The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-08-13
Greatest Name That Links
Old Order With New.
SOME OF HIS PUPILS
His Name Has Appeared Seldom
:. in The Public Press But He Has
Written 1t indeIibIY Upon the
the Minds and Hearts OF the
Men He Trained for
Usefulness.
BY III. s. WARD.

BY III. s. WARD.
To the Editor: l want to contribute
to your educational edition brief men
ton of one of the great teachers of
this State whom L have known. If
/ could paint him exactly as he is and
photograph him just as / saw him and
knew him, 1 would write an interest
ing and useful piece of biography to
those in touch and sympathy with the
educational progress of this State and
in the rich treasures of intellectual
merit that are locked up in the great
store house of her manhood. We are
often told, and we frequently realize
that North Carolina is lamentably ig-
norant of her own. The test of merit
in present day opinion is unfortunate
ly, to a great extent, the frequency
of appearance and the length of space
i'm current newspaper columns a most
unreliable test. BY this test he fails,
for reasons l shall attempt to give
Ny sketch will not be satisfactory to
myself nor to his friends who
know him best, for 1t is embarrassing
and difficult to write Of the living. be-
sides, in writing of our friends, we are
open to the charge of peculiar personal
takes our our statements and views
by common estimation out of the
realm of history and impugns them
as eulogies, personal to the writer
Lord Macauley, even in his criticisms
of the highest grades of biography,
has emphasized this fact by the strong
sarcastic words: "A biographer is a
literary vassal, bound by the immem-
orial law of his tenure to do homage
4. ,lxy a
for after all his drastic criticisms OF
Boswell, he went him one better
by trying to palm off his Vassalage
i'm the form of the history of great
nation.
In the year of 1892. at the period
of my advent to manhood, 1t was my
extraordinary good fortune to fall I'M
der the intellectual training OF capt.
Julian III. Picot at the old and famous
school site at Buckhorn HEREFORD
county.
Under the moss covered boughs of
a grove of immense oaks (and under
whose shades imagination could well
draw a picture of William Cullen
Bryant, catching the inspiration OF ms
great poem, Gods First Temples)
about three miles from the western
bank of the Meherrin river, just above
its confluence with the Chowan, about
L
seat, and six from Murfreesboro, this
great educator established his school
about As years ago. The neighbor-
hood is known as Manneys Neck. Ii
represents i'm it's citizenship and its
natural resources OF SOIL the fmest
country | have ever seen. There is
a certain spot near the old school
house where 80 years ago, or there
abouts, e. one could see the splendid
cA 4
sentatives of the alumni of national
colleges and universities, mostly New
England. How many other rural
communities of North Carolina. at any
period of its history could claim this
degree of educational distinction?
Time has of course made changes
there as elsewhere. for those people
like the others of the State had to
turn away from mind building gem
tration ago, in a collective sense, ana
build up homes and fortunes laid
waste by war and cultivate local po-
litical preservation, by methods that
had different tendencies from those
of former days; SO, that Goldsmith
could write some lines about 1T now,
In the strain of his Deserted village
Capt Picot labored there long and
we'll and is still teaching a small class
Cor was when we last heard) but the
specimens OF his workmanship lelI
away from his into other countries
and scattered abroad into near about
every State and in all parts of the
world, illustrating. what a modern poet
has said;
1.-The student bending to parchment
and page.
While the midnight oil burns low.
Delves on and on for the way is long
That the searcher for truth must go
But a glow overspreads his strange
wan face.
As he lets the last page fall,
For into the quiet Swallowed room
Comes creeping the cities call"
Without hesitation / shall rank him
among the very first of the States great
educators and prove it by his works
through the witnesses | shall intro
duce of those who received their early
tr:lining at his feet. If this estimate
awakes surprises from modern news
paper readers and those who look to
find merit only i'm the columns of the
dailies and some one should ask IN
the language of Mr.. Hayne, who is
this great Nathan Dane?" my explain