The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-09-27

but the slncerest motives l propose to
write something that will stir up some of
the self-styled leaders of this day and
generation in this section of North Caro-
lima.
l am not a pessimist, but cheerfully ad-
NIT that advance is being made IN all
shat affects our moral, material and
mental development.
But if people would quit pandering to
ignorance and be true to themselves and
the people, it would hasten the millennium.
Nearly every writer, at least to these
rural rooster county papers begins and
ends with a glorificatiOn Of the capable,
efficient and deservedly popular exploits
OF some commonplace cuss who is not
known ten miles from home, and whose
achievements would read like the bio
graphy of Simple Simon. Every man who
has glass windows in his house is col
onel,' and every man who inherited some
land and makes a very meagre living by
process of farming old as the days or
Confucius, is planter and fit to adorn
every special edition of some tlmeserVng
county paper. Every man who has stall
of some kind where sardines are offered
for sale that heard the saluate Of artillery
which heralded the discovery Of America,
soap that was left over after the builders
of the eternal pyramids and the sculptors
of the Amereular sphynx had performed
their additions, and old rags i'll his shelves
that flourished ere the days of Solomon;
is a merchant prince, and his shack" is
great emporium Of trade. Words of
encouragement are all right, but anything
no rnfO ha
who has no State, county, section and
home pride is poor citizen, and one who
continually derides ali the affairs of his
section is either fool or a knave.
But undue flattery is just as dangerous
an extreme, and should as sedulously be
avoided.
Deliver me from the man who revlles at
his neighbors, churches and schools, but
deliver me, also, from the fellow who
riseth in the chief places OF concourse and
with platitudinous dwellings continually
recounts the fact that his grandfather
drew a good bow at Hastings, and all
wisdom, religion, patriotism and pure
water are confined to his neighborhood.
l have, in the last few weeks, heard
many speeches made in behalf of educa-
| tion and Sunday schools, and have IN
mind one spell-binder who has been max
| ing the same speech for eighteen years,
| no matter what the occasion.
The girls, without exception, are beau
tiful as poets dreams, albeit many OF
them are cross-eyed, red-headed, round
shouldered and left-handed; while the pug
nosed, raucous expressioned, cigarette
smoking, goose-pimpled faced boys who
| read nothing, think nothing, couldn't tell
you whether Paul Kruger is game
chicken, mongrel engine or the unbiased
champion of lost cause. are heralded as
the salt of the earth and the hope of the
country.
Old devils who skin their eye balls de-
voutly heavenward, deplore the curse of
"the demon rum but keep blind tiger
whiskey in their closets; descant on sweet
charity but grind the faces of the poor;
and would set their dogs on Lazarus; are
held up as paragons of piety and referred
to as ''consecrated and progressive fathers
in Israel"
Adroit flattery is not what promotes or
achieves reforms The crow knew he was
black as Egyptian darkness, and that his
voice was a hoarse croak, but in trying
to show off at the fox's flattery lost his
meat and felt like a fool IN the bargain.
Just such fool writing and speaking
ing as is weighed out to us, accounts for
the fact that fakir can sell red dirt dis
solved in rain water on the streets OF
Shelby and carry off shekels made by the
labor of poor little children who should
have been in school, but never are, from
the fact they are not able to afford books
and clothing They fight grass" with a
goose-neck hoe, and their father, who
reads nothing but a county paper and
'.Salem Almanac" farms about like they
did on the Nile in the days of Pharoah,
and knows nothing about religion except
to hear some ignorant fanatic rant around
during dog days, and then he stays away
from church till next laying by time
This style of speaking and writing is,
also, responsible for the execrable roads
of Cleveland county.
The people have heard and read SO of
| ten that they are the best, the bravest,
the Sweetest and prettlest" people on
earth. that they get on their hind legs
and snort if anybody has the candor and
| public spirit to intimate that there is
room for Improvement
| This charming style of oratory and ink
| singing also accounts for our inefficient
system of pubic SCHOOLS III Inls county
| With 42o square miles of territory we
have 81 white schools and % colored. We
should have about 60 all told, but every
| time new church is built the good peo-
ple" want to sell their old church, and at
cnce a new district is created.
l. Since the law was enacted prohibiting
| the building of a new school house within
/ three miles of one already established,
| one has been built at New House, of
| Cleveland county, in less than two miles
of two school houses; and one was created
at Rehobeth this year that is in less than
two miles of three
| Another blessing we reap from this
i charming spread eagle oratory and writ
ing for the paper" is the fact that we
are the legitimate prey of "Injun doctors"
and Mormon missionaries. Such cattle
make no Roadway except where ignorance
and It's hand maid, creduhty, flourish.
In less than three miles of where this
| writer has being an "InJun doctor has
/ garnered more ducats than the victimized
PARTIES have ever contributed to spread
the gospel or diffuse education The doc
Tor, e a cross between free Niger and
N GIA