The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1902-09-18
monument Building.
NORTH CAR0LINIANS SLOW TO PeRPETU-
ATE THE EVENTS OF HISTORY.
ihe State and the South Have Lost
and Will Continue to Lose by Their
Lack of Memorials to Record Their
Best Traditions-The Educational
Value of nonuments to People In
History-Teaching.
Progressive Farmer,

value or rlOnuments to People In
History-Teaching.
Progressive Farmer.
The death OF Judge Schenck make.
especially appropriate the republican
ton OF the following paragraphs from
a letter in last week Biblical Recorder
written by DR.. John f. White, a ma
tive OF this State, but now pastor of
the Second Baptist Church, of Allan
ta- The letter was written from
Boston while DR.. White was on his re-
cent tour Of the New England States:
This New England country grows
on me, 1t would charm you with its
beauty. Every turn of the road and
corner Of the street greets you with
an n 'cription or statue or slab-tel!-
ing its tale Of some noble thing that
somebody did for somebody else The
air is fragrant with heroic things Of
one kind or another. am impressed
greatly with the civic educational
value Of monuments. The South has
lost and will continue to lose in edu-
cational power by its lack Of memo
rials to record its best traditions
New England is not all the result Of
Harvard aud the public grammar and
high schools. Its parks are univer-
sites OF the common people. Every
common bush is Il fire. We have
trouble getting our history written :;
we might put some stones to tell Il
quickentd generation that We had IA
history To write.
'All my thoughts here run back
home. The New Englandrrs DO not
know half as well That the South car
| ried at least half the glory of the
Revolution, as | know and all know
in the South that New England car
ried the other half. That is because
| we have cared so little ourselves to
| honor places and names with tokens
| to be read of all think Of it now
when Judge Schenck. Of Greensboro,
was at work at GuiilOrd Battle
Ground. | had little disposition of
| sympathy. If Guilford Battlefield
| was in Massachusetts, it would be a
| garden of heroes. Who of us know
where the Battle of Alamance was
| fought? That was ten years before
Concord. A New Englander the other
day knew nothing of it whatever. |
| think he still thinks | was drawing
on my imagination. If that ground
was hereabouts it's marble would be
higher and whittier than that at Lex
ington and Concord"
| DR.. White, we think, does not over
estimate the educational value of
monuments. But the scarcity Of our
monuments is due to the general ig-
norance of our history in much
larger degree than the general igno-
rance of our history is due to the
scarcity ot monuments. When there
shall have grown up generation OF
school children impressed while
young with the dignity and glory OF
our State history, taught by accurate
and well-written books and enthusi.
astic teachers, we shall have a citi
zenship not Indifferent to the value
of monuments as memorials OF grea'
men and great deeds.
Until then, however, we shall have
monuments only as result OF thu
self-sacriticing patriotism of sucf
men as Judge David Schenck. Unit
then we shall have such failures a.
we have had heretofore. The Raleigh
Posts persistent appeal for monu
ment to Nathaniel Macon resulte ed il
only two or three subscriptions. Th'
monument to Col. l.. l.. Polk is still
incomplete For the Sir Walter Raj
eigh monument movement, started
with such blare Of trumpets las
year, only about $400 of the $1O,OOi
| wanted has been paid in. The ap
, peals of President Alderman and Mr.
+ j. W. Bailey for a monument at tn
now unmarked grave OF Archibald
Murphy "have been answered onl.
! by silence profound and sad" Moth
inc has been heard of the propose
monument to Calvin H. Wiley sine
the Teachers Assembly ad djourned i
June The promoters Of the Wort
Bagley monument, taking the tide a
it's flood, raised considerable none
| while interest in the Spanish wa
= was at fever heat, but their presen
inactivity would indicate that enoug
: has not yet been raised to Justlf
them in beginning work.
The State needs nothing MOI
sorely than an interesting. accurate
: we'll kept school history of Mort
Carolina. We believe that the Te,
Book Commission last year, in
pressed by the lack of merit in tt
books which it examined, recon
mended none for use in the publ
schools. Nor does it now aPPe;
that we are likely to have merltor
D Gus book in the near future.
Meanwhile much of our history
becoming as dry as the bones IN tn
great valley which Ezekiel saws
dry that it will take veritable 6
MUS to put into them the breath
life. Take the story OF Reconstru
" ton, for instance. The men wi
have intimate, first-hand knowleds
of this period are fast passing ava
and the younger generation has on
the yaguest of ideas as to what W;
then the condition OF affairs. II
!, newspaper files contain about all II
u history of this time that we hav
The Bragg Fraud Commission Repo
has been almost completely extern
!. mated; perhaps not dozen copies
Id main.
w We need monuments-that is tru
or But we need more general kno"
IA edge of our State history to enaoie
IN to appreciate the monuments, 81
the people must have this more &c
cral knowledge before they will ia
On interest in monument building.