A CLOSE-UP OF THE
.By REV. J. L. LONG.
fflitorial Introduction:—The editor’s classmate,
jL |. L. Long, has been writing a series of in
frenting reminiscences for the Monrpe Journal.
!ejr‘lj(ing, who after his graduation at Wake
forest in l8<)2, began his ministerial work as
astor of the First Baptist Church of Goldsboro,
J*j. (iuri!ig the years of his ministry, held pastor-,
:e! ;n Virginia, New York, and possibly other
®ajS(,Si |ior health has now caused his retire
rjelll :im! he is spending his later years over in
* (if tin- cities of Tennessee—I’ve forgotten
" jn a former article Mr. Long had written in
terestingly of 'tide-water Virginia, where he held
a pastorate, and the following article is a con
tiiniati<oi of his northeast-Virginia reminiscences.
], js a little remarkable, hut. indicative of the
(i;hl, 0f making mistakes in writing and printing,
that the name of John Wilkes Booth’s famous
aCtor brother, Edwin Booth, . appears in the
article. n> printed in the Monroe Journal, as the
name of tlm slayer of President Lincoln. The er
ror (scaned Mr. Long and all that bunch of Beas
ltvs at Monore.—It is probable that John Wilkes
Hodth would have become as famous an actor as
l,g hrorher did if he had not gone’ crazy and
hilled Lincoln. The national public never seemed
t0 hold the crime of his brother against the great
pdwin I tooth.—But what if my memory has
served me treacherously and the two actors were
not brothers!
Mr. Long’si Article.
Two miles from Pert Royal, in Caroline
countv. A a., directly south, John Wilkes Booth
was apprehended and slain. William Garrett was
a wm of old Mr. Garrett at whose home he was
caught. Mr. Garrett was one of my deacons at
Zoar. 11 ave heard him talk of this tragedy arid
his connection with it. Booth and Harrel, who
accompanied him, crossed the Rappahannock at
Port Royal and came to the Garret home, asking
to be taken in as Confederate soldiers, one of
whom had been wounded. Naturally, Mr. Gar
ret welcomed them. The next day he, became
suspicious. They would stroll into the woods and
come back at night.; The third day he told them
that lie could not shelter them any longer. They
then requested that they be allowed to sleep in his
tobacco barn. This was a barn near his house in
which he housed tobacco during the winter to be
cured and got in condition to be stripped and bun
dlecl in the spring when the damp warm weather
Paschal’s “Wake Forest College”
The amount of interesting information Dr.
G. \\. Paschal can cram into a history of about
thirty years of Wake Forest College is hardly
as surprising to the average man as it is to the
average Wake For.est alumnus. In Dr. Paschal s
first volume of the History of North Carolina
Baptists, the scholarly professor of Greek dem
onstrated a knowledge of North Carolina his
tory that is marvelous. The early sections, of
that volume comprehend one of the best treatises
on the civil and r,elieious status of the colony in
uayh mar tne oiare nas. m me a
of the struggles of the founders of Wake Forest
College any reader, whatever his lack of inter
ost in Wake Forest itself, can get a glimpse
conditions during the quarter of a century pre
ceding the War Between the States that pro
vokes his intellectual appetite for more.
Ihit The State’s Voice devoted considerable
8l>ace in a number of its first volume to a review
°f Dr. Paschal's activities' and to an estimate of
the editor’s class-mate of forty-three years ago
as just about the best all-round scholar in the
state and as the possessor of an energy that is
certainly unsurpassed. The man does the work
of three men, and everything that he undertakes
>s well done. Six-thousand words a week, on
311 overage, he writes for the editorial columns
°f the Biblical Recorder, including a survey o
current events which ranks probably at the top
ri the list, of such reviews in the state. The
jull work of a professor of Greek he'does, while
li0ok after book is now coming from his hands,
a|ri books that' require an amount,of research
that would tax the ability and energies i>F#lD?(l8t
any of the rest of us. ■ ,.
L«t if the History of Wake forest werent
ex'ceedingly valuable -per se, the eompUme^rtary*
'o'unre Dr. Paschal sent the editor of the .Voice
'V0l,!d bo valued, as -one of his chief tteasufefp
because of the autographed inscription wbiah
5ars sentiments that if fek deserved would at
.ord as desirable an epitaph as T should desifPs
ln Passing. But f?am ••fraid with all Paschalf .
profundity, he has allowed himself toj be fooled
111 that one matter-.--: : .. y._y_
came, after which it was marketed. He gave his
consent hesitatingly for he did not want to be un
kind or inhospitable to a Confederate soldier as
he was working his way back home after the sur
render. Booth’s pursuers had gotten on his track
*n .in 1 e night came to the house and demanded
their surrender, but Booth and Harrel would not
do so. Finally they got Harrel but Booth hid and
m the darkness they could not discern him, so
they set fire to the tobacco barn and still Booth
would not come out, but as the fire lighted up the
barn they could see inside of it and fired on him
through the cracks between the planks and finally
struck Booth and gto him out. Have heard Miss
Bucinda Holloway say that she held his head as
he was dying on the porch. The pursuers de
manded that old Mr. Garrett be taken to Wash
ington as a prisoner because he was harboring
these criminals. , Finally his two boys prevailed
on them to let them go as hostages fori their
father, as he was old and in feeble health. He
was a victim, not at all guilty of intentionally
harboring those criminals.
W illiam Garret said the worst night he had
ever spent was the first night he and his brother
spent when they got to the prison in Washington,
lhe mob was outraged on account of the dastard
ly crime of the murderer of Lincoln and were
clamorous threatening to kill them as parties to
the terrible crime. Finally, the government be
came convinced that Mr. Garret was innocent
and it released the two boys.
Sightseers took up every particle of every-post
and any material that could in any way .be called
part of the old barn and carried it away as sou
venirs. The Garrets had to take out that part of
the porch floor on which Booth died in order to
keep peoplq from ripping it up. It was an old
house and the planks showed to he newer than
the rest of the floor.
In those days, the crossing of the river at Port
Royal was known as the “underground” way by
which the abolitionists secreted slaves out of slav
ery to freedom by way of Washington. When I
lived ip Rochester, N. Y., I often heard that city
referred to as the “underground way” into'Can
ada for secreting slaves into freedom. While liv
ing there,' Fred Douglas died in Rochester and
tthey had a great funeral for him in the Brick
Presbyterian church. He had operated the “un
derground way” and so was a great abolitionist
hero.
a; puer sitesen
The Klu Klux Klan and the “Red Shirts,”
both strict secret societies, were a necessity to
relieve this state of a political bondage which was
the outgrowth of economic disorders in the
years following the civil war and the silver panic
of the nineties. The Civil War had been fought
to preserve for posterity the same Constitution
which the Supreme Court has just held is still
in force, altho the other two, branches of our Fed
eral Government had been for two years inclined
to ignore its principles and .precepts. Following
the Civil War there existed an economic debacle
similar to the present depression, the credit of
the nation had been “farmed out” to the invest
ment (international) bankers. Cleveland in 1893
again “farmed out” the credit of the nation. In
1914 Woodrow Wilsonv gave the Credit of the
Nation, lock stock and barrel, to the Federal Re
serve IBank -and since the international bankers
were pleased? they evidently held the title. Now,
Mr. Roosevelt issues mortgages in the shape of
bonds to the extent of twelve billions of dollars
within a period of two years as a further con
cession to the financial interests.
The Voice Early Proves Itself a Prophet
There appeared dn the February 15, 1933, is
sue of The State’* Voice (two weeks before-the
closing of all opr banking institutions after Mr.
Roosevelt’s inauguration) the following;
“Qur present financial structure is found
ed on a loose book-keeping system that has
permitted the over-expansion of our national
'• wealth. It is top-heavy and our structure
will .collapse unless a more rigid system is
installed.”* - * .
It is a sad .commentary to make by one who
has known nothing but.-the principles of -the
Democratic party, to call attention to the fact
that since the time of Andrew Jackson history
does not record a single democratic President,as
having taken any steps-to preserve the Nations
credit On the contrary .there has app^red to
be an-iptent to,always he with it.. -
' The proper conduct of -all our governmental
affairs should he of the deepest concern to all
as our present daily-existence, our future ind
the future welfare of our children absolutely
depends upon a well organized, orderly and effi
cient government. Our entire economic well
being is contingent upon a type of government'
that is stable, deals equitably and fairly with
all citizens and, above all, upon, a ,type. that i$
ter feres to a minimum degree with our individual
pursuits. , - . ■ - ; I
For twq years we have had a type of “Expgri
friental” government which at this writing has
created a chaotic situation in our economic life*
Much is now being written about it in our daily
papers—the President has even characterize#
our condition as having reverted to die ‘‘horse
and buggy days.” Who shall lead us Out of i
this and shall we have a presidential election?
fought out along the lines of supporting some*
thing one branch of the government has held un- 5
constitutional, although the other two deemed # ;
to be within constitutional limits; or shall we
have a constitutional convention; or a legisla
tive approval of a hurriedly drawn amendment
that will abolish all 6ur ancient document but
the new amendment? Will General Johnson' be
called upon to “crack down” on all the sub
sidized farmers and the “doled’' who have beeti
led to believe that all “manna” comes ...from '
Washington, so as to assure the adoption of an
amendment that will permit of “plans” and
“planners”? - * ►
Is it-not high time for the many minorities ,
..that have made up the groups seeking-special
legislation for the particular selfish interest of
their groups to lay aside temporarily their self
seeKing motives ana conscientiously meet to
gether with a view of studying our present
needs, map out a program for the benefit of alt
and see that such a definite program is adhered
to in the future? It may result in the adoption
of communism (Heaven forbid) but if a defi
nite program, worked out by all, is adopted then
certainly we will be following one Democratic
precept, that of majority rule.
Why should it pot be possible for the indus
trialists to meet together and discuss the good '
and bad features of the past experience, agre,^
that certain ’remedies he adopted and that' tneir
representatives, be .directed ' to' discuss these
changes with other groups and come ttf some
working plan Vvith all other .groups .making up
our nations economic life ?. Organized labor has
its spokesmen, %they have their program, - blit
does it reflect the wishes of the majority of .la
bor? What concessions .will labor make towards
having a unified program for the benefit of all?
Organized labqr advocated arbitration across the
table to settle their problems. Can they come to
the point that such an arbitration means to thCmi
the acceptance of compromising of differences
iand be firm in their agreement to, .abide the
agreement after such a conference? The
farmer, God bless him and long may he live, (Mjj
stomach would cave in but for his weary plod
ding from morn till night to provide my food, -
and incidentally, labor and the^ other groups
must fill their stomach with the farmer's prod-*
ucts)—diis is a problem, his number is legion and
how to obtain a representative opinion as to o®
needs and welfare will present -the most .dtfSsute
of the problems. The other groups, white-collatf •
workers, government employees, teachers, etc.*
should all agree upon what they wifl want and
the least they will accept, etc. This would seetar -
to be the only way out of this ‘‘chaos” we are.
now experiencing. f
And all of the foregoing leads Us back to the
questions: What shall be the ratio of distribu
tion of the products of our creative powers, and
who shall prescribe that ratio? Shall the “drone”1
have the same “standard of living” as the efS*
cient skilled worker? Shall the agency of dis*
tribution, credit, be controlled by international ■
interests? :
Upon the answers to these three questions de- >
pends our future economic status. Study then*
over and determine how _you think they should
be an swered. ' _ '
♦This prophecy was in an article .cputributed
{by Mr. E. W* Price, secretary of the state’s in
dustrial commission Probably, Mr: Price would,
better have said “tokens qr .fictional evidences .
of wealth.” Put the prophecy was promptly ful-» .
filled.—Editor. . : •/ : . U
' A curious thing—to see side bacon and-round
steak quoted at the smne price^-20 cents a pound*
yrr.::;
* ,Guy a Cardwell reports that there have been.^
shipped from the {serial strawberry proqpon^v
points of a<wtiwa«t^ ^pvtL ,Carolina 10 c
000 jrpod jTtce^t .vri
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