The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-04-30

Every year there come with the party
some two or three otherwise broad
minded and able men who are about
as intimate with the South as the
average Irishman is with the Koran.
Consequently, there are occasional
breaks" isolated utterances of an
unfortunate character. These things
cannot be fairly charged up to the
conference or be taken as indicative
of it's spirit. They are the utterances
sometimes the lack of,taste-of the
untaught For it should be borne in
mind that it is the Northern man who
is doing the learning. That the
breaks" are so few and that they
are so generally deprecated by the
majority of the visitors IS a fine proof
of the fact that the conference in it's
larger development is attaining to it's
ideal of brotherly sympathy and sec
tional cooperation.
Interest In Columbia.
The conference certainly captured
Columbia Never did a whole com
munity take a greater or more undi
vided interest in an occasion. The
town overlooked with teachers, col
lege professors, State and county
school superintendent. Socially
there was constant entertainment, yet
beneath the surface of good-fellow-
ship the current Of the serious mean
ing of the gathering itself was ever
felt. Educators are great takers of
shop; and Columbia and her people
were eager to hear. The meetings in
the spacious opera house were, even
the most technical, like that of the
State superintendent, before full
houses. There was no slurring of the
program. The conference worked its
full time each day and enjoyed itself
hugely between times. While, as /
stated above, there are traditions In
the conference history of unwise and
irritating utterances, nothing of the
sort occurred at the Columbia meet
ing. There was plain speaking in
plenty from both sections, but not an
indication of hurtful prejudice. Ana
this applies as well to the constant
informal discussic in the Hobbies of
the hotels and at the various recep-
tons as to the public gatherings
A glance at the printed slips of
those attending the conference who
had registered, revealed the names OF
perhaps four or five hundred of the
best known and most influential of
the educators of the entire South
Every college was represented Every
Southern State had it's contingent The
Ogden party was composed of people
many of whose names one had al
ready seen SO often that he felt as if
he knew the people. 1t would be a
task to catalogue even the men who
went from North Carolina. One met
Tar Heels on every corner. OF course
there were DR.. McIver, energetic as
usual always on the go; Dr. Venable,
large, dignified, giving the vivid i'm
preston of strength that goes with a
man of marked reserve: Dr. Alder
man. perhaps the most noticed man
at the conference from either North
or South; DR.. Dabney, genial brainy,
IorceIul man, a one-time adopted
North Carollnian; superintendent J.
Y. Joyner; Clarence Poe; Robert Con-
nor; G. l.. Coon; Harry Heck, now of
New York. and many others
But perhaps as the mark of the
criticism referred to, and by virtue
of the impulse of acquaintance of the
conference itself interest chiefly CEN
tered in the Ogden visitors.
Some of The Ogden Partg.
Mr.. ogden, himself, is an optimistic
curiosity. He is ever present. always
approachable, always smiling. For a
man of his years and his size he is a