The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1889-08-01
THURSDAY, AUGUST I, 1889.
NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
ASSOCIATION.
Presidents Annual Address.

The following address was delivered
before the North Carolina Press Asso
citation at its 18th annual meeting in
Lenoir. Wednesday, July 24th. by
the editor of the COLD LEAF, who had
the honor of being President OF that
very intelligent and honorable body:
Gentlemen Of tie North Caroiina Press
dissertation; Ladies' anil Genttemen-
salute you with fraternal greetings
and would congratulate you upon this
the 18th annual convention of our be-
loved Association, did you not by COM
mon custom, and the peculiar c!rcul-
stances surrounding you, have to listen
to an address by "your humble ser
want Indeed, | will congratulate
you-upon the privilege you enjoy Of
meeting together in such delightful
place as this. Here, within the classic
precincts of the beautiful town of Le-
noir, which has been justly styled the
'Western Athens among SO Cul-
tured, refined and hospitable a people,
the beauty and loneliness of whose fair
daughters is surpassed by none recorded
in song or story--than whose sons no age
of chivalry has produced a higher type
of perfect manhood-amidst such ma G.
nifcent scenery and picturesque land
scapes whose neighboring mountains,
% rock-rlbbed and ancient as the sun, -
lift their eternal heads high Heaven
ward as if pointing us onward and up
ward in the path of duty,-with cool
ing breczes to refresh and invigorate
tired and worn out editorial nature =
here, with such pleasant surroundings
as these, among lovely women and
ChivalriC men, we have assembled our
selves, and most heartily do | COM
mend the wisdom of selecting such 4
place for our meeting.
At the very beginning let me assure
you, my friends, that have no feast
of reason to spread before your men
tai appetites to-day-no flowers of
fancy to present to you. In the every
day affairs of a country newspaper Of
flee, where the publisher must be editor,
proof-reader, solicitor, foreman, type
setter, pressman, rollerwasher, Office
boy and general utilitarian-every
thing, even to the onerous duties OF
playing gentleman and performing the
functions of treasurer of the concern
where all this is to be done, one has little
time for searching among the archives
of the past and brushing the dust and
Cob-webs from ancient history and
neurological lore for the purpose of
preparing and bringing before you
classical production upon a golden
platter of eloquent words studded with
gems of rhetoric. Nor indeed would
it be meet that | should. This is not
a time and occasion for such. We
have met together for purposes of bust
ness-for the discussion and considera-
ton of practical things. And so |
beg your attention and crave your pa
tient indulgence while | submit the |
following desu!tory and common place |
remarks, in which have sought to
present the practical and feasible, rath.
er than the theoretical and sentimental !
We must have practical Journal |
ism, as well as practical mechanics,
practical farming, or practical anything
else. 1t isa 'condition and not theory"
that Confronts us, and we must con-
form ourselves to that condition and
be ready to meet it before we can ex-
pect to reap the fruits, ripe and luS-
ClouS, of our labors as we should. The
business, as anything else
to bring success, must be conducted on
strictly business principles We must
look we'll to the mlnutest details and L
exact that which is our due. No
REASONABLE man, who is not an object
Of charity, would think of going into
a grocery store and asking the proprie-
tor to wrap him up ten pounds of sugar
Or a bushel of meal, as a gift. Yet {
there are hundreds of persons in every ,
who seem to think the col =
lmns of newspaper are public proper {
~, and the editor man whose business
t is to "puff'' ever5.private enterprise t
of whatever nature, publish calls for L
public meetings, church fairs, obituary I