and as few idle men as any other. Bu
Winston is a post-slavery product. Th
era of large plantations never produc
ed such a town. 1t was made posi-
BILE only by the work of such men a
did not do great deal of work in tn
days of slavery.
Here, then, side by side we have
triumph of the New South and pei
haps the most firmly built monument O
the old time.
1t is all North Carolina. The Nc
ravians have traits of their Dutch an
cestors- but they long ago becam
thoroughly at home here, and Will
there are not dozen men in Winsto
f who were born here, the most of then
are North Carolinians This, l tax
it, is the happiest augury for the fu
ture. 1t is proof enough to the ma
who can see that we have in our ow
borders and in our own blood, alon
with the greatest conservatism, all tn
energy and thrift that have made tn
, Englanders famous and rich. Th
chief difference is, the New Englande1
had an earlier necessity to develo
these traits.
Our people need a more genera
culture. We have yet to grow to
popular delicate appreciation of litel
ture for instance. We have yet t
, reach the period when little jeaI
ousies will not vex us, and when tn
: making of money shall not be so nea
ly the prime purpose as the best usin
OF it. But every economist must col
fess that the safest basis for buildin
up to all these heights has been lai
here as successfully and as enduringl
, as anywhere in the South.
recently wrote that no land ha
ever been held so long by Aglo-Saxor
and developed SO little as the Soutl
e To that [ may add that not even Al
glo-Saxons ever before in all the
prosperous history developed any otl
or country SO rapidly as the Mort
Carolinians disfranchised from tn
Negro are developing North Carolina
and l point to Winston as proof
Those people who have these twent
years been wondering what in the nan
of Mercy iS eroinr to baoomo Of nc q