The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-08-14
The News and OBJ
server.
Continued from Page Four.)


count and established an amateur
paper about the size of two hands
which was called The Cornucopit
and had for its motto "multum III
paryo." 1t was financial success, for
nearly every merchant and profess
sional man in Wilson paid Is cents a
month for his advertisement and a
few paid the munificent sum OF SO
cents a month. The income sometimes
reached eight dollars a month and the
expense was about six dollars.
AT that time there were
twenty-five or thirty boys in diff
ferent towns in the state who were
editing amateur papers. We met at
Goldsboro and organized The North
Carolina Press Association and
thought we were ''some pumpkins.
Upon the adjournment of that meet
ing, the late Mr.. VIM. A. Davis (Who
had started in journalism as boY
of oxford, then secretary of the State
Press Association, invited the boy
editors Ct reckon the average age of the
editors was 1 5 years. to go to Catawba
Springs to attend the convention of
the editors. He furnished passes Chat
was a day when passes were plentifuD
from Goldsboro to Catawba Springs
for some of the boys. and upon his
'say-so" the conductor passed the
balance of the boys without money or
ticket. 1T was here that l FIRST Inc
the men who had long been great men
in my boyish eyes, chief among whom
was the venerable Col. r. Il. Creecy,
the late Col. VIM. l.. Saunders, the
late Jordan Stone, John ID. Cameron
and others who were then directing
the press of the State. l was OH the
mountain top, communing with the
immortals of the profession that l
thought-and [ still think-above
all others. The regulars treat
ed the amateurs with great
kindness, but had their own fun out
of us. AS / have stated. we had 10
railroad tickets to return home on,
and in a body we went to call Oh Col.
Saunders and Col. Creecy and Mr..
Jordan Stone to request them to get us
return passes. We told them
frankly that we didn't have enough
money to pay our way back home, and
unless they could arrange passes we
would have to walk. l shall never
of Col. Saunders and Col. Creecy as
they gravely took out their pencils,
how many miles each boy
would have to walk to get home, and
asked each boy how many miles he
could walk per day. They then figured
exactly how many days it would take
for each one to get back home. They
youthful editors on the tender-hook
all day, laughing heartily as they
would tell the long-faced amateur or
the interesting places he would visit
on his walk to his home. After we
had spent a whole day in the fear
that we would end our first Journals
tic jaunt counting cross-ties these
great-hearted men arranged the trans
portation Ct never knew how and. 4
H.
teur editors never enjoyed an outlEl.
so much. Col. Creecy from that day
has always said "Josephus and | were
amateur editors together when we
were boys" And / have always loved I
him for the fun he had out OF oar
and thanked him and the !
others for their present help in time /
VI trouble.
I continued to print a little anna |
teur paper, off and on, until in 1881 |
I bargained to purchase one-third in |
terest in the Wilson Advance and be-
came local editor of the paper. The |
next year 1 purchased another 1hlrd, |
and the year following was the sole |
owner with a mortgage on the plant. !
1t was a happy and proud day Tor
me- and 1 worked on that paper day |
and night, enjoying the hardest work, |
with zeal that nothing but con-
suming love of journalism could nave
given me. 1 had the satisfaction of
working among the most app 'eciative
people in the world. who overlooked
my mistakes and gave me encourage
ment in every progressive step. Inc
of the paper more than
doubled i'm three years and The Wilson
Advance was a weekly visitor i'll the
homes of about $500 people III a
dozen counties adjacent to wilson. In
the meantime. in copartnershlp WIN
my brother / established the klnSton
Free Press at Kinston. and was nail
owner and editor of weekly paper
nj Rocky Mount / could say: My
three papers-all weeky' anu 80
pect the term weakly" would nave
better described them. All these pa
ners were kept chock full of locai
banpenines. even if editorial matter
mad To be crowded out. and in politics
they were of the red-hot Democrauc
tvpe. When Gen. Ransom protesteo
10 Postmaster General Howe that my
mother, who had been postmaster III
Wilson many years, ought not TO De
removed. Howe turned to his papers
i'm the case took out several copies
Of the Wilson Advance containing red
hot Democratic editorials, ana saiu.
us not this paper edited by her son
and Senator Ransom replied: III
course it is. Do you suppose, howe
4 could permit young man w Sio"
nm near me in North Carolina who
wouldn't be a red-hot Democrat" me
Postmaster General laughed but later
mt out his snick-er-snee ana re
publican politician was appointed pc
cause of the vigorous Democratic edi-
torials / had written. man VINO
will be silencel or bought by an once
cannot edit paper fit to be read.
In the early part of 1850 Went 70
chanel Hill to read law, having two
objects. in view 1. 1 had quit school
before completing my educatloh anu
thought a course in law would IN part.
make up for the educational denciency
which | have always felt. thousli.
I might continue to edit the AdVance
and practice law, forgetting thaI eau eau
profession is jealous mistress. belole
7 had finished my law course, CAPT
Randolph A Shotwell who had re-
GENTLY consolidated the Farmer anu
Mechanic and State Chronicle dieu.
At once there sprung up in me desire
To do what 1 had always intended 70
do one day-edit a daily paper III
Raleigh. That ambition had been ever
present with me from the time was
the Wilson correspondent of the Rai-
eigh Observer. when edited by HAZE
and Saunders, though l had never