The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-08-27
The Goldolators Create a Sen
sation in Greensboro.
NOT A FARMER PRESENT
And There Wasn't Working
man There Either.
EIGHT DELEGATES HAD ARRIVED
After Long Advertisement Only Eight
Boilers Outside of Greensboro
Gould Be Scraped
Together.


cial. LAST night, there was strange
feeling of life in Greensboro-not that
the city was boisterous-but there was
a weird thrill of dynamic under-power,
a suppressed rustic and hustle, SO to
speak, that unobtrusive hustle and
rustic that one hears in parched,
droughty leaves on a sugar-maple
mountain slope, when they dance in
the deep blue breath of low-hanging
electric cloud, apoplectic with
ominousness. The movement of the
mountain leaves, though lightly
stirred by the first cool, almost metal
lie GOODNESS, seems a vivid movement.
Nature seems wrapped in some kind
of dangerous and reckless potentiality.
There was last night this kind of life
in Greensboro. 1t was strange kind
of sensation. There was a latent thrill
and Utilization about it-that hustling
utilization that tickles each storm
stirred leaf with motion as of threat.
Going up to one of the oldest inhab-
itants, / asked him could he account
for this feeling of life in Greensboro.
He said ITO save my neck, / can't: |
ken feel kind of feel in the air;
thar's life in it sure's YOU born; it's
the fust time anything beyond the or
binary has been felt TO my knowledge
since the war. But / ken feel it: |
ken feel my fingers a tingling: |
thought at first when the feelin' come
over me that it mought be jim Boyd
talking politics in front of the Benbow.
That's the highest thing we've got
to life here, but | looked up there and
he was gone"
The reporter interrupted him long
enough to suggest that a Benbow beef
l. ~ ~
they We're eating supper up there, may
be that was the cause.
But the old gentleman would not be
distracted; he insisted that it was
not those steaks so full of latent en-
ergy. there was a stronger something
at work than they.
People began to move strangely
up and down the main streets as
if in fear of an impending
earthquake. They were not open
ly alarmed; but there was an UNI
natural exaltation, as a man would
feel that had taken too much absinthe
Oh, yes. there was absinthe in the air.
There was life in Greensboro: it
gave the town that same kind of tenn
porary nervous chill as the transfu-
sion of healthy blood from a healthy
body to withered consumptiye. 1t
was unnatural, but it was life.
What could it be? People looked az
the barometer, which had turned a
complete somersault; the thermome-
tiers had exploded in some portions of
the city. Moses Cones Mexican silver
dollars had suddenly jumped to two
dollars apiece; storm-signals were out
from the weather bureau: the wires
at the Western Union telegraph were
so live that they were working without
the aid of operators. The messages
were coming just through the agency
alone of the Vril (as Bulwer calls it),
that was in the air.
The best electricians of the town
were put to work to find out the cause
of the life in Greensboro. As the boys
that play hding-switch say to the
one getting near the switch: You
are hot, you are burning!" so the
electricians were drawn gradually to
the great central cause.-The power
house-as if by a double-jointed mag
net. The nearer they got to the great
central goo4gle-te-goo, the less was
their power of resistance. Suddenly
and powerlessly they were swept
pell-mell into small parlor al the
Benbow. In it were encastled, en-
sconced, closeted two dynamos. Their
two fountains of golden sparks like
the fountain in the lobby at the Ben
bow: the buttons on the clothes of
the intruders began to turn to gold,
and they breathed from their nostrils
4 dense golden mist which arose and
settled on the ceiling in frescos which
Belshazzar would have paid good
money for.
Let the nmnes of these two central
offices of the earth be known-these
two twin illuminaries with the Om-
niscient-call their names across the
sky:
WITTKOWSKY AND DE La CROIX
They are in Greensboro. They were
the gold convention-with Clarke, OF
Newborn, and Lindsay Patterson, OF
Winston, On the side.
There was a continuous driZzle of gold
delegates into the city all last night
and this forenoon. They came in or
every train, sometimes as many as two
at a time, sometimes as many as one
The swell parlor at the Benbow was
at their disposition, and there at moon
they were convened. 1t was a great
body of men; they were all so clear
and nice5 fresh from the cities, with
not North Carolina farmer lamar
chist among them. The convention
was large and the room was so small
that there was no space left for farm
ers with their dangerous tenden
cies.''
DELEGATES in ATTENDANCE.
The following gentlemen were pres
ent as delegates from every nook AM
corner of the State. From Greensboro
Messrs. julius Cone, Z. I. Garsed, y
C. McAdoo, E. G. Wright, A. w. Nc
Alster, p c.. Page, w. p. Bell, j. S
Hunter, J. j. Phoenix, j. r. Menden
hall, w. G. Crutchfield, b. G. Vaughan
.JH. Harris and Mr.. Lindham. Messrs
Vernon and Crutchfield are agent
here for the Southern, and Mr.. Charlie
J.. Hopkins, the Travelling Passenge
agent, was also present. From Win
sion-J. w Fries, w. A. Blair, Lindsa.
Patterson; w. w. Clark, of Newbern
Edward Sully, of Rockingham; Sila
McBee. of Lincolnton; Louis De l.
croix. of Oxford. and S. Wittkowsky