The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-08-27
BOOK MAKING IN
NORTH CAROLINA
The Only Practical Historical
Society Ever Organized.
LAWYERS INTERESTED
THE ATTITUDE OF SOME PA
PERS PLEASANTLY PICT-
URED.
A TOUCH OF HUMOR AND PATH0S
"A Pen Picture that All University Alumni
VIII Read With Pleasant
RecolIections.
(By w. ]. PEEIlE.)

(By w. j. IEEIfE.)
Booll-making in this State has some
mildly humorous phases which the APP
preciative public would hardly forgive
novice for enjoying all to himself. 1t
also has a business side of which l will
speak briefly first
Perhaps the North Carolina Publish
ing Society is the only practical histori-
cal society ever organized in the State;
for every member is required, as one
Of the conditions precedent to member
ship, to contribute at least an hundred
dollars toward its general purposes. The
States history and literature cannot be
collected and preserved or published and
circulated without money. Organiza-
ton. alone will not do. Calling meet
ings, making speeches and passing reso-
lutions are valuable only as adjuncts.
The main work is to collect and prepare
for publication in a permanent form the
best the State has done, and then to
use such business methods as will put
the appreciatiye public in touch with the
work. The lawyers are the most inter
estcd; not less than fifty per cent OF
them may he counted on to give practi-
cal encouragement to any serious under
taking. or the other professions, in the
aggregate, perhaps fifteen per cent is
fair estimate, but their interest will in
crease as it is stimulated. Teachers,
with a few notable exceptions, are as
yet far behind. The cause they them
selves must explain. or course ] am
Judging by my own short experience.
Il hoy or
may now be affirmed with business GER
tainty. that any carefully written or
carefully edited North Carolina book can
be made to pay the cost of publication
provided there is sufficient capital be-
hind it to give it fair chance. Of
course no book, not even Il work of
genius, could succeed in forma pauperis.
The prizes lately offered by the So
ciety, and awarded to a North Carolina
boy and girl, were given, in fact, to de
velop situation. 1t was shrewdly
suspected that North Carolina history
and literature was little taught IN her
SCHOOLS. The contestants themselves,
nearly all of whom were going to school
furnished the evidence which confirmed
the suspicion. Nearly one hundred of
them dropped out of the contest after
they had essayed to enter; the most
common reason was lack of knowledge
of our State history. Some said they
were too busy with their ordinary
studies. What studies they had of more
Importance than the history of our State
did NOT appear. Some said they We're
not studying North Carolina history at
all. Few We're encouraged by their
teachers. Nearly all betrayed lack of
previous reading about our own celebri-
ties which certainly would not be du-
plicated in Virginia. and and | hope not
in any other State. Some few wanted
the Society to give the book, which
contained the subjects of the contests,
free TO the contestants, as we'll us the
prizes. A few older persons, with eyes
on the dollar rather than literature,
thought they saw in it only scheme
to advertise a private business, and
these successfully resisted the rious
efforts of the Society to hyperdermically
inject into their corporosities knowledge
which their intellectual stomachs would
not assimilatc. For example, the editor
of the Hucllebcrry Index published at
Pine Lap, ~ c., declined to allow his
subscribers to know anything of the
contest because he thought the notice
might benefit others beside the students
of the huckleberry quotations. The
consequence was that there was no
contestants from the vicinity of Pine
Lap-and that is very large communi-
ty.
The leading newspapers however APP
preciate every serious effort To make
home literature and can be counted on
TO give aid and practical encouragement.
Certainly have no cause of complaint,
and these will enjoy with me Il little
light raillery at the expense Of their
obtuser brethren who failed to catch
on to what we were trying to do.
/ have already published the letter
Of the Cabbage Seed Advertiser from
Swampvile, n. c., in the Journal of
Education, and the genial editor of the
last named paper tone of our best
friends) held up the letter for some
time for fear possibly hat i1 was per-
sonal But / try to be as kind-hearted
as he is and would not have pubnsatd
private letter without the consent or
the writer. Besides, | have since learn
ed that the inhabitants of Swampv:ile
also very large community. took
sides, for the most part, with their
editor, and could see nothing in the
book containing the sketches hut a
purely private enterprise and an at