The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-08-14
The Raleigh Obser-
yer.
'(Continued from Page One.)

his connection with the paper ceased.
Mr.. Hale had thus the entire burden
to bear. He had spent all of his own
money and he declined to involve
further the kind offers of substantial
assistance. and under the advice of his
counsel made an assignment for the
benefit of his creditors. When car
ried the paper to the clerks Office it
seemed to me as heavy as lead. 1t
carried with ii so much splendid labor
and so many high hopes. but the end
had come and it was only to meet 1T
in a manful way. He did this to the
end of. HIS finger-tips
Looking back over what now seems
dream | wonder at the company of
men, nearly all with military titles won
by devotion. laboring in the highest
and lowest departments of an eXacting
and never ending business with cheer
fulneSS and unSelfiShneSS and going
down TO another defeat with another
cheerfulness and a determination to
begin the fight over again on the NOR
row. 1t makes me recall an inscrip-
ton on the monument of one of the
Dukes of Devonshire, which read
somewhat after this manner:
What we spent we had.
What we had we lost,
What we gave We have.
The present editor of The News and
Observer has this gift in a fullness
mat he seems unaware of and that
indeed is one of it's charms ANY
clever man can write an editorial but
to write TO all ones friends at once
and TO have something for each one is
gift. and a marvellous and happy
gift.
William Lawrence Saunders
CnInnal
by birth and by mental construction
could have been nothing else. An
aristocrat from the Gloucester settle
ment in Virginia his forbears like ali
their fellow colonists. were all revo-
lutionists and patriots. They were and
are TODAY radical. When they lost
their resDect and love for the King
they became Democrats forever, they
were sincerely and really for the people
and believed that none but the people
should rule the people. Kindly as
woman who has known sorrow, he
recognized the divisions in the life
,ie came into and he was not at war
with them. Ha looked phiiosophically
ut the storm of war as IL came over
ihe land and prepared himself as
'-nethodicaiiv and as complacently as
he had for his first professional life
the law.
Exchanging a caDtainS bars for a
colonelSl stars only meant a larger
hoid for his military abilities in ser
vice of his State AMI it did not elate
him. He neither worried nor muir
INJURED under his wounds. He knew
that Qevastations followed war as well
as that blind passion preceded it and
ne SET to work TO protect the victims
from the vultures
He was said to be the emperor of
the Invisible empire as the Ku-Klux
Khan was known in North Carolina.
one of the most wonderful organiza-
lions that the busy world has forgot.
Born in the unutterable confusion that
fell upon the insurrectionary States.
when the large garr1sOns of troops
which had maintained some Semblance
of order were Withdrawn, it had the
purpose To check and cope with the
secret Union League by means OF
which the scum of the receding armies
had banded together the credulous
blacks in sworn hostility to their
former friends and had robbed them
for this injury thew did them of the
first money they had ever handled as
free folks. Its rites were read in the
lights of arson's torches and the gro
tuesque and silly ritual could not have
bound men together unless 1T had been
in the presence of impending servile in
surrection or for the protection of Wo-
men and children instead of for benefit
of each other He distinguished a riot
from an instruction and he knew
that the latter had to be fought to- the
death at the first pass. Will we ever
know the infinite woes this organIza-
ton warded off? The danger over
the empire should have dissolved like
the real armies of the republic when
war with the mother country was con-
Guided. But the evil that is inbred
in all secret societies, not benevolent.
worked in this and there were, OF
course, sporadic abuses for personal
revenge. The Radical party was quick
TO sieze on this unhappy conquence
and having begun secret orders for
selfish purposes such as the intimida-
ton OF the old electorate-whaI was
left OF lit grew painfully sensitive
over a few lasnes administered to
more or less guilty. backs and the
darker the hue of the back the more
horrible were the commissions that
were cast. Was IL unlike the incident
of young robber in Edmond About's
King of the Mountains, who, when
his band was sacKlng d sleeping VII
lage, took baby deserted in the
terror of flight and hurled it into the
blazing cottage to destroy all traces OF
the nights raid and who was mex
pressiblv shocked the next dav. while
enjoying a hearty meal stolen from
the destroyed village, to f1nd that ne
was eating meat on F'riday But the
time for punishment had come anu
many men of consequence In all the
ways of life were harried and hailed
to those high in the halls and with
them came Colonel Saunders. He
proved a most obdurate. hostile and
silent witness of his vows. Nothine
of favor or fear moved him TO saw
more than that he was advised py
counsel. that mis- answers might tend
TO eliminate him. and these last worGs
ne said with a stoliditv that did nor
conceal his pride in his alleged asso-
ciates. In the bitterness OF spirit or
those days speedy Judgment has, 1t Is
to be feared. done injustice to some
unwilling actors In that savage drama,
None wanted to be witnesses of them
selves. Some incensed at the enor-
nifty of the few forgot on the instant
the animas that led them into the or
der and the good it did and in shame
said more than they should Acting
in genuine unselfshness others thought
that it would be for the happiness Of
their neighbors and themselves TO
have done with it forever and pre-
ferred the odium of the present in the