the Gastonia Gazette] ■ Dec Uratiw h o"f° An* rfcan °I n de pendence, has and gone, aad with It the greatest gala-day Gaston county ever saw. It wm Gaston county day in Gastonia and her people were hero horn Tuckascege to Pan handle to celebrate It. Not only were oar own people here in great fort*, hot they came in droves and companies from ad joining counties and from afar to scejhe sights, and they ns acsscd here Friday wMeverbefore seen in Gaston coanty. Possibly Gaston is the only county In the Sooth that could have construc ted a pageant just like it: at a*y nte Gaston lays undisputed jo Claim to having more oqfttdo min* than any other county 4a the Sooth. / * We axe glad oar neighbors came and we thank .them for, their helpful and inspiring pret ence. Kings Mountain, Berne mer, Cherryville, Crowders Mountain, Tuelrescrgc, Moun tain bland. MeAdenville, Lowell end Dallas did a great and hon orable part to make the occasion a gfocioos one for their county. Gastonia's share was to give oar neighbors room that day sad we gave them eO we had. Wish we kadfcad more room, and had faeea old enough and big enough and experienced enough to have done twice on well by oar visi tors as we did. Come again. The latch string has been jerked oil, the latch wedged up, am) the doors thrown wide open. Statesville is to be congratu lated upon the free delivery of city OHtfls to which she has proven herself entitled. The past-oflke receipts ft that point far 12 months ending June 30 wen $10,572.80. Statesville is already known as one of (he ■mat solid aad progressive towns ia 'the entire state, end to this knowledge is to be added the Landmark's declaration that there fa more basineee done in . Statesville according to popula tion than in any other town of storilar else In the Sooth. FOURTH OF JULY. «*at iAY or rEsnvm. r*®* ;■ Nothing could have been better conducted than vras the manage ment by Chief-Marshal K. Btyau Jones and Ha assistants of the great parade of last Friday. By toe time appointed they had everything and everybody is place and the parade in motion. Too much praise cannot be given them for their part in the day’s success. Moving from the Os ark and Modena in the eastern part of town, the parade followed Air line street to York, then with Yotk to Ftacklin Avenue, then with Franklin Avenue to the Narrow Gauge, thence back Main, and along Main to York. Here it iwang to the right and took Airline Street again to the tony mill. There the pro cession turned back through Corny to the Loruy grove uear the Trenton. The parade was led by Mr. W. T. Jordan, of Mountain Island, and his party ia an auto* mobile. Following hhn come the two carriages bearing the speakers, and then the Mt. Hol ly band. The historical floats, the cotton mill floats, the mer cantile floats, the Cherryville band, and the private carnages allowed in the order named, rug HISTORICAL FLOATS. The Original Thirteen— Represented by Mrs. J. H. Cor ;man as Liberty and 13 young Indies representing the different 2. Other States East of the •Mississippi—Twelve young la dies. 3. Florida Purchase—Florida; Miss Saline Latham. 4. Lotiisana Purchase (and Territory Northwest) — Fifteen young ladies. 5. _ Territory ceded by Mexico —Eight young ladies. 6. Alaska — Miss Rosebud Adams. 7. Cuba—Miss Clara Holland. 8. Uncle Sam, R. C. Adams; Porto Rico, C. H. Cavis; Guam, D. M. Jones; Philippines. C. A. Johnson. Hawaii, B. H. Parker. COTTOW MILL FLOATS. Mountain Inland Mills. Dallas Cotton Mills. Avon Cotton Mills, Gastonia. Gastonia Manufacturing Co. Arlington Mills, Gastonia. The Trenton, Gastonia. The Oxark, Gastonia. The Modena, Gastonia. The Dilling, Enterprise, and Cora, of Slugs Mountain. The Southern, of Bessemer. Me Aden Mills, McAdenvitle. Tuckaseege (Mt. Holly.) Lowell Cotton Mills. Spencer Mountain Milk. Gaston Manufacturing Co., Cbcrtyville. Crowder’s Mountain and Lula, of Kings Mountain. The Lomy, Gastonia. These floats were magnificent —worthy of Solomon and Oueeu of Sheba, and were peopled by prettily dressed girls. They were canopied creations of artistic taste. Bach possessed saficient individuality and merit to make a separate description desirable, bat want of space and time for bids such elaboration. The Dilling Mill, the Southern, the Gaston Manufacturing Co., of Cberryvtlle. The Modena, of Gastonia, and the Mountain Island floats showed products of the mills, either in construction of the floats or attire of the young ladies, and .were objects of great admiration and much flattering commeta. MUCASTIU FLOATS. The Page Company, Craig & Wilson, Coffin Factory, F. Tor mice & Co., Gaston Iron Works, J. Q. Holland* Co., long Bros., Gastonia Hardwate Co., J. K. Cnrry * Co.. K. Y. life Ins. &4LVasr^sst Furniture Company. Tha Bee Hfee, Baltimore Racket. Gasto aia Bottling Works, Gastonia Oil Mill, Williams Furniture Co., Heath's One.Price Ifepertment Store; Thomson Co., W. T. Love Co., Hayaes'and Cannon, Green * Wilson, Gastonia Graded Schools. Tha Junior Order of American - .— ...— - in the i m sen a to g ntti tortus. LKMmnjr of mention alone with (ho floats arc the tecta that JMtty residences were decorated te honor of the occasion, and that nanny show window and hnainaea fronts ware adorned with a mjummmtm hitherto iBipprotcbed. In the Loray Park a stand had hsna erected for the J™*Jf~** "MJfr Uoon .. 9y. *v* * ***** tmm distilleries ta Gaston and Ml a wheel hones worth over Thaw there wore only two ... ■ » « - - , I III cotton mills. To-day there arc 30-odd mills and the county is dotted over with these mills, good schools, academies, and graded schools, with the distil leries in diminishing small num bers. Ninety yean ago the first spindle for the first cotton mill in this section o{ country was hammered out on an anvil up here in, Lincoln County.* The products of these mills thirty years ago were kept in the stores and sold to the nouse-wives as *»pnn truck” to be used in weav ing or knitting at home. The South is deatiued to become the manufacturing centre of the Union. We have the climate, the labor, the intelligence. Fort) years ago we were puncturing the folds of "Old Glory’’ with bullets; to-day wc salute its brilliant colors In oar enthusias tic loyalty, resolving to be surpassed by none in our Amer icanism. I take pleasure in in troducing to yon one who hai done ana is doing much to mske i this section what it is to-day, formerly a cititen of Charlotte, but now our own county-inau, Mr. D. A. Tompkins. The speaker was greeted by applause. The Fourth of July is pre-eminently a Southern holiday. Southern statesmen and Southern soldiers in the Revolution were foremost in giv ing the day and its meaning to this nation. For reasons which have now passed away, its ob servance in the South long waned, but at last the happy day has come when we are re instating a great historic day that belongs to ns in a peculiar sense. Taking up conditions a cen tury or a century and a half ago, Mr. Tompkins showed that the South led the states in manufact uring. Right here in this section iron was mined and rolled, cotton and woolen mills were operating, farming utensils wagons, tools, machinery, and arms, arete manufactured. Rifles were made in Greensboro from iron rolled at High Shoals I have seen myself, said the speaker, a contract signed by Lincoln machinists agreeing to make all the machinery neces sary to equip a cotton mill. Our people arete skilled in the nse of tools and excelled in manu factures. Then came the blight of slavery. Laws- were made favoring the agriculturist and slave-holders. As slavery flourished manufactures waned. Onr mechanics had to go west or go to fanning in competition with slave labor. Many went West. In the great wagon works in South Bend, Indiana, are workmen whose ancestors made wagons in North Carolina. .Now that slavery and the con ditions qf anarchy entailed by its destruction have passed away the Sooth is reasserting its man ufacturing skill. Look at the revelations of this dayl We have destroyed more dry goods here in one day celebrating than we used to boy for wearing in six months—and we don't care if we do! The benefits conferred by manufactures, the conditions favoring tbnn, and community of interest between the farm and factory, and other points were discussed in an effective and in teresting manner. Mr. Tompkins concluded his speech with an exhortation to greater indepen dence of thought and political action. Appropriately introduced by Supt. P. B. Rankin, Dr. Geo. T. Winston, President of the Agri cultural and Mechanical College at Raleigh, made a happy ad dress all the way through. When, said he, I noted in toe census reports that yon had about doubled your population in fifteen years, I thought your increase was due to immigration, but when I saw your streets Hoed this morning with pretty women and thronged with bright faced boys and girla I concluded I was mistaken—that the natural products of Gaston county had something to do with the in crease. There are parents sit ting before me who nave more children than the entire congres sional delegation of Massachu setts. So my subject is, What should be Done With our Boys and Girls. The answer to that question is clear: we should pre pare them for the conditions they will meet ia practical life, for the work they trill have to do when they become men sad wo The speaker argued for educa tion in the buxineaa of doing thing*. Tlie children ahould be trained to nee tools, to malta ma chinery. The North whipped as before tha war ever atarted. The Southern man moved weak carrying a negro ©a hi* beck, the Yankee went west riding xtrad dle of a atesm engine. With orach wit and engagingly VYittSTOn Kept terested through neb hreciineM of . «• ^ . Mdlangnageae to make Us andlftMelorgetfol "■f "S25; d36 bnaebsll, and at night the fire wejlw Md tha german at the Falls Honse. It wee a great Fourth. It waa n pretty worm day, but tha folk* -----.viiiiij. . ^—■mw—i■— - • ■ I cauic prepared for h and lot) ml Gastonia prepared for it. There was fun for everybody, there was next to no disorder at til, the po lice had almost as much holiday as the rest of us, the shoppers were delighted with their pur chases aud the polite service! given them, and we feel sure that whenever Gastonia say* "The Fourth0 again, the people will say "We’re going." FUUt CttACKKXfi. About 10,000 yards of bunting on display. There were over 4,000 yards of paper festoon, red, while, aud blue in the parade aud in the decorations. Did yon see the float girls with the red and blue trimmings on their white dresses? Tbt^ were very jaunty and pretty uniforms. "Ncvct saw so many girls be fore in my life.” The Zobo band was a bulc, and a jarrer in symphonic noises. Holland Morrow, the cowboy, was a honey; conld have caleu a tenderfoot alive. Xo horseman attracted more admiring comment than the Lo ray's cotton buyer. In a Prince Albert of white duck with pants to match, with cotton cpanlettes and a Panama hat, and with flowing white beard, he sat his horse with a dignity which, ac cording to an old soldier, conld not have been surpassed by Gen eral Lee on old Traveller. "Gaston county is the concen trated essence of North Caro lina,” said Dr. Winston. That's it I One might work a year on that sentence and not express it any better. EDUCATIONAL DALLY. Every Committeeman in the Coaaty Expect ad in Dallas Sat* •Hay. To Ihi Editor of (b* OaMtu: Indications point to one of the largest school meetings ever held in old Gaston taking place at Dallas next Saturday, July 12th. Through the co-operation of the campaign committee of the General Educational confereuce we have secured the services of Dr. Jno. n. Carlyle, of Wake For est. Dr. Carlyle is a polished ora tor aud has education ou the brain aud heart, too. You went to the Fourth of July iu Gastonia for your own sake. Come to the twelfth for your children’s sake. Every commit teeman is requested to report at the Superintendent's office in the court house and register. Come and bring the children and your dinner basket. Respectfully, F. B. Rankin, Superintendent of Schools. McAdenville items. rumapoudcno* of the OinUi. McAdenville, July 7.—About 300 of ns In holiday attire en joyed 4tli in Gastonia. Talking about it yet. Our ball boy* beat Bessemer but are not so jubilant over their defeat the next day by the Mo dena boys. The fats beat the leans Satur day morning 15 to 8. Robert Nutall ia disconsolate —wife visiting near Shelby. Prof. Furr and wife, of Con cord. are visiting at Mr. D. W. Padgett's. Mr. J. B. Rush returned to Converse yesterday. His wife will remain several days. Mr. and Mrs. C. F. Stowe, of Kings Mountain, are guests of Mrs. M. R. Wright and other relatives. Mrs. Sarah Scott and daugh ter, Mrs. Osmond, of Tampa, Florida, are visiting relatives here. Mrs. Harriet Funderburk, of Mountain Island, and Miss Hat* tie Colon, of Charlotte, are visi ting Mrs. T. M. Stafford. Mr. and Mrs. Walter Jenkins, of Crowdeta Mountain are visit tBf Mrs. W. P. McAtcer. Mr. 1. A. Stafford went to Mountain Island Thursday and returned home with Mrs. Staff ord who had been visiting her daughter, Mrs. Chas. Hope for several days. Mr. Wul Grigg and wife are visiting relatives at Mountain Island. Mr. and Mrs. B. P. Turner, of Danville. Va., who have been visiting here for the past week am sorely bereaved In the death o< their 14-months old babe, ItUh Flossie, their only child. The cause of death was whoop, ing cough. The little one died jjd, ui**t and was burled ia Ooshen this afternoon. We sympathise with the sorrowing patents in their sad loss. M Tnshaga at laasanast. 8totMet compiled at Beau mont »bow that tnc Iron tankage far ©0 there U5.K13.500 barreU. earthen tankage 4,225,000 kwnk and wooden tankage oil is atorage la 5,430.000 bnrrela. CONSOLIDATION Or SCHOOLS. The Advantages of Fawer l)ls* trlcto and Hotter behoofs. The following has been sent to us from the office of the State Superintendent of Public (11 Ntructiou for publication: A campaign for education is nn in earnest. This is to b« fought for better schools nndbcl .ter school facilities. To accom plish this, an educational cam paign will be made in ivery conuty where there seems to be an opportunity to-improve the present conditions. Walter H. Page says truly that there is enough native intelligence going to waste iu Xorth Carolina for lack of Iroiuiug to govern the entire world. There must be a cause for this. If a person’s snr roundings and associates deter mine his character and intelli gence. then the individual’s surroundings should be studied and improved. It is a recognised fact that a child’s associates must be elevated if that child's traiuing is to remain permanent. This is the work the Central Campaign Committee for the Purpose of Improving the Public Schools has undertaken to ac complish. TUB EDUCATIONAL PLATFORM. The following resolution was unanimously adopted by this committee ill Raleigh, February 13; it was reaffirmed at llrccns boro, April 3, also at Charlotte, May 2, and at Morchead City by the Teachers’ Assembly, June 13: Be it therefore resolved, That it is the sense of this conference that an active and vigorous campaign should be at ouce in augurated in every county for the accomplishment of the following ends, to-wit: "1. The consolidation of small districts wherever possible. "2. The erection of adequate and comfortable school houses. "3. The lengthening of the public school term by local tax ation." A FOURTH OF THE SCHOOLS ARE RUN CONTRARY TO LAW. The reports from the different County Superintendents show that about one-fourth ol the school districts contain less than sixty-five children of school age. In other words, about twelve districts for every county (when a general average is made! are illegal. The schools run about three months in the year, and the State Superintendent is called upon for funds to increase them to a four months’ school. W1IAT CAN BK DONE BY CONSOL IDATING. Take three districts that con tain just sixty-five children each. The appropriation would be abont $90 for each; just abont enough to run three mouths with one good teacher. This teacher would have an attendance of about thirty-five children, and she would have to teach every subject, from the alphabet to the higher English branches. Now take these three districts and coinbins them into one and employ, two teachers, one for the primary grades and the other for the higher grades. There would be money enough to run a consolidated school four and a half months, and the work could be done infiuitely better. THU DIimXKT COUNTIES AUK RECOGNIZING THIS FACT. This consolidation of small districts is such a great economy in school management that county after county is readily combining their schools. In every instance it is done by the people and not by educational boards. The Rockingham Board of Education has Invited the patrons of the school all over the connty to be present and con sider this one question at the next general meeting. Two schools have already been con solidated recently by the vote of the people. At Providence. Randolph County, men left their ripe wheat vneut to attend the educational rally and hear this subject discussed. One farmer expressed the situation when be said: “Nearly every man here represents an uncut wheatfield. but we value good educational advantages at this' time more than the saving of wheat. We are deeply in earnest on the question.” Over 100 school committeemen alone in Wilson Connty, attenned the educa tional conference June 27, to consider this question. The women at Hickory have taken np this matter and are arousing deep and lasting interest in this question. TITO RTS BCTO/ COMeoUDATtOK. Our County Superintendent ••vs: "The resident* of the school districts which have been consolidated would raise a strong protest if an attempt were made to go bach to the old small school system. Papil* from every part of the district enjoyed a long school term. The mingl ing of the pupils has had a deepening and broadening influ ence noon their minds, and there have come into these districts highly educated (each era, whose inAnence has been far greater than ever tuu from as the short term of service.* THOMSON COMPANY, ...The People’s Store... Everything That’s Nice to Wear Everything That’s Good to Eat THOMSON COMPANY, GASTONIA, N. C. THE ART OF PERSONAL ADORNMENT * *CO^#»»0KT and the jeweler's art are closely inter mingled, inasmuch as the latter otfere special facilities for the indulging of refined taste. This is particularly true of Torrence, whose line of pins, brooch es. rings, bracelets, chains, etc., is especially attractive. Exquisite novel lie* in unique designs and beautiful workmanship. Also leading makes of gold aud silver watches at surprisingly : low prices. Splendid jewelry values. Everything fully warranted. TORRENCE, JKVCUt aad tmCUK. Little and Often Fills the Purse. The Gastonia Banking Comp’y. GASTONIA, N. C. • will furnish every one who will become a depositor to the amount of one dollar or more, a handsome Private Home Safe like the one shown here to keep at home. You are invited to call and ask for one of these Safes. This Private Home Safe is issued to yon locked. It esn only be opened by ns. Yon are expected to accumulate your smal) coins in it and return it to ns at least once in sixty days, when your money is removed, entered to your credit on your pass .book and draws interest. Remember the dollar remains youn, the bank remains ours. The Gastonia Banking Company* Tfc$ GASTONIA GAZETTE, ♦ * Mne Dollar a Year. * ft * z •