The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-02-25


caded enfladed and any other distressing
thing for there is a wreck seven miles
away and they say it will take all day
TO remove it. And so | can't get home
tonight Oh! the pity of it. for | am tired
and homesck / am not calm and serene.
l was at Laurens last night and found
good friends who made the lingering
hours pleasant, but all the time | was
comforted with dhe thought that 1T was
my last day away from my
wife and children and grandchildren. I
left the hotel at 5 O'Clock this morning
and walked at a lively gait down to the
depot to take the early train for Clinton,
where | was to intercept the Sealboard
for Atlanta and then for home. But the
train for Clinton did not come and no.
body knew when it would come. / wait
ed until half+past Z o'clock-and time
was fleeing; went back up town, hired
a livery stable man to drive me over to
Clinton by $3.50 o'clock to catch the Sea
board. The road was awful, but the
horse was 4 good one and l knew he
could make the ten miles in two hOurs.
and ! felt happy ON the way. We dqd
make it and as | stepped on the platform
/ felt proud that | had not waited on
that belated train. But, OH what fall
was there, my comtrymen, when the
agent told me the Seaboard was an a
wreck and could not get here until late III
the day and perhaps later.
Well, here / ammo garden to dig IN;
no children to frOlic with and nothing to
do but Illuminate. Yes, ruminate upon the
trials and crosses and disappointments OF
this sublunary world. ana | lind myself
hunming that plaintive old song, Pity
the Sorrows OF a Poor Old Man" But
this preface is the shadow-the dark side
of the picture, and now l will brighten up
and look at the other side and feel
ashamed of myself, for after all my dis
appointment is only for a day and it
is not as bad as war or sickness or
death in the family. And, besides, am
at Clinton, the loveliest village of the
plain. Yes, Clinton, where l have a host
Of kind friends who are glad to see me
and wouldnt tie sorry that | am belated
here if | was not so sorry for myself.
was here two days ago and had a real
ovation, large audience and love feast
after the lecture. In this little town of
$500 people had 400 out to hear and to
greet me, and many of them were rom
the country and SOME came several miles.
for the night was lovely and the full
moon smiled upon everybody and every
thing. The women turned out in force,
for they do love to see and hear a man
who has been subdued by matrinony and
does not claim to be one of the lords of
creation-a man who helps his wife TO
nafse the children and plant the flowers,
Il man who, away in the dead of night,
will let his wife rest and sleep while he
walks the room in his night gown with a
teething child in his arms and sings his
little songs until his eyelidS droop and
his legs get weary and his thoughts say,
"A on are a little darling and ! wouldn't
take million dollars for you-but !
wouldn't give Il nickel for another. a
fond father has none to SELL but doesn't
want to buy, but true mother gives glad
welcome to ali who come and is even
happy in the prospect.
While in Clinton / was the guest Of
Mr. Barley the banker and the mill man,
a model gentleman of the old school
whose maxims are truth and honesty,
whose sons and daughters are like olive
plants around his table and have never
given him moments grief or anxiety.
And now that they are all grown UP and
established in their own business, he has
adopted several hundred factory children
and is delighted every day to visit them
in the cotton mill and place his hand
kindly and gently upon their heads as he
passes them at the spindle or the loom.
He has built for them church and en-
ployed preacher and established a Sun
day school, and it has nWakned in his
bosom new love for his fellow creatures
and he is growing young again. This cot
a j ,s- Il 4
looms and has prospered ever since 1897,
when it was completed. The stock Is ut
a premium of 80 per cent and its surplus
earnings are all invested in charging its
capacity and increasing its products.
Now think Of it. Here is "a mill that
manufacturers only a fine grade of cloth
and consequently only consumes about
3.000 bales of cotton. He has nCw on
hand enough cotton to run until next
a december and it was all bought for Z
cents per pound He has orders ahead
at fixed prices for all the goods he can
make this year His goods are already
sold at 81 cents a yard and it takes Al
yards to weigh pound Now counting
for a loss in weight of 10 per cent he
is getting p cents a pound for the cot
ton that cost him Z cents. Labor and
machinery does the work and the cost
of that depends upon the man and the
manag cement. The mill owners can grind
that labor down to starvation price If
they choose to, but Mr. Bailey assures
me that it is possible and practicable to
pay these operatives good living prices
and provide good, comfortable cottages
and garden and fuel and all the neces-
saries and many of the comforts of life
and still have a good profit for the stock
holders Now why can't every town in
Georgia do likewise? The traveller is
hardly ever out Of sight of smokestack
over here in Carolina. | am just from
the good old town of Laurens. only ten
miles away, and they have a mill there
with 10000 spindles and 500 looms
When every county spins and weaves
all the cotton it grows then will the
South he truly independent.
But the most beautiful feature of Gin
ton is the orphanage--th Th0rnwel or
phanage that in twenty-five years has
developed from a little plain building
with rooms for twenty orphans into q
lovely village of rock-built, solid hand
some houses two stories high and in the
I i