The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1885-11-13
QUIT ABUSING WELDON.
1T HAS MUCH TO CHALLENGE
YOUR ADMIRATION.
An Important Railroad Centre. w ith
IneNcelled Water Facilities. IL W Ill
Some Day BE "a Big Town.

! gentleman on the train as the cars rolled
/ into Weldon a few DAYS ago. I'D sell " el
don and live in the other place. Another
gentleman remarked, 1T looks TO me like
the last place in the world the jumping
off place. \ third put in. I've never
seen pretty woman or handsome man II
the place, and I'd rather be dead for the
same length of time than be in the town. :
\ fourth said, 1T is currently reported
that as soon as Il resident makes enough
money To get away he moves, and the only
reason there's anybody there is that they
can't raise enough money To get away.
There We're only five IN the party and
4 the fifth was the editor of the CHRONICLE.
/ While the four gentlemen-one a doctor,
I two drummcrS, and the fourth farncr-
were abusing the place he sat quietly, and
wondered why it was that every body
abused Weldon and that no one had Yet -
so far as he had seen said good word
in the public prints about it.
The gentlemen continued making light
Of the town, one of them relating that the
origin of the name, according 10 tradition,
was that after making all the other towns
III the State, but not completing them and
leaving something for the residents To do,
! the Town Maker, as he was leaving the
/ State, concluded to make IA finished town
and after completing his work said well
done, and some one hearing his ejacula-
| ton thought that the name of the place.
! 1t may be we'll to state that like most ira
ditlons it lacks authentication.
When the others had finished, the editor
! Of the CHRONICLE said, "Gentlemen, I've
| been an interested listener to your conver-
sation and have been trying To understand
why ''everybody and the rest of mankind
! takes such great pleasure in abusing Vel
don. | am determined to know. This
evening | shall go through the place and
! publish in the STATE CHRONICLE the result
Of my observations If there's anything
in Weldon deserving praise it will get it;
whatever deserves censure will not be
| spared"
Bidding the gentlemen good day" we
| took up our yalise, and as the train ran
under the shed, walked over to the hotei,
now managed by the Atlantic Coast Line
Company.
How Weldon Got Its Bad Reputation.
Memories of the indigestible and poorly
cooked food we had eaten there in other
| days came back to Us like "a food tide and
again we almost experienced the same
bad effects we always experienced after
| partaking of a dinner at this hotel. This
was our first visit since the new manage
ment. 1t is run on business principles.
| AS YOU Ndtik III lut Ol1liIS IoOIil AZ ltlIIttIt
cashier-and a good looking woman she
is-sits behind ''cashier stand" to see
that when you leave you pay your bill.
Her very presence and the neatnesS of
things impress you with the change and
you sit down and eat we'll prepared dinner
| with relish.
Women have an old saw, ''The way to a
mans heart is through his stomach 3" The
! Weldon Hotel-whch from time imme-
mortal has murdered our best citizens by
compelling them to eat indigestblc TODD -
has done more to G i've Weldon a bad rcpu-
tation than everything else combined.
And so, with a good hotel, the greater
| part of this bad reputation ought to take
to itself the wings of the morning and fly
to the uttermOSt parts.
Another thing that gave Weldon bad
regulations: Notice it when you will, in
whatever place people have to wait for a
train, that town is pronounced a bad place
and gains bad notoriety. People, who
were in great haste to get to their busi-
ness and have lost by the delay in having
to stop over in Weldon, have forgotten
that the place has nothing to do with the
stoppage, and have poured out their vials
of wrath on the head of the unoffending
town. Lovers, impatient to see the OBJ
ject of their affections, have been frenzied
! ''train leaves for - in two hours. :
Drummers, afraid a rival would reach a
town and get their trade, have ruined a
thousand dictionaries in the vain endeavor
to express their thoughts in correct Ian
guage. Farmers, hurrying to plant their
crops, have charged to Weldon all the bad
results of the year. And it was so with
every class of people! They combined
they united-they consolidated in one
wild, terrific, unjust abuse of the town
in which they were compelled to wait. In
their eyes the hanging gardens of Babylon
the Utopia of Sir Thomas Moore. the hills
of Jerusalem, the beauties of Iosemit,
| Valley, Niagara Falls, Barnums Circus
Dr. NoWitzky's Indian Tea-neither nOl
all OF these attractions could have any
beauty or comelineSS to them. They wantee
to go, and they wanted to go i'll a hurry
Did you ever watch a man who was
waiting for the cars to leave? Did you
ever see an impatient traveller curse
railroad, conductor and town because he
couldn't go "n: And did you ever notice
that a man who rides on a free pass or i:
unaccustomed to travel has more to say
than any one else and tells how he wouit
run a railroad if he were President:
For years this thing happened daily il
Weldon. Travellers cursed the railroat
authorities and conductors first; then til.
town; then they took drink: then th,
people in the town; then another drink
then they thought the women ugly anf
the men mean; then they tried to eat al
the rocks and other indigestible food a
the hotel; then they took another drink
then they took another; then they'd ''D
blamed" if it wern't the meaneSt town IL
the Union; then another drink-et cetera
until the train left, and as they rolled GU
of Weldon, they forgot that 1t was thei
own impatience and wrong doing thu,
made them carry away bad recollection
of quiet and peaceable town. If the.
had read Canon Farrar's Life of St Pau
or some other good book or perused lat
copy of the CHRONICLE (alas. for Weldon
it was not then in eXistenceD they woulf
have left the town with the assertion, Il
you want to 60 to quiet, peaceabe town
strike Weldon" Thee two things, com
bined possibly with the old adage ''you'
as well xii! a dog as give him bad name,
have given Weldon an unSayOry reputa
ton. Now the question arises, Is that rep
utation deserved2 If not, why not?
Our purpose is to show that it i is no
, deserved In the first place it was tn
hotel and the waiting that was primaril
the cause of the abuse of the place. The
are-and were-but a small portion of tn
, town, and now the hotel is in new hand
and the trains make close connection
i Then why abuse the place? Why fall i
with few travellers who become mad a
tho da1ay and do DeOple the iniustice +