The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-11-05

BY Pulaski Cowper and r. Il. Creecy.
'srhe world has never known its great
est men,"
Charles X. Kinney, the subject of this
sketch was trained and hardened from
infancy in the furnace of adverse for
tune. When child he fell from his
nurses arms and was deformed for life.
That fall left him with hump between
his shoulders, which married the SYM
merry of natures workmanship. His
head was a dome of thought, but was
not posed upon his shoulders His
shoulders were bread, strong and capa-
bic OF the strenuous work and endurance
of an athlete His arms We're muscular
long and disproportioned to the upper
part of his person He was alert, active
and of nervous temperament-dehg
in nimble outdoor sports-was a splrib
ed horseman, and was master OF feats
Of Craftsmanship that were unequaled py
his fellows Nature had cast him IN a
mould that called for six feet, but an ac-
cident in infancy had reduced ii to i've
feet seven inches in height. Nature
made him an Apollo. His voice was All
Aeolian harp. aud its strings were tuned
TO all the notes of human passion, from
the melting moods of tender charity TO
the alto notes of the storms king wrath
Such is a photograph of the pefsonai
aspect and outline of Charles X. Kinney,
who for twenty years-from 1879 to 1870
after an unsuccessful struggle with the
surgng wave of adverse fate, rose by an
apparent accident upon the crest OF the
wave. and for over twenty years there
held sway, almost without peer or q
parallel. in the Albemarle section of
North Carolina.
Born and reared in Connecticut arriy-
ed at the age Of manhood after obtaining
Il classical education in the primary
schools of that educational State, he en-
tered upon a mercantile life III the town
Of his nativity; but Providence had other
work for him to do, in a distant section,
among strangers. a work from which he
was not to he diverted by the misfor-
times of childhood and age. He failed
in merchandise While merchant he
had married. and when a broken mer-
chant he had under his tender care a
wife and infant child. In his anxiety he
thought of a brother who had come
South to Louisiana some years before.
and from New Orleans had gone to Mo-
bile, Alabama, and was a lawyer there.
His name was Asa Kinnie. In the
changes of a chequered life, his name
had become changed from Kinney, in
Connecticut, to Kinnie in New Orleans;
but they recognized and kept up their
relationship.
On his way to Mobile, Charles II. Kin
ney got as far as Norfolk, VA, and Was
sitting in the hotel where he stopped,
and IL gentleman from Camden county,
" c. by the name Of Noah Gregory
came in, and they being alone, got In q
conversation, when young Kinney told
him he was on his way to Mobile, Ala.
but was n stranger i'll Norfolk, and had
exhausted his means of travel. Mr..
Gregory offered him a place as private
teacher to his children in Camden county
He accepted the position and came out TO
Camden county the next day.
He came over TO Elizabeth City. occa-
sionally. in times of leisure and formed
the Acquaintance there Of John l.. Bailey,
q leading lawyer, and afterwards dis
tinguished Judge of the Superior court
of law and equity of the State of North
Carolina, and Mr.. Bailey proposed to
him to study law IN his office. The
offer was accepted and then commenced
q friendship that lasted until death.
Charles r. Kinney became the fast
friend of John L. Bailey, and il was to
the kindness and aid of that good man
that Charles r. Kinney was enabled to
affend the courts of his small circuit.
after he came to Elizabeth City to I've.
Here and there it was that Mr.. Kinney
began the ascent of that steep where
fame presides-a steep which he did not
ascend, but after trials and struggles
before which anyone would have fallen
in despair. but one who was clothed by
the Deity with the wreath of the inn
mortelles.
About 1925, Mr. Kinney waxed strong
in professional fame and practice. he
made friends on his circuit Of courts,
and was recognized as a charming con-
versationalist. 1t is within living mem
DRY that ambitious mothers in THE town
of Edenton kept their children up be-
yond bed time to hear him talk, and to
he improved by his conversation when
visit was expected from Charles r.
Kinney. And yet charming and enter
tanning as he was as a grave conyersa-
tionalist he was an utter failure in the
role Of anecdote ard he, apparently, was
unconscious of the defect
Mr.. Kinney once met Hamilton g.
Jones at the Supreme court in Raleigh,
and heard him tell his story Of Cousin
Sallie billiard. At the next term of the
Circuit court he told the brethren of the
bar that he had treat for them Of a
story he heard in Raleigh, which he
would repeat to them when they had
leisure. At Gates court, after supper,
the lawyers were assembled III the sit
ting room of the hotel. and Mr.. Kinney
made good his promise. He looked
around to see that all were present,
when the court scene Of the verbose
witness who couldn't testify as TO a
fight at Captain Rice's," unless he be-
gan at the beginning, and when inter
rupted tried to begin anew at Captain
Rice. he gin a treat" The judge con-
stantly stopped him, and or
dered him to tell about the
ARRAY at Captain Rices'; and
the witness as constantly commenced
his testimony with, And Captain Rice,
he gin a treat THE lawyers around were
enjoying the double treat of the persis-
tent witness and the bungling recon-
teur At length Malachi Haughton, Of
Edenton, who never said a funny thing,
~ Hand n