Newspapers / The Smithfield Herald (Smithfield, … / April 7, 1905, edition 1 / Page 1
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2ljr Rrralh. price one dollar per tear. "TRUE TO OURSELVES. OUR COUNTRY AND OUR GOD." single copies five cents. VOL. 24. SMITHFIELD, N. C., FRIDAY, APRIL 7. 1905. NO. 5 A STATEMENT OF FACTS. A Brief Review of the Progress of Temperance Reform In Robeson County. In reviewing the history of the prohibition movement in Kobe eon county, one traces the prog ress of the greatest reformation which has taken place within our borders. There has been a time when whole sections of this coun ty would have opposed the move ment with such vigor as would have insured its defeat. Like all great moral reforms, however, it gained in popularity but slowly, crystalizing into earnest effort something more than twenty years ago. At that time, the question was viewed largely from ?apolitical standpoint and the Republican party in this county stood for license while the Demo crtic party, though not in its en tirety was for prohibition. While throughout the entire county some efforts were being made for its restriction, it was at the coun ty seat that the fight was waged most aggressively and it was there that the first great impulse wasgiven to the movement which insured its operation throughout the couDty. T v oop* i-1 in ?000 buere were tumwu 1 licensed bar-rooms, or groggeries as they were called in thosedays, in full blast in the town of Lum bertoD; but 188o marked the last year of the nefarious traffic. In June, 188(5, an election was| held on the question of prohibi tion and license. The campaign was an active one and resulted in a vote of 87 for and 20 against prohibition. At the meeting of the Legisla ture the year following we thiuk, prohibitionists from various sec tions of the county sent petitions asking for the incorporation of the churches in the county. This being accomplished, the opera tions of itinerant venders was re stricted. The effect of the election in Lumberton gave an impetus to the movement throughout the county. Public sentiment strengthened and at a meeting of the Hoard of County Commis sioners there were applications for license to sell liquor in ad-) jaceut towns, und these parties were refused license on the grounds that any man who wished to sell liquor was not a man of good moral character. A fierce fight was had before the Hoard of Commissioners, the pe titioners having employed as counsel to represent them, the late Thomas C. Fuller, of Raleigh, one of the ablest of the State's attorneys, and Col. N. A. McLean appeared for the Hoard of Com missioners. It was one of the at)le8t legal natties 01 run me, and the Commissioners won. The case was carried to the Kupretne Court and tbeSupremeCourtsus tained the ruling of the Commis sioners. Clothed with full author ity by this decision of the Supreme Court, the question of selling li quor iu Robeson county depend ed solely on the Board of Com missioners, and it was well looked to after that time that such a Board was elected as would leave no question us to what their ac-1 tion would be in case applica tions for license were made. Prohibition did not prohibit immediately. We had the law and we had moral sentiment, but that law was not enforced as vig orously at first as it should have been and "blind tigers" infested almost every alley. But the pur pose of our people was determin ed and their tight was unrelent ing. Peeling that the penalty im posed in such cases was insuf ficient, our citizens had the Leg islature to pass an act making it a felony to sell whiskey in Robe son county. One after another of the offenders were caught and punished, but too infrequently in this, as in many other cases, the decree of the court was "judg ment suspended on payment of cost." At last we got the right man on the bench, and our people will ever hold him in grateful recollec tion for his manly and courage ous administration of justice in assisting us to suppress the evil then flourishing in our midst. Judge Connor duriug this time held a term of court here. He was informed of the situation and a number of cases for retail ing were heard before him and conviction followed in almost every case. The penalty of the law was imposed so that from that time until now there has been little retailing wi rth speak ing of in this county. About this time, a change in the tide of sentiment placed the Republicans in power again and all was done that could be done in the Legislature to change our existing laws. Permission was given to sell cider and "juiceries," as they were called, were opened up at every cross road and all sorts of vile decoctions were there dispensed. But the fight has been main taiued, and now, neither wine, cider, beer, whiskey, or anything of an intoxicating nature, call it by whatever name you please, can be sold in the county by druggists or otherwise. There are a great many incidents con nected with the tight in this coun ty which might be of interest, but space forbids enumeration. At the time when liquor was sold in Lumberton there were only two brick stores there, now it would he difficult to find a town whose business buildings are handsomer or more impos ing, where there is more evidence of thrift and progress. We should scarcely over-state the case if we should say that within those twenty years of prohibition, busi ness has multiplied itself many times over. The county at large is more thrifty and more prosper ous than then. Of the lawyers who composed the bar in Lum berton at that time, two only favored license and while the charge was never brought against them, it is a singular fact that neither of them, although both were men of ability, were ever named for any public office. There is to-day no stronger prohibition territory within the state of North Carolina than Robeson county. It has been given a fair trial and while like all things human, it is not per fect. it has been the greatest i blessing which has ever come to i this county and if an election were held on the question again, it is our belief that not ten per cent, of the entire vote of the county would be cast for license. While many might be named who did valiant service in that fight, we cannot forbear to men tion the late Edward Knox Proc tor, who during twenty of the best and most fruitful years of his life, devoted much of his time both in a public and private ca pacity to the eradication of this festering evil. Further back than his day Col. Alfred Rowland did valiant service, lie can vassed tbe county in 1881! for Prohibition. It was over whelmingly defeated and his friends thought he was ruined politically. So far from this he was afterwards elected and served two terms in Cougress. An inci dent occurred during the session of the Legislature of 1881 that passed the Prohibition law, that Hhows his fidelity to duty. Dur ing a visit home from the Legis lature a friend discussing the measure with him, asked "What I will be the effect of your action1 on your personal popularity?" He replied, "I have not given that matter a moment's thought If the people of Robeson want a man to vote against that meas ure (Prohibition) and will let me know it, 1 will resign and let them send a man who will vote their wishes, but so sure as I am in ttie Senate when the bill comes up I shall vote for it because I think it isright." Ofthefourlaw yers who voted for Prohibition, then an apparently Lost Cause, he as stated, served for vears in Congress. Another is judge of the Superior Court, and another Railroad Comtnissoner. J. A. McAllister. Lumberton, N. 0. Feel tired, no appetite, cannot sleep, work or eat? That's spring tiredness and wiil disappear at once if you take Hollister's Rocky Mountain Tea this month. 35 cents. Tea or Tablets?A. H. Royett, Selma Drug Co. A VISIT TO APPOMATTOX. Col. E. J. Holt Tells of His Return to the Place Where He Laid Down His Arms Forty Years Ago. To The Hehalu:? 1 presume that a few words about a recent trip made by the writer, in company with General Cox. Maj. London, and Mr. Cooper, to the battle field at Appomattox, will be of interest to the old veterans who closed their military life on that historic field. There has been but little change in that locality in the forty years, since General Lee's army stacked arms for the last time. The court house and jail has been torn down and new ones built at the railroad station about three miles away from the old site. The McLean house, then in the center of the village, was bought by some Yankees, taken down and was intended to have been taken to Washington City and re-erected (it having been the headquarters of General Grant, and in which the terms of sur render were agreed upon) but for some reason the material was never moved and now lies in rot ting piles on the ground where the house stood. Only three or four families live now in the village and it nas a most desolate and dilapidated appearance. The battlefield, including the village, was bought some years ago by a Maj. Ames of the Union Army and about 2,000 acres has been enclosed with a ba: b wire fence and is now used as a sheep ranch, but I learned that it was a failure?it is too poor to make pasturage. Very little of the land has been cultivated in several years and is now grown up in sassafras bushes and spruce pines, and what is strange to me is that wtiere the pines grow there are no sassafras and where the sassafras grow j there are no pines. 1 went to the place where Gen ; eral Roberts formed his brigade in line of battle rhe mori ing of the 0th of April, and then I had no trouble to mark the course taken by the troopers in their last charges and all the move ments made by the brigade that day. There was the hill down which we rode with drawn sabres in a swift charge, then the bot tom, and the ditches we crossed, then tne hill we mounted and the spot where we captured the four pieces of artillery. 1 marked the location of tin battery in a thick et of sassafras with a small heap of stones, later to be marked by a small granite monument. i walked over the same ground and know that it was the same but somehow it did not seem like the same place it was forty years ago; then shells, grape, and can ister and the smoke and roar of cauuon filled the air?now all is as quiet and still as a few lean sheep and desolation can makeit We traced out the route and movements of Cox's Infantry bri gade and marked the spot where he captured two pieces of artil lery?which was about two hun dred yards to the left of the bat tery captured by General Roberts; we marked the place by a small heap of stones. We had no trouble to locate the place where his brigade fired their last volley and designated the spot for the State monument. Itisabouttwo hundred yards to the right of the public road in a dense thicket of spruce pines aud unless the pines shali be cut away will not be seen unless alter a special search for it. I think this is unfortunate, for it is a beautiful piece of gran ite and is built to be seen. I, as one of the commission, thought, and wanted it on the ioad, but was in the minority. About three hundred yards from our State monument is a j Confederate cemetery where the ladies in the vicinity have gath ered up the Southern dead and have enclosed the lot with a beautiful and substantial iron fence. We had over a dozen oppor tunities to invest our spare change in Minnie balls at 25 cents and grape shot at one dollar each, aud one fellow tried to sell me an old army bridle bit foronel dollar. I refused to buy aud told him that I thought probably it was mine as 1 lost horse, saddle, bridle, and bit?all right there forty years ago. He still wanted the dollar and 1 presume is yet hunting a customer. Appomattox is a difficult place to get to from this part of North | Carolina The nearest route is! via Durham and Lynchburg then east twenty-five miles to Appo mattox statiou, then over a rough country road three miles to the battlefield, i understand a special train will leave Durham at six A.M. on Monday, April 10th, and will be expected to reach Appomattox about twelve s o'clock and leave thereaboutfive P. M., reaching Durham Monday night about twelve o'clock. E. I. Holt. BENSON NEWS. Miss Vira Smith visited rela tives in Menson Sunday. Hon. A. K. Smith, of Smith field, was in town Monday. Dr. H. A. Hood visited his par- j ents in lower Johnston last Sun day. Miss Ellen Eldridge visited her parents 111 Smithfjeld Saturday and Sunday. Messrs. J. \V. Holmes and J. G. Smith went to Smithtield Mon day on business. Mr. A. B. Hudson is having a large dwelling erected on Church Street, near the Academy. Mr. Heber Creech visited his sister, Mrs. W. H. Stallings, in Selma, last Saturday and Sun day. Mr. T. J. Stewart left Tuesday night for Sanford to attend the marriage of his brother, Mr. Zeb. Stewart. Messrs. E. F. Moore and U. F. Wallace are having a nice office fitted up in the rear of Hood A Benson's drug store, to be used as an insurance office. Mr Zeb. Stewart, of Pittsburg, Pa., and Mr. S. J. Stewart, of Red Springs, N. C., visited then parents, Mr. and Mrs. Elmon Stewart, here last week. Dr. J. C. Johnson has moved; his dental office from the corner | of Main and Market Streets to j the corner of Main and Railroad Streets, over Hood & Benson's drug store. The negro which attacked Mr. j N. Stewart on Mingo Creek trestle as was reported in our letter j sometime ago, passed through town under arrest on his way to Fayetteville jail, having been ar , rested at Rocky Mount. Dr. L. (). Baylor, the noted temperance lecturer of Boston, will deliver a series of lectures here, beginning on Thursday night of this week, at the Metho dist church. On Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday morning and night, he will lee ture at the Baptist church. Col. Ryals was very busy last Sunday arresting drunken rowd ies. After taking a few races hej succeeded in capturing three of them and put them in what he , thought to be safe keeping, until Monday morning, that they might have a hearing before Mavor Hood. Some one some time during the night supplied the prisoners with an axe and t wo of them made their escape. The other decided that he was about as comfortable as hecared to be and remained in the guard house until Monday morning, when he was given a hearing be fore the Mayor. April 6th. Solon. Dr. Taylor's Lectures. We learn that arrangements have been made with Dr. K. (). Taylor to deliver his series of temperance lectures in Benson, beginning las' night, and contin uing until Sunday night, April !)th. These lectures were deliver ed in Smithfield a short time ago and we are prepared to say that the people in and around Benson will be well repaid for attendiug them. SELMA NEWS. Election on Prohibition Called for May 15.?Items and Personal Notes. Mr. Sprinkle, of Charlotte spent Sunday here. Mrs. I'et Temple, of Wake, spent a few days here this week. Miss Elaeie Ellington, of Ral eigh, is visitiug Miss Margaret] Ethredge. Mr. M. L. Davis left Wednes day for Rictinjoud to have his! eyes treated. Mr. and Mrs. It. B. Carrington have taken rooms at the Mer chants Hotel. Mrs. N. it Batton and daugh ter Jimmie, went to Italeigh i Tuesday on a visit. Hon. John C. Scarborongh, of ( Murfreesboro, N. C., spent Fri-1 day with l)r. K. J. Noble. Mr and Mrs. F. B. McKinne, i of Concord, spent Wednesday, night with M. C. Winston, Esq. Messrs Robert Millard No well and Luther Richardson spent ] Sunday at Mr. Berry Richurd son's. Mr. and Mrs. M. C. Winston and children spent Saturday and Sunday with Dr. Thos. H. A vera in Wake. Dr. 1'. C. Hoffman, general manager of Virginia-Carolina Chemical Co., was in town Wednesday. .Mr. Roger \. Richardson, of Washington, D. C , is home on a visit to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. C. Richardson. Miss Lillie Pair, who is at school in Raleigh, spent Tuesday night here the guest of Mrs. C. W. Richardson. Next Friday night M. C. Win ston, Esq., will entertain the stockholders of the "Rank of Selrna" at the Merchants Hotel.} Mr. J. R. Royal, of Wilmington, 1 has rented a store from T. H.' Whitley and will open a dry doods and millinery store this week. | Mr. A. Jones was called to Clayton Tuesday by the serious] illuess of his sister, Mrs. Rarnes. J We are glad to learn that she is; now improving. Mr. John A.JOates, the editor of the North Carolina Raptist, was here and conducted services at the Raptist church Wednes day night. Drs. H. A. Royster and W. D. j McNider, of Raleigh, and J.J.j Young, of Clayton, were in Selma Tuesday morning the I guests of Dr. Noble. Messrs. J. R. Hood, G W. J Evans, A. Jones and J. VV. Liles went, to Raleigh Wednesday to attend, as delegates from Selma,' the State Raraca meeting. Mr. John 11. Parker returned Sunday morning from a visit of a couple of weeksto Hot Springs. N. C , Morristown, and Chatta nooga, Tenn. He seems much improved by the hot baths aud his trip. ? Mr. Alex Green was married to Miss Hal Burton Newland last Thursday, March BOth, at Win ston-Salem, N. C. The happy couple left for a trip South. Mr. Green is a general favorite here and our people wish them much joy. We are glad to see that Charles U. Harris, Esq., of Selma, has been appointed United States Commissioner for Johnston county. It is a good appoint ment for he is a promising young lawyer and has made many friends since he has been in Selma. The Board ofCounty Commis sioners last Monday appointed Messrs C. W. Richardson, R. J. Noble and C. F. Kirby road com mittee for Selma township, the Board at its monthly meeting, having ordered that the roads in Selma township be worked by taxation. It is to be hoped the committee will have the roads in good fix by next winter for they | were in bad order all last year. The Town Commissioners ha e ordered an election to be lie d on May loth to decide whether t iej dispensary shall remain or! whether we shall have prohibi-; tion; but, some think it would hurt trade to have prohibition here and dispensaries at Smith field and Fine Level. Therefore if the prohibition peopleofSmith field are in earnest let them vote the dispensary away. Then Selma will do the same and Fine Level will also vote prohibition, for neither place can afford to have liquor sold at it and no where else in the county. We have heard people say they would move away from either place were liquor sold there and nowhere near. North Carolina Bank Examination. The Corporation Commission, something like two years, ago in response tothe request of theState Hankers' Association, inaugura ted a system of State bank in spection that is not surpassed by the national government or any State. In looking about for a fit man to make State Hank Examiner, the commissioners were fortuuate in choosing Mr. J110. U. Ellington. He has more than met the high expectations of his friends and measured fullv up to the important delicate dutiee of the responsible posi tion. He is honest, efficient, capable, courageous?a model public official wlio has " done the State some service." Having been elected vice-president of the Bank of Fayetteville \lr. Elling ton has resigued aud will euter upon his duties on the 10th of April. The Bank of Fayetteville is to be congratulated upon the election of Mr. Ellington. He has the capacity and the charac ter to help make that strong old institution greater than it has ever been in its long history. As successor to Mr. Ellington the Corporation Commission yesterday elected Mr. John Ay cock, who has from boyhood held a position of responsibility in the Bank of Wayne. Train ing and promotion in that bank ing institution is in itself a guar antee of his knowledge of the banking business aud of his in tegrity. He is a young man of character aud had the highest recommendations. The State of North Carolina has the best inspection aud management of banks of any Stateiu the South, thanks to the Corporation Commission and State Bank Examiner Ellington. That is of value, not alone to the banks, but to the whole public as well?News and Observer, Saturday. HOOD BROS. UNUSUAL OFFER. Sell Dr. Howard's Specific at Halt Price, Guarantee a Cure. "It isn't often that we have faith enough in the medicine put up bv other people to be willing to offer to refund the money if it does not cure," said Hood Bros, to a Herald man who dropped into their store, 'but we are glad to sell Dr. Howard's specific for the cure of dyspepsia on that basis. "The I)r. Howard Company, in order to get a quick introductory sale, authorizes us to sell their regular fifty cent bottles at half price, 25 cents, and. although we have sold a lot of it, and have guaranteed every package, not one has been brought back as unsatisfactory. "One great advantage of this specific," they continued, "is its small dose and convenient form. There are sixty doses in a vial that can be carried in the vest pocket or nurse, and every one has more medicinal power than a big pill or tablet or a tumbler of mineral water. Picnic at Sealey's Pond. On Monday after Kaster, April 24th, there will be a picnic at Sir. .1. W. Sealey's pond near Archer. Everybody invited to come and bring well filled baskets. It. H Bioos. A strength tonic that brings rich, red bloo 1. Makes you strong, healthy and active. That's what Hoilister's Itocky Mountain Tea will do. X5 cents, Tea or Tablets.?A. II. Doyett, Selma Drug Co.
The Smithfield Herald (Smithfield, N.C.)
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April 7, 1905, edition 1
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