The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-12-09
AN oRIGIAL GENIUS IN JOUR
NALISM.

Col. Folks IoGLer, pIInUouI
makes but a poor showing for him IN
the Calhoun matter. 1t appears on
the face of it that he was knowing to
the whole transaction and lent the In
huence of his name to the ling. 1t
was only when the indignation which
"he feared would result" did come
to upset the plans of Macune and
Turner and Calhoun, that the Colonel
took occasion to deny that he was a
party to the scheme. 1t seems that
he had spoken to the members Of the
legislature on the subject of the Sen
atorship, but he did not then warn
them against the Macune ring. He
allowed the people to believe that he
and Macune were working the thing
together until the balloon burst. Had
the scheme proved a success, would be
ever have broken his silence ? Appar-
emily it is only because of the wreck
of the ring that the Colonel has sought
to clear himself from association with
the tattered ano torn balloon. We
think the people will say that the Col
onel wrote his letter too late.
The above article appeared, as an
editorial, in the News and Observer, Of
this city, on Nov. 20. We want to
ask the editor of the Neg0s and Oh
Server a few simple questions and
make some observations which may
greatly benefit our neighbor if he
will ponder them a little.
H. L., A. ATo,,o ~mI D1oo~1,a.
know that Col. Polk "was knowing
to the whole transaction ?" How does
orr neighbor know that Col. Polk
client the influence of his name to the
ring 2"' How does brother Ashe know
that Col. Polk "allowed the people to
believe that he and Macune were
working the thing together until the
balloon burst 2"
We have not overlooked the fact
that our neighbor says that his infor
nation appears on the face of Col.
Folks letter. But the letter was
written to deny the very facts that
our neighbor insists upon; and the
letter does deny those very facts. We
have known for sometime that it was
unsafe to trust the News and Oh
servers alleged sources of information;
and we are not at all surprised to find
that no such facts, as that really virtu-
Gus paper insists upon, "~appeared on
the face of Col. Folks letter." But
while we cannot trust our neighbours
alleged sources of information, we are
by no near so positive about the
trus5worthiness of certain extraordinary
sources of information which our
friend very frequently draws upon.
The fact is, we are not positively GER
tain that we know what those ertra0r-
binary sources of information are.
We have constructed hypothesis after
hypothesis tt explain the matter; but
we are not quite certain of our con
clusion yet. For instance, We have
thought that it may be possible that
our brilliant friend of the Neo0S and
Observer has the power of getting GER
tain lines of unsavory information
through his olfactories. We know
there are certain birds gifted with this
power; but there has not been a man
within our knowledge whose smelling
powers had sufficient sweep to reach
from Raleigh to Atlanta; and we have
been forced to dismiss our friends
nose from the problem altogether.
We have wondered if our neighbor
got his facts in this case, as in several
other recent instances, from an unerr,
ing and rare instinct. But then we
remembered that the philosophers
have all agreed together that ~unerring
instinct is the possession of the lower
animals alone; and we would not
think, for a moment, of classifying
our brilliant brother of the tripod
with any order lower than the angels.
We have instituted several other sup
positions to explain the matter; but
have been reluctantly forced to
abandon all of them but one as un.
tensble. We have about settled down
to the conviction that our neighbours
wonderful superiority to his journal,
istic friends and associates is due to
his original and powerful Imagination.
Indeed we think it is a waste of enOr-
nous possibilities for our friend to
bury himself in the obscurities of
mundane journalism. Such powers
should be left free to range through
the spaces, and expatiate upon the
wonders of the unseen universe. The
conviction grows upon US that the
editor of the News and Observer should
turn his powerful imagination to the
cultivation of Epic poetry. Such
powers as his are by far too fine to
be employed about the discussion of
questions of economic politics; such
a splendidly creative imagination
should betake itself, with the least
possible delay, to the society of the
immortal Nine and the heights of
| Pamassna.