The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-03-25

sire gratified at length In the publica-
ton Of Tho North Carolina Booklet"
For the excellent selection OF subjects.
for b happy choice of contributors.
for most valuable and interesting in
formation and most charming presen-
tations OF these great events in our
history, We are indebted primarily to
the North Carolina Society OF the
Daughters of the Revolution. and d.
rectly 10 the able editors of the Book
let Miss Martha Helen Haywood and
Mrs. Hubert Haywood
Major Graham Dawes has set our
great mystery before US in the name
Of Virginia Dare" and Mrs sara
Beaumont Kennedy has made Graffen-
reid live again between the Neuse and
he Trent and we are shown Tryon's
love Of display. To our own towns
a Colonel A. NJ. Waddell. has been
given the task Of immortaIizing in
writing the inimitable deed performed
In our midst. and most ably is il exc
cuted in THE Stamp Act on the Cape
Fear"
In the Historic Tea Party Of Eden
ton." DR.. Richard billiard. has brought
the patriotic and jealous ladies OF
anti.Revolutionary times to our at
tention. Colonel r.. B.. Creecy gives a
glowing account of Betsy Dawdy's
Ride" and in the stirring tale of The
Hornets Nest" the Honorable Heriot
Clarkson pays tribute to the scene of
our triumph In Mecklenburg county.
We are indebted to Professor D.. II.
Hill for a most excellent account of
Green's Retreat. and to Major E. J..
Hale. who pays tribute to our beloved
benefactor, MI. LIE Marquis De La
Fayette." DIR. K. p. Battle in his most
charming and elegant style gives US
a spirited and invaluable account of
Captain Johston Blakely in "A North
Carolina Naval Hero and His Daugh-
ter"
As intimate above, the eleventh
number of the Booklet is now before
US and those interested in the previous
sketches will not find that the story
Of our greatness loses aught in the
telling of our mariners exploits dur
ing The War Between the States"
for Tales of the Cape Fear Block
ade," as given us by James Sprunt. is
a narrative at once thrilling and ex-
citing. Other events in our history no
matter how ably told lack the author
ity Of an eye witness, but Mr.. Sprunts
contribution adds to it's graceful style
and wealth Of information the inesti-
mable advantage of being the actual
experiences Of the purser of the Con-
federate steamer Lillian" In this ca
pacity from his great fund of personal
knowledge, Mr.. Sprunt has given us in
an ideal form, facts. names, events,
circumstances and local settings with
which his unique position during those
strenuous times acquainted him so
thoroughly.
The motive which inspired a bust
ness man Of small leisure to give
freely of his private information may
be best told in the authors preface,
which we quote in full:
"From early youth 1 have loved the
Cape Fear River, h ships and the
sailors which it bears upon its bosom.
| AS a schoolboy I delighted to wander
along the wharves and watch the
strangers from foreign lands, whose
uncouth cries and unknown tongues
inspired me with a longing for the sea
and for the countries far away whence
they had come: in later years I heard
the stories Of the old time Cape Fear
| gentlemen, and treasured these men,
cries Of our brave and generous peo-
pie: and now. as I watch from my
window the white sails glistening In
the morning light, or as, when the
evening shadows deepen. I gaze upon
the wide resplendent with the
glory of the stars, I try to catch the
vanishing lines Of it's history as the
current sweeps along with its mes
sAge to the sea.
"But now the oft told tales OF ante
bellum times are seldom heard. John
Hampden Hill. George Davis. John S.
James. A. J.. deRosset, James G.. Burr
and other t~reasurers OF Cape Fear an
mails, have crossed over the river. and
there are none to take their places. II
il of more recent times that / writes
of an epoch in our history stained with
the best blood Of Cape Fear gentle
men: of war and pestilence and fam
ine: Of indomitabIe courage and heroic
fortitude: Of privations and sufferings;
and Of strange traffic through a be-
l.asued city. which supplied the sin.
ews of war long after the o.
the south had been exhausted: a traffic
which will be UNIQUE IN our history
because the conditions which sustain
ed 1t can never again occur.
"As I close these pages and lool
westward acro.s the liver. the brigh
light falls on the ye.lowish green o.
the pasture land: and above its cease
less current loom the Brunswick pinei
fringing the sky line with n sombr
hue. The old time planter with nj
retinue of slaves is gone. The wharve
where the swift blockade runners wer,
moored are rotting away. n thicl
vines cover the ruins OF the old Con
federate Cotton Press: but the har
Dor and the river are the same a
when Yeamans came with the frs
settlers. or as when Flora MacDonaI'
sailed past the town to the restfu
haven of Cross Creek: and the Dran
Tree still stands to warn the outgo
ing mariner taht his voyage has be
gun. and TO welcome the incomin
sorm-tossed saIic- to the quiet harbo
JAMES SPRUNT.
wilmington. N. c.. February 1otf
1902"
The union chord which IS SO dell
cately struck IL everything which NJ
Sprunt writes. calls to our fancy thos
days of the long age when beaut
full river flowed In its pristine glor
through a LAND awaiting the life {
man to carve out its movements and
is for his reason and because the moi
struck hnds an echo in every iov1n
heart tina we welcome everythin
from the pen of him who gave
Tales and Traditions OF the Low,
Cape Fear"