The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1886-09-22
OUR TRIP TO GRANVILLE.
Some Things we Saw and Heard.

S0AnC AlA1kS We CAV" III
Court week in the average North
Carolina town is an interesting
occasion, ordinarily, but in Oxford
it was unusually dull. where are
your people? p we asked; "the newt
able negro is here in abundance and,
too, the inevitable, ubiquitousfand
~irrepressible newspaper man isIhere,
prominently and conspicuously here,
the State Chronicle, the Nedos and
Observer, the Patriot, the Western
Sentinel, and the PROGRESSIVE FAR
MER, but where are yourIpeople?"
"This is our busy season. said he,
"cutting and curing Tobacco. The
men you see either have pressing
business here, or they have none at
home. Besides our coufts r. fast
losing attraction for our people. A
large majority generally Of the cases
on our docket are forEthe trial of
negroes and the couft rooms are
crowded with them, many Of them
witnesses, but many Ihore of them,
who are too lazy to work and come
to charge themselves with gossip,
so they may loaf arohnd and sponge
on friends while they retail what
they gather at COURT
x * x * x
Oxford is improving, but with it's
facilities and opportunities it is not
what it should have been. Beau
tifully situated ii the midst of
a people noted for their intelligence
and who produce The finest tobacco
in the world, who have received
hundreds of thousands, if not mill
ions of dollars for it within the past
twenty years, it does seem that sufi-
cient of these vast earnings should
have found profitable investment in
Oxford, simply int the manipulation
or manufacture OF tobacco to have
made it one of the largest towns in
the State. In addition to the tobacco
no finer country can be found for
clover and the grasses. Gone farmer
told us he had harvested three tons
per acre,) corn, wheat, oats, rye,
fruits and vegetables. (Our excellent
friend Prof: Hobgood produced three
Irish potatoes weighing u pounds.)
And yet we ~apprehead that too much
of this money has gone to pay for corn
-four, bacon, hay, fertilizers and stock
all of which should be produced at
home. No county or section in
our State can afford to buy these
things and depend on one crop to
pay for them.
But Oxford is improving. It has
the State Home for the Orphans
and is justly proud of it, and does
itself lasting credit by tenderly car
ing for it. Horner's School, one of
the oldest and best for the training
Of boys and young men, is flourish
ing. The female seminary unde1
the supervision of Prof. Hobge6d,
has taken position among the/first
colleges Of the land. Regent and
extensive additions to the buildings
makes them not only handsome and
attractive but neat, conmodious and
comfortable. The admirable discip-
line, the refined ease and freedom
which marks the hospitality Of the
Professor and hisfmost interesting
family, the quiet and repose pervad-
ing the atmosphere Of the place and
the lady-like demeanor of the pupils,
give it the pleasing home-like air
Of home.
X X
The law should indeed "be a ter
o to evil doors" but in it's penalties
and punishmehts, should it not dis
criminate between degrees and char
acter of crime2 Should the thought
less boy in his teens, who has been
brought up under bad influences and
who is caught in the commission of
a comparatively trivial offense, be
subjected to the same character of
punishment and degree of degra-
dation as the old, cunning scoundrel
whose life has been stepped in crime?
Does not the spirit and integrity of
our institutions and the well-being
of the State require that such meas
ures should be enacted and enforced
as will tend to reform the criminal
by encouraging and cultivating
higher moral conception and higher
appreciation of moral worth and
duty? 81. \
The blackening, degrading stripe
Of the zebra suit of the Renitentiary
stamps itself indelibly in the char