The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-02-02
THE soUTHERN THE PURCHASER
This Road Said to Own the Carolina and
Northwestern- Republicans and Pop
ulists Anxious to Get the Negro Out
of Politics This Year.
Messenger Bureau.

ANaAcIeH, - -. january -
Saturday night there was a snowfall.
but yesterday a rain carried ii all
away This morning a snowstorm set
in, with h ground frozen and 3 stiff
north wind blowing.
President Charles Z. Taylor, OF Wake
Forest college, was here today He
says there are now 215 students at the
college, h greatest number in its his
tory. and that it is in all respects
prospecting.
The supreme court meets next Tues
day TO hear cases from the First dis
trict. The clerk of the court says
there is only one state case of public
interest on the docket for his term.
this being h one involving the .ques-
ton of the salary to be paid Theophi-
lus White, the fusion shellfsh commits
n Next Monday the court will
devote TO the examination of appli-
cants for license as lawyers. There
Will be at least fifty of these, of whom
thirty-fve will be from law schools.
The state Normal and Industrial COL
lege at Greensboro reopens tomorrow.
There Will be a large attendance, and
the directors are gratiied 1t this.
The selection Of Morehead City as
n meeting-place of the North Caro-
lima teachers assembly, June 18th, is
III SCNL6lai says. II uG-
pends upo the giving of low rates
by the railways and hotels. Mean
while offers from other places will be
received. a Seaboard Air Line official
today called on the secretary, in the
interest of Wilmington. The secretary
says he will first of all work with the
railways for low rates and tina places
which desire to be selected must look
out for themselves. The coming as
sembly will be the largest ever held,
he says. The growth is steady. At
Asheville in 1898 the gross income was
only $500; last year it was $1,000.
A republican newspaper man here
says that the white republicans are
trying with all their might to- eliminate
the negro from the state convention.
He says he does not think there will
be as many as ten negro delegates. The
effort is also to get the negro to take
no part in the campaign at all, not to
register or vote. State Auditor Aver,
of the populiSt state committee, says
the populiSt leaders are working for
the same end; that the elimination of
the negro is desirable for two reasons:
First, TO eliminate a factor which may
cause strife and riot; second, to let the
white voters exclusively settle the
status Of the negroes this year. One
thing is certain. this being that the
populist leaders will do nothing which
IN w a ~ uCSll " NC
done. The republicans are the main
spring Of the actions of the populist
leaders. A republican tells me that
many of the negroes favor their race
getting in the background this year
but that George H. White, the negro
congressman from the Second district,
does not take that view, as he desires
the negro to always be at the 'front.'.
White is a candidate for reelection.
It is believed by some we'll informed
persons that it is the Southern railway
which has bought the Carolina n
Northwestern railway. 1t is a narrow
gauge and was long known as the
Chester n Lenoir. h purchaser
keeps his identity concealed. It was
thought until a few days that the Sea-
board Air Line was the buyer But
crossties for a stanhard-gauge line are
being placed alons the track between
Hickory, where the road crosses the
Southern. and Lenoir. This looks like
the Southern is going to use the road
to get to the Cranberry iron mines,
and, more important still, to Big Stone
Gap, where the Southern's Goa mines
are. This coal is Better for coking
than PocahontaS. The Southern can
build a read from Wilkesboro to a
point near Lenoir, up the valley of the
Yadkin, and can also build from
StateSville to the same point The
place whera the three roads come to-
can be made the starting-point
of a trunk line via Cranberry to Big
Stone Gap. There will be only forty
miles of trunk line to build. r At
Lantic and Danville can be extended
westward and get on the same line.