w7-
THE
VOL IV.
RALEIGH, N. 0., THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1907.
NO. 19
ins -n 0 11
Enterprise
BILKINS AT JAMESTOWN.
Some of His Admirers Are Getting
Impatient Foreign Rulers Arc
Getting Interested in His Trip and
Will Dress Up The Major Re
flects About the Ocean and the
Great Kvents it Has Witnessed -Will
Discuss Serious Problems
Witli the President,
Jamestown, Va., Sept. 3rd.
Correspondence 'of the Enterprise.
I got a letter frum a feller in Wake
County yisterday givin' me fits fer
not startin' on my trip erround the
wurld on a mule. He sed that he
subscribed fer the Raleigh Enterprise
a-purpose ter read my letters an' that
he wanted the perseshun ter begin
ter mover
I hain't erquainted with my frend.
But I wanter say that I expeck he
iz like a lot ov other folks in this
wurld he thinks that a feller kin
git everything ready fer a trip er
round the wurld in erbout fifteen
minits by the watch. Apt az anyway
he thinks that the trip kin be made
in erbout three days an' a half. Hit
takes lots ov time ter git the legal
papers an' other things fixed up, an'
awl the Kings an' Emperers an'
Dukes in Europe an' in Russia an'
China hev ter hev time ter git the
house cleaned up an' git new tailor
made suits ov clothes so they kin be
ready ter reseeve me, fer, no doubt,
they think I am sum great big man
sent over by the Preserdent, an' they
air rite much exsited over hit. I
got a letter frum the King ov the
Sandwich Islands statin', that he
wanted me ter spend at least a month
with him, an' he didn't make any
bones erbout sayin' rite out that he
wanted plenty ov time ter git ready
ter reseeve me an' that he hoped he'd
hev time ennuff ter git a suit of
clothes made an' order a barrel of
flour frum Minneapolis, Minnesota,
U. S. A., so they could hev sum ap
pricott pie fer me. He sed that they
hed not bought any flour in sixteen
years, an' I gathered frum hiz letter
that he hadn't bought a new suit ov
clothes since he wuz eleckted King
more than twenty years ergo. Hit
seems that the climate iz so hot therti
that Kings don't wear much but dig
nity, an' the common folks don't
dress up in anything.
I can't keep frum lookin' at the
ocean an' thinkin erbout what a time
Uncle Noah had when he wuz build
in' the ark an' drivin' up two ov
each kind ov cattle an' other things
an' loadin' them in the ark fer a sail
that mite last forty years fer awl he
knowed. Uncle Noah wuz a mity
brave man ter git awl them lions,
tigers, elefants an' things in the ark
and start out fer a trip that mite
last a life-time an' make him sea
sick every day in the year. An' I
can't help thinkin' erbout Jonah
when he took the sail a-ridin' in the
stomach ov the whale. We think we
hev a heap ov ups an' downs, but
our grate, grate grand-daddies erway
back yonder thousands ov years ergo
did hev truble. Hit iz a wonder that
they managed ter live frum the crad
dle ter the grave.
When I git ter Washington I want
ter discuss the R. F. D. mail service
an' the boll weevil with the Pres3r
dent an' see what kin be done ter
remedy things. If they ain't sump
thin' done the country will be gone
purty quick. I understand that the
Postmaster Gineral iz goin' ter send
sum post-offis detecktives down into
North Carolina before long an' see
whether the R. F. D. service iz a joke
or not.
I am pracktism' up a little on
ettyket before I start up through
Virginy so I kin pass by the homes
ov the first families without gittin'
shot at fer travellin' through the
country without havin' on a high
churn hat an' a peddygree. I hear
that the first families or Virginy air
powerful pertickular erbout sich
things. . ...
I see by the papers that you air
havin lots ov candydates fer Gover
nor an' like down in good ole
North Carolina. I can't make out
who sum ov them air frum this dis
stance. '".."'If I wuz at home I could
search the directories an' the regis
trashun books an' sorter locate sum
ov them. ' ' ,
Yours truly,
ZEKE BILKINS.
God First.
When he was dying, the German
Poet Hoffman said: "We must then
think of God also." The carnal hu
man heart puts God last, the Bible
puts him first. "In the beginning
God." "Thou shalt have no other
gods before me." "Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all
thy mind."
God is put first In pofnt of time'
and importance. He is first as the
Creator. He is the final cause of all
effect and the intelligent organizer of
all order.
But this is not the kind of priority
of which I wish to write, but it is
of God as first in our relations to
him. In the beginning of the day
"God." In the beginning of the en
terprise "God." In our services God
should have the priority. There is a
beautiful and appropriate custom in
some of our churches of having a
sunrise prayer-meeting on New
Year's morning. It is fitting that we
should begin the new Year with God.
There is still an old custom kept up
in a few pious homes of beginning
every day in the year with God. This
old custom is known as "family pray
er." If any not familiar with the
details of the custom, it will be well
to seek out some of the older inhabi
tants and consult them.
Not only should God be first in
time, because he is first in import
ance. In the first utterance, when
Jehovah spoke from Siani to his peo
ple, he said: "Thou shalt have no
other Gods before me." The incar
nate Christ made the sum of the first
five commandments of the moral law
to be, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, with all thy
soul and with all thy mind." All
men are willing to take all of God's
gifts that they can get, but many re
ject the Giver.
A few nights ago a little ohlld
three years of age was crying. His
father went to him and said: "Son,
what do you want?" He quickly
said: "I want you."
Too many of us full grown chil
dren want God's bounty, but the last
and not the first thing he can hon
estly say to him is, "I want you."
Here is a good resolution for the New
Year: "I will give God the pre-eminence,".
Henry W. McLaughlin.
Death of Miss Mills.
Miss Myrtle Mills, daughter of Mr.
John A. Mills, President of the Ra
leigh and Southport Railroad Com
pany, died at her home in this city
at 10 o'clock Monday night. She had
been ill with typhoid fever for three
weeks.
Miss Mills was but sixteen year3
of age and had a large circle of
friends. She was organist at the
Christian Church in this city.
The funeral services were con
ducted at the residence at 2.30 p. m.
Tuesday by Rev. Daniel A. Long, her
pastor, assisted by Rev. C.W. Blanch
ard. ,:" '' ..
The family has the sincere sym
pathy of a large number of friends
throughout the city and surrounding
country, for her parents are widely
known.
Dr. Long selected as a text 1 Thes.
4:13:
"I would not have you to be ig
norant, brethren, concerning them
which are asleep, that ye sorrow not,
even as others which have no hope."
He said: "Sooner or later we will
all have our bodily natures laid aside
like a worn-out garment. Those of
us who have been parted from those
whom we have loved and lost feel
that they were never more ours than
now. All races have believed this;
the Indians believed in the happy
hunting ground beyond: the Hindoo
widow in her invocation to Brahma.
b-Arfte. Ae-ueid said: : ,
"Gladsome ghosts in circling troop3
attend : '.;;.,;'
And with unwearied eyes behold
their friend."
Socrates, pressing the fatal cup to
his lips, said to his weeping friends:
"If the common expression be true
that death conveys us to the place of
departed men, with delight I drink
this hemlock, for it sends my spirit
to commune with Ajax and Pala
medes." Over one hundred and fifty years
ago Dr. Young buried his only daugh
ter, in Southern France, during the
night. Then he wrote: "Death loves
a shining mark, and a signal blow."
Our kinships and friendships are
spiritual, and are as eternal as the
father's love. "In my Father's house
are many mansions." The Patriarchs
were "gathered unto their fathers"
not buried in the same cemetery.
David said of his departed son: "I
shall go to him."
Moses and Elias lived far apart
After they had been in glory for cen
turies, they knew each other. Paul
told the Thesselonians that
"They would be the crown of his re
joicing." "As for thy friends, they are not
lost, . V
The several vessels of thy fleet,
Though parted now, by tempest
tossed,
Shall safely in the haven meet."
The highest truths are not reached
by analysis. The deepest appeal 13
not made by logic, but to imagina
tion; not to intellect, but to heart.
This is true not only in religion, but
also in everything. To know and
love nature is a simpler and higher
thing than to know the geology of
the rocks and the chemistry of the
trees.
Everything that makes man great
partakes of discipline. There is no
music in a monotone; there is no art
in one universal drab color: Moral
degeneracy creeps upon the man or
the nation that sits at ease,, as the
stagnant pool breeds malaria. Ave
are not fit for the peace and pros
perity for which our hearts long. To
have no great trials is to lose the
fear and love of God.
I am glad to see the leader of the
young and fair here this afternoon.
Those who have yet the roses in their
cheeks, and the sunshine of heaven
in their smiles. Their tender hearts
have culled the choicest flowers in or
der to deck with garlands the gate
way through which the young and
lovely Myrtle Mills marched to
glory.
"To know her was to love her, f
name her was to praise." While she
marched with you, she wore the
white roses of a spotless life. She
is gone to that spirit land where no
glittering thunder-bolt slumbers in
the folds of the rainbow cloud.
"On the sweet Eden shore so beauti
ful and bright,
Her spirit made perfect is dwelling
;':"-::; in light,
Her white wings are wafting her
gently along,
Through the beautiful regions of
glory and song."
To her brothers and young friends"
let me say: With you it is the bright
and breezy morn of life. A long day
I trust is before you. Like the morn
ing of the natural day, may your
young lives begin with devotion to
the Giver of all good. To her parent?
and friends I would say: The loved
one is safely landed in the Father's
home. You will soon follow her.
Do not "sorrow, even as others
which have no hope."
Jesus has taught us that wherever
there was want there He would be;
wherever there was goodness and
purity and chastity and virtue and
love and mercy there He would be
found. Wherever is the melody of
peace, there is His voice ; wherever
are the soft strains of sympathy,
there Is His whisper. He told us to
find Him in the prison cell, by the
side of the sick and feeble, in the
homes of the husbandless and friend
less, where orphans cry for the vis
ion of a mother's face they shall not
on earth again behold, and where
widow's wear their crowns of weeds.
He told us to listen for His voice In
the groan of despair, the shriek of
fear, the sigh of grief, and the moan
of the outcast. In the gloom of this
sad hour, do we not hear a voico
saying: "The Master had need of
her." Soon these thick fogs of time,
looking through which we misjudge
God, and misunderstand each other,
shall vanish at the radiant appearing
of the one who shall shed from His
countenance the glorious sunlight of
heaven. God grant that the light of
that countenance may be seen In the
features of our souls, forever trans
figured by the light of His glory.
Every believer who enjoys normal
health has some special gift which
might truly be designated as the gift
of God. Ask yourself now, If you
have never before done so, "What is
my special gift?"