The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-03-29


dred and sixty eight towns in the State
he visited seventy of them that are of
from the railroad, and all Of these have
decreased in population since 1890 None
Of these towns have settled pastors or
preachers and the churches are abandon
ed or have preaching at irregular inter-
walls and the attendance hardly ever ex-
ceeds twenty-five persons. The Sabbath
schools are equally deserted The once
busy plants of small Industries are dead
and the people farm only for the bare
necessities of life. Houses, barns and
fences are going to decay and the little
mills that were on the creek have
tumbled down and the dams have wash
ed away. Here and there you will see
a stately mansion sheltering some de-
generate family in the back rooms while
the vacant front greets you with the
silence OF the tomb. Sometimes you will
find an old man and woman alone in an
old ancestral home. / found a mother
and her two sons and two old maids in
one house not one of whom could read.
The intermarriage of near relatives or
not marrying at all is common and
bachelors and divorced men and widow
ers have housekeepers and they I'M
blushingly cohabit with them and young
girls become grass widows by the time
they are sixteen.
where is all this?" said my wife. Il
don't believe a word OF it. 1t is some
newspaper LEA fake made up by some
reporter" I read on. In one town
found the usual Saturday night dance
going on in an old vacated tavern ana
they danced and devilled and drank until
Sunday morning. Sunday is no more oo-,
served than IT is In Chicago, for they
hoe and dig and gather hay all the same
as on week days. Tllteracy, insanity and
imbeciity are very marked! / found one
family in which both parents were idiots
and had raised up a family of idiots. IN
another home or house l found poor
old father taking care of three mother
less children. all idiots.
81 don't believe word of it," said my
wife. There is no such people in this
country. What paper are you reading
FROM"
One can hardly conceive of the filth
and vice reigning in these country places
called homes--a barbarism differing from
the city slums only in its stagnant iner-
tia and touched as little by church in
fiuences as If in the heart of Africa. The
country people all over the State are
generally without ambition, improvident,
ignorant, not able to read or write, loose
in their family relations, socially cor
rupt, given to drink, and some to the
opium habit And these are the towns
where, half a century ago, lived the best
families of the State Among them the
u nd hi q h.
bolts, the Barnes and Donald G. Mitchell
and others.
And now let me tell you, my dear wife,
/ am reading from the Hartford Times
and this is only short portion of the
report read In New Haven recently by
Rev. Mr.. Hutchins, Bible colporteur,
of Connecticut.
This report is fully accredited to be
true and the editor of The Times tries
to tone it down by saying, THE same
described by Mr.. Hutchins for
are common to all the older
States" Rev. George Horn, of Massaehu
sets. is also a Bible colporteur for that
State and he said in Boston the other
day: 81 have driven all over New Eng
land with my own horses and my con-
yiction is there is no immortality in any
western mining town that will compare
with what you find few miles from any
New England town. Mr.. Hutchins OBJ
servation corresponds exactly with my
own
Good friends. kind friends, what is to
be done about this. But the editor of
The Times is mistaken when he says the
same conditions are common to all the
No hau 10
in Georgia In some of our mountain
counties the people are illiterate, but
they are honest and moral and attend
church and observe the marriage relation
and obey the laws of the land and make
the best soldiers the world ever saw.
They have courts twice a year and it
takes only half week to clear the
criminal dockets.
Now, | was thinking that as Boston
and Hartford and New Haven had sent
big lot of money down here to edu-
cate and reform our negroes il would be
nothing but fair for us to send a lot OF
the graduates up there to do missionary
work in Connecticut and Massachusetts.
These negro graduates couldn't teach
them the lost art of making wooden nut
megs, but they could teach school and
preach and the New England people could
pay them for 1t and keep their money
at home. Something must be done and
done quick or the old Puritan race Will
became extinct. l reckon these colored
graduates would make good missionaries.
They have never tried anything else.
When my good friend Mr. t. K ogles-
by sent me his book. ''Some Truths OF
History--The South Vindicated,' l was
too sick to peruse it carefully. Since
have gotten better l have reread it
every page-and am free to say it is the
most comforting little book of 26O pages
| have vet found. 1t is mastery and
as true and solid as a stone wall. lie
has certainly indicated the South and
nailed the lies and ISLANDERS TO the mast
head. | feel like l have defender In
mine own household, and yet there IS
not a malignant expression in 1t. IL is
gracefully done and would bring conVlc-
tion to any mind, north or south, that
was open to conviction. Every youth IN
the land should buy a copy and absorb
its contents, for it is as readable as
romance. l regard it as the best con-
tribution to Southern historical literature
that has yet appeared, Send Sl25 TO