The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1903-11-05
ELOQUENT ADDRESS
OF Prof. Edwin A. Alderman, of ::Tu-
lane University, at the Reunion OF
NONRESIDENT North .Carollnian ). in
Greensboro.

NONRESIDENT North .CaroIinians $. in
Greensboro.
DR.. Alderman's speech was as fol-
| lows:
II have come long journey to be
with you today, my dear friends.
There were duties which held me so
fast that | feared might not be able
to come at all until Sunday, and be-
| lieve me, it was a heart-breaking
thought, for my mind played unceas-
ingly about this scene-these faces
which | knew would be here, thrill,ss
with the spirit of fellowship and good
cheer, and this impressive plain which
| remember so we'll, touched on grass
and leaf and bough with the solemn
beauty of the dying year. | stood on
a spur of the Monadnock Mountains
in far away New Hampshire this sum-
mer and watched with interest the
fires which had been kindled on the
mountain tops, cleaning welcome to
the sons of that State returning to
their old homes. 1t seemed a hard
thing that | should not be among
my own at such an hour, and | am
right glad Of heart that | an here to
render thanks to God, with my
brothers, that it was our fortune to
have been born in North Carolina;
to greet the tender and lofty spirit
that animates the old Common
wealth today, and to have sight OF
the heights OfpOwer and achievement
toward which the old home is forging
it's way.
THE words that l am about to
speak today shall be few in number.
and simple ones of gratitude and
affection and faith rather than of
analysis or criticism or didactics. |
have known some of the great emo
tiOns of life-lOve and ambition and
pride of toll and plain human sorrow,
but | know of no emotion stronger
and more enduring than the emotion
which binds you and me for all the
years to this dear old community. |
have indeed learned to love the good
people with whom my days are now
cast. 1t is Il region of charm and
graciOusness and manliness aud
many virtues. 1t is u happiness to
serve such people, but as the grown
up man, having his battle with life,
finds himself seeing in the face and
life of his old father a beauty and a
dignity and a strength, which had,
perhaps, not revealed themselves to
him in his childhood, SO, think, the
wanderer who has strayed from his
old home has given to him, a power
to see the philosophy and deeper
meaning of the life he has left 1t is
worth while to be expatriated if one
may gain this new sense l see in a
new light EMBELLISHMENTS of North
Carolina, the rare and quaint quail
ties of it's humor giving out the odOr
of the woods and of quiet life. / see
it's sense 81 justice, its patient toler-
ance, until tolerance becomes un-
manly; it's grim steadfastness, its
conservative prOgressiveness, and it's
tender constraining power to make
of man once a North Carolinian a
North Carolinian forever.
II used to think over the dear old
State, because it wouldn't do what |.
forsOoth, wanted it to do, as fast as
|, forsooth, thought it ought to do
it. That fretting was not wholly I'M
worthy, but | realize now that it was
a mere waste of nervous force Incl
dent to the tumults of emotional
youth. The old State, immobile and
unhasting, was making up it's mind
The State of North Carolina has
been born into the serene conscious
ness of its strength, its RESPONSE
bility, its proper part in the great
movement of modern society. | go
nowhere, North or South, that | do
not hear praise of North Carolina If
| go to some community in the
Southwest struggling to ad Just itself
to democratic needs in education,
am sure to hear some speaker say,
Look at North Carolina. See the
courage and resource which she is
displaying in this great problem.
My dear friends, you may be sure
that it makes good music to my ears
to hear this, especially since I know
it to be Gods truth. 1t is the same
if the endeavor be to advance some
community in industrial efficiency
The great North Carolina leaders are
called by name and their achieve
ments recited. 1t is the same if the
question be some question of racial
ENHANCEMENT or human justice
North Cardinals S leadership is ad
verted to and praised. l do not be
lieve the State has bulked so largely
in the public imagination in the two
hundred and forty years of it's his
tory. Let us have sober pride il
this. and let us give sober praise tc
those who have brought it about
The struggle of this State after state
hood and self-consciousness. is one O
, the most interesting stories of The
= great Republic. 1t is right to hon u
the Hoopers and Harveys and c; S
wells and Johnstons and Ashes, who
4 guided the footsteps of the young
, State in its dim beginnings. Honor
is due to the Grahams and Mangum:
and Badgers, who gave dignity anC
stability to its growing youth. Al
q, honor should go to the Vances anC
: Pettigrews and Battles and Ransoms
and Jarvises who bore the burden O
g Htl anu lctolISll uCllOH. LEI us no.
forget, however, to praise and honor
+ the fighters of the present, nor tt
! strengthen with sweet approval ths
hands of those whose work has mad,
e all this possible. You know who they
= are. Ii | were to name them shoulC
' begin with Charles B. Aycock, ant
use up all OF my time calling the roll
They are men who are at work il
education, in manufacturing, in rail
l roads and in press and pulpit. The,
' are men and women who look to til,
future while not forgetting the past
e They are under no sort of bondage
: Their passion is for constuctiveness
their method is education; their faitl
is in the people: their purpose, a.
, grim and stern as any that eve
n