The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-10-11

1.-THE best men in all departments l have
known in Alabama in forty years, were
from your State. / am not native of
North Carolina but of Georgia." l think
he said. You see the men we sent to
Alabama were worthy and capable, and
had succeeded. Now suppose all of the
worthy. active, energetic, aggressive,
strong men who have helped to build up
twenty other States had remained at
home, and standing by their mother had
helped to cuI,ivate her rich domain and
had helped to develop her vast resources,
what very grand State it would now be!
1t was but some four or five years ago
remember to have read in a Baltimore
Republican daily, the Herald, l believe it
was, a cantankerous goldbug and expan-
sion tooter, a remark that North Caro-
lima was the poorest of all the States
writings have often tried to ''defame
her." Ignorance, envy, spite and other I'M
worthy passions have prompted her
slanderers and enemies in their efforts to
belittle and degrade her. 1 repeat, the
people of North Carolina in all the best
elements of character and manhood, are
Sir William Jones, the very accomplish
ed Oriental scholar of England, long ago
asked-"What constitutes a State?" The
reply "Men-high-mi men," In
all that constitutes an imposing true,
noble, manly people the best type of
North Carolina manhood will vie with
any. If the 325,O00 who went out from
her had abided at home, there would be
now not far from 100000 inha bitants,
and her roll of men of force and eminenc,
would perhaps among all the States b..
only second to Virginia In that count
General Bedford Forrest would have been
North Carolinian, for his parents were
natives of this State, and l have under
stood since 1869 that they were from
Person county, although l see it stated
that he was born in Orange, adjacent to
the former l knew him personally, / am
glad to know. General Joseph f. John
ston was one of the four or five greatest
of the Southern soldiers in the war for
second independence. General Bradley T.
| johnson says in his interesting work on
General 10, that he once said to him that
| he regarded General Forrest as the
greatest military genius in the war of
l.
that General Lee was the greatest of
American soldiers, and the highest ex
preston of the noblest manhood.
| After visiting some eleven or twelve of
the American States, and residing for
while in three, I would rather live and
labor and wait and die in this well be-
loved North Carolina than in any State
or country. A man might secure more
money and more recorded honors'' in
other lands or States, but he would lose
North Carolina, and for that there is no
compensation. I repeat that I love with
all my heart my native North Carolina
When the CLOSING scene comes to me
as it must come to all of the children of
| Adam, and possibly not long hence, I
hope the crumbling tenement in which
the immortal spirit has long dwelt may
be laid away by friendly hands beneath
its native soil, and if some kind hand
shall ever lay a flower upon the silent
| grave that it shall be done in memory
of one who while in life here loved sin
cerely, and in quiet unobtrusive, faith
full way tried to serve North Carolina. AS
near the edge of the dawn, l have a
more ardent, honest wish to be able to
say with the truth of a sincere soul:
81 live for those that love me,
For those that love me true;
! For the heaven that smiles above me,
! And waits my coming too:
For the cause that lacks assistance,
| For the wrongs that need resistance
] For the future in the distance.
| o. cne good that I can do
| That is a noble aspiration even though
one should fail in it. have not consider
ed the many noble and prosperous of the
| younger members of 'the dispersed
abroad
| All of the sons who shall visit their ma
| tive North Carolina Heavens bless
| ings'' attend her,-and shall be at the great
Reunion of hearts and hands at Green's
! boro, will receive a genuine North Caro-
lima welcome. and that means everything
possible that is good-cordiality, sincerity,
and pleasure, into which the heart enters
fully.
A great point has been made by the
brilliant and able author OF 'The Leo
pard's Spots" He has gained a foot
hold in the great German Empire. for his
novel has been translated into scholarly
German and published in fine style by
the long famous Leipsic publishing house
of Tauchnitz. 1t is in two volumes and
excellently bound in three-quarter NOR
Deco. Let me mention here that this ia
nous novel has reached an actual sale of
12O0 900 copies and is still selling WELL
The people are finding it out more and
more. The publishers of Mr.. Dixon in 4
recent pamphlet state that his second
novel, 1.-THE One Woman" has sold in
six weeks to the number of 10000 copies.
1t will be seen, doubt not, to reach 200,-
900 copies. 1t is the best praised and the
worst damned novel of which have
knowledge. Doubleday, Page & Company
state that the reviews of it printed dur
ing its first month of life would fill a
volume of 1000 closely printed pages.
have read extracts from perhaps fifty
writer's, and while it is abused with in
tense bitterness by a dozen of these, the
remainder have only warm praise for it
The severest and most brilliant of the re
views appeared in the Philadelphia Ledger