The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-11-24
MRS. CORNELIA PHILLIPS SPENCER
pv MRS. GEORGE t. WINSTON.

is not hidebound nor fanatical. She
has been a frequent attendant at
churches of other denominations. For
years she kept burning the fires of re-
ligion on the altar of the little Pres
byterian church in Chapel Hill, almost
by her individual exertions; but she
found time always to bring burning
torch of faith and enthusiasm to her
brethren elsewhere in the State by let
ters, by messages, by trumpet calls
through the columns OF the North
Carolina Presbyteriana.
Mrs. Spancer's literary work has
been varied and perhaps lacking in per-
lnanence, but it did it's work. She wrote
when and where and what was
needed in North Carolina; now relig-
ious letters to newspapers; now hymns
and songs for University festivals; now
clarion calls to the people to throw off
the political yoke; now songs of
triumph at the departure of human
yultureS from sacred seats of learning;
now appeals to the young; now remi-
niscences of the past with golden les
son of future warning; now spicy
sketches of men, women and events
shot with arrows OF wit. humor and
pleasantly; now volleys of hard horse
sense, overthrowing whole battalions
of nonsense and folly in fashion, edu-
cation, politics and religion.
1t was as a neighbOr and friend;
as q housekeeper, a giver of bread to
the poor, visitor of the sick and
needy, a lover of the wild woods, q
friend of everybody and everything in
Chapel Hill and North Carolina that /
knew Mrs. Spencer best and remember
her most vividly. Early each spring we
would go out to seek the dog tooth
violets and late each fall to gather the
last lingering autumn leaves. She knew
every tree, bush, flower, stream and
rock within miles of Chapel Hill. She
knew them for she loved them and
poured out her soul upon them in song
and pictures. Her skill as an artist
was very great, some of her sketches
| in oil of the native wild flowers around
! Chapel Hill / now have before me. as
fresh and beautiful as true to nature
almost as the originals. Her own
| home was full of her beautiful handi-
work. paintings en- canvas on paper.
| on china, on tiles and on placqueS;
nothing meretricians, no fad nor fash
| iOnatly frivollty, but everywhere the
genuineneSs. simplicity, sweetness and
! truthfulneSs of nature. Her love of
home was her strongest trait. She
loved the very floors and doors amt
walls of her habitation. 1t was the
English and Dutch inheritance in her,
the basis of the strength and cf the
greatness of these two wonderful races.
Mrs. Spencer was the most omniyorous
reader / ever knew. When DR.. Woods s
library of several thousand volum IS
of special scientific books was added to
the Uniyers ty library, Mrs. Spencer lit
orally went through it, and got what
was in it. She knew almost by heart
/ the great masters in English literature
and read and reread them again and
/ again. She read plenty of trash, too:
but like Macauley, did it quickly and
seemed able almost to know intuit-
lively the contents of a trashy book.
| Her mind is most virile and sane
! She judges for herself, and she has
a Judgment that might represent the
| average judgment, the final judgment
! of her generation. North Carolina
owes to herself the honoring of its
most healthful, useful and noble type
| of woman. The State has not yet
! placed in statuary hall at Washington
| the statues of her two most distin-
! guished children. Other States have
! placed there only men; typical men.
| Let North Carolina place there her
most eminent typical man, Zezulon B.
| Vance, and her most eminent typical
| woman, Correlia Phillips Spencer, life
| long friends and patriots and co-labor-
ers for the redemption of their State
| from its greatest thralldom and for
it's everlasting peace, happiness and
! prosperity.
| Raleigh, n. c., Nov. %.