THE
Ent
crpn
VOL. II.
RALEIGH, N. C, THURSDAY, MAY 4, 1905 .
NO. 3
eig
se0
LETTER FROM BILKINS.
Another Honor Has Been Thrust Upon
Him After Consulting His Doctor
He Goes to Pittsboro for Perfect
Quiet A Few Historical Facts
About That Town, and What It is
Doing.
Correspondence of the Enterprise.
I got a letter frum Betsy the other
day that purty nigh took my breth
erway. She writ that hit hez jist
bin diskivered that the last legislator
Martin's Creek township, an' that I
must cum an' take the oath ov offis
or forever after hold my pccce . I
thought at first maybe hit wuz a
skeeme ter git me ter go home. But
she seemed ter be tell in' hit strate an'
I soon begun ter feel the responsibil
ity restin' upon my shoulders. I
tole a frend erbout hit an' he sed I
couldn't axsept, az I am alreddy
consterablc an' hit iz erginst the
law ter hold two offises at once. But
I figgered hit out that the supremo
court mite fix up a new deal fer my
benefit.
I went ter see my dockter whut hez
bin offishiatin' sinse I went ter Ash-
villc an' tole him how things were
comin' my way an' axed him if my
legislative lokermotive affixy wuzzent
played out enuff ter let me go home
He looked sorter hurt an' 'lowed that
I would be riskin' a bad -relaps-ter
go home when the battle wuz awlmost
one. I argyed with him that the
gude news hed made me a hundred
per sent better an' that I wuz likely
ter fergit awl erbout my disseese
when I git home an' put on the dig
nity ov a magistrate an git ter
handin' out justis. Finally he sed
that if I would go sumwhar an' stay
a few days in abserlute quiet that
my disseese mite git better so fast
that hit would be safe fer me ter go
home. "Awl rite docktor," sed I, "I'll
go ter the woods an' live with the
birds an' groundhogs fer a week or
, 1,1 11 151-
two an tnen marcn norae iikc a con
querin' hero." He 'lowed that hit
wouldn't do fer me ter live in the
woods an' be exposed ter the wether
an' git my system full ov malary.
"You must go ter sum quiet town an'
conveyless fer a week or so." "How
would Lincolnton do?" sez I. "Too
blamed quiet," sed he, "a well man
couldn't live twenty-four hours there
onless he wuz an ole settler an akli
mated."" Then 1 axed erbout Char
lotto. lie sed, "that iz a purty quiet
town, but they air lible ter fire a sa
loot if some extingished furiner
passes thar on the train, an' that
would jar your nerves out ov jint ;
an hit iz purty close ter the 20th of
May, too, an' they air liable ter hev
a racket then." I named over Wel
don, llalifacks, Edenton, Plymouth,
but he didn't like eny ov them fer
otia reason or another, mostlv that
they had too many trains every day.
"I hev hit, sez I, Pittsboro iz the
place ov awl places fer a sick man
ter go an' loze himself. "lz hit a
miiet nlace ?" axed the docktor.
"Beats a graveyard," scz I, "fer in a
irravevard the wind iz liable ter whis
tel among the tombstones. In Pitts
boro vou kin hear your dinner di
gestin'. You mite stay thar a month
an' not hear a dog bark, nor a rooster
crow. Thev don't even selebratc
Christmas nor the 4th of July." "Awl
rite," sed the docktor, "go to Pitts
boro an' do az they do,
I bought a ticket through ter
Pittsboro the same day an' landed
thar the next mornin'. I found that
everything wuz still on the quiet
thar.
Havin' nothin' else ter do, I have
bin lookin' up the history ov the
town, but 1 hev ter turn the leaves ov
the history so easy that hit iz slow
wurk. The town iz situated in the
45th degree ov longitude sumwhar be
twixt Moncure an' Siler City, an'
though they hev had a railrode fer
many years a gude meny ov them
haint never rid on a train yit.
The town wuz first settled in the
year 250 B. C, by a few Greeks. Af
ter while they got lonesome an went
back ter Greese, via Wilmington,
bearin' their gifts. Fer erbout 4,000
years nobody lived thar onless hit
wuz . Injuns. In the year 275 A. D.,
Major II. A. London an' R. B. Line-
berry landed thar an' took perseshun
in the name ov Julyous Scczer, the
first war King. Several other fami
lies landed later. The number ov
houses in the town iz limited an' no
body kin build a new one ontil one
falls' down. General Cornwahs spent
a nite thar durin' the revolutionary
war an' he mite have bin thar yit,
but Major London got ter tellin' him
erbout a big hornet nest that had bin
found in Charlotte an' General Corn-
wallis had so much euryosity. ter see
whut a hornet nest full ov hornet
eggs looked like that he went on thar
az fast az hiz army could march. Az
they wuz no vagrant law then Major
London just told Cornwallis that ter
git him out ov the town peceably,
Cornwalis never fergive Major Lon
don fer foolin' him out ov the town.
though he found the hornet nest awl
rite when he got ter Charlotte.
The prinsipal industry at Pitts
boro iz the manufacter ov rabbitts,
which air shipped North by the car
load an' et by rich people who git
tired eatin' dymond back tarrapin an'
frog legs an' want a change. Be
fore .money wuz invented rabbits wuz
used in place ov money at Pittsboro,
a rabbit bein' the same az ten cents
now.
Anuther ole settler thar iz J. E
Mortran. editur ov the Pittsboro En-
terprize. lie iz kin ter J. Peerpont
Morgan, but not quite az rich. Dur
in' the rabbit sezon he takes rabbits
in pay for the paper, but will ex
sept cash in a pinch.
Truly,
ZEKE BILKINS.
WHAT IS IT?
The Charlotte Observer Wants to
Know " What Is Democracy?"
The esteemed Charlotte Observer
has an editorial headed, "What Is
Democracy?" That is a grave ques
tion to be asking just at this time,
but if there is anything that gives us
pleasure it is to answer questions
which a friend propounds. What
is Democracy ? Well, that altogether
depends where you are and what
you want. Out in some parts of the
wild and wooly west it is a divine in
spiration at the ratio of sixteen to
one. It means that the government
should own the railroads fix the
freight rates; capture the telegraph
lines; control the water works and
the band wagon. In some parts of
the South this epidemic is still on.
In other parts of the country dem
ocracy means that anything to get
there is all right all right and
some are of opinion that it means
progression, sound money; honesty,
capability but those who believe
thus are said to be traitors and other
fierce things. In Lsopus last sum
mer it meant that if a man was for
gold he was all right but the Amer
ican people seemed to think that
democracy as she appeared just be
fore the funeral was a corpse. And
believing it to be so, it was quietly
laid away in its grave and unless
iome resurrectionist has sought the
cadaver it still sweetly slumbers.
Now that is what democracy is to
day. If you want to know what
democracy was before the day of
adulteration in polities nnd food
stuffs in the days when the immor
tals belonged to the party and were
patriots for party's' sake. and not for
pie; the days when Jefferson and the
other lads dished out the pure and
painless stunh well w c don't know
about that so much.
However, as it looks now, there are
about sixteen species of democracy-
each wing believing it is right and
all the time and all the time, the
republican party, because of these
wild dissensions and these many va
garies which have been nursed into
life by true or false prophets, has an
increased majority and the only
thing to do is to get the corpse out
of the grave, summons a coroners
jury and decide for yourself Every
thing.
pulled myself together and scoffed at
it. Half a block further a man step
pod out of an alley and raised an
iron pipe over my head. The blow, I
knew, would kill me." "What hap
pened f asked Clark. "Why," re
plied the doctor, "the 'hunch' 'made
good.' The pipe came down on my
head and knocked my brains out."
The doctor slapped his sides and
laughed heartily. Clark was silent a
moment. Then he said: "Well, doc
tor, I've often wondered what was
wrong with you. That explains it."
The doctor di dnot join in the laugh
that followed Kansas City Star.
The Newspapers.
Any man can take a newspaper. It
is the cheapest thing he can buy.
Every time a hen clucks and has laid
an egg his paper is paid for that
week. It costs less than a postage
stamp, less than to receive a letter.
It comes to you every week, rain or
shine, calm or stormy. No matter
what hanens it enters your door a
welcome friend, full of sunshine and
cheer and interest. It opens the
door of the great world and puts you
face to face with its people and
great events. It shortens the long
winter nights. It is your advisor.
gossiper and friend.
No man is just to his children who
does not trive them the local paper.
No man is good to himself who
does not take newspapers. Green
ville News.
Marse Henry at Pompeii.
Pompeii, as can be seen on every
hand, was what Bulwer Lytten de
scribes it, a toy city, given over to
imitation and luxury. Koine set both
the example and the pace.
The excavations which have pro
ceeded for more than a century and
a half may be said now to be fairly
completed. Nothing more is needed
to enable the archaeologist to recon
struct the life of the ancient Roman
colony nothing else to startle the
modern seeker after the truth.
The temples, the villas, the thea
ters, the bath, the gardens, disen
tombed at last, lies gaping to the
skies in heaps of variegated marble
and granite, whispering their story
mayhap to the moon, yet telling it
plainly enough to the passer-by under
the common light of day; a story of
indolence and frivolity, mistaken by
the semi-barbaric mind for pleasure;
of gorgeous displays in public places,
mysterious orgies in private feasts
incalculable; vinous libation '.to the
gods; gladitorial combats, chariot
racing, human beings "..feu to lions;
all in mimicry of Koine, of Kome al
ready beginning its downward course
toward the fall.
Art they had to decora te the
scene, within and without the per-
istvlc pictures and statues, arches
and colonades in bronze and alabaster
pophyry and carrara, made luminous
by Tyrian dyes and a local red we
have not been able to repeat, though
much of it is quite restored. Henry
Watterson, in the Louisville Courier-Journal.
A Joke That Went Wrong.
The "hunch," which may be called
a premonition, is a wonderful thing,
That it exists, there is no doubt. Al
most everybody has "hunches" now
and then, and they usually say they
"worked out." Ilav Clark, a travel
ing man who is at the Coatcs House,
was in a sleeper bound for Texas
recently when he had a "hunch" that
an accident was about to happen. "It
worried me so I dressed and went
into the smoker, three cars ahead,"
said Clark the other night. "Fifteen
minutes later a broken rail wrecked
the train and the sleeper turned
comr letely over, injuring two dozen
people. I escaped without a bruise."
A doctor who lives at tht hotel smiled
at this, "I had a queer 'hunch' once
myself," he said. "I was in Denver
and was walking along a very dark
street about midnight. Suddenly a
'hunch' told me to turn off the street
or I would be killed by a footpad. I
Meeting of Cotton Planters.
A special meeting of Wake County
cotton planters was held at Metro
politan Hall Tuesday at noon, called
to order bv A. C. Green. Speeches
were made by Governor Glenn, Col.
J no. S. Cunningham, of Person
County, President of the State As
sociation, and others. '
Owinu to the short notice andStho
busy season the attendance was not
large, but reports were satisfactory.
Reports of reduction from the dif
ferent townships were as follows:
Hollv Springs 25 per cent, St.
Mary's 33 ,1.-3 per cent, Mark's Creek
35 ncr cent. St. Matthew's 25 per
cent, Cary 28 per cent, Wake For
est 25 per cent, Raleigh 3.) per cent.
Swift Creek 25 per cent, Neusc 20
nor cent. Little Kiver 20 per cent,
Barton Creek 20 per cent. Middle
Creek 15 per cent, New Light 15,
Houses Creek 25 per cent.
It is claimed that the reduction in
fertilizers used will be at least 25 per
cent.
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