The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-03-23

great explorer. q wise ruler. AMI :
thoughtful administrator CT affairs
Nothing az the jamestown exposition
will be viewed with more .nteres. b,
the e n OF thousands who dock tc
this precautionary celebration OF tbs
! first permanent settlement in Virgins
than q bust OF John Smith-thouga be
was The ancestor OF nobody.
|
In my view there is nothing stranger
in all newspaper history OF the pas
quarter Of a century than that a lovely,
charming young woman. sheltered
within the walls OF a female COLLEGE
in a small town in North Carolina
modest and retiring. who shrinks from
publicity as the mimosa closes Its pet
ais 10 the shades OF evening-should
with the lightning fash of the tele
graph wire, achieve notoriety all over
Europe and America, because In 1900
! she visited Paris, and. In compliance
with the law, appeared at the prefec-
ture Of police, TO give her nationality
name and names Of her parents.
The finale Of the Ethel A. Brown
mystery Of the river Seine came when
father and mother arrived from Lon
don. and identified the body as that OF
Sheir daughter, an English woman.
The crux Of b mystery was flashed
under sea and over head, by cable and
wire, all over the world. when .he
Paris police found on the register 81
the prefecture this entry Of the Amer
lean girl, who, at hat moment, maybe.
was strolling across the beautiful cam
pus fronting a stately pile Of buildings,
with a background OF dense, dark
forest, thousands Of mile away.
In the store of Mr.. ". II. Powell
on Person street. Fayetteville, stands
a clock, ticking the seconds, marking
the minutes, and recording the hours
with unwearyins fidelity-though il
has seen many years Of service, and
has a history.
Fifty years ago its place was on the
heavy, substantial mantelpiece in the
office Of the State Bank On Gillespie
street, where now stands the large
sales stables of Bevill and Vanstory.
There it rocked its pendulum inexor-
ably 70 and fro. day by day; needless
of the naughty, prosperous merchant,
III SIIOuc III Will CdhluS UCOSS,
heavy gold watch chain and fine broad
cloth; Implying of the mortgaged
wretch, who fastened in, with bag
gard face and trembling hands. TO
make a renewal on the which
was eating up his substance. What
were wealth and poverty to 1.-THE
husbandman of the heavy crops of
time.-and it swung its pendulum on.
Then wars rude alarms crashed
in on the sounds of its beats, and
the flames surged about it, as men
grappled in deadly conflict on the
streets; and the walls crumbled above
it's head, and fell; and it now seemed
as if its occupation was gOne"-for
was not this the end of all things?
But it had not yet finished its work,
and it was saved from the devasta-
ton of even hat day, Al years ago,
when Sherman's army entered Fayette-
Vile. 1t was sold at auction, and was
bought for $50 by the late Jesse W.
Powers, long a merchant on upper
Hay street. In his last days, when
about to loose his hold on the things
of this life, Mr.. Powers gave this
clock to Mr.. w. H. Powell, who was
with him much in his illness, as a tok-
en- of friendship and esteem.
The clock yet wears a bright and
CHEEKY face, and there is an old-time
music in its steady stroke. 1t is still
a faithful servant of that hoary, insat-
late, scythe-bearing time, who cuts,
and cuts. and cuts his crops:
men may come, and men may go;
But I go on forever"
Fayetteville, March II. j. H. NJ.