The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-10-25

vile street, and for a long time a window
shutter of the Fentress building on the
east side of the street, contained one of
the balls shot on that occasion.
The magistrate who performed the mar
rage ceremony and took part in the shoot
ing affair, was Fab. Rutchings, Esq, a
friend of my boyhood days, for whom I
had great fondness. He was uncle of
our good looking Clerk OF the Court Mr.
Russ, and, while he may not have been
as handsome az is his nephew, he was
quite as amiabIc and as popular. He rep
resented this county in the legislature one
session, and later on and for quite a while
was county treasurer. His father, John
Hutchings was one of the most successful
farmers of the county, and grew to be
rich. On the corner of New Bern Avenue
and BlOodworth street he kept boarding
house before the days of the larger hotels,
and his house was Democratic headquar-
ters during the Legislature, and he was
wont to boast that as his house went, SO
went the Legislature. No hotel nor board
ing house fed like the Hutchings House,
hence its popularity. for iii those days as
well as in these, people liked good eating,
and would go where they could get the
best Mr.. Hutchings raised everything
he used in his boarding house or mis-
farm, and lad things in abundance on his,
tables; while big log fires made warm
and cheerful the rooms of his guests. And
then he could feed and pasture the horses
Of those who rode horseback to the Legis-
latnre. which most of the members did
in those days. Very few came by public
conveyance, but a day or two before the
Assembly met the members on horse
back with their clothes in pair of saddle
bags. came in, muddy or dusty, as the
case might be, looking more like cavalry
men than legislators. Many farmers for
eight or ten miles from the city came
here on the meeting of the Assembly to
take horses to board, as there was no
such thing as a livery stable here and
nobody in the city cared to be bothered
with horses. Every Saturday the farmer
had to bring in the horses he was boarding
to lei the owners see them and judge as to
how they were kept. In these days of
railroads it sounds strange to tell your
readers that member from Cherokee or
Currituck had to come on horseback to the
Legislature, and that five or six days were
required to make the journey
Speaking of horse back travelling. some
Of your readers. perhaps, never heard of
the lightning express that "Old HEX
cry ran from Washington City to New
Orleans. That was one of the worlds
wonders, in my young days. a mail bag
left Washington City every day, carried
by rider on horse back, who travelled at
a rate of ten miles an hour. He would
run horse six miles, and at the end of
tie six miles. another horse stood ready
for him to mount: so that he had thrown
his bag on the new horse, and had leaped
on. rs the horse dashed off at full speed
\ rider would go from Raleigh as far as
Barclaysville, "a miles. riding four horses
to make the distance He would not re-
main there very long before here would
cone a rider from the south. and so the
man who went from Raleigh would take
the bag and using the same horses, he
would return to be ready to go out again
next morning. when the mail from Wash
ington came in The road from Washing