ITEMS FROM "THE OLD NORTH STATE"
Two of the most interesting things we saw in Raleigh were the model jail
on the top floor of the new County Court House, where a lot of very
honest looking rustics were confined to await trial for making
"blockade" (otherwise moonshine) whisky, and the North Carolina Hall of
History, which occupies a floor in the fine new State Administration
Building, opposite the Capitol. At the head of the first stair landing
in the Administration Building is a memorial tablet to William Sidney
Porter ("O Henry"), who was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, with a
bust of the author, in relief, by Lorado Taft. Porter, it may be
mentioned, was a connection of Worth Bagley, the young ensign who was
the only American naval officer killed in the Spanish-American War.
Bagley was a brother of Mrs. Josephus Daniels. A monument to him stands
in the park before the Capitol. Aside from Porter, the only author well
known in our time whom I heard mentioned in connection with North
Carolina, was the Rev. Thomas Dixon, whose name is most familiar,
perhaps, in connection with the moving-picture called "The Birth of a
Nation," taken from one of his novels. Mr. Dixon was born in the town of
Shelby, North Carolina, and was for some years pastor of the Tabernacle
Baptist Church, Raleigh.
The Hall of History, containing a great variety of State relics, is one
of the most fascinating museums I ever visited. Too much praise cannot
be given Colonel Fred A. Olds and Mr. Marshall De Lancey Haywood, of the
North Carolina Historical Society, for making it what it is. As with the
Confederate Museum in Richmond, so, here, it is impossible to give more
than a faint idea of the interest of the museum's contents. Among the
exhibits of which I made note, I shall, however, mention a few. There
was a letter written from Paris in the handwriting of John Paul Jones,
requesting a copy of the Constitution of North Carolina; there was the
Ku Klux warning issued to one Ben Turner of Northampton County; and
there was an old newspaper advertisement signed by James J. Selby, a
tailor, dated at Raleigh, June 24, 1824, offering a reward of ten
dollars for the capture and return of two runaways: "apprentice boys,
legally bound, named William and Andrew Johnson." The last named boy was
the same Andrew Johnson who later became a distinctly second-rate
President of the United States. Also there was a peculiarly tragic Civil
War memento, consisting of a note which was found clasped in the dead
hand of Colonel Isaac Avery, of the 6th North Carolina Regiment, who was
killed while commanding a brigade on the second day at Gettysburg.
_Tell my father I died with my face to the enemy._
These words were written by the fallen officer with his left hand, his
right arm having been rendered useless by his mortal wound. For ink he
used his own life blood.
Also in the museum may be seen the chart-book of Blackbeard, the pirate,
who, one of the curators of the museum informed me, was the same person
as Edward Teach. Blackbeard, who is commemorated in the name of
Blackbeard's Island, off the coast of South Georgia, met his fate when
he encountered a cruiser fitted out by Governor Spotswood of Virginia
and commanded by Lieutenant Maynard. Maynard found Blackbeard's ship at
Okracoke Inlet, on the North Carolina coast. Before he and his men could
board the pirate vessel the pirates came and boarded them. Severe
fighting ensued, but the pirates were defeated, Maynard himself killing
Blackbeard in single combat with swords. The legend around Okracoke is
that Blackbeard's bad fortune on this occasion came to him because of
the unlucky number of his matrimonial adventures, the story being that
he had thirteen wives. It is said also that his vanquishers cut off his
head and hung it at the yard-arm of their ship, throwing his body into
the sea, and that as soon as the body struck the water the head began to
call, "Come on, Edward!" whereupon the headless body swam three times
around the ship. Personally I think there may be some slight doubt about
the authenticity of this part of the story. For, while from one point of
view we might say that to swim about in such aimless fashion would be
the very thing a man without a head might do, yet from another point of
view the question arises: Would a man whose head had just been severed
from his body feel like taking such a long swim?
And what a rich lot of other historic treasures!
Did you know, for instance, that Flora Macdonald, the Scottish heroine,
who helped Prince Charles Edward to escape, dressed as a maidservant,
after the Battle of Culloden, in 1746, came to America with her husband
and many relatives just before the Revolutionary War and settled at
Cross Creek (now Fayetteville), North Carolina? When General Donald
Macdonald raised the Royal standard at the time of the Revolution, her
husband and many of her kinsmen joined him, and these were later
captured at the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge, in 1776, and taken as
prisoners to Philadelphia. Yes; and Flora Macdonald's garter-buckles are
now in the museum at Raleigh.
A portrait of Captain James J. Waddell, C.S.N., who was a member of a
famous North Carolina family, recalls the story of his post-bellum
cruise, in command of the _Shenandoah_, when, not knowing that the War
was over, he preyed for months on Federal commerce in the South Seas.
The museum of course contains many uniforms worn by distinguished
soldiers of the Confederacy and many old flags, among them one said to
be the original flag of the Confederacy. This flag was designed by Orren
R. Smith of Louisburg, North Carolina, and was made in that town. The
journals of the Confederate Congress show that countless designs for a
flag were submitted, that the Committee on a Flag reported that all
designs had been rejected and returned, the committee having adopted one
of its own; nevertheless Mr. Smith's claim to have designed the flag
finally adopted is so well supported that the Confederate Veterans, at
their General Reunion held in Richmond in 1915, passed a resolution
endorsing it.
Also in the museum is the shot-riddled smokestack of the Confederate ram
_Albemarle_, which was built on the farm of Peter E. Smith, on Roanoke
River, and is said to have been the first vessel ever launched sidewise.
The _Albemarle_, after a glorious career, was sunk by Lieutenant
Cushing, U.S.N., in his famous exploit with a torpedo carried on a pole
at the bow of a launch. It will be remembered that the launch was sunk
by the shock and that only Cushing and one member of his crew survived,
swimming away under fire.
North Carolina also claims--and not without some justice--that the first
English settlement on this continent was not that at Jamestown, but the
one made by Sir Walter Raleigh's expedition, under Amadas and Barlowe,
which landed at Roanoke Island, August 4, 1584, and remained there for
some weeks. The Jamestown Colony, say the North Carolinians, was merely
the first to _stick_.
Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, across the sound from Roanoke Island, is the
site of the first flight of a man in an aeroplane, the Wright brothers
having tried out their first crude plane there, among the Kill-Devil
sand dunes. A part of the original plane is preserved in the museum. Nor
must I leave the museum without mentioning the bullet-riddled hat of
General W.R. Cox, and his gray military coat, with a blood-stained gash
in front, where a solid shell ripped across. General Cox's son, Mr.
Albert Cox, was with us in the museum when we stopped to look at this
grim souvenir. "It tore father open in front," he said, "spoiled a coat
which had cost him $550, Confederate, and damaged his watchchain.
Nevertheless he lived to take part in the last charge at Appomattox, and
the watchchain wasn't so badly spoiled but what, with the addition of
some new links, it could be worn." And he showed us where the chain,
which he himself was wearing at the time, had been repaired.
I must say something, also, of the North Carolina College of Agriculture
and Mechanic Arts, an institution doing splendid work, and doing it
efficiently, both in its own buildings and through extension courses.
Fifty-two per cent. of the students at this college earn their way
through, either wholly or in part. And better yet, eighty-three per
cent. of the graduates stick to the practical work afterwards--an
unusually high record.
The president of the college, Dr. D.H. Hill, is a son of the Confederate
general of the same name, who has been called "the Ironsides of the
South."
There are a number of other important educational institutions in and
about Raleigh, and there is one which, if not important, is at all
events, a curio. This is "Latta University," consisting of a few flimsy
shacks in the negro village of Oberlin, on the outskirts of Raleigh.
"Professor" Latta is one of the rare negroes who combines the habit with
white folks of the old fashioned southern darky, and the astuteness of
the "new issue" in high finance. Years ago he conceived the idea of
establishing a negro school near Raleigh, to which he gave the above
mentioned name. He had no funds, no credit and little or no education.
Nevertheless he had ideas, the central one of which was that New England
was the land of plenty. With the "university" in his head, and with a
miscellaneous collection of photographs, he managed to make a tour of
northern cities, and came back with his pockets lined. As a result he
procured a little land, put up frame buildings, gathered a few youths
about him, and was fully launched on his career as a university
president.
So long as the money held out, Latta was content to drift along with his
school. When he came to the bottom of the bag he invested the last of
his savings in another ticket north and, armed with his title of
"president," made addresses to northern audiences and replenished his
finances with their contributions.
Finally, as the great act of his career, Latta managed to get passage to
Europe and was gone for several months. When he came back he had added a
manuscript to his possessions: "The History of My Life and Work," which
he published, and which is one of the most curious volumes I have ever
seen.
It is illustrated--largely with photographs of the author. One of the
pictures is entitled, "Rev. M.L. Latta when he first commenced to build
Latta University." This shows Latta with the tips of his fingers resting
on a small table. Another picture shows him posed with one hand raised
and the other resting on what is unmistakably the same little table. The
latter picture, however, has the caption, "Rev. M.L. Latta making a
speech in Pawtucket, R.I., at Y.M.C.A." Both pictures were all too
clearly taken in a photographer's studio. Another page shows us, "Rev.
M.L. Latta and three of his Admirable Presidents." In this case Latta
merely takes for himself the upper right-hand corner, the other eminent
persons pictured being ex-Presidents Roosevelt, McKinley and Cleveland.
The star illustration, however, is a "made up" picture, in which a
photograph of Latta, looking spick-and-span, has been pasted onto what
is very obviously a painted picture of a hall full of people in evening
dress, all of them gazing at Latta, who stands upon the stage,
dignified, suave, impressive, and all dressed-up by the brush of the
"re-toucher." This picture is called: "In the Auditorium at London, in
1894." Similar artfulness is shown in pictures of the "university"
buildings, where the same frame structure, photographed from opposite
ends, appears in one case as, "Young Ladies' Dormitory," and in the
other as, "Chapel and Young Men's Dormitory."
In his autobiography, Latta tells how, in the course of getting his own
schooling, he raised money by teaching a district school during
vacation. He says:
After paying my expenses, I had nearly a hundred dollars to return
to school with. When I returned I was able to dress very neatly
indeed, and the young ladies received me very cordially on the
green during social hour. Before I taught school it was a common
saying among the young ladies and young men "Latta"; but after I
returned with a hundred dollars it was "Mr. Latta" all over the
campus. I would hear the young ladies saying among themselves, "I
bet Mr. Latta will not go with you--he will correspond with me this
afternoon." I paid no attention to it. I said to myself, "Don't you
see what a hundred dollars will do?"
In another place the Professor reveals how he came to write his book:
"Professor King, one of the teachers at Latta University said to me, 'If
I had done what you have done I would have wrote a history of my life
several years ago.'"
The best part of the book, however, gives us Latta's account of his
doings in London:
Just before I left the city of London I was invited by a
distinguished friend, a close relation to Queen Victoria, to make a
speech. He told me there would be a meeting in one of the large
halls in that city. I can't just think of the name of the hall. He
invited me to be present. The distinguished friend that I have just
mentioned presided over the meeting. There was an immense audience
present. If memory serves me right, I was the only Negro in the
hall. The gentleman came to me and asked if I would make a speech.
I told him I had already delivered one address, besides several
sermons I had preached, and I thought that I would not speak again
during my stay. I accepted the invitation, however, and spoke.
The Professor then tells how he was introduced as one whose addresses
were "among the ablest ever delivered in London." Also he gives his
speech in full. Great events followed. His distinguished unnamed friend,
the "close relation of the Queen," came to him soon after, he says, and
asked him if he had "ever been to the palace."
Continues Latta:
He said to me, "If you will come over before you leave the city,
and call to see me, I will take you to the palace with me and
introduce you to the Queen." I told him I would do so, that I had
heard a good deal about the royal throne, and I would be very much
interested to see the palace. He said he thought I would, because
the government was very different from ours.
I called at his residence as I had promised, and he went with me to
the palace. The Queen knew him, of course. He was received very
cordially. Everything shined so much like gold in the palace that I
had to stop and think where I was. He introduced me to the Queen,
and told her I was from North America. He told her that I spoke at
a meeting he presided over, and he enjoyed my speech very much. He
told her we had an immense audience, and all the people were well
pleased with the speech. The Queen said she was more than glad to
meet me, and she would have liked very much to have been present,
and heard the speech that her cousin said I made.... She told me
she hoped that would not be the last visit I would make to their
city. I shook hands with her and bade her good-bye. The
distinguished friend carried me and showed me the different
departments of the palace, and I bade him good-bye.
In Raleigh, I think, they rather like Latta. It amuses them to see him
go north and get money, and it is said that he appreciates the situation
himself. He ought to. Not many southern negroes have such comfortable
homes as "Latta University's" best kept-up building--the residence of
the President.