The daily state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 188?-1891, 1890-04-20
WAS IT PROPHETIC q!
AN ELOQUENT RESPONSE TOTHE
WORD "NORTH CARONILA.''
MIR. II. F. Gray Fills the Governors
Place at the Banquet at the Celebra-
ton of the G.. T. Il Y. v. II. Il.
(Editorial Correspondence }
WILMISGroN, n. c., April 8, 1890.


counts Of tho success Of the celebration,
and Of the toasts at the banqutt-the |
biggest and best North Carolina ever
gave. OF Wilmington's elegant hopital-
ity l need not write. 1t was such as to
win all the 800 guests of the city. re-
gret that the CHRONICLES space will not
permit publication of all the speeches.
r. +. GRAY, ESQ, of Raleigh, filed the
Governor place, and mede an excellent
speech. Was it prophetic? And is this
talented gentleman to be the Elisha and
receive the mantle He responded to
the toast "North Carolina and said:
70 be required to stand in the place
assigned to the Chief Executive Of this
| State, is embarrassing to me, and to dis
appoint, as l know | must, aud the ex-
pectations of feast of oratory which
were justly excited when it was an
nounced in the printed programme that
! the silver-tongued Governor of the State
would respond to the sentiment Just pro-
nounced, Is doubly embarrassing to me-
But | recognize aud yield to the fact that
40 son of \ orth Carolina, wherever the
place or whatever the time, should fail
TO lift his hat ever feeble may be his ut
terances. should shrink from endorsing
and testifying to the truth of anything
that may be said in her praise. Let
this be my excuse, if any be needed, for
my temerity III attempting to stand
where Governor Fowle was expected to
stand.
To tell how great North Carolina is, is
too large task for an atter-dinner talk.
70 sing Of her glorious people, her val
iaut men and her lovely women, her eli
mate and her resources, her riches pos
sessed aud potential, he's history and her
future, would require paeanlonger than
Judge Gastons and mlnstielSy more
perfect than that with which Highland
harper told the legeHds of his native
hills or Jewish captive, in far off Baoy Ion,
sang the gi0rieS of his beloved Jerusa-
lem.
North Cardinal What IS It? Simply
"a strip Of land between two States as
ii has sometimes derisively been called
to some biographies and some, am sorry
to say, now in use in our schools are
tar, pitch and turpentine a Rip Van
Wlnkle, stretching his laggard legs IN
sleep while Others are awake, alive and
forging ahead in social, moral and mate
, rial prosperity? God forbid Where is
the commonwealth with the history she
' possesses? At Meckenburg, declaring
against tyranny, and at Cowpens, Moore's
G Creek, Kings Mountain and Guilforc
Court House, and on all the battlefield
of the Revolution, making good her de
D claration by her muskets, her cannon
b her pixies, her swords and her blood ant
after the battles had been Tough an(
i won, Standing in the Federal Congress
u aud at her convention in Fayetteville
e holding out to the last and contendinl
!. for Constitution that would preserv
q for posterity the fruits of tie victory
l. and later, and wit III the memory Of 81
l. OF US, you know how the boys from tn
Cape Fear and Pee Dee and AIbemarl
' sections, with their brothers, from th
hills and mountain coves, unframed t
feats of arms and gladiatoriAl SPORTS
1T ru she'd to the cons :cfated fields Of Nlr
:. glna and the batle-grounds Of the Con
federacy, and stage and stayed an
stayed some forever (more than those Q
any other Southern States and others
a. until their chieftain said, Enough g
a. back T. and whether dying or surviving
a Illustrated on every field by their daring
their courage and their soldier y qualitle
the noblest traits OF South m manhood
tx until an aliusion to or comparison Wit
1e Thermopyle became tame and common
VI place
C. Such is short record Of North Care
as lina's past-than which no common
g wealth or people have more brilliant {
as enviable history
What is North Carolina now ? Stretcl
a ing from iftee seacoast Oh the East Fast to II
ar 1-ffountains on the West, capable OF ev9
III variety of natural and manufactured pr
ne ducts, she is said to be the only Sta
'as that fills every blank in the census I
1e ports. Her sounds and rivers and SO
can feed the hungry mouths and clot
e9 the naked ::limbs Of al empire, while h
al coal and iron can heat and feed enou
blast furnaces to meet the demaE ds
[or half the Union, while locked in t
10 bosom of her rugged hills are gold a
gems and precious stones enough
7 tempt the avarice and make green W
W envy the eyes Of Cr9sus or Mon
90 90 yuma!
tue Her colleges are being endowed a
patronized as never before and as IN
other State, without foreign aid, a
use churches and school houses, those fl
,ies from which ignorance and vice flee
from blighting pestilence, are incre'
ns ing in every town, hamlet and townsh
- Railroads, the greatest arteries OF co
His merce, are being built everywhere III
I'm. it can soon be said that no county
without such communication with
neighbors and the other world. Anot
State has won the title of the Emp
MEL State of the South" but believe t
ler- the census of 1890 will show that for
cor last decade North Carolina has N;
red greater progress in material prospect
"a. and will show the construction Of ~
/, "hs ha railroad mileage and industrial enterpri
sad % than any other State-and this,
'so Sod without the aid of foreign capital to
teo considerable extent A new era
dawned upon the South, and Nc
Carolina is receiving the benefit OF
genial and inspiring rays OF the da'
NJ Heretofore the tide OF immigration
lion investment of the idle capital of
ock money centres Of the East and No
oYo- has flown to the Northwest; but II