The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-05-30
COUNTRY LIFE EXTOLLED
Presentation Of Medals and Meeting
of the Alumni.
THE ALUMNI BANQUET LAST NIGHT
The Most Elegant Ever Spread at Wake Forest.
Or. H. A.Roysier POSTMASTER. Addresses
by Gov. Aycock, DR.. Skinner,
Pres. Venabe and Others.
Pres. VenabIe and Others.
(spectal to News and obgerver.l

TTeS' NcAdDlc dilu GNHotS'
Especial to News and Observer.)
Wake Forest. N. c., May 29.-Dr.
Thomas Dixon delivered the literary ad-
dress here this morning at II o'clock
which for fire and pathos, and eloquence
can not be matched His subject was:
"A Message to Country Boy" He de-
nounced in scathing terms the rottenness
of city government. taking as the typical
city New York. which, he said, was bet
ter governed than Chicago, st. Louis or
Cleveland. and drew a picture Of the
misery poverty, shame and degradation
of life in the great metropolis. In his
opening remarks he said
81 need not assure this audience that it
is a great pleasure for me to address you
again. and my pleasure in being here and
my love for Wake Forest increase each
year. l remember well twenty two years
ago when l came here a green, country
boy, so green, so country l remember
well my early ambitions and my hopes;
] had no fears. Eerything was good and
great, and my dream was to be good
and great and do wonderful things, for
believed the world was kind and good.
But I have been disillusioned of the
dreams of my college days, and still
have found more in life than l dreamed
1t is a personal pleasure to come back
TO the college which has done so much
for me-
/ thank God for my country training,
that l learned to plow ditch and drive
mules. | know of no better training for
any man In country boy / mean every
boy in North Carolina, for the Old State
is the great rural commonwealth of our
country. By study l know that North
Carolina is the cradle of American
democracy for it was here that the lib
erty loving people of a new born gov
ernment flocked from the South, West and
North to assert their freedom, and who
first dared the might of kings. She in
deed was the leader in that mighty move
ment which overthrew British rule over
one hundred years ago.
when a boz | had dreamed of the
culture, wealth, refinement, beauty,
splendor of the great metropolis; but l
found none of it's beauty, wealth, culture
or refinement; but | saw squalor, filth,
thousands of hungry men and women, a
scene of congested life, a modern mon
strosity. 1t remains for the Goth century
10 cleanse these pigpens, and to save the
rural towns from the Black Death which
emanates from them.
RULED BY THE SALOON.
The 20th century will not build cities,
and if the country is to fulfill it's purpose,
it will develop the rural districts. No
sensible man will leave his country home
with its inspiring environment to sink
his fortune in money or character, in
these human hell holes. Ten thousand
influences there pull down and debase
character, where one elevates. The first
thing that impresses itself in a city is
that saloons dominate the whole city,
government, politic1 and everything. 1t
is the governing factor in the social life
of the people. l have taken New York
as a typical city but the city of Chicago
is more corrupt, blacker and flthier than
New York ever was. The difference be-
tween the Western and Eastern cities is
that the West has not evolved con-
science to feel the depths of its down
ward course The great curse CT city life
is saloons They are the open slaughter
pens in which soul and character are
butchered 1t is social organism and
is more potent than any other factor in
city life There are over 10000 saloons
licensed in New York city, and 1000 un-
licensed, to say nothing of Brooklyn
You can enforce a prohibition law more
easily than you can the license law.
TWENTY-FIVE thousand children were
denied entrance to the city schools al
though $50, 600, 600 was raised for their
education. New York has no asylums, no
libraries (till Carnegie), no school houses,
no wash houses, but we have 10000
saloons. the finest ever built. On the
walls of these saloons hang the master
pieces of the brush, while the floor is
graced with masterpieces of sculpture;
and these are the palaces into which our
boys are lured to drag their very souls
to hell. No schools, no libraries, no
asylums. but beer, beer, beer.
THE PRESS DEBAUCHED.
"The metropolitan press is a factor of
the city which debauches the mind of the
reader. It is a filth pond which, after
going through It makes you feel like
you had been bathing in dish water.
Newsnaner editors fill their pages with
material tbat debases the mind and low
ers ideals, The rural district is the only
place that an Independent press aourishes
AT a recent dinner a man proposed a
toast to the Independent Metropolitan
Press There is no such thing, one re-
rlied we are fakirs, we are intellectual
prostitutes. selling our minds for the