The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-05-06
Met In Convention at Southern
Pines Yesterday.
ENTHUSIASTIC GATHERING
Over One Thousand People Are
in Attendance.
EVERY STATE is REPRESENTED
The Delegates Were Welcomed bv Cow
ernor Carr and Addressed by
Ex-senator Patrick
Walsh
Walsh.

SSialOF TatfiCk
Walsh.
Southern Pines, N c., May 5.-(spe-
cIall-The success of the Northern SET
tiers convention has surprised even
those who were its most enthusiastic
supporters.
Cntu the trains arrived last niobt
ana this morning nobody imagined
that more than three or four hundred
people would be present, but when
the meeting was called to order at II
O'Clock there were not less than eight
hundred people present, some estimat-
ing the crowd as high as twelve hun
dred, and it is gathering Of high
toned and prominent men and wo-
men. Every State in the South is rep
! resented, the most of them by large
delegations, and delegates and visitors
| are here from ten Northern and West
ern States.
| The occasion, if one may judge by
the general good cheer that prevails
IS being greatly engaged by every per-
| son present.
II is the first visit Of large major
| ity to this progressive section and the
marvellous growth of the town and
community, its superb hotels accom-
modations, its vast fields of growing
| fruit, its immense forests of whisper
ing pines, the architectural beauty and
excellence of the two magic little cities
of Southern Pines and Pinehurst, the
| evidences Of energy and the activity of
| their builders and citizens, are all SUBJ
jects of enthusiastic praise on the
| part of all those who have not hither-
| to been here.
These two towns are now beyond
| the breakers and under free sail and
fair winds are heading for the front
IN the race of Southern industrial pro-
gress and from now on they will go
steadily forward.
The convention was called to order
at II O'Clock to-day the in the parlor
of the Piney Woods Inn. There were
nearly four hundred people in the hall,
| and nearly as many more sitting a
bout the hotel Office and yerandas. The
| convention was called to order by
| Capt. A. NJ. Clark, one Of the first set
| tiers Of Southern Pines, upon whose
motion, Col George Il. French, of New
| Hanover, was made chairman, and
| Messrs. TT. Wolcott, Of Norfolk, and l..
/
| secretaries. Prayer was offered by
| Rev. DIR. Ransom, of Southern Pines,
| after which, in a short but Appropriate
| speech, Col. French declared the con-
| yention ready for business, and APP
| pointed a committee on resolutions.
The first speaker was Hon. Patrick
| Walsh, ex-senator, of Augusta, Ga
who spoke with force aud great earn
estness, and with his accustomed Yigor
/ and eloquence, of the great and grow
i ing Southland. He alluded to its won
derful progress in the past, and pre-
| dicted still greater and more far reach
| ing progress in the near future. He
| appeared, he said, in the interest of
| the Southern States Exposition to be
| held in the city of Chicago,
| which great and wonderful city, he
| said, proposed to hold a grand exposi-
| tion of the resources of the great
| South and to pay every dollar of the
| expense, and it merely asked the South
| ern States to cooperate and take adj
vantage of the opportunity afforded by
| the great Western metropolis, and he
| hoped that North Carolina, with it's
well known spirit of pro-
gress, would be there, and show to this
western world an index at
least, of it's abundant and unlimited
| resources.
He declared that the South possessed
| every essential in the way of raw mate
rial for manufacturing purposes in mex
exhaustible quantities, and that it had
besides wasting power enough to turn
the machinery of all the world, but
the legislatures of the Southern States
are, to a great extent, deficient. / do
not know of but two States in the
South that have done their duty in the
way of illustrating their advantages to
the world, and those States
are Texas and Florida, but
you have in North Carolina a man who
seems to be legislator within him
self and that man is Jno. II. Patrick,
to whose efforts is due this immense
representative gathering in this won
derful and beautiful little Southern
city to-day.
Gov. Elias Carr arrived during the
address of Senator Walsh and was, at
it's conclusion, escorted to the stage
and addressed the convention in
speech which was well received and
generously applauded. He welcomed
all those who had come among us from
the North and regretted that they were
not here now in as great numbers as
they were thirty-five years ago, when |
they had come down on another mis- |
sion. He assured them that they need |
not fear to come, that the welcome |
extended would now be more generous
if it was not as warm.
The committee on order Of business |
made report suggesting that this af-
ternoon be spent in generally hand |
shaking, getting acquainted and in /
visiting Pinehurst, the State Expert |