The Durham recorder. [volume] (Durham, N.C.) 1879-19??, 1885-05-06
DURHAM .
THE RECORDER REVIEWS THE
TOWN AND ITS TRADE
INTERESTS.
EDUCATIONAL AND CHURCH
r. MATTERS.
Walks and Talks with People in
Town and Country.
AN ILLUSTRATION Is To BE FOUND
IN THE W. DUKE, SONS & co.'s
FACTORY.

AN ILLUSTRATION Is To BE FoUNl
IN THE W. DUKE, SONS & co.'s
FACTORY.
That ''the blood ofthe martyrs is tn
seed of the church. is trite saying
venerable with antiquity. 1t is ont
of those homely sayings or axiom
that have more than one application
sacred aud profane. but we do no
remember ever having seen it applied
to the business of cigarette making
doubles its author never expected II
would be-for in the days of its utter
ance the weed so stigmatized and
reviled was unknOwn-its soothing
or exhilerating influences undreamed
of.
The RECORDER reporter finds him.
self, Just ut the outset of this article,
in much the same predicament that
the artist wa who had painted rep
resentation of daniel ia the Den of
Lions" The picture was q veritable
daub-a sorry affair ut the best-and
the figures were indistiuct. Fearing
that there might he confusion of
ideas in the minds Of viewers of the
picture, he thoughtfnlly added line
to the title Daniel in the Den of
Lions" which read: Daniel can be
distinguished from the lions by the
green cotton umbrella under his
arm" So We, in making application
of the truism which is embodied in
the opening sentence of this article,
"use and explain"
There have been martyrs land mn,
-ny-nf Saml in the business of cigar-l
cite making-men and firms ShChssS
heved o golden future was before
them and who lent their time, talents
and money toward the perfection cS
some system which should hera'
success" and all that the word i'm
plies Theirs was an honest ambition
somewhat selfish, of course, still
honest and honorable, but they failed,
and all known languages are power
less to write fitting epitaph upon
failure" They failed-that one par
amount fact remained; but failures
do not always deter. They are more
often provocative OF continued strug.
giles which end in triumph, and so it
has been in the great business of CT
garette making. There have been
martyrs in the cause-they have shed
the life blood of Interchangeable
that life blood has become fruitful !;
success.-beyond the widest antici-
pations of matter-of-fact life or of the
golden hued visions of dreamland has
crowned the final efforts IS we find
them embodied in the methods, the
product and the business generally of
W. DUKE, SONS & co.
The history" of this great manu-
sacturing house has been often writ
EN-, but only in fragmentary way.
How could it be otherwise? Its
history is, we believe. but just COM
menced, that is, If we take history to
be the recount'ng of o vigorous life,
full of purpose and aiming at great
endeavor. Its future is yet before it !;
its past covers but brief period of
twenty years. After all, twenty years
may and do serve to effect great
changes in the condition of Individu.
ais, of firms. of States. Two segments
in the cycle of a century must be pro-
lific of results, but historians pay lit
tie heed to these years save as they
affect national events. To the chron-
cler of everyday matters, the news
paper, is left the duty of perpetual
ting in print incidents of progress,
which form the future historians
warp AMI wool of a complets fabric.
"a THRICE TOLD TALE
Necessarily is interviewer III what the
RECORDER to-day writes of one of
the greatest establishments of its
kind in the world. We would not re-
fer to it here did we not know that
this issue of our paper will reach
thousands who know of w. Duke,
Sons g. Co., only by the goods they
make, and even those who have read
the story of the inception of this en-
terprise may read it again and again
with profit.
WASHINGTON DUKE
was the founder of this business. A
native of this immediate section, and
born and brought up a farmers boy,
he followed agricultural pursuits un-
til enlisting in the Confederate navy,
in 1868. After Appomattox, he, like
many thousands of others, was desti-
tute of means; he owned plantation
to be sure, but he had nothing in the
shape of cash to operate with, either
as planter or manufacturer. Persist
emit efforts overcame even this diff
Guilty; and in the fall of 1865 he was
enabled to begin the manufacture of
smoking tobacco, in q small way to
be sure, upon his farm, near Durham.
He was alternately manufacturer and
peddler, selling tobacco of his own
make, until, almost insensibly, the
demand for the goods he made out
grew the modest proportions of his
sixteen feet log cabin factory on the
farm and removal to the embryo town
of Durham was decided upon. This
was in 1873, and he began operations
-..