The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-04-08

smith says of the village schoolmaster
and his pupils:
"And still they gazed and still the Won
der grew,
That one small head could carry all II
knew"
/ remember how 1 used to wonder
how our Professor Charles McCov
learned all that he knew about mathe-
matics and astronomy. Some years
ago I heard Professor Proctor, who
was then the greatest living astrono.
mer. lecture for three nights at Lake
Weir chatauuua in Florida, ana NJ
lifted me up to the seventh heaven. as
it were. and / had to strain my mind
to soar with him amongst the stars
but he magnified the creation and the
universe and the Creator in such a
way that l have not forgotten it and
nv reverence and awe and love for
the Supreme Being has been greatly
increased.
was Illuminating about this be-
cause I have received letter from
learned friend who thinks / should
have told a little more about leap
wear and how the Julian calendar go5
behind time ten days in 1852 years
and Pope Gregory's astronomer, Ga
yius. made a new one called the tire-
gorian calendar. And how it says
that all years whose date number Is
divisible by four without remainder
are leap years unless they are centu
nv wears. These are not century years
unless they are Invisible by 400 with
out a remainder. Therefore, the year
1000 will be leap year. But ever
this allowance will not exactly even
UP the march of time and we will lose
another day in 1924 years. Sir John
Herchel corrected this, by making
every 4,000th year leap year and this
would keep old Father Time all right
for $4,000 years-nuf sed-we will not
figure beyond that.
Another respected friend writes az
letter about Hugh Lawson
White, once a candidate for the preSl
Dental nomination, and says althoug.:
he was reared and lived and died in
Tennessee he was born in lredeil
county, North Carolina. His mother
was Lawson, daughter of Hugh
Lawson, and from that Lawson ances-
try, more distinguished people have
sprung than from any other we read
of. Among their descendants are the
Whites, of Tennessee; Mrs. StoneWall
Jackson, Mrs. General w. T. Sherman,
Mrs. General A. p. Hill, Mrs. Ada:
Ewing Stevenson, the Ewings OF Ohio
and Tennessee; General Ewell, Gener-
al Henderson, of Virginia; the Law
sons, of Georgia, and Governor Jared
Irwin, of Georgia. All of these were
lineal descendants. Just think of it!
What a divergence of fate and fame
and fortune that made of one blood
Mrs. Stonewall Jackson and Mrs. A.
p. Hill. Mrs. General Sherman YVES a
Ewing and Mrs. Stonewall Jackson
was Morrison. The writer says he
has copy of Hugh Lawson's will that
was executed in 1866, and that his
grave is in an old churchyard betsvee1i
Salisbury and Charlotte, and the head
stone still shows the initials, III. L.
Verify, verify, there is something in
the blood that transmits character tn
several generations.
But the trouble is that this ances-
trail blood becomes crossed and re
crossed so often that it is apt to lose
its virtue and becomes contaminated
with the blood of some vicious ances-
tors. This could only be prevente:,,
by what is called sin and in breeding"
as marrying cousins or second cousins;
but the doctors say that produces
physical degeneracy in the offspring,
and so what can a man do but try TO
elevate himself and not bank on his
ancestors. Colonel Campbell Wallace
was noble man and made his owr
fame and fortune, and he told me that
when he was young man he took
notion that maybe he was a descend
ant of Sir William Wallace, the great
Scottish chief, and as his father died
when Campbell was a boy, and .old
him nothing about it., he rode n hun.
dred miles over the mountains OF Fer
nessee to see a great uncle who was
old enough to know about his ances-
tors, and the old uncle said: snow,
Cam, you had better let that pedi-
gree business alone, for your great
grandfather was a powerful sorry
man, and one day he stole some tarers
often flatboat and they cotchcd him
and took him down to the canehialze
and whipped him-they did shore!
''Since them" said Colonel Wallace, Il
have taken Popes couplet for my
pedigree.
Honor and shame from no condition
rise,
lies.'"
But do like good stock whether in
man or beast or fowl or fruit or How
ers. I liked the Adams family ard
the Randolphs and Breckinridges ard
Hollis and many others because they
held up so long. My wife came from
that Observation-Disclosures stock
that had coal black hair and lark
hazel eyes, and wore No. shoes md
stepped like a deer, and it was a good
cross she made breeding back upon the
Anglo-Saxon and Scotch-Irish that my
ancestors came from. There is not
quite so much ''injun" in our children
as there was in her, but still there is
enough to make them love their
friends and keep one eye on their enc
mics if they have any.
[ was Illuminating how little we
know of what is going on in many
parts of this great country. Here is a
letter from an Alabama friend who
has been living in Texas for twenty
years and has charge of cattle ranch
in the Panhandle, the Stalled NPlain
region, and he says he has 5000 head
of cattle to look after and their graz
ing ground covers 10000 acres. A.ou.
half of it is infested by prairie DOGS
4 Il L u L