Tuesday, November 17, 1903.
THE PROGRESSIVE FARMER
5
STATE NEWS
FROM CURRITUCK TO CHEROKEE.
Item of Interest Gleaned From Our Cor
respondents and Exchanges.
Concord Times: Judge Peebles
and Dr. Bassett can sympathize with
each other. It has been some time
since any one in the State has re
ceived such a roasting as -has been
given both of them.
Greensville Reflector : North Car
olina Day in the public schools will
be celebrated in December this
year. It is a beautiful and patriotic
custom and should wake echoes of
State love in the hearts of all true
Xorth Carolinians.
Tarboro Southerner r The Green
ville Reflector announces that if nec
essary it could name at least one
hundred excellent citizens ot Pitt
who would not vote for Judge
Peebles. The Southerner will go
further and saywith the belief the
good peonleof Pitt being no better,
and the Reflector only stating the
case mildly, that it would be difficult
to find either in Edsrecombe or Pitt
one hundred men who would vote
for Judge Peebles again.
Goldsboro Argus: Alfred Daniel,
convicted of the murder of Mr. P. G.
Simmons, father of Senator Sim
mons, was brought here to-day by the
sheriff of Jones County and placed
in jail for safe-keeping. Since the
completion of Wayne County's new
jail a number of criminals from
other counties have been brought
here for safe-keeping. Wayne Coun
ty has not only one of the strongest
and most secure, but one of the
largest jails in the State.
Charlotte Observer: Something
ought to be done to those fool Tex
ans who are sending specimens of
the boll weevil to their friends in
Xorth Carolina. That is one way of
introducing the pest into the cotton
fields of this State. It is traditionary
lore that the first English sparrows
were sent or brought to this country
as curiosities just to let it be seen
how they look and act. As a result
they have taken the country and be
come unspeakable nuisances.
Ashboro Courier: "Governor Ay
cock's proclamation, which appoints
Thursday, November 26th, as a day
of Thanksgiving, is a model in
"brevity, force and felicity' to use a
term of the veteran journalist, Maj.
Hale, of the Fayetteville Observer:
The State is at peace," he says.
"There is abundance in the land. The
People have been blessed. Even those
m whose lives have come diappoint
erit and sorrow can find cause for
thankfulness in the patience which
has been wrought out of suffering."
In V;ashington(N. C.) recently proh
ibition was defeated, but the alder
men have adopted stringent regula
tions for the management of saloons.
Tbe license is $500 ,and saloons must
cJose from 8 p. m. to 6 a. m. No
Person i3 allowed to drink in a sa-
0n exc ept at a counter, the counter
mu$t not be over forty feet from a
street aid windows must be clear
so that every passer-by can see' clear
iy msiae. ine saloons can have no
back or rear doors, are not' allowed
to maintain billiard tables or other
gambling devices, nor restaurants or
lunch counters in connection there
with.
Charlotte Chronicle: Judge
Pritchardis another Tar Heel who
is coming promiently before the na
tion owing to more recent events.
The alleged postoffice boodlers are to
be tried in his court, and it is likely
that they will get what probably
tney do not want justice. The
statement of Superintendent Joyner
that there remain ; 101,797 white
children in North Carolina who are
not in school shows that there is still
work ahead of the educational cam
paigners.
bmithfield Herald: A special tax
for public schools was voted in
School District No 5, white, Beulah
Township, .Tuesday, without a vote
against it. This is the most remark
able election ever held in Johnston
County. We congratulate the citi
zens of that district for their public
spiritedness. It means much for that
section and the county. It is the
first real country district in the
county to vote a special tax for
schools. Hurrah, for Beulah! She
now has two special tax districts.
Statesville Landmark: John Sharpe
Williams,- of Mississippi, who re
ceived the Democratic vote for
Speaker of the House of Congress
yesterday must be a pretty good man.
He is of North Carolina stock and a
lineal descendant of "Lawyer Billy"
Sharpe, of Iredell, distinguished a3
a Revolutionary soldier and a mem
ber of the Continental Congrress.
The fact that Mr. Williams was the
Democratic nominee for Speaker
and he was nominated unanimously
makes him the Democratic leader of
the House.
Durham Herald: There will come
up in the Circuit Court of Appeals
in Richmond on Friday of this week,
a case in which North Carolina is
considerably interested, and one in
which Durham lawyers appear. This
will be the Henderson County bond
case, involving $97,000. The Travel
ler's Life Insurance Company i3 the
plaintiff in this case. This is a case
in which Henderson County issued
bonds, later refunded these bonds,
and still later repudiated the entire
issue. In the trial of the case be
fore Judge Boyd, in Greensboro,' the
Traveller's Insurance Company won
and Henderson County appealed.
Marshville Home: "Holding cot
ton at ten cents a pound is not, such
a safe business some think," said a
neighbor-the other day. "Two years
ago it brought ten cents in October
and eight cents in the spring"." A
meditative listener replied: - "That
year was an exception. As a rule,
Providence favors the rich, but that
year it was in favor of the poor who
had to sell in October, and against
therich who didn't have to sell until
spring." And the neighbor who was
shaky on holding cotton at ten cents
smiled and refused to pres3 his argu
ment further. - '
COL. W. T. BLACKWELL DEAD.
One of the Host Interesting Figures in
the State He Changed From IliUicn-
ire to Pauper, but Nerer Pressed His
Friends.
A telephone message stated that
Col. W. T. Blackwell died last night
at 11.45 o'clock at his home in Dur
ham. He had been stricken .with
paralysis last Sunday and no hope
was entertained for his recovery. He
died at the home of his mother, Mrs.
E. F. Blackwell.
So has passed one of the strangest
and most interesting figures an the
industrial history of North Carolina.
Col. Blackwell was the son of James
L. Blackwell, and spent his early life
m Person County. For a good many
years he peddled tobacco for a live
lihood. Shortly after the war he and
General Julian S. Carr and James
R. Day organized the firm of W. T,
Blackwell & Company, which was
destined to become the largest tobac
co concern in the South, if not in
the world.
This firm was successful from the
first; and flaunted its great bull in all
parts of the universe even on the
pyramids of Egypt, it was declared
at one time. The fjame of the Bull
Durham tobacco became world-wide,
and money flowed into the coffers of
the three organizers. They spent
millions in advertising; had men to
go through the shops of London and
other great cities and ask for the
tobacco, and devised other schemes
that made their wares in demand
everywhere.
Some fifteen years hero Col. Black
well sold out his interest in the com
pany to General Carr and several
Northern men. He received a large
amount for his interest, being paid
$20,000 merely for the use of the
trade-mark, the celebrated bull.
.In a day almost his fortunes were
swept away. There was a financial
crash in Durham ; nine mercantile
firms failed in twenty-four hours and
hundreds of individuals were sensibly
or seriously depressed. When the
day of reckoning came, it was found,
to use a current expression, that
"Blackwell was on everybody's pa
per." .He had, from his viewpoint,
endorsed for his friends. His gen
erosity ruined him ruined him open
ly and notoriouslv.
He pressed nobody, but the courts
pressed him took all that he had
to satisfy creditors, excepting only
the pitiful $1,500, which stood for
nine negro cottages and one small
roof, where a white man might live
unpretentiously.
That was over a dozen years ago.
Blackwell, changed from a million
aire to pauper, spoke no word of bit
terness. "I remember," he said,
"when people used to rush across the
street to me. Now nobody notices'
me." He laughed. Philosophy had
come with his adversity. But he
never pressed his friends ; though he
remembered that half the real estate
. -l-"k "l "I 3 1. V.tn VvSOTt
in Jjurnam nau ueeu m auu
lost by the big-hearted use of his
pen
And he died a pauper. For a good
manyyears before his death he had
no business with anybody, and no
body had any business with him. He
walked the streets unnoticed, except
when some resident pointed at the
shambling figure and marked the man
whose hundred . of thousands had
been dissipated in a day. With the
passing of time people forgot to
identify him with the great bull that
he had painted almost forgot that
his word had once been law in a com-'
. a 1 x . e ii i
muiiiLy, uui ao one ever lorgoi xnat,
Tin mnffoT' li cwrr tTr-rt-Vi rr? a-nA -
poverished he became, he never even
tried to press his friends.--Charlotte
Observer. .
Dr. tlclver and the Ptabody Fund.
The news that Dr. Charles D. Mc
Iver, president of the State Normal
and Industrial College at Greensboro,
is slated to succeed the late Dr. J. L.
M. Curry as disbursing agent of the
Peabody Fund for the Southern
States, is not surprising. Dr. Mc
Iver is in closest touch with the gen
eral educational situation "in the
Southland is the fittest man in sight
for this important trust. It calls for
a man of great tact and keen dis
crimination, and Dr. Mclver has
every qualification for the work. It
means, no doubt, promotion and bet
ter pay. Yet we wish that Dr. Mc
lver could be content to stay at the"
head of the State Normal and Indus
trial College. He has been 4he pio
neer in the movement for education
of women in North Carolina. He
has fought for the idea that the ed
ucation of girls is every bit as im
portant, if indeed not more import
ant, than the education of boys. "The
hand that rocks the cradle rules the
world." The head of the woman of
the potent hand should He filled with
all that is best in knowledge and culr
ture. For this Dr. Mclver has stood.
We hope he will still keep in touch
with the splendid institution for wo
men he has founded at Greensboro,
even if he is placed in charge of.
the Peabody Fund.: Asheville Ga
zette News. ' " r
Landmark : Alfred . Daniels, the
negro charged with killing Senator
Simmons' father in J ones County a
few weeks ago, was tried at Trenton
last week, convicted of murder in
the first degree and sentenced to be
hanged December 11th. An appeal
was taken. Ex-Congressman O'Hara,
colored, of New Berne, was Daniels'
counsel, and while he offered no evi
dence, he contended for a verdict af
manslaughter. O'Hara fought the
case persistently, contending that the
indictment was void because the ne
groes had been discriminated against
in drawing the grand jury. He was
over-ruled on all points. s
Charlotte Observer : The Mecklen
burg cotton crop is almost one-third
shorter than the average crop." The
farmers have been holding cotton.
but since the price has advanced a
great deal has been sold. About the
same proportion to this season s crop
has now been sold as there was last
year at - this time notwithstanding
the fact of the comparatively low
nrices. Un-to-date this year, 8,265
bales have been received at the city
platfonrir The receipts for the cor
responding period of last year were
13,042 bales.