The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-08-27
BOOK MAKING IN
NORTH CAROLINA
Continued from First Page.l

There was none so sure to recog-
nize his old friends amid all changes
and welcome them back to commence
ment. There was perhaps slight touch
of sympathy in his greeting to any IA
vorite who had not made the stir in
the world that he expected: and as the
years went by and still the looked-for
plaudits did not come, the wrinkles
about the upper lip would grow grad
ualy finer and drier as the hope in his
smile died away.
Pious-looking old Tom Kirby, the as
sstant janitor, was accused of bringing
liquor to the students in his boot-legs-
and they were indeed capacious enough
to accommodate two or three pint ticklers
each without. impairing the gravity of
his slow, stumbling gait-but calumny
was never ambitious enough to whisper
a breath against Witt, as the boys
called him for short, He wore his
character with as much decorum and
responsibility as Prof. Hooper did his
slightly faded broadcloth.
He never missed his bells-rrom the
rising bell on a dreary winter morning
to the one he tolled at the midnight
funeral of the wine-slain sophomore, it
"old-timey" silver watch never failed
HIM.
As a bell-ringer he was complete
success. He knew how to get out all
there was in his instrument, and there
WAS much in it. The rich conscious
stricken students from the South, who
melted the old bell when they burned
down the belfry, put their silver into
o,xl hnff how itSs
could never be degraded. To those
who know its history and to the finer
spirits who rightly divine it, there is
a minor tone floating ever with the
volume of its sound which chimes with
the mellow memories of the best we
have done and suffered. This is the
spirit song of the silver In the bell.
Wilt knew how to graduate his
understanding monody to the Importance
of the occasion. You could catch the
inspiration of its crescendo the first
morning of commencement, and the
sound waves flooded higher and higher
until the last and great day: then easily
overfiowing the campus they rolled out
through the leafy aisles and corridors
of Battles Park and poured down the
valleys and up over the distant hills
ON their sylvan auditors, and thrilling
the approaching multitude with COM
mencement fever. He was ringing out
the sines and the co-sines, the tangents
and the logarithms and ringing in the
girls with their scented robes and cloud
like draperies, and the ''gilded atrocities
of hope" where youths imagination
peoples them.
yn chs ole n
perpetual twilight in the "Old South"
building this silent sweating stalwart
wassfhrowing his soul into his bell. How
many jurists and statesmen and soldiers
has he rung ON and off the stage. Well,
he has rung himself off and out at last.
Let him go with the honors of the race
he so much delighted to honor.
The alumni ought to rear a simple
monument over the place where he
sleeps, and on the resurrection side of
it, to catch the full glow of the last
sunrise. they should inscribe:
Here was laid the body of Wilson Cald-
well,
The students friend and servant,
An exemplar of modest merit,
The best type of the black man,
Whom he sought to elevate by labor;
The solution of the race problem.
Mindful mainly of his duties,
His rights were cheerfully conceded.
Himself ever respectful, he was always
respected.
Diligence dignifed his service.
Three generations Of white men testify
of his faithfulness,
Let him rest here till he's ready for
work again.