The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-09-08

About sixty years ago we boys had it
at the Manual Labor School in old
Gwinnett. We had to work with our
hands three hours day. We worked
and cotton or hauled wood or did some
kind of farm work and the three hours
of manual labor was intended to pay
for our board. But that was mistake.
The boys didn't do one hours faithful
work; they frollicked. Capt. Garmany,
the old hero of Shepherds plantation
during the Creek war, was the overseer
and he said he had rather fight Indians
than watch those boys. He was good
hearted, brave man, but he couldn't
manage hundred boys who hadn't beer,
raised to work and whose fathers were
rich and had negroes to work their
farms. Most of these boys had been
wild at home and had been sent to this
school to be tanned and reformed. Poor
Capt Germany. He pleaded with them
and took the foremost row and showed
them how to hold the pillow or split rails
or grind the axe, but when he was
watching and training one squad in one
field another squad in another field would
slip off and go in a washing. The old
fashioned wagons had lynch pins to hold
the wheels on and sometimes the boys
would lose lynch pin on the way to
the woods and the wheel would come
off and they would go back to the
blacksmith shop to get another pin and
fool away the time until the three hours
were out and not load of wood hauled.
capt. Germany gave UP in despair be-
fore the year was out and they tried an
other with no better success. AS gen.
cral rule a rich mans son is not going to
work with his hands We had a very
fine lot of boys from the best families,
such as the Gouldings and Hollis of Co
lumbus; the Lintons, of Athens; the
ALIENS, of Gainesville; the Hendricks. OF
Butts. and a lot of HAIRLESS and Hoyles
and Woffords and Johnsons, but they
eat more than they earned and so the
experiment proved failure and the
manual labor feature was abandoned
and my father. who had inaugurated it
and was president of the board, had to
foot the bill of $4,000 for it's failure Since
that day it has been set down as a maxim
that three hours of work of rich mans
son won't feed him. But these boys
didn't turn out bad. Most of them
made good scholars and good citizens,
THOMAS Allen became Comptroller
General of the State. New Goulding
was colonel of the Ninth Georgia and
William t. Wofford brigadier general,
and DR.. Jim Alexander and DR.. Hen
bricks stand high in their profession,
Glib Wright and Bill Wright and Ram
say Alexander and James Maltbie be-
came judges Of the circuit courts.
was Illuminating about good old DR..
Patterson, our principal-how fat he
was and how faithful and indulgent and
sometimes of hot sultry afternoon,
while we were laundering along through
Caesars commentaries, he would go fast
asleep in his chair and we would skip
a whole paragraph and keep on reading
and skipping until his book would fall
on the floor and wake him up. Then he
would hunt all about to find where we
were at, but he never complained or
made any sign of suspicion. / remem-
Der our debating society and how once
month on Friday evening we had to take
sides and discuss some great question
About dozen of the older boys were en-
est, I was right smart and my father
helped me and I held my own with the
big boys. / remember when the ques-
ton was who was the greatest man that
ever lived and each boy had TO choose
different man and advocate his claims.
If two or more wanted the same man
DR.. Patterson had to settle it. My father
told me to choose Ben Franklin and l
,l,., n TIT
for / convinced myself that he was the
best all round man that history tells Of.
He was the fifteenth Of seventeen chill
dren. never went to school after he was
10 years old, was apprenticed to his
brother, who was a printer, ran away
from him when he was II, hired to
printer in Philadelphia; next year was
sent to London to buy stock for new
printing office, but the promised money
was not sent, so he hired to another
printer; after two years returned to
Philadelphia, invented a copper plate
press-the first in America--married
Miss Deborah Reid in 1870, when he was
"a years old; founded the Pennsylvania
Gazette, and rose to competence and re-
nown. Founded the Philadelphia libra
ry in 1881: published Poor Richards al
manac for twenty five years; in 1876 was
chosen postmaster of Philadelphia; i'll
1743 founded the University of Penn
sylvania; in 1744 founded the Americar
Philosophical Society and the Academy
of Sciences, investigated electricity and
took rank with the great discoveries and
was elected +. r. S. of London and Edin-
burgh. In 1853 was appointed postmas-
ter general of the colonies He was tn.
defender of all colonial interests: was
sent to England to have the stamp act
repealed; labored hard to prevent war,
but failed; came home and signed the
Declaration of Independence; was sent
to France to secure aid and recognition
and succeeded; signed the treaty of
peace at Paris in 1913; died in $780, on
motion of Mirabeau the National AS.
sembly of France put on mourning for
him. In the constitutional convention
of 1877 his last motion was that Con-
gress should open it's sessions with
prayer, and this is done to this day.
What record is that for poor
friendless, uneducated boy to make.
have recorded it in this letter as an ex-
ample for poor boys everywhere.
The territory of Tennessee belonged
originally to North Carolina and was
called the territory of Washington. The