The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-09-24
BE GOOD! YOU MAY BE--YET!

"Be Good! Be Goodv Your Father Said
Though the Way Be Dark and Storm-my,-
'"Yoa Yet May Be the President,
'Or Gin-e-ral in the Arrm-myv'
There were one or two marks of
character and history in the person.
atty of the fat excursionist as evident
as either the redneSs of his neck or
the measure of prosperity evinced by
the black seal ring with its slim
border of gold, with which from time
to time he vaguely included the land
scape in a large and smugly compla-
cent gesture of explanation.
Evidently he was the head of his
town and the boss of his family. One
could see him, Invested of his COM
pany coat and hat which now made
awkward his frame and concealed the
liberal curves of his well-fed figure,
as he dictated politics in his shirt
sleeves at his store or waved an ar
bitrary knife above the mutton at the
family board. He was a self-suffici-
ent man with proper pride and an
Astounding confidence of opinion. As
the car proceeded on it's way he ex-
pounded the sights in a voice which
beneficently included such of his
town people as were aboard in free
course of lectures and reduced his
portly wife and over-fiowing progeny
to a state of rapt and awe-struck adj
miration. AS their lord and master
ransacked the attic of his mind for
the "reminiscences of his former travels
they sat i'm a silence that could almost
be heard to applaud and with such
a sort or pious abnegation as the
very religious are apt to display when,
trusting in providence, they run their
toes against a stone misplaced by
fate. There had been a timid little
rustling on the part of the family
group when the car stopped for 4
moment at the State Museum and a
score or more of other excursionists.
red-faced with wonder. had boarded
the car like a company of chattering
parrots that had found a sleeping til
ger. But the pater-familias did not
even speak his dissent. AS his watery
blue eyes encountered the excited
faces of the Museumites, their en-
thusiasm vanished as though it had
been an immodest exposure and SUI
periority which she felt but could
not explain so Strengthened the wife
of the big man that the back of her
black silk. stretched to accommodate
the habitual hump between her
shoulders, hung for a while like j
loose pouch upon the erectness of her
pride.
Only the second boy dared to look
back as the bell changed and the
car moved off,
"Gee!' whispered a boy in front,
Ibid you see the Gorilla?"
Sure" whispered his companion
and then. ST bet that whales jaw
bone was longer than a swingle-tree!
Manifestly, that was lie. but the
second boy twisted again in his seat
= rnf ainly mo n
hat his lip trembled perilously:
Nov that" broke in the head of
the herd as he waved his invariable
gesture,"is the statue of Zeb Vance.
The smallest boy woke up to ask:
"Who was Zeb Vance, Pa?"
''They don't half teach school these
days he complained for the benefit
ears were getting red. "Zeb Vance.
he continued was Confederate
General who took the cotton over to
Europe to sell it during the war. At
forwards he was made Governor ana
went to the United States Senate. He
was a great man and he invented free
silver which if they had passed It
would have given us sixteen dollars
for every one" He abandoned Vance
politically for a second to point a
moral: "Once when Vance was maxi
ing a speech he stretched out MS
hands and said There is no dirt on
my handsir "a passing gieam
of perplexity shone for moment IN
the fiorid face. what he meant TO
teach by that was-er-was that, as
the Bible says cleanliness is next to
Godliness.'"
The young school teacher in front
at this point became red all over put
now there were dimpleS Under her
ears. Paterfamilias, having escaped
to his satisfaction, went on however
with renewed confidence. AS the car
turned a corner an immense structure
of brick, turreted and with DIE
lawn. brought him up with a turn.
Only for a moment did he lose MS
aplomb in his amaze: a..
That" said he. with CONVICTION, Is
the Governors mansion.
Hardly. had he spoken when there
issued from the interior of the man
sion a swarm of hundred girls
pa" exclaimed the smallest boy
In great excitement: "Say, Pa, are
they the Governors daughters?
Pa was uD against it now. We
waited breathless for his reply. II
came a little late. with a small gurgle
nj the throat. but in the gusty voice
which dominated the car.
"No." he replied even so much OF
a family man as himself renoHnclng
the inference. 81 reckon the Cover
nor's wife has been having sewing
circle or something like that.
"Oh!" gasped the boy at the liber-
ality of the entertainments while the
car shook and then. as the real Gov
errors domicile came into view:
Say, Pa. the President lives there.
don't he %
And Just then came the sweet clear
voice of the school teacher in the seat
ahead, and it must have been like a
white hot polka to the fat citizen who