Henderson gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1911-19??, 1911-06-08
A TRIP TO PENNSYLVANIA.
Mr.. T. T. Hicks Writes Entertaining
ly of the Farming and Other Inter-
ests OF the keystone State.


To the Editor of the Gold Leaf.
Last week had occasion to spend sir
days at Lancaster, Pa. 1t saddened me
To tell my troubles to a policeman
would do no good; SO / will take thu
public into my confidence, and ask fol
it's sympathy, that something good may
come of it.
Lancaster and Lancaster county arr
not as far from Henderson as is Chero
kee county, North Carolina. The county
seat is a town more than two hundred
years old, containing now about 10 ,00C
people The county has TIC, 900 people
though it has no other towns of any
size. The people are, nearly all, of Ger
man descent. The average size is not al
large as our people Everybody works
up there, father" and all. Twas walked
every morning at three o'clock by the
milk and ice wagons and farmers wag
ons. OF the farmsl The dirt is nearly
the color of snuff, with little or no sand
The rocks are of slaty color. Quarries
and lime-kilns abound. Every little
stream is trimmed and cleaned to the
waters edge and turns mills or ia pond
ed or trained, to water cattle or for
other uses. The fields are nearly all rect
angles and fenced with wire on wild
locust'posts that last a long time.
The tobacco grown is used for cigars
The crop is sold at the barn door. II
averaged about eleven cents last year
and brought into the county about
three million dollars, SO | was told. The
plant-beds are sown in the gardens and
do not have to be burned at all. Tobac
co plants are set out by machines drawn
/ nv
boys feeding the hoppers that drop and
stick them. The corn is planted and
ploughed by machinery. Every row il
straight as an arrow. | saw no annual
clover, but many, many fields Of our old
red top. Potatoes, corn, tobacco, cattle
and wheat. o! the wheatl l saw more
wheat last week than in my whole pre-
vious life. 1t is all now headed and &C
uniform and beautiful as it waved in
| the wind. And on every farm was q
herd of beautiful Jersey cows and many
of the farms were feeding ''steers" fol-
market. The houses are mostly OF brick
two or three stories high, slate roofs
with a barn near each, much larger and
apparently quite as we'll built.
1t seems to me every field | saw was az
we'll cultivated as any garden ever saw
Not bush or gully to be seen. And
yet, about one-half the year it is too
cold up there to work out OF doors
Every road that | saw was macadam
lied; and there are more than two hun
dred miles of trolley lines in the county
/ rode out over several of them, 3 miles,
10 miles. and while l reveled in the
beauty OF the fields and farms, could
not but lament that we, here, with just
as good land and far better climate,
permit much of them to wash away, or
go untitled, and cultivate the residue, 0!
so poorly l feel as if would like to get
20 acres and spend the rest of my life
improving it, as an object lesson, il for
no other reason.
That one county, but little if any
larger than ours, has within it's borders,
outside the city, about twelve times as
many white people as Vance, and o, so
many cattle and horses. l suppose it's
wheat would furnish bread for the entire
| State.
| Lancaster was the home of President
James Buchanan and of Thaddeus
Stevens. The latter gave his estate, or
a large part Of it, to promote public edu-
cation. The county has an insane asy-
lum of its own and a pOor-house adjoin-
ing; both of which were, or appeared to
be, as fine as they could be built. The
Jail was of splendid architectural pro-
| portions. with grounds and shade trees
as beautiful as any in the city. And yet,
with all these roads, schools and other
charities, was told the entire tax, State,
county and city, was and is less than
one-half,a cent on the hundred dollars
less than one-fourth what we pay here.
Most of the pavements, street and side
walk, were of brick. The sidewalks
were so clean-even between the cracks
of the bricks there was no dust or dirt.
In my minds eye | could see "the old
dutch cleanser" everywhere. The county
courthouse is OF immense size, built OF
granite. Two judges hold court ia diff
ferent court-rooms at the same time,
pretty near all the year round. They
select 80 jurors for civil term. Each
court calls 20 into the box. Plaintiff
grasses four names and the defendant
four, and those eight are told by the
clerk to step out The other twelve con-
stitute the Jury. No one knows who
challenged him.
Each witness Is sworn separately as
he comes to the book The lawyers
never read the pleadings but each side
states to the jury what he expects to
prove just before Offering his testimony.
They call their pleadings a statement
and an affidavit Of Defense" instead OF
complaint and answer. They allow a
defendant on trial to set up any defense
he can, whether he pleaded it and gave
the other side notice or not The Judges
rulings and charge to the jury are just
the same as with US, except that the
lawyers and Judge, in discussing points
of evidence and rulings of the Judge,
seem to me a little harsher in manner
than they ought to be.
l heard their greatest lawyer, who had
been attorney general of the State, try a
case. There was nothing different from
the way lawyers here handle cases. His
voice was gracious and forceful. The
lawyers and judges were, in so far as
could see, in no sense different from ours
The iuries were very intelligent, and it
seemed to me, listened and looked on
with the most critical attention.
| went up to try a case for a Granville
county man. He told his story to the
jury so straight and clear and had such
good confederation that tho three Ian.
caster county men contradicted him, the
Jury believed him and gave him a YER
dict. | have seen juries in our court
houses in North Carolina decide cases in
favor OF non-residents and against home
people when the circumstances justified
it. 1t ia the glory OF the law and of our
civilization that it can do Justice with
outrespect to persons.
There is nowhere else half as good az
Vance county, North Carolina, to me,
but the way those Pennsylvania Dutch
have US beat on farming is painful in the
extreme. | wish our folk could catch up
to them. They ought to. We are, and
have been for years, making great strides
in farming, but we never can cultivate
and improve our lands properly till we
have more people and more cattle, and
become better acquainted with the soil
and its needs and capacity.
Tuesday, May 80, was Decoration
Day. We went out and saw the process
sion-school children, old soldiers and
the judges and prominent people-and
heard the songs and prayers and ora
lions. Not word was said that would
offend the feelings OF any one The pray
: al and k-t