The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-04-27
AN OLD ARTICLE USED :
BUT NEVER F 9 !
By DIR. I. 3. KINGssTRY. :
By DIR. T. b. KINGSRTRY

IL IS very ulilicu1C To De long con-
nected with the press without giving
offence to some one. You will be
fortunate it you are not m~iSunaer-
stood, IT YOU are not suspected OF
some wrong motives, if your critical
: judgments are not perverted and mis-
construed. You may be cautious, care
full, anxious even to avoid errors of
Judgment, and to steer clear of all Of
fensive personalities, and yet you Will
be sure to awaken opposition of some
kind and provoke sharp retOrtS and
personalities hat some forty-five years
connection with the press in some ca
pacity. l ave been fortunate to some
extent in escaping personal c~OntrOVer-
sizes. [ have been sometimes led into
disputes that were unpleasant. per-
sonal, and even very unfortunate, and
those / have deeply regretted. Not
being q deullist | escaped death or
murder, and in the far advanced
eighty-first yea of my age, | am
profoundly thankful as we'll as re-
gretful. [ believe that editing is full
Of hazard as we'll as of painful regrets.
I rejoice that [ have no blood on
my hands, and [ am sincerely SORROW
full as to all blunders or needless per
SonalitieS.
/ am today reminded of this be-
cause Of an old manuscript of my own
that yesterday came under inspection
by me. [ do not recall the exact year
Of its preparation, but [ suppose it
was more than twenty-five years ago,
and probably even farther back. The
manuscript [ had about forgotten, not
even recalling the occasion Of its
writing or the supposed authOr OF the
newspaper article to which I was re-
plying. [ did not publish a line Of it,
but find the old manuscript hidden
away unused and unknown. 1t seems
| had been severely handled in q State
rSo;J,- g Of C,,o oritioiS,, bod
made upon a North Carolina book of
some kind, but the title is not so much
as mentioned in the original document,
and not q line of the reply was ever
used. | think there may be some in
terest in the hitherto unpublished
document, and I Will use it now, but
emitting the names of the supposed
writer of the criticism, and of the
author involved. AS it is of the past
without any names being indicated and
any feeling being aroused for [ am.
entirely innocent of any improper or
severe Indignation at the eXcOriation
l received, [ give it as one OF the nth
erto unpublished records of the past
in North Carolina Journalism. The
article is as follows:
A distinguished gentleman of our
state, after his opponent had con-
cluded his voluntary speech gains
him: Thank God, I still live After
Lkt ISL olIFl" ~ te1o 49, 49,
by the fellow with the Iron Mask
who shoots under cover, his poisoned
arrows at me through the columns OF
q newspaper. [ should be very CRATE
ful that [ am still permitted to live.
Certainly, If [ could be slain by en-
tempered eXpletives and other rhetor-
zeal explosives, I should have long
since gone to that limbo that awaits
all literary offenders. [ have read
the assaults made by my assailant
with feelings in which surprise is
mingled with pity. His ability is as
unmistakable as his rancor. He means
to ikll if he AN. He will stop at no.
thing SO he can gain his end. He has
studied the out-of-writing language
until he can make 1t Squeal q different
meaning from that which generally
attaches to it. BY artful manipulation,
by peryerting words, by misapplying
facts, by concealing meanings of
terms, by the tricks Of the special
rleader and the "artful dodgers the
practiced pettifogger, he is able to de-
ceive the unWary and to gain q case
before the many just as he has often
achieved small victories before a jury.
He may hin he is a judge on the
bench holding fairly and evenly the
critical scales, but his p~ettifogging |
ears stick out plainly from the ermine
in which he tries to conceal himself.
For virulum, personality and unfair
ness I have rarely met with its paral-
lei in literary discussions. He is q
pretty fellow to pirate of judicial
calmness and fairness in historical
discussion. He is consumed with pet
ty personal dislikeS that blind him.
But if I am demolished there is one
comfort: there are men and women
in North Carolina of learning and
critical taste enoug not to be hood
Wlnked by any of this malignant tribe.
They will read for themselves and will
Judge Tor themselves. They can see
the blunders in ignorance, the viola
lions of nearly every rule in rhetoric,
the gross and Astounding errors in
oates and facts, the puerile and full
some laudaIiOn, the cant phrases, the