The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1889-01-03

article on The South as q Field Tor
Fiction, written by ex-Judge AL
bion w. Tourgee and published in
the Forum for December.
We publish it to show the views
of a Northern man who lived for
many years, not only in this State,
but in this immediate vicin;ty-our
neighboring town OF Greensboro.
We do not agree with the author. III
all that he says.
And in this connection it may not
be amiss to give few facts IN our
possession regarding this intellectual
but cratic genius. After retiring
from the bench, and after having
lost nearly his all by the failure of
the Wilson and Shober bank of
Greensboro, and the shutting down
of the spoke and handle factory at
that place, Tourgee opened law
office in Raleigh and was entirely
dependent upon the practice he could
secure for living.
Mr. Maxwell German, now a re-
sident of Winston, began the study
of law under him there, and for two
years assisted in the compilation of
the two law books published by
him, viz: Tourgee's Digest of Cited
Gases, and The Code With Notes
and Decisions. He is therefore well
acquainted with Tourgee and tells us
some interesting anecdotes concern
ing him. Tourgee, it seems, is
paper-maker by trade, and although
he afterwards became one of the
most learned of men in the law, he
knew little of it when he assumed
the judicial ermine, and he would
hardly have recognized Blackstone
had he met him in the public road.
But there were few members of
the Raleigh bar who knew as much
about the law as did Tourgee when
he opened that law office in Raj
eigh, and his eulogy on the death of
Judge Richmond Nj. Pearson pub
lished in the current volume of the
n. G. Reports) has been character
lied by competent critics as having
been masterpiece indeed. The
two legal works, above mentioned,
are spoken of in the highest terms
by lawyers.
But with all that Tourgee was
erratic.
He used to tell our friend some
wonderful stories about his expert
ences with the Ku-Klux.
HIS KU-KLUX EXPERIENCES.
According to Tourgee, he once
entered a meeting Of those mysteri-
Gus men, disguised as a red-headed
countryman, and heard his own
death-warrant read. When the time
fixed arrived, Tourgee said he was
"not at home" Wonderful story,
that!
At another time according to
Tourgee, mind you) his house was
surrounded and searched by the
wicked K K. KS, while he was
away and during which time his
wife's hair turned grey, in a single
night.
HIS FIGHT WITH FOWLE.
While in Raleigh Tourgee wrote
some very caustic letters to the
Greensboro North State, over the
mona de plume of &C., and "The e.
Letters" were afterwards published
in pamphlet form, such was the de-
mand for them. One of the Demo-
Gratis at whom his seyerest denuncia-
ton was directed, was Governor
elect Fowle. Fowle and Tourgee
subsequently met at the depot when
and where a fight ensued, the casus
belI being the aforesaid letters, OF
aourse. Fowle broke his cane over
Tourgee's head and Tourgee kicked
Fowle in the stomach, and thus the
Battle of the Judges ended.
In speaking of the matter after
wards Tourgee used this expression
"My foot has been in some mighty
soft places, but Fowle's belly is the
softest place it ever struck"
HE SIZED UP JARVIS.
When Governor Vance was ele-
waited from the gubernatorial chair
to a seat in the U. S. Senate and
Lieut-Gov. Jarvis became Governor
Jarvis, Tourgee remarked that "Tom
Jarvis and Bill Saunders are the
brains of the Democratic party and
this man Jarvis is going to make his
mark as governor and stand in the
way of many of the older heads. y
Subsequent events have proved his