The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-12-04

| sential to Christian progress at home
as well for the enlightenment of the
heather who sit in darkness, is not
only for more money and more men,
| but for the earnest cooperation of
| all evangelical churches in the field.
| In Cuba, SO the bishop said, the Meth
hEists would mot bpen a mission station
| in a city under ten thousand if occu-
pied by some other branch of the
| evangelical church. Wouldn't it he a
| good idea if that sensible rule could
be sent back from the foreign fed to
| the home field! How often, right here
in North Carolina, where we find one
| denomination fully covering the field
/ in small town, we see another de-
| nomination come in, build a church,
and go to work to "get it's share and
report that it "has built many new
| churches" There are scores of villages
| in North Carolina, where there are
four good preachers and each preach
| ing to a handful of people. when the
whole population cannot we'll support
more than one minister. Wouldn't it
be great idea if the plan put in opcr-
alton in Cuba could be put in opera
ton in small towns in North Carolina!
It would help all the churches in the
long run and do away with SO many
struggling little churches trying hard
to maintain themselves. 1t would do
more than that: it would unite the
people of the village and end deuou-
national differences that are not help
full.
Is this a utopian dream? If so,
am persuaded that, like many such
dreams, there is more in il than in
some things that we see with I'm eye
open.
This is the first time a Methods.
Annual Conference has been held in
Henderson 1t is the common remark
that it was never more elegantly en-
tertained. All homes are open and
the Henderson people attend thu scs-
sion of the conference in large num-
bers. The conference has fallen in
love with Henderson and Henderson
has fallen in love with the circuit
riders. 1t is case of love at sight on
both sides and will abide. AS the
host of the conference the militant
and brainy pastor, Rev. L. l.. Nash,
d. D., is at his best. IIe is one of
the strong and viriie Wesleyans whose
long service has been crowned With
great success. No man in the church
has done more to plant Methodist
churches in weak fields than DR.. Nash.
**
How Henderson has grown! 1t was
a prosperous and rapidly growing town
when it was my good fortune to visit
it for the first time, in 1885 when
the whole county turned out in
homage to Senator Vance, in whose
honor the county had been named.
Henderson was then about one-third
as large as now but it was on the
crest of the wave of progress. Tobacco
was high, new factories were being
built, and it looked like tobacco was
going to make Henderson another
Durham But that was before the
blight of the Tobacco Trust fell upon
this section. When the trust, by vir-
tue of it's monopoly. sent tobacco down
from thirty cents a pound to six cents
pound on this market, Henderson
staggered under the blow. It's growth
was checked and it looked like it was
doomed to remain IL small village.
Property went down and down, the
postoffice receipts fell off, and popula-
ton Il n1 ltFf OF
eight years ago the progressive men
of Henderson, seeing that Henderson
could not grow to large proportions
without factories that give employ
ment to labor, began to build cotton
factories. There are two here now
the Henderson and the Harriet. TO
show how great factors they are in
HenderSons growth it is but neces-
sary to say that they give employ
ment to one thousand people and
it requires twenty thousand bales each
year to keep them going. They mark
the present Southern and Northern
boundaries of Henderson, but the
growth of the town is steady, and if
the town continues to grow these fac
tories will soon be ~ the heart of She
town.
One of the most successful OF Hen
derson's newest industries As the Cor
bett Buggy Company. 1t was organ
| lied only few years ago on a
small scale. Intelligent management
| caused the business to grow and last
| year one thousand buggies were man
ufactured. The stock of the company
| brings 1855. Not many years ago Hen
| derson and adjacent points were good
| places for drummers for Cincinnati
| buggies. They now give this country
| the "go-by.' The Corbett buggies are
! SO good and SO popular the people will
| use no others. The success of this
company shows what Southern brains
and skill can do. The South will never
get rich until it makes what it needs
and utilizes it's own skill for turning
! out the finished product.
Speaking of the South's own sk!ll,
recalls the fact that in the hende~-
son cotton mills no Northern super