North Carolina Newspapers

The News and Observer. VOL. LIV. NO. 117. H&ai'iDs ®OO ©sitpcoDOOons] [Psiqdoips odd OBcd'&Qd QQ°©^ailß ® no FOR HEfIJROTHER Register s Sister is Cir culating a Petition. Attractive Young Woman Battling for the Life of Her Relative. A Theory That iabel Was Insane. (Special to News and Observer.) Wilmington, N. C„ Jan. 23.—Petitions to the Governor, both for and against a com mutation to life imprisonment of the sentence of Jabel Register, condemned to be hanged for the murder of Jim Stale? and Jessee Soles, at Whiteville. February 25th, are being circulated in Columbus county, and one of the number has found its way down t<» Wilmington, where the Register family is quite well known. The theory is now advanced that young Register is not of sound mind, and it is said that the only reason that that plea w&s not enter ed at the trial was that the man made such an excellent witness, the wisdom of such a plea was questioned. One of the petitions in Register’s behalf is being circulated by his sister, an at tractive young woman whose devotion to her brother is beautiful. Register was taken through the city to Whiteville yesterday by Sheriff Butler, of Columbus, and he will remain in jail there until his execution day, unless exec utive clemency is secured by means of the petition. Ex-Governor Russell was in his office to day and announced that he would be ready as counsel for the defense in the Terry murder trial here next week. The term of court is for three weeks, Judge Ferguson presiding, and the calendar of civil cases has been arranged with an ticipation that the Terry trial will con sume most of the first and second week. Terry, who is a rather well-to-da man, and was door-keeper in the State Senate of 1901, is charged with the murder of his son-in-law, George T. Bland, at the lat ter’s home, in this city, last summer. The case is an ugly one and a hard fight was made by Terry’s counsel to have a change of venue to another county. Homer Davenport, the celebrated New York cartoonist, will appear here in an illustrated lecture at the Y. M. C. A. next Wednesday night. The Evolution of a Country Boy. (By Rev. C. L- Greaves, in Charity and Children.) That tousel-haired. freckled-faced, un gainly country boy, sitting there toasting his feet, clad in coarse woolen socks, on the parental hearthstone, and holding a book in his bony, wind-cracked hands, what of him, anyhow? The old lamp smokes and it is well for the boy's eyes that it is reinforced by the bright fire in ihe big fireplace. He is not a very promising looking lad, except that he has a quick, intelligent eye and a head that lias a pretty good shape to it. His scrawny neck is ornamented with a red handkerchief, his old brown coat is streaked with turpentine fresh from the pine woods, his blue trousers have ample patches on the knees and are decorated with fringes and tatters at the bottom, the said fringes holding a liberal lot ot pendant cuckle-burrs. His father is smoking his pipe and dozing in. a corner; his mother is busy at her knitting, stop ping now and then to push up the chunks that have fallen upon the hearth. His one fat, buxom sister is churning in a corner; and a brawny brother, older than himself is oiling an old gun. But this fifteen-year-old Adonis is reading a book. He reads a great deal, does this boy. He is not careful about what he reads, he does not know the "hainea of many authors; he reads books without knowing or caring who wrote ithem. To be sure lie does not own many books, but he can borrow them from the schoolmaster, and then there is a lady living on a neighboring farm who lias “whole stacks of them,’’ and giants to him unlimited privileges with them. Bast winter this boy read an abridged volume of Plutarch’s Lives, read a life of George Washington and another of the Duke of Wellington, and ended up with a dilapidated copy of the Book of Martyrs. This rather formidable and badly mixed course of biography and history put new metal in him, both figur atively and literally, for one day when he was walking across the pasture, im agining that he was Wellington at Water loo, he ran into a barbed-wire fence. But in spite of this event, the world was henceforth viewed by him as a place of heroic actions and high endeavor- He will never be the same lad again, for am bition began to warm the heart under his tattered jacket. And last summer—precious little time THE PITCHER THAT WENT TO THE WELL TOO OFTEN. for reading then —he became the joyful possessor of three or four volumes ot nature, folklore, and fairy tales. After that he saw elves in the woods, heard dragons beating their uncanny wings overhead at night, and conversed with a fairy princess every time he went to the spring tor waiter. He will never be the same lad again, for imagination has taken possession of his teeming brain, and romances flit through it like sweet dreams. He read a love story about a month ago; and the next Sunday he picked him out a sweetheart at church. Thus an other ingredient has been added to his soul’s make-up. He is very proud of reading a romance now, and prefers those that end well. But what is lie reading tonight? Burns as I live! and that young Miss on a neighboring farm has an ordeal before her, for he has already written seven teen poems extolling her lips, her eyes, her hair, an even her cheeked gingham apron. He is intending to overwhelm her with this metrical sweetness next Sunday afternoon. Yes, this tousled-haired, freckled faced, gawky boy, in the non-descript coat and trousers, is making progress. He asso ciates with great minds in these books, and they are as patient and condescend ing with him as they are with you and my elegant reader. And be has begun to live a life of aspiration, imagination and romance. And there are other riches he will add to his soul treasures later, •ml he will augment such as he has. Now let me turn prophet. Somehow* or other this lad, in spite of poverty and the want of substantial encouragement, will emerge from his present surround ings, and will some day make his ap pliance amid the freshmen contingent of a college. He will wear a six dollar suit of clothes, an out-of-atyle hat, and carry all ids belongings in an ancient hair covered trunk; but he will be there. And elegant, young gentlemen will make fun of him on the campus, and he will answer questions they have missed in the class loom. And at the end of four years, his awkw.udness gone, neatly dressed and fine looking, he will deliver his gradu ating address and receive his diploma. Then he will go home and find his old non descript suit of clothes hanging up in the shed, where his darling old moth er has kept them to remind her of her boy. He will laugh at them, and put them on and go fishing. Next Sunday he will sit by his ;ao’„hei at church and after preaching is over he will hunt up the old sweetheirl to whom he wrote the seventeen poems, aml seven teen times seventeen afterwards. And he will chat and laugh with her, and chuck her fat baby under the chin, for she will have married the miller's son down on the river. He will even ;h w her, to her intense and delighted inter est, the phot ig -; ph of th 3 young lady in the college town who furnished the inspiration for his last sonnet. And he will take his place in the fore front of the world’s workers r.nd irake a name and a place for himself. Hence forth there will be a new voice to speak for mankind, a la”ge soul to plan rnd do for them, trained energies thrilling society with healthy and hotmd life and achievement. Y'et !:«. was only a country lad, poor, and awkward until great souls found him and spoke to him through great books, and stirred him up and hustled him out to conquer a portion of the world. Reidsville, N- C. The Cost of Living. (“With the Procession" in Everybody's Magazine for February.) Every pocket knows its own bitter ness. According to the statistics of the - Department of Labor, which got its figures from 2,567 families with.an aver age income of $827.19, and an average ex penditure of $765.54, the cost of living in 1902, when it was highest, was 16.1 per cent more than in 1896, when it was low est. Average wages have accommodat ingly increased by just that 16.1 per cent.; in some eases by more. The Employers’ Association of Chicago estimates that the cost of living increased by 16.8 per cent, from 1898 to 1903. Various newspapers and independent observers have guessed a much higher increase of cost, even * more than double. Statistics are arrant liars, and in figures there is no comfort. Ask your wife how the household bills for groceries, and meat, and so on, in the last two years compare with tlio>e of 1896. If she doesn't say that they have a»ne up from forty to fifty per cent-, you are a mighty lucky man. Wages may or may not have gone up sixteen per cent. Salaries have not gone up at all There is considerable talk in Upper Oneals concerning the Raleigh and Pam lico Sound Railway. This road has al ready been surveyed and it is expected thit work will begin at once. At Rogers cross roads, just over the line in Wake county, a town, to be called Middlesex, has been laid out. The people of this community are enthusiastic over the pros pects of the new railroad and they are already at work erecting a school build ing. This town site is in a prosperous community and will, no doubt, in the near future, be a thriving place.—Smithfield Herald. PosroFFicf . j i THE FULL GARDEN CAN. I RALEI tH, NCRTH CAROLINA. 8 UNDAY MORNING, JANUARY. 24. 1904 THIS DOCTOR BELIEVES JUDGE CLARK WAS RIGHT S. M. GrAham, of Hertford, a “Reverend” and “M. D ”, on tbe Various Schools of Medical Practice. To the Editor: The recent decision by our Supreme Court in the case ot State vs. Biggs, to the effect that the statute recently passed defining “The practice of Medicine” is beyond a proper and re gardful exercise of the police power of the State, opens a very necessary and proper inquiry as to what such a doctrine will bring forth, and what such a de cision means primarily to the public body, and secondarily to our profession. The opinion of the learned Judge is law; whether intelligent, ignorant, sophistical, iconoclastic, dangerous or communistic, it is the statute law and must be met and acted on as such until defeated or modified by the same court that made it. I do not believe that the medical pro fession in North Carolina, great as is my respect for it, is capable to advise that court in its constructions of this or any other legislative act, any more than that the learned gentlemen who compose It could or would offer to aid us in un ravelling the complexities (and oftentime-- perplexities) of vital morbid processes No criticisms should be indulged hi from us toward them, and no stigmata must lie in our mouths, against them because iu the righteousness of their oaths a law, primarily of our making, Las been set aside. The process of reasoning may have been faulty; the logic ill-conceived, the results may be disastrous, but this court is sworn to uphold the law, and is not our guardian; it is sworn to con struct the statutes without favor ana without fear, and is bound only by its oath and the constitutions. No vituper ations, no sarcasms, no sneers, no thoughtless strictures on this honorable body by any of our profession can height en our claims to the people’s favor, oi cu ke our influence for wise and safe leg islation greater. I have made these ob servations, Mr. Editor, because I have noticed recently in your columns eral articles reviewing (?) Judge Clarlita opinion, and while of course I do n« pretend to be able to follow the lea>ne! justice's legal dissertations, 1 believe’ that in his ultimate conclusion, from c humanitarian and just standpoint, he ,’s right; that under our present system ot examinations for license, and with such a far-reaching and comprehensive statute, as the one in question, ultimate and great harm would have come to our med ical body and great injustice done, had this enactment stood. I shall not review the history of med ical legislation in our State, it is an i open book, done in no star-chamber, but j oren and frank and kind has been the insistance on our part that the State ; should, so far as was just, protect the public from incompetence and frauds. ; That these laws have been salutary no j one- can deny; that they have been a j mighty bulwark against charlatanism all will concede; and that they have given j to us an earnest, capabl* 3 . high-minded, | intellectual and well-equipped medical corps cannot be gainsaid. I assert, and assert it hcldly, with full knowledge oi my words and not without a proper in vestigation, that the country physicians tn this State are today without the'u peers on the American continent; and C make this statement not without pride, both collective and individual, and ba*e •ts cause upon the fact that up to the time of the passage of this last stature by the legislature of 1902 “Defining the practice of medicine” our laws w-ere, n their justness, in their moderation, ar.d tn their catholicity and proper execution, the best inscribed, as yet. on any state's statute book. They were ample to pro tect the public, to cause proper super vision, and as a fact did bring about such an exaltation in the standard that the North Carolina doctors held their full share and more of the stranger’s praise. Tn my opinion the recent revis ion and elaboration of our medical laws was not only unwise and impolitic, un needed and savouring of asp rit of in tolerance, but would have proven a Wo a poi. for the ultimate discomfiture of all medical restriction acts; a mighty weapon of attack in the hands of those who believe that in matters affecting only teem and theirs, there should be full freedom of thought and action, untram melled and unhindered, having full lib erty and opportunity to call to their as sistance any one, who can best, from their view-point (and oft-times faith can move mountains) perforin the services ot a physician. For after all. who is a true physician, in the true modern sense o T the word? Is he one who uses the knifi* and drugs alone? I answer, no. Is lie one who practices the use of waters or “NO USE, SON; I’M HERE TO STICK.’* 16 PAGES-EDITORiAL SECTION—PAGES I TO 8* electricity or massage or hypnotism or prayers or incantations or seances? Cer tainly not. Does he belong distinctly to anyone school or class? I answer un hesitatingly, no. Those men who strove back in the ages of the foundations oi our science were no less true because one believed in Empiricism and one in Dogmatism and one in Methodism and one in electricism; each worked to a common end and each was entitled to such rewards as lay in the minds ol the people to give. Perhaps more pre ferred the teachings of Philinus tnan did the teachings of Parmenides, and yet. both worked, in his own way, toward a common goal—the desire ior more light. Both were wrong, but upon their eirors true science has budded; they Lad no true ideas »>f causes or ol reme dies, and all worked from different the ories, all false deductions, anil yet, cn up through this age of mysticism they toiled and at its end laid hold of an era of realism, an era where —in true re search began to be made. These differ ences stimulated each to greater endeavor, and their very confusions were the points from which true science began to be evolved; on up to now, through the ages of the renovation and transition, with the skepticism of Charron and the the osophy of Pierre Bayle, through the period oi the Renaissance, on up through modern experimentation, men’s minds hove chiselled new and diverging grooves of reasoning and thought; theories were advanced and swept away, and upon their ruins have been laid the basic stones of true science, a science that has advanced, sometimes turning back for more light, but finding it, has gone on until from these old foundation stones laid ages ago, which almost seem to us thi myths of a pre-historic era, there has appeared a superstructure of medical knowledge reaching almost to the realm of certainty, and the theories of the mysteries of the ancients are o’er-covered by a masonry oi accumulated scientific 'G. etp, and yet, there is enough left of empiricism and dogma and disputation and uncertainty, to give to our cult the breath of a broad charity toward those whose faith is not so strong in the power and potentiality of our achievements. In some practices and teachings we may be—- and I believe we are—wrong; the great tendency is to cast aloof from the an chors of our forefathers, and fasten too strongly to modernism and trial expert j mentation, and sometimes I fear to fal lacious reasoning without having passed : each new loudly heralded discovery thro ..the crucible of acute clinical iuvestiga | tion, and because 1 believe that we come I nearer and approach as closely as wo j can to what is a "True physician.” One ! xvho uses any means or method to remove to the normal and heak..y ! exercise of the functions of the human ; body—not drugging, or cutting, or rub , bing, or suggesting, or bathing, or shock ing alone; all these we use, but anything that will return to its normal state a diseased vital process. But because is my belief, and the belief of my school, no reason advances w T hy others wno do not believe as we, and wnoac opinions may be founded on theories and facts just as secure to them as are ours to us, should be precluded from using t,ie methods and means that they deem -est an further, because the great majority think us right, and strengthen v.n.n their hearts, and uphold our l ands, mere is all the more reason why the s>mail minority, who believe some other teac-o ,ing better, should rather be the recipi ents of our good will than to be met with obstructions in the proper exercise of their right of choice. Undoubtedly tc my mind there is some good in all of the various methods, and although ours is by far the greatest good, we must con fers that as yet we have not reached per ection or exactness in many of our prac tices, nor have we yet convinced all the world or even ourselves that we have reached a very high pinnacle of medical certainty. The Board of Medical Examiners is one of the most needful and beneficent institutions of the State*, and as it now exists its jurisdiction is proper and rig l ), applied to applicants of its own school and faith; but it is manifestly unfair and unwise when applied to applicants of another cult. If Homeopaths are to be remanded before the board, then Home opath- should examine them; it Osteo paths or Eclectics or Empirics be cited for examination, then they should appear be fore those of their own creed, and so with the adherents of tiny other school i UNCLE MARK ISSUES THE CALL. of thought. It may be object J this is expensive and cumbersome; with equal propriety it may be said that the recently created board to examine trained nurses is expensive. But granted mat ’. is (usually all these boards are selt-sus taining,) this is no argument before the greater fact that a wrong ;-aay be done, not only to one or more citizens of «..e State, but to a number of our people who respect and follow their teachings. If we recognize these men as practition ers, then it is manifestly the duty ot the State to provide them an opportunity of demonstrating their capabilities before their own school, and not before men who not only do not think with them, but who may, sometimes I tear, view their -ideas with derision, and surely do not, and cannot have that sympathy, which should they stumble, would impel the examiner to hold out a proper encourage ment and comfort, and even sometimes deserved help and compassion; the mat lei- of the identity of the branches for examination has very little, if any bear ing; I distinctly wish to say that a board of examining physicians of our school cannot have the proper sympathy for a candidate of another school as should obtain between examiner and ex amined. Then, when these shall before their own tribunals acquiie such right to offer such services, when they nave been tried by their own and found not want ing, then let the people judge; for I state and believe that from joint efforts of all schools of medicine, notv when its transactions ami discoveries are predica ted for the most part, not upon tacts ex istent, as was. the anatomy about which Vesalius and Eustachius disputed, but upon minute investigations, and scientific potentalities and fine spun theories oi the physiologic and pathologic actions ot cellular life, the future welfare of the medical art depends. Wo had better en tice men who do not think with us, if thereby we may glean a valuable scien t tie thought rather than repel them and form within ourselves a medical hiera chy. It would be better, perhaps, if all men thought as we, in what to us is j orthodox medicine, belonging neither to one ism or another, but willing to adopt any method that heals; I believe it tn surest, safest, straiglitest road, but I am willing for others to think differently, and because they do, and because they ar endowed with the same intelligence as we, and because to them their life, and the welfare of their own is as dear to them as is mine to me, I am willing and wish for them true liberty of tnought and action, and am willing to endorse any law that curtails this right, L they are in error, let’s try to lead them back; but who are we that we can judge them, we who halt between two opinions every day; /f their faith is misplaced, wh <■■ are we that we can upbraid them; we, who for centuries upon centuries dis puted amongst ourselves; ii their prac tices are ignorant and bad, who are we to correct them, who until a few' short years ago did no,t know the reason tor the antidotal action of quinine in ma laria, altho’ it had been in use s>nce its accidental discovery by the vice-reine of Peru in the year 1638. The spirit for us is one of tolerance, and not of seem ing persecution; of persuasion auu not hostility, of protection to all classes, by giving every school representation on the examining board, if we recognize them as practitioners of medicine; if we do not then no law r can maintain against them; but, if we do, as it seems to be the case here, then it is right to the public that they be hailed before a board of men, of their own medical persuasion; not a bear of regular physicians, but a board of their views and ideas. Justice and right both ask of us .that if we, to whom the making of such law's has practically been given over, recognize these men as physicians—anti when w r e seek to debar them we make such admission —we must provide the same facilities for them that we have provided for ouwselves; if we do not so regard them' they are «o far as the law is concerned upon the same level as is the old mammy who swaths the new-born babe. I yield to no one in a h gh admiration for our work not only along purely scientific lines, but also for the efforts that have been expended in providing safeguards against incompet ence and fraud, but I view' with fear to the army of medical workers in this State such enactments as will tend to boat down all who do not think our way the right way. The spirit that sowed forth in this law smacked of Injustice, and no injustice can long survive in North Carolina. The widening and elaboration of the former statute, which wrns ample and which had been placed upon record after great effort, and with great reluc tance on the part of many of our law makers, and the strongest opposition on the part of some of the people, and which had builded up <an able and noble and honorable profession, savors too much of entrenchment and intolerance and there pervades it an odor which marks U- unreliant and distrustful of ourselves, seeking to hedge ourselves with statutory limitations and afraid of the inculcation of different ideas and practices. Not for one moment would I say or believe that such ideas were in the brains of the (Continued on Page Three.) IN THE WAR THEATRE. PRICE FIVE CENTS. nmJLACKCOURAGE Not the Faithful Minis ters of the Church. But Those Men Who Would Subordi nate the Spiritual Need of Our People to the Greed and Gain of Shekels. To the Editor: As a constant reader of your enterprising newspaper, as a Southern man (with “tar” on one heel,” at least,) as a Democrat vspolt noth ways, capital and lower case,) as a Soum ern Methodist pastor, and as U humbly trust) a Christian, I beg space to ani madvert upon the existing conditions in the Old North State, and in North Carolina Methodism. I have been a member of Western ivorth Carolina Methodism for only four years, and on account of a sudden failure in health, have been actively engaged only a little over half of that time. For t£e past two years, I have been stationed in the delightful city of Reidsville, being sent to the little church in Albemarle in November last. It is not my nature to take the role of a leader, but to go along quietly in the discharge oi my ministerial duties and leave the task and the glory of lead ership to more ambitious men. For years, I have abstained almost entirely from writing for the church papers; and at, for speech-making in the Conferences, I have not so much as opened my mouth. In fact, I have never been introduced to the Conferenco. But quiet as I have been, I assure you, I have been watching the course of events with the profoundest interest, and with no little anxiety. For many years North Carolina has been in a state of general fermentation. Along with her phenomenal industrial expansion and material progress, her best people have been aroused, as never be fore, to the importance and necessity of better educational facilities; and the world never witnessed a more vigorous campaign in behan of popular education than that which has been waged on our soil. Nor has she been content with ma terial development and intellectual pro gress. Temperance reform has kept even pfcee with the grc*"th of interest in edu cation. Every moral question has had •its. thorough discussion in the press, in the pulpit, and in the form. At the same time, certain untoward events, arising partly out of the strained relations between the white and colored races, and partly out of a very ugly political situation, precipitated the im mediate and hasty solution of certain phases of the negro problem, and to this solution the best people of the State brought the treasure of their wisdom and the fervor of patriotic feeling. It was not a theory that confronted them: but an actual condition of distress aud lawlessness. Os course, it was not ex pected that any solution of the problem would give universal satisfaction; but the suffrage amendment was adopted by a tremendous majority, and peace and order were restored. The South is trying to do what has never yet been done in human history— to keep two races, living side by side, in peace, in happiness, in mutual help fulness. If she succeeds, she will per form the political miracle of the cen turies. And I believe she will succeed, it she be left untrammeled, in her mighty task, by the unwise suggestions and bitter criticisms of an ignorant and extreme radicalism. The real friend of the negro is not the negrophilist nor the unwise advocate of absolute political and social equality; for it is a mistaken kind ness that would encourage false hopes; but the true friends of the weaker race are those who know and appreciate their virtues, who pity their misfortunes, who throw the mantle of charity over their sins, and try, in every possible way, to lift them up to a higher manhood and a moral state deserving of a larger free dom and a nobler destiny. For a con crete example of the negro’s friend, take our able and big-hearted governor, the leader of the white supremacy move ment, and yet the staunchest advocate of the education of the r.egro at the ex pense of the State. As to the Bassett-Trinity incident, let me say a few words. In the first place, I think the whole tone of the Bassett article in the Quar terly was essentially harsh and false, estimate of Booker Washington was dcubtless sincere, but none the less ex tremely s lly. lie has surely studied “History” to little purpose. 2. As the purveyor of general intelli gence and the editor of a public journal, you are wholly within your limits when you published the utterances of Prof. Bassett, and commented upon them. There was certainly no “telling tales out oi school,” no dragging of “soiled garments’’ into public view. What is written for a Quarterly Review and put into cold type becomes, by that very fact, public property, and must take its chances with public opinion. As a member of the Methodinst church, you had a right to demand the retire ment cf Dr. Bassett from Trinity Co'llegi ; that is, if Trinity belongs to the Metho dist church! But I must say, I think you went beyond the bounds of journalistic prudence when you demanded his removal as an editor of a secular journal. However, we know that Josephus Dan iels is a better friend of the Methodists of North Carolina than Joseph Bailey, and that Dr. Ivey is as truly loyal to his church as Mr. Blair. By the way, in this matter and in his (Continued on Page Three.)