USA > North Carolina > Guilford County > Greensboro > The history of the first North Carolina reunion at Greensboro, N. C., October eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth, nineteen hundred and three > Part 16
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ings, stoves, candy, chewing gum, ice, etc. The products of these con- cerns find a ready market all over this country and in foreign lands.
3. Eighteen wholesale houses, supplying a large territory with dry goods, notions, shoes, drugs, groceries, hardware, mill supplies, etc.
4. Two hundred and forty-three retail stores.
5. Five separate banking houses, with assets of $2,500,550.
6. The home offices of two life insurance and tive fire insurance companies.
7. Five separate colleges and six graded schools, with an aggregate yearly attendance of 3,200 students.
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Dr. J. Allison Hodges President of North Carolina Society of Richmond, Va.
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First North Carolina Reunion
8. Twenty-six church edifices.
9. Two companies furnishing electricity for light and power, one company furnishing gas for light and power, water works (owned by the city), sewerage, a well-equipped fire department, and a new and up-to-date electric street railway.
10. The most modern theatre between Washington and Atlanta.
11. A new city hall and market house, just completed at a cost of $35,000.
12. A government building for the accommodation of the post- office and United States courts, the resident United States district judge, and other court officers.
13. Five first-class hotels give Greensboro the best hotel accommo- dations of any city of its size in the South.
14. One of the handsomest and most-conveniently-arranged rail- way passenger depots in the South.
15. Two daily newspapers, one secular weekly, two religious week. lies, one semi-monthly magazine.
-- COLONEL AL FAIRBROTHER.
"Pat" Winston's Last Message
Extract from letter of the late Honorable P. H. Winston Of Spokane, Wash.
I can not go, but if I were present I would say:
North Carolinians: hold fast to the teachings and traditions of your fore- fathers. A century of inherited learning, virtue, and valor has made you of all peoples the happiest, of all peoples the most homogeneous.
Nowhere is there a people with habits, faiths, and hopes so fixed. Nowhere is there a people whose past is more glorious; whose future is more secure. Your commonwealth is built upon imperishable foundations; law, religion, virtue, and learning-these are its cornerstones. The same spirit that animated your forefathers to bear the flag of revolution at Guilford Courthouse-that animated your fathers to bear the banner of the "Lost Cause" at Gettysburg- still dwells within your breasts.
Across a continent, from a State where now lives a son of Zebulon B. Vance and a son of Patrick H. Winston, I have come to breathe once more the sweet air of childhood, and mingle once more with the companions of schoolboy days. I love your State-mny State; I love its history, full of glorious annals; f love its dead-matchless galaxy of greatness; I love its living.
F. N. C. R .- XXII
An Epitome
Discovered in 1584 by Amidas and Barlowe. Temporarily colon- ized in 1585 by people sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh. Permanently settled in 1653 by colonists on the banks of the Chowan and Roanoke. Governed by the Lord Proprietors between 1663 and 1729. Governed by the Crown from 1729 to 1775. Self-governed from 1775 to 1789, when it became a member of the Union. Such is the historical etching of the State of North Carolina. But how inadequate are the outlines ! The true lines and colors are to be found in that portrait which but seldom meets the gaze of the great, searching, discriminating world.
An epitome of material achievements may be given in a few typical figures. Because of the wanderings of her sons, the population of North Carolina increased during the past twenty years but thirty-five per cent., while that of the United States increased fifty-two per cent. But, in spite of the wanderings of her sons, thus reflected in the com- paratively small rate of increase in population, the State increased the value of its agricultural products seventy-two per cent., as against one hundred and thirteen per cent. for the whole country; and the value of its manufactured products three hundred and seventy-two per cent., as against one hundred and forty-two per cent. for the whole country. At the same time, it reduced its white illiteracy from thirty-one and five-tenths per cent. to nineteen and four-tenths per cent., and its negro illiteracy from seventy-seven and four-tenths per cent. to forty-seven and six-tenths per cent .: and, as the Reunion itself demonstrated, retained its quota of orators.
-Editor and Compiler.
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The Purest Anglo-Saxon State on the Globe "Once a Tarheel, Always a Tarheel "
Extract from Speech of President George T. Winston, before the North Carolina Society of New York
It has often been asked "what is a Tarheel ?" The first description of a Tarheel is given by Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey. When Achilles was born, his mother Thetis, to make him immortal, took him by the heels and dipped hin in the river Styx, now known as Tar River. The magic water rendered his body invulnerable. But Thetis forgot to stick his heels under, so Achilles was mortal in the heels, and the well-aimed arrow of Paris struck him on the shins, and laid him low. Achilles was not a Tarheel. but his story gives us a satisfactory definition of a Tarheel, as follows: "A Tarheel is the sort of heel that the other fellow hasn't got." A negative definition is better than none. You have all heard the definition of horse-sense. "Horse-sense-the kind of sense a jackass hasn't got." Achilles. for all his brag and blus- ter, was weak in his shins: was most likely an Afro-Grecian : in North Carolina today he would travel in the JJim Crow car.
It has been said that North Carolina is a good State to move from. The Colonial Governors found it so: and Cornwallis, after the battle of Guilford, was of the same opinion. It is a good State to move from. because a good State to be born and raised in. A man who has lived in North Carolina twenty-five years is thereby qualified to be Governor of any other State. If to twenty-five years in North Carolina is added twenty-five years in Tennessee, there is no limit to the power of such a man. Only three men ever did it. and each of them became Presi- dent-Jackson, Polk, and Johnson. The Old North State is a Nursery of Men.
People have moved from North Carolina to every other State in the Union. But few have moved to North Carolina. It is not easy for a man to break into the Old North State. It takes him a year to find out who to write to for information. Then the correspondence lasts a
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year. Then the newspapers announce that he is coming, and the people discuss it. Finally he starts, and all the trains miss connection as soon as they enter the State. Unless a prospective immigrant starts for North Carolina before he is grown, he will be an old man on his arrival. North Carolinians are mighty particular about receiving strangers; they wish to know with whom they associate. Anybody can get out of North Carolina, but it requires a great deal of talent and character to get into the State. Less than one-half of one per cent. of our popula- tion is foreign born, not one person in 200. We are the purest bred Anglo-Saxon community on the globe.
The Old North State has made wonderful progress during the past thirty years. She is now leading the South in rate of progress. She is learning the secret of community power. Formerly the individual was everything: it was Gaston, Badger, Mangum, Graham, or More- head. Now the community is supreme; one hears no longer of indi- viduals, but of communities-of Durham, Charlotte, Asheville, High Point, Winston-Salem, Greensboro. The whole is greater than any of its parts. The community is greater than any individual. The New North State is a State of Community Powers; of public schools, public libraries, public roads, all for publie use, supported by public taxation. This is government of the people, by the people, for the people ; this is genuine Democracy. In the coming years the North State will combine the strong character of individualism which marked the Old North State, with the strong power of community action, which is making the New North State.
-
Honorable Hoke Smith
Secretary of the Interior During the Second Cleveland Administration
Song of Scattered Sons By John Wilbur Jenkins
From mount and valley, land and sea, Their longing eyes look back to thee. Denied thine arms for many a year, They ask thy blessing. Mother Dear.
Some sun-scorched in the Desert's waste,
Some frozen by the Northwind's blast ; Grim faces that have braved the brine, Dark hands that dug deep in the mine ;
Those who found gold on every strand And those who come with empty hands- The step is slow, the hair is gray- World-weary since they went away.
Some in strange lands found wealth and fame, And others graves without a name. These victors-those beside the way- Forget not one this Memory-Day.
Where the blue mountains kiss the sky, In green fields that in Piedmont lie, Where hungry Hatteras gnaws the sea- Land of the gentle. frank, and free-
Today the toast and song and cheer Are mingled with the tender tear; For some we loved are in the grave, Some youthful, noble, loving, brave,
Proud seions of this clear-eyed race That looks the world straight in the face. As we disperse to far-off toil, Thank God we sprang from her great soil.
Baltimore, September 25, 1903.
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The Coming Day
From the Top of Pisgah, Western North Carolina By D. C. Waddell
The cool Dawn, in silent softness, is slowly drifting, Drifting toward the coming day; The old peaks, in distant dimness. are slumbering, Slumbering where the white mists lav.
Soft and low, the night winds blow ; The heart of the night is sighing; Her pride of stars and silver bars Over the skies are dying.
The red East. in crimson richness is widely lifting, Lifting the areliway of the day; The old peaks in mighty grandeur are towering, Towering where the white mists lay.
Fresh and sweet, on dewy feet. The winds of morn are playing : They ripple the mist, and listing-list ! Over the earth are straying.
The sunlight, in radiant brightness is swiftly sifting, Sifting the yellow beams of day ; The old peaks, in opal splendors are glittering, Glittering where the white mists lay.
Far and wide, on every side, The white mnist is swaying ; Across the spray, as it eireles away, The rainbows are playing.
Far away, in the light of day, The snowy mist is twining ; In the valleys below, where wild ferns grow, The sun is brightly shining.
Greensboro, N. C., September 25.
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To Her Sons Who Have Wandered Afar
By Robert Dick Douglas, Corresponding Secretary
To her sons who have wandered afar, Who have gone from the town or the farm To run with the swift, to fight with the strong, To win life's battle, however long, With tireless brain and arm. The Old North State sends greetings ; And bids them now come home.
"Come back", she says, "to your mother; Come back while yet ve may ; Come back to the land that gave ye birth, And tread the dearest spot on earth, In the old familiar way ; Come, clasp the hands of your boyhood friends, Tho' it be for only a day."
"Come. see what my sons have wrought, My sons whom ye left behind ; For the strong, red blood that sent ve forth, Into the West or South or North, In the veins of these ye'll find- The self-same blood that in life or death Ye all together bind."
"Then come to me every one ; Gather from near and far; For tho' ye're scattered from sea to sea Your mother's love will ever be As true as the polar star : And I thank the God who made all men For the manner of men ye are."
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The Wanderer Back Home
By John Henry Boner
Back in the Old North State, Back to the place of his birth, Back through the pines' colonnaded. gate To the dearest spot on earth. No sweeter joy can a star feel When into the sky it thrills Than the rapture that wings a Tarheel Come back to his native hills.
From coast to mountain heights Old North Carolina lies. A cornucopia of delights Under her summer skies. And autumn gives rich treasure To the overflowing horn,
Adding a juicy measure Of grape and rye and corn.
In June a tree so fragrant Scents the delicious air
That busiest bees grow vagrant And doze in its blossoms fair. "Persimmons!" the wanderer cries ; And along time's frosted track The luscious purple fruit he spies, And boyhood's days drift back !
With fall comes the burst of the cartridge; The squirrel and rabbit are his ; Down tumbles the whirring partridge, And the cook makes the wild duck siz; But for these not so much does he care, No matter how dainty the caters; Just seat him fair in an old splint chair And give him 'possum and taters.
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