The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-07-05
RED BUCK
(By Alvin Horton.)

Bryan will separate himself from
North Carolina Journalism came as a
shock to North Carolinians here; for
who has been 50 connected reporto-
rally with our State that he a take
the place of Red Buck?
OF course there have been all along,
and are still, good reporters in North
Carolina, but none will attempt to say
that Bryant hasn't primacy in the at
fections of the readers Of the State.
Nor do any of US begrudge him this
prirnacy, which has been SO well earn
ed both in a personal and professional
way. He knows North Carolina as no
other newspaper man does or ever did,
while North CaroliDl knows him as
she dies few men. of whatever avoca-
ton. He has written with under
standing and appreciation Of the back
woodsman, the lowlander, and the
nigger-aIl sorts and conditions OF
men as they exist within the c
ton of his paper. He has dug up and
prepared things which. though so es-
sential to North Carolina literature,
would otherwise have died. Through
him the State has come to know
herself, not historically, for others are
taking care Of her admirably in that
respect now, but as she was and Is In
the even tenor of her way. Her ira
ditions, superstitions. prejudices, pas
sions, humor, emotions have been
gathered by him at the CROSSROADS
store, on the back streets OF town and
city, around mountain firesides. in he
woods and the felds-everyWhere
from the highlands to the ocean-and.
in the p~arlance of the shop played
up" so that the sections now know
and appreciate one another for the
first time. Twas a saying of his chief
that he never fell down on an assign
ment. nor did he eve take a trip that.
incidentally. was not productive Of sew
eral good feature stories.
Tho old man-and who knows men
better than Joseph Pearson Caldwell
or appreciated men more said OF
Mr., Buck" that he was all right in
warp and wool, or--to change the fig
ure-that he was pure gold. All the
boys know that this was and is true
Our fellow craftsmen will be missed
by a multitude of friends in all Sec
ton as we'll as by all the newspaper
men in the State; and, while we hope
that the gap may some day be filled,
yet we know that it will be long be-
fore the red-headed Irishman or his
wor is forgotten.
AS a writer. Mr.. Bryant has made
his impress because he has, in addi-
ton to an understanding OF folks, a
genuine love Of letters IT'S superflu-
Gus to say he has Imagination. for, to
put it bluntly. every man who has
sense enough to know his fellows,
has imagination, the kind Of which
poems and books are made. If n
want to write, and can persuade him
self that he knows exactly what this
or that character would do and feel
under different circumstances, he
needs no other equipment save dis
elimination and perhaps a little
grammar. Give him pen and paper,
and. for goodness sake, bid him leave
fine writing alone. The result will be
literature.
MIR. Bryant, though ~passionately and
~irrevocably attached to his art v
writes merely for the sake of getting
into print, and therefore. he never at
tempts any rhetorical stunts. He is
a plain, conversational style-no sem
fences a mile long. nor any superflu-
Gus ones. Indeed the very simplicity
of his English is the pitiful many
who, inspired by him, try to get pieces
in the paper. I take it that no one
will infer from this that. in my opin-
ion, he does not write forcefully and
with finish; for both force and finish
consist Of a plain putting down:
ones feelings and observations. All
else is vain bombast, and Red Buck
will never be accused Of being bonn
bastic. Rattle would one. reading at
random, in search of passages, say
that his style hampers ones mental
L ANS tio MI VI a
hobo. who finds the space between two
cross-ties too short for a comfortable
step. and that between three too long.
The careful reader, however, will lay
aside every story with a feeling that
1t is marvellous how Bob knows SO
much of the inner man and can tell
1t in so gripping away.
He is always in search of "capy."
He sees more in a vacant yard to
write about than most Of us see in
the crowded thoroughfare. At first
glance he measures everything accord
ing to its space value, and in another
knows just where it should appear in
the paper He picks up more gossip.
knows the foibles and the secrets Of
more people than all the rest Of his
world put together. If called upon to
get out an edition that would sell to
every person in the State I am sure
that he would furnish every line OF
the copy just as fast his two fore