The weekly sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1886-1887, 1886-11-18

Wealth and yet has Very few Poor
PeopIe-The Scholarship at Trinity
College.
Correspondence of the Sentinel.
RANDOLPH COUNTY, Nov. 16.-
There are not two dozen men in the
State to-day, that have any idea Of the
vast resources Of this county. Being
little off the railroad and the south
ern extremity lying about the center
of nowhere, ii is but little known or
appreciated.
An editorial letter in the Chronicle
got the thing about right when itstat-
ed Randolph to be the most average
county in all things in the State. We
have no men OF great wealth, and we
have very few poor people. 1t is pre-
eminently a county Of good and easy
livers. Men may go west and by per
severance and hard labor accumulate
more property than it is possible to do
here, but we defy any county or State
to pre- duce as good and comfortable
not been as eager for riches as some
people, hence, we have been called
backward. We are not sporadic,
ephemeral or gushy III what we take
hold of, and propably long line Of
careful ancestry has made us a little
slow, but when we do catch on, we
grip to stay there with an indigenous
pertinacity.
During the war we had two classes,
volunteers and deserters, and each
class entered into its works to do or
die, which hundreds did in either field
We are near the head in the pro-
duction of small grain and compare
favorably with any upland county in
that of corn. Our lands are of such
quality, that when we become little
more experienced, tobacco will proba-
bly, be our staple. The growing Of
the finer grades of tobacco has proved
complete success, but we have not
yet become sufficiently adept in the
handling to make it an extra profita-
BILE crop.
Unlike other counties, we do not
hold out very tempting offers to North
ern settlers, because those we have had
failed in whatever they have un
dertaken, and have damaged not only
themselves, but our people. When
ever Northerner comes down and
undertakes to instruct our folks how
to build houses and farm, it is some
thing like Randolph shingle splitter
going to Winston to teach Hanes or
Reynolds how to make tobacco.
1t was probably surprise to many
of the graduates of Trinity College to
learn from recent article of Prof.
Longs in the Raleigh Advocate, that
previous to two yaars ago there was
no standard of graduation" at that in
stitution. 1t will suggest itself to
many that the Professor was little
off his base, otherwise, foundering in
previous times to say something
good for Trinity by comparison, and
it is strange that two of his colleagues
who are valadictorians of the college
did not inform him that their parch-
ments were obtained by STANDARD"
work, and one Of them by the highest
average ever made by any graduate of
the institution. The fact is up to the
time Of the death of DR.. Craven, the
standard of graduation was,higher than
it has been since. And that too, by
| d system Oh close ana dCcurdGe grad
ing. Third honor or 50 was then nec-
essary to advancement or graduation,
while as Prof. Long states, the present
faculty has placed the minimum at 20.
Furthermore, the writer is tolerably
willing to swear that he is acquainted
with several gentlemen who could be
numbered among the alumni of Trini-
ty to-day but for the fact that they
failed to get the necessary S5, though
their average was considerably more
than 10. There are several other
matters touched in the communication
that.
" Now and then there came smile
Whilst listening to his tale"
However, between the printer and
the proof reader, the facts and the
copy" the article got rather jumbled
by the time it appeared, if it was not
SO previously" and | suppose we can
excuse the Prof B.