The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-07-03
INCIDENTS
AzROBsERvATIoNs.
BY II. il. GRAY.

The Fourth of July seems a day
that Fate has joined inseparably with
the deeper emotions of the Nation.
One has to be but poor historian TO
correlate, since the Declaration. a
score of events pregnant with signifi-
canoe to the whole people. In some
measure, this fact is readily eXplain3-
BILE; for but a small proportion of
the great corner-stones of history
drop into place free from the guiding
hard of man, and the party that es-
tablishes a policy, the statesman who
lays down a doctrine, as we'll as the
orator who is beside himself once in
a lifetime with eloquence, are sway
ed by the spirit of the day. But why
Blind Chance should take hand,
why the mysterious aim of Destiny,
after finding its mouth-piece in rat
rick Henry, should have continued TO
play its most vibrant chords upon the
human heart at just that time, are
questions whose answer may be found
only in the deep-lying superstition
that in some degree turks always in
the soul of man, behind the most
subtle and the most sober of brains.
The day is essentially spectacular
one-in the character of the things
of which it is significant, and in the
nature of it's observation. That is
we'll; it was born of high passion, it
has received its awful salutes from
American guns on land and sea that
have roared out the most lurid of
the pictures in the Book of Time: it
has known both the eXultation and
the travail of battle-it has come to
stand for most that is grand and elo-
quent and fearfully progressive in the
life of a great people.
1t is we'll to remember these things
tomorrow-to celebrate them. 1t is
good to recall Yorktown and Valley
Forge and Guilford Battle Ground and
MOore's Creek and Santiago; it Will
be profitable to pause for a moment
beside the Washington statue for re-
Election.
But we of the South have another
thing to remember-a thing of a sad
ness that is infinite, yet woven in q
glory SO imperishable as to make of
sorrow a triumph, of pity, pridei
That thing is Gettysburg peer
less army of "Marse Robert" wound
ed almost to the death, backing across
the Potomac with barred teeth while
the host of its enemies, painting with
the exhaustion of a tragedy of the
ages, looked on and dared not follow.
it is the dead that lay in heaps on the
hiilsides, the bloody splotch of grey
uniform beyond the stone wall that
set in Tar Heel frame, the pattern
of an un-dreamed of courage-it is
the Confederate soldier, worn with
the toll of hopeless conflict, torn with
WOUNDS and shaking with fever and
lack of food, plodding through rain
and mud on the 4th of July, 1863, on
a retreat that was conducted with
the precision of a parade in the face
of fire that for any other man
would have meant a rout-and, final
ly, it is r.. e. Lee, that gentleman of
the old school, with the bravery of an
animal at bay, the quality of a wizard
in the strategy of war and the tender
instincts of woman, bowling his
head in the midst of the wreck of
God-like hope to shoulder a blame
that was not his and to give to the
world an example of humility and
generosity that remains unique in his
tory.
The South is long since recon
structed' on plane far above the
special meaning of that sadly mis-
used word. 1t can celebrate the
Fourth with a clear conscience and
a good will. But it must remember;
for, say what we will. it is in the
womb of the past that lies our pres
ent worth and our future hope.
Moved by the Joe Turner renais-
sance, Mr.. T. Jeff Smith, formerly Of
Apex and now of Fuquay Springs, re-
told the other day his famous eXpe-
rience with Mouse BIZ Johnson
one of "Holden's Squires''
The Apex District held at that time
many negroes and several active
lodges of the Union League" and,
on account of their proximity to the
Capital and to the supposed paternal
protection &C the Governor, the newly
emancipated slaves became by swift
degrees Well-nigh unbearable to their
white neighbors. They remained so un-
til one frosty fall night, when one OF
the chief Union LeaguerS went to his
cabin door in response to the whis-
tied call of his clan, only to be blind
ed by a flash of light, deafened by a
loud report and stung 20 distraction
as to his legs by the hornet-like i'm
pact of a liberal load of duck-shot.
The next morning the negroes began
to buzz from their cabins like bees,
and, with one accord, to call upon
Judge" Mouse Bill Johnson for
redress. The Judge was perplexed.