The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1890-10-23


biological Journal, published in New
York city, we take the following sketch
of Rev Thomas Dixon, Jr., who is to
deliver his famous lecture on "Back-
bone,'' in Burwell Hall, Henderson,
Wednesday evening next, October
29th:
A new star has recently risen in the
intellectual armament of New York
that IN brilliancy promises to equal the
most celebrated in the constellation of
great divines of that city.
This new luminary flashes across
the literary armament, in the person
of the young man named above.
X X x
The Rev. Thos. Dixon is of South
can birth, and combines in his nature
all the fire and enthusiasm so peculiar
to his climate, with very marked ad
mixture of the cool, calculating force
and energy of the Northern character.
Mr.. Dixon was born in Cleveland
| county, North Carolina, January
II, 1864, near the close of the late
fratricidal struggle and beyond
all question bears many marks
of the highly wrought mental and
and nervous activity which so pecu-
liarly characterized the people of the
South during that critical period. A
period when life, liberty, home, world.
ly possessions, in short everything that
life holds dear hung in an uncertain
balance.
Mr. Dixon's father is a clergyman O
the Baptist persuasion, and one of the
most noted of the State. Mr.. Dixon
mother, it should be said, was keenly
tafive to the great issues of her time
and as the wife Of a leading clergyman
of his State she naturally held a con
spicuous position in all the movement
tof her sex. 1t is we'll known that th'
Southern women were far more earn
est and enthusiastic over the issues O
the war than the women of the North
This, however, being in accord wit
the natural fire of the Southern tenn
perament, and the fact that the devas
; tations Of war were on their own ter
: ritory, with the march of armies
, the firing of artillery, the burning c
, camp fires about their very door:
7 would be apt to stir the soul to ii
very depths.
Thomas entered Wake Forest Co
lege, North Carolina, in September
1870, where he soon became marke
man among professors and student
! He was graduated with the highe'
! honors in June, 1883, and at once er
: tered Johns Hopkins University
II Baltimore. Here he took pos
s ! graduate course of one year. He the
spent one winter i'll New York, stud.
!, ing dramatic art and oratory. He IT
II turned to North Carolina, and WI
5 elected to the Legislature of the Sta
. before he was twenty-one years OF ag
- and gained reputation for his orator
o and skill in political affairs. lmm
n diately after this he studied law ar
If was admitted to the bar; but becon
IS ing persuaded that it was his duty
l., preach the gospel he became a mini
= ter and filed pastorates in Goldsbo
s and Raleigh, N. c., doing excelle
y work in both. He was then invited
- the pulpit of the Dudley Street. Churc
! in Boston, going there in Janua'
1888. In Boston, Mr.. Dixon soon b
came known as a pulpit orator, al
* crowds fiocked to hear him. In eIg
le teen months he added more than 2
re to the membership, and exerted
r widespread and wholesome inhuen'
a. When the call came from
ne Twenty-Thi.d Street Church, N
IS, York, believing this city to be
re strategic point Of America, especla
u in its possibilities for wide and
H. pressive Christian work. Mr.. Dix
n. was constrained to leave the lar
On congregation he had gathered ab'
ch him in Botson for the purpose OF
O. ing cosmopolitan work ana OF car
an ing into effect some plans which
IA was firmly convinced should. be put
r operation in the city.
90 Mr.. Dixon evidently proves the s.
n ing, that orators like poets, are DO
'th not made. A young man, scarcely
Is, the full measure Of physical devei
er- ment evidently not Of the full brea
gy of shoulders and depth Of chest t
ces will come with a few more years
bearing the responsibility Of leaders
of a growing society, spiritually, in
lectually, and politically, he has
"a ready outranked most other ciel
men Of his day in the result of hav
s Ss in one year developed small, ain