The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-05-28


one to practice law who paid a fee
of twenty dollars to the Clerk of the
Supreme court, qualified under this
law and mounted the bench" (Note:
Judge Richmond M. Pearson lived in
the wild woods" of Yadkin county,
tihrty-fiVe miles from the then near
est railroad station, Winston, and
died January 3rd, 1878, on his way to
Raleigh to attend Supreme court and
examine his last class of students. His
house was comfortable two story
brick structure of nine rooms, but the
log offices where students had used
as residences for thirty years. WHICH
were grouped on the premises, made
the name "Logtown" the popular in
dex Of the place, though it was known
in the postal guide as Richmond
HILL" He was the greatest Equity
and Realty lawyer the State has ever
had and was the father of Richmond
M. Pearson, now United States Consul
to Italy, grandfather Of Richmond
Pearson Hobson, and fatherin-laW OF
the late Judge and Governor Daniel
c. Fowle, With whom Tourgee had a
| sensational street fight in Raleigh in
1880 as an outcome of one of his &
letters holding Judge Fowle, who was
then q candidate for Governor against
Jarvis. up to ridicule, and lashing
him into a fury of rage and indigna-
| tion.)
The pet idea of Tourgee was negro
| suffrage. His persistant devotion to
this idea made it impossible for the
| average Southerner to see any good in
any other idea or suggestion, however
meritorious, coming from or support
| ed by him. 1t was his wonderful tact.
| together with his cool head and ready
/ resources, that saved him in many
! perilous places. He was never rat
tied. Illustrative of his tact was an
incident at Rockingham court house
| in 90.
| The older Morehead, Col. James T..
| Morehead. ST., was defending one of
| his old slaves charged with larceny.
| He had proved the good character
| of his client by a dozen of the best
men in the county, and, while jeal-
| ously arguing the case to the jury re-
| ferred to his own long association
with the negro on the old plantation,
was suddenly interrupted: "Mr. More
| head" said the Judge, your client
| does not seem to have improved with
/ his associations" Turning upon the
/ Judge, the doughty old Roman said:
Your Honor, | have proved by the
| best men of this county his high char
acter and that nothing was ever
/ charged against him until You blue
coats got hold of him." The Judge
knew the temper and high courage of
/ the old lawyer and the temper of the
people VINO idolized him, and the in
| cident was closed without further re-
| mark. 1t having been suggested on
| the court green at the noon recess
| that the Judge intended to attack the
| old lawyer for contempt. when court
| assembled the court room was full,
and in it three hundred men who
would have demolished every brick
| of the court house and Jail if any
| thing of the kind had been attempted
| Tourgee was quick to see every sit
uation and his tact seemed equal to
any emergency. While Mr.. Tourgee
remained long enough to see peace,
order, law and quiet restored i'm North
| Carolina, he felt that no matter how
| faithfully and diligently he might Ia
Dor for his adopted State his work
would never be appreciated, and the
unbiased student, even at this day
must admit as much. He had come
here in good faith. He had toiled in
| good faith. If he could have seen
his error in his blind adhesion to the
negro suffrage idea and remained
| here, his name would today be en-
rolled among the giants in our his
tory.
There is something pathetic in the
retrospect of those sixteen yearS-the
best of his life-given and exhausted
| in a hopeless struggle. And yet they
were not wasted. From them and
the material drawn from them, he
was enabled to plunge into the world
of letters and win fame and money
| He knew not and cared not for the
| value of a dollar. He realized for
tune from the sale of 100000 copies
of "a FOOLS Errand," translated in
more than a dozen different Ian
1 RI
DINA in 1880. With this good luck
he established a magazine THE Con-
tinent," a magazine of rare merit and
edited with rare skill, which absorbed
his fortune and left him penniless
| Following this adventure appeared a
| food of literary productions from his
pen. Among them were: John Fax, !"
| 1892; Hot Plowshares," 1888; IAN
| Appeal to Caesar" 1884; "Black Ice, 3"
| 1886; Buttons Inn 1887; "A Son
| of Old Harry" Veteran and His
Pipe" 1888; Letters to King, :"
with Gauge and Swallow" 1898;
"Pactolus Prime" "Murvale East
man, Christian Advocate" 1890; "Out
of the Sunset Sea" 1892; can Outing
with the Queen of Hearts, 1894; THE
War of the Standards '"Fhe Mort
gage on the Hine-fOot House" 1896.
He has himself stated that he had
printed The best things in North
Carolina literature, viewed from a
purely literary standpoint, is his &C
Letters" published in 1879. Nothing
vet seen in our literature surpasses
them in literary merit.
Never appreciated by the State, to
which he gave sixteen of the choice
years of his strong life, he was treated
with scarcely less consideration by the
great political party to which he chung
and for which he fought with such
unfaltering loyalty. He lived to see
thousands of his fellows of smaller
calibre and less merit promoted over
him here and elsewhere. In his old
age, when the wound received in bat
tie for his country had taken its
deadly and final grip upon his Vitali-
ty, he was given small berth in
the sunny cline of France. which he
accepted i'm the hope that it might
ameliorate his suffering and prolong
his life The hope was vain. There,
in a distant land by the side of the
still faithful heroine in his life's trag-
edies, he surrendered last Sunday to
the Grim Victor, the first and last
surrender of a tempestuous and
strenuous life.
Greensboro, n. c., May 25.