The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-06-18

was al the depot the ether day
when to my delight mN little friend
Frank Spruili. OF Loulsourg. stepped
off the -shoo-fly" train. as happy as
any boy could be- ecau~ he had q
long afternoon 70 himself and ! Was
TO have the pleasure OF Owl him
the capital or his state. - which Tie
vas. one might say a TRANCE As
We stepped out Of the attractive si@-
ton and looked a. the g~reeueTy OF
the graceful Attle park IN front OF Us
the bright boy began - ply me Win
questions. which 10 be sure u re8dF-
ed ii very thorough knowledge or ftA4-
eigb. past and present. 20 answer
But sure the Secretary OF the Chafn-
Der Of Commerce and a newspaper
man OF thirty years experience ought
To know something about mis- town.
II used to be said OF charles DICK
ems that he knew London. and /
can say the same thing about myself
as TO the capital or the Ola North
State. / rather surprised Frank - We
stood in the street by telling him
that he was on his own property.
How Is that? asked he TO which
the reply was that the State bought
Raleigh. sold the people the lots and
kept the streets and and
had owned them ever since the year
1872, when the place was laid out
not only owned the city but all the
parks. OF which there are five, the
largest one being Union Square. on
which tn capitol stands. Nash square,
the one near the depot. Moore square,
a few blocks east OF II: Burke square
and Caswell square. on which are
the Governors mansion and the State
school for the Blind. Yet very few
people themselves know that the cap
itol square, as they call IL is Union
square. or even mention Burke and
Caswell squares. AS we walked across
Nash square. under the spreading
naples. Frank said I'm walking on
my own ground now and was told
that he would be doing that all the
while he was here. unless he hap
pened to step on private property
Naturally he wanted to see the capitol
first and his view of that building WAS
with the lofty and strikingly hand
some Confederate monument In the
foreground. This monument was un-
yelled and dedicated in 1895 and cost
$4,000. Of which the State gave $40
600. 1t is of Mt. Airy Granite, stands
nearly rs feet high, and the shaft is
in one superb block, weighing 55,-
300 pounds. Figures OF infantry, cav
airy and artillery soldiers are upon
1t and thanking on each side is a
cannon with a history, these having
been ships guns in the old days, 81
FOUNDERS: that is firing ball which
weighs that much. but when the Nor
folk navy yards were abandoned in
June. 1861, these guns were taken by
the C~onfederates made rifle guns and
sent down to Fort Caswell in this
State, and when that fort was blown
up at the end Of the war they We're
covered by sand until 1902, when the
United States War Department dug
them up and gave them to North Car
DINA. Frank was delighted with the
guns and pointing to some others
which he saw near by, said he desired
to see them too. but we first looked at
the particularly fine bronze statue OF
Ensign Worth Bagley, which was I'M
yelled July goth. and which is of the
only naval officer killed during the
war with Spain. At the statue of Wash
ington / showed Frank a pair Of Rev
dictionary which were
brought from France by Richard Cas-
we'll, the first North Carolina COVER
nor under the Constitution. and which
were very appropriately placed one
on each side of the great soldier and
statesman, whose bronze statue was
placed in Union Square in 1858 and
unveiled h 4th of July of that year.
1t is a copy Of one in marble which
was made for the State of Virginia.
Franks keen eyes next saw the statue
of Vance near by and also saw yet
other cannon and he wa not con-
tant until he had a look at these al
SO. The fine statue of Vance, is of
bronze, erected by the state in 1901.
~ "
it's commanding pose. He said
he had heard his father
speak many times of the great gov
ernor. Then he looked at the little
cannon, as he called them, and found
they were mortars, which had come
from Fort Macon. which is now dis
mantled. these being in fact the last
guns which were in that old fort,
which is near Beaufort. They are
made to throw shells high in the air.
SO they will make a curve and fall in
side of a fertilization or on a vessel.
After we had talked about all these
odd things we went into the capitol,
which. as / told Frank, was built of
granite brought into Raleigh from
a quarry owned by the State. a mile
knowing that a Raleigh lady, a Miss
Mordecai devised a railway to bring
all this stone from the quarry here.
The old capitol was burned in June,
1881, by the carelessness of a timer
and the splendid statue Of Washington
by CanOva, the greatest of all modern
sculptors. was ruined. what remains
of 1t being in the Hall of History in
the State Museum. The present cap
itol was finished in 1870, the Raleigh
& Castor Railway, the first one into
Raleigh and one of the first in the
State. being finished at the same time,
and the celebration being a joint one
and lasting three days. In the
capitol we saw the offices of the Gov
ernor, secretary of State. treasurer and
Auditor and standing in the exact
center Of the rotunda, with the fine
dome overhead, Frank was shown how
the voice was magnifed until 1t sound
ed like that OF a giant. while a foot
away on any side it had in the ordin-
airy tone. Upstairs we look ed in at
the very handsome senate chamber
II hall of the Hous of Commons.
then at the great porticos. with their
massive granite columns, and finished
the building by going on the roof
and looking at Raleigh, which spread /
like a panorama around us. To the
two flags were flying, one the
National and the other the State, the
former making the beautiful national
cemetery. where over 1900 dead lie.
including some who died in the war
with Spain and one who was killed in
the war with China a few years ago:
the State flag making the ocation OF
the Confederate Soldiers Home. To
the southwark was a long, low. brick
building, the Centennial public school;
so called because it was built in 1876.
and which stands where the old gov
ernors mansion used to be. which
people then called THE Palace" this
being a survival of the old name which
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