The Washington times., 1904-06-05

smut out the lgnt enurely. Ire DOy ,
possessions were an extra shirt and 10
cents in money. done up In a smack"
and swung from one hand. His only
food was a glass of buttermilk
Founding a Newspaper.
In one OF the little houses nestled
among the hills in Bakersville town
ship the runaway found a friend. This
was a preacher the Rev w. c.
Bowman. a man who loved boys and
understood manliness. He was easily
persuaded by the newcomer 10 look
about for work for him to do. and
when the two together found the plant
/ Of the defunct Mccall Marion" as
tho Bakersville public ledger was called.
their plans to buy it fitted like screw
in a nut.
The preacher" was to be the editor.
the boy the foreman. II fell to the lat
/ ter, then. 70 investigate the shop. What
| he found would have driven a member
of one of our union "chapels" half
crazy. AL the type mad been pied"
and thrown into old barrels: the press
was old-style Washington" a full
brother to that on which Ben Franklin
published his almanac and not i'm
proved by age. For nearly a montiathe
new foreman worked over the type.
I sorting long primer from agate and
nonpareil from BREWER. But in a month
the work was done. the office racks
were fun. and the purchase Of the Nc
Call Marion" was justified.
Young PritchaTd had learned to write
~ this time-h6w, nobody knows. This
New knowledge enabled him 10 do the
local work on the paper. set the type.
/ &c the printing and otherwise con-
/ tribute 10 the first issue OF the "Bak-
ersville Independent" His wage was
SS5 a month. Before that quarrel in
the garden in JOnesboro his wage was
so for three years: and he had lost
even that by running away. In Bakers
vile he found room and board for SO
a month. After that he did not need
to split kindling at night to buy books
Reading and Re-Reading.
He did buy books-by the dozen. First
he read an exhaustive history of North
| Carolina. In a week he knew the chief
/ events in that history by heart and In
month he was an authority on the
/ lives of his States most active gov
ernors. He broadened his study 10 that
Of the United States as a nation. and
| pursued the same course of careful.
diligent re-reading until he knew the
book from preface to index. Then some
one directed him to Livy and Plutarch.
and accident put in his hands a life OF
Henry Clay. Perhaps it was that acct
dent which eventually carried him into
the Senate He himself has said more
than once that he took his political
principles from his first knowledge of
the great Kentucky commoner
But politics could not monopoIize his
mind. Even the foreman OF a news
paper printing office feels the charm Of
genuine story telling. The boy had
heard in Jonesboro of Dickens and
Scott, and now he was to learn what
those writer's were al first hand Curl
Gus books they were--those copies of
''Gvanhoe" and oliver Twist" which
found their way into that little noun
tain village. They were brown cked
magazines - some from Edinburgh.
| some from London, and some from
Philadelphia-and they must have cost
fully dollar an installment
Some OF the subscribers 10 the ''Bak-
! ersville Independent sent in their remit
! tances OF scrip" or farm produce by
their sons. and some Of those sons were
! students at a college a few miles away
Mars Hill University. On Saturday
afternoons those boys debated vigorous
~ 70 prove that the pen was mightier
than the sword and that the end OF all
government was the peace Of it's citizens.
Pritchard looked toward these discus
sions as the other country boys looked
| toward the city Before long he was
admitted 70 take part in them and one
| who knew him In those days IS author
| ity that he was admitted because he
asked IN plain, direct, manly fashion
that they should take him in even
| though he was not enrolled at the col
| lege-
A Ten Years Struggle With Law.
Pritchard found that getting an educa.
ton in this way took time. Indeed. II
/ took time enough TO discourage nine men
out Of ten Time enough 10 make the
"Bakersville Independent" a Republican
and not an independent paper. Time
enough TO give him a new ''boss"-the
! Hon. G. T. G. Deake, a carpet-Da gging
1 gentleman from the North whose wife
/ proved one Of the foreman's best friends.
| Time enough 10 put young Pritchard In
! the Internal Revenue Service and train
| his courage and self-command as his
/ mind and heart were being trained.
| Time enough to give him a county repu-
/ tation as a speaker who "dahed to speak
/ Republican"
/ An event Of more moment than any OF
| these came ABOUT al TINS same lllue
| The young printer was married. He
was then hardly twenty and his brides
years corresponded TO his own. But the
couple made up in resolution and in
dustry what they lacked IN experience.
and in all the years that followed until
! this brave. strong. womanly lass from
the mountains died in a great city hun
dreds OF miles away. they walked side
] by side. higher and higher in the ma
tcr!al plane Of life. Her name was Au-
/ gusta Ray, and her father was a farmer.
| They rented their first home. II was a
| small house near the road and on the
edge Of d farm OF fifty acres. They did
| the work themselves--the groom with
a pillow and a harrow, andt his sweet
heart with broom and a dishcloth But
they were not content with that They
! agreed the head OF the new family
/ should study law.
The difficulties were disheartening In
the first place they could not afford 10
buy the text books. Furthermore the
farm took all the work-day and they
had no instructors. Yet they found q
way out; and they did so simply be-
! cause they We're honestly In earnest