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 WADE H. HARRIS
 
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 MY SCHOOL DAYS 
 
 Reconstruction Experiences in the South 
 
 By 
 WADE H. HARRIS 
 
 Illustrated 
 
 New York 
 
 The Neale Publishing Company 
 
 1914
 
 Copyright, 1914, by 
 Wade H. Harris 
 
 First published, December, 1914
 
 CT 
 
 ORDER OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface 9 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I In the Beginning 11 
 
 II The Breaking Clouds 17 
 
 III Poplar Tent 20 
 
 IV Vacation Reflections 26 
 
 V General Lane 32 
 
 VI The Powder Bottle 36 
 
 VII The Dromios 40 
 
 VIII The Rogers School 44 
 
 IX In Reconstruction Days 51 
 
 530071
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 The Better Type of High School— 1868, 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 Getting Rid of Cotton Seed as a Nuisance. . 27 
 First Cotton Seed Mill in North Carolina — 
 
 1868 30 
 
 Gen. James H. Lane 43 
 
 Mr. B. F. Rogers 50
 
 MY SCHOOL DAYS 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 The names of the boys figuring in these pages 
 are real. There is small risk. Those that are 
 not dead are too old to fight. It is not a book 
 of fiction, but a narrative of fact; therefore, the 
 use of near-names, — or fictitious appellations 
 whereby the curious reader familiar with the 
 events of the period with which it deals might 
 puzzle out identities, — would be foreign to the 
 intent of the writer. His purpose here is the 
 preservation of some memories of conditions 
 under which the children of the days that immedi- 
 ately followed the Civil War obtained their edu- 
 tion, and, too, that by incidental narrative the 
 schoolboys and schoolgirls of the present day 
 may have a contrast by which they may come to 
 a better appreciation of the advantages by which 
 they are so abundantly surrounded. The author's 
 hope is that the boys and girls, — his contempo- 
 raries, — may derive some entertainment from 
 these pages. He will, because of the form of 
 book's dedication, invite a kindly reception for at 
 least one class — the youths who sturdily trod the 
 rugged path of post-bellum education under the 
 guidance of the most original and the most prac- 
 tical educator of those days, the late B. F. Rogers. 
 
 9
 
 IN THE BEGINNING 
 
 The first molder into whose hands my parents 
 committed the work of giving shape to my youth- 
 ful mental structure was a woman, — red-haired 
 and red-tempered. She was an importation and 
 had no acquaintance with the families in the 
 town, and, — as we were not long in learning, — 
 no love for the children committed to her care. 
 
 The schoolhouse had been a residence; but 
 it had been unoccupied for a number of months, 
 and was in a bad state of repair. It had two 
 rooms, the smaller of which took up about one- 
 third of the first floor. As this room was sufl5- 
 cient to accommodate the pupils, and as it re- 
 quired less wood for heating and less work for 
 keeping it in what passed for a clean condition, 
 it was selected as the schoolroom. The teacher 
 elected to place her chair in the center, with the 
 children drawn about her on chairs and stools. 
 The equipment did not boast even a bench. 
 Twenty-five or thirty little boys and girls an- 
 swered the roll-call. The oldest was a girl of 
 
 11
 
 12 MY SCHOOL DAYS 
 
 twelve years. Individually and in the aggregate 
 the school was personified pinafore. 
 
 At first the children thought that the central 
 arrangement was an Indication of the desire of 
 the teacher to be social and homelike, but they 
 were soon to be undeceived. The real purpose 
 was to have the scholars within easy reach of the 
 hair-shake for the little girls and the jaw-slap 
 for the boys. In those days mother was the 
 barber. There was but one style of hair-cut, and 
 that was to bob it behind on a line between the 
 ears. The only variation from this style was in 
 the location of the line. Some mothers drew it 
 from lobe to lobe; others half-way from the bot- 
 tom to the top of the ears, and still others 
 thought their offspring would look better with 
 no hair on the backs of their heads lower than 
 on a line drawn from the top of one ear to the 
 top of the other. This tonsorial effect left a 
 tuft of hair on the head, — a tuft that was an 
 opportunity too inviting to be overlooked by the 
 teacher. If it were a case of a girl's needing to 
 be disciplined, the teacher would content herself 
 with clawing into the hair for a firm grip, and 
 then shaking the little victim almost out of her 
 wits. If it were a boy, she would drag him over 
 to one side of the room and beat a tattoo on 
 the wall with his head. When, on rare occasions, 
 she was lucky enough to have two boys to punish
 
 IN THE BEGINNING 13 
 
 at the same time, she would crack their heads 
 together, then Impel each one to his chair with 
 a smack on the jaw. She never used a switch. 
 No scholar that had ever felt her fingers claw- 
 ing around his hair for a "purchase" would have 
 stood in any awe of the switch. 
 
 It might be supposed that the parents of these 
 tender martyrs would have soon found out the 
 condition of affairs in the school, — and they 
 probably would have made the discovery shortly 
 after Tommy Scott had sobbed out his story of 
 an aching scalp to his mother; but teacher learned 
 that very day what Tommy had told his mother. 
 Mrs. Scott was to blame for that. Next morning 
 the teacher called up Tommy Scott and got a grip 
 on his hair. 
 
 "What do you (shake) mean by telling 
 (shake) tales out of (shake) school?" 
 
 Then followed more shakes and heartbreaking 
 sobs from little Tom. There was not a trembling 
 little soul in the room that did not hear the dire 
 threats made of what would happen to anyone 
 telling tales out of school; and for weeks the 
 angelic temper of this red-headed terror was un- 
 known. 
 
 However, such tactics could be practiced in 
 concealment for no great while. It was not long 
 before pupils began dropping out, mutterings were 
 heard, and reports of the teacher's cruelty began
 
 14 MY SCHOOL DAYS 
 
 going the rounds; then the children, emboldened 
 to talk, saw to it that the talk did not lack the 
 element of exaggeration. The teacher's life be- 
 came so uncomfortable that she was glad to take 
 a vacation, — and from this vacation she did not 
 return. 
 
 Naturally, no joyous anticipations of later 
 school life sprang up in the breasts of the little 
 people from the ideas gained through this first 
 disciplinary experience; but reassurance was on 
 the way. The school was reorganized. 
 
 There were two women teachers this time, — 
 sisters, — sweet-spirited, and of gentle ways. 
 Janitors were known only as characters in the 
 dictionary, but the new teachers brought over 
 their old colored cook (they lived opposite the 
 forbidding-looking temple of primary instruc- 
 tion), and put her to work scrubbing and scour- 
 ing, while they took turns at dusting the walls 
 and washing the windows. Then from their own 
 home they moved in chairs, a few benches, — 
 which a day laborer had constructed under their 
 direction, — a couple of desks, and several pieces 
 of carpeting. When school reassembled, the whole 
 atmosphere of the place was changed. The 
 pupils loved the school from the first day. Their 
 timidity vanished, they no longer trembled in 
 fear of the avenging hand, and they turned to 
 their books with a joyous earnestness, — an ear-
 
 IN THE BEGINNING 15 
 
 nestness In marked contrast to their previous state 
 of mental perturbation. 
 
 Under the changed conditions there came a 
 change in the children's Ideas of school life. A 
 love for teachers and for books took root In their 
 hearts, and from that time on, the rough places 
 encountered In the first few miles of the path along 
 which these future statesmen and suffragists had 
 been started were as forgotten troubles. 
 
 Another thing that added to the happiness of 
 the boys was that the mothers had become a 
 little bit more skillful In the barbering art, and 
 they were not so much ashamed to have any- 
 body walk behind them. The younger of the 
 two teachers got Into the habit of bringing a pair 
 of shears to school, and with these she tactfully 
 caught many a vagabond lock that had been 
 skipped because the home barber might not have 
 had time to make a complete job. Then, too, 
 she carried needles and thread in her workbasket. 
 There was a day when the patch on the seat of 
 Billy Swink's trousers was seen hanging down in 
 an awkward way, so she called Billy up, to tell 
 him a story. The school was interested in the 
 telling of it, and when it was concluded and Billy 
 was returning to his seat, none would have known 
 what her hands had been doing but for Billy's 
 temporary halt to make a manual Inspection of 
 the job, and his further blunder In turning to the
 
 1 6 MY SCHOOL DAYS 
 
 teacher, bowing rather shamefacedly, and blurt- 
 ing out: 
 
 "Thank you, Miss Lillie; thank you, ma'am." 
 In the delightful surroundings of this primitive 
 seat of youthful learning attachments were made 
 that have happily threaded lives together to this 
 day; for from it there has been a branching out 
 of a forest of family trees. And one attach- 
 ment, of which the young people were scarcely 
 conscious, has flourished and become the stronger, 
 and as the light grows brighter in the face on the 
 shortening journey, they are privileged to reach 
 out and give the touch of remembrance to the 
 hands that guided their early steps. I meet these 
 sisters yet once in a while, but never without the 
 thrill of tender memories.
 
 II 
 
 THE BREAKING CLOUDS 
 
 Chaos reigned in the South at the time I was 
 started on the path to knowledge. The echoes 
 of the Civil War had scarce died away, and 
 soldiers were still straggling home. The parents 
 at that time had little opportunity, — and less 
 heart, — to look after the educational interests of 
 their children; yet in the face of the demoralized 
 conditions, it is to the credit of our forebears 
 that one of the first tasks to which they addressed 
 themselves was the opening of schools of one kind 
 or another. The South had been always poorly 
 provided with public schools. The time that had 
 just gone had been the day of large estates and 
 commodious homes, with retinues of servants. 
 The children of the landowners used to be sent 
 off to colleges and seminaries for their education. 
 For the children of the less fortunate class there 
 were private schools and the old field school. For 
 others there was no opportunity, except books in 
 the home. Public schools, as they are known at 
 the present time, did not exist. The best school- 
 XT
 
 1 8 MY SCHOOL DAYS 
 
 house in the towns boasted but a single room. 
 The old field schoolhouse was no more preten- 
 tious; the desk was unknown; the furniture con- 
 sisted of rows of rude benches; only the better 
 classes of buildings had "window lights," — that is 
 to say, glass windows; the blackboard was a 
 rarity; everything was in the rough and crude 
 stage of the pioneer days, typical less of the hard- 
 ship of that period than of the neglect of the 
 educational interests by local and State authorities. 
 
 Such being the condition when the people were 
 called to war, it may well be imagined how hope- 
 less the educational task appeared when town, 
 hamlet, and country, — groping and stumbling 
 through the shadows of wreck and ruin and de- 
 vastation, — came face to face with the problems 
 of Reconstruction. For four years the log school- 
 houses had been practically deserted, and had gone 
 to decay by neglect. The country schoolmasters, 
 — almost to a man, — had answered the long roll, 
 or had come back incapacitated by wounds or 
 disease; the faculties of the colleges and semi- 
 naries had been depleted, and the outlook for the 
 educational provision for the youth of the South 
 seemed dark. 
 
 But the courage and resources of the people 
 rose to the emergency. There were no funds 
 with which to build and equip schoolhouses, but 
 vacant houses were easily obtainable and self-made 
 teachers developed to take the work in hand.
 
 THE BREAKING CLOUDS 19 
 
 Many of the women entered the service as volun- 
 teers, making no charges, — and accepting no re- 
 muneration. Some taught school for their board. 
 It was a work of patriotism; and thus did the 
 South address itself to the solution of the educa- 
 tional problem while the pall from the smoking 
 homes still overhung the land. 
 
 Out of these crude conditions, — shouldered 
 and gradually made the lighter under hardships, 
 the like of which have been imposed upon no 
 other people of the world, — has grown the present 
 perfected educational structure of the South, built 
 up of a system of rural, town, and State schools, 
 until it forms, as a whole, the finest in the country. 
 Out of the travail of the past has come the 
 Templed Age of the School. The stoic courage, 
 endurance, and determination of the pedagogues 
 that blazed the way to the present accomplish- 
 ment are worthy of all admiration. The experi- 
 ence of both teacher and scholar was the em- 
 bodiment of the heroic in human endeavor. In 
 this day there should be no thought for it other 
 than one of honor and of reverence.
 
 Ill 
 
 POPLAR TENT 
 
 The excuse for a system of county education 
 that existed before the war had gone entirely to 
 pieces at the close of hostilities. There was no 
 superintendent, no county board, no board of 
 trustees. In some communities the leading men 
 would exert themselves to secure a teacher, but 
 as a general thing, it was the pedagogue himself 
 that organized the school. He would make a 
 canvass of a community in which a house stood 
 vacant, and securing a sufficient number of pupils, 
 would send out word of the coming opening of 
 the school. 
 
 In ante-bellum days Poplar Tent used to be 
 considered one of the centers of affluence in our 
 county. It was a community of large estates and 
 big families, and its schoolhouse was of the better 
 type of country institutions; was, perhaps, the best 
 in the county, — in that it had a chimney, four win- 
 dows, and was weatherboarded. Its interior, 
 however, was barren of ceiling and devoid of 
 
 20
 
 POPLAR TENT 21 
 
 plaster, while paint was an unthought-of extrava- 
 gance. 
 
 The schoolhouse was located in a grove sur- 
 rounding the church. One would have been told 
 at the time that its furnishings were of the best. 
 The benches in the Poplar Tent schoolhouse were 
 not made to be broken. A pine log, run through 
 the sawmill, made two benches. The process of 
 manufacture was simple. The flat side of the 
 log would be laid on the floor, and in each end 
 of the rounded outer (bark) side would be bored 
 two holes slanting toward each other. Into these 
 holes long pegs would be driven. The pegs were 
 then sawed off so as to set more or less squarely 
 on the floor. The bench was then turned right 
 side up, and was ready for use. 
 
 The teacher, — at least, one able to afford the 
 style, — had a chair and table. These he would 
 place near the fireplace. The benches would be 
 arranged in rows across the room in front of 
 him. Upon these benches, — with no foot-rests 
 and no support for the elbows, — the promising 
 youth of that day got a good start in the direction 
 of humpbacked humanity. 
 
 There was no idea of sanitation, nor of hy- 
 giene. The pupils took turns in sweeping out and 
 in carrying water. The windows were not washed. 
 In summer the boy that wanted to see out could 
 wet his fist and rub a clear spot in the dirt that
 
 22 MY SCHOOL DAYS 
 
 coated the glass. In winter It was the fashion 
 to get away from the windows and from the wind 
 that would whistle In through the ample crevices. 
 
 A tin dipper, or a gourd, served as the common 
 drinking utensil. The teacher that at that time 
 might have suggested the sanitary drinking foun- 
 tain, or the individual cup, would have been 
 considered slightly flighty. The dullest man in 
 the community would not swap horses without a 
 close Inspection of the teeth of the horse, yet no 
 thought was given the teeth of the children. 
 There was no quarantine against scarlet fever, 
 diphtheria, or any other contagious disease, and 
 a case of mumps was regarded as no excuse for 
 a boy to stay at home. 
 
 It was a sturdy set of boys and girls that made 
 up the average country school. They walked 
 from two to twelve miles every school-day, re- 
 gardless of the weather. Applying the parcel post 
 zone principal as the base of service of the 
 country schoolhouse, we would find almost as 
 many scholars from the fourth and fifth zone as 
 from the second and third. That Is to say, as 
 many children lived four and five miles from the 
 schoolhouse as lived within the nearer zones. 
 
 At the Poplar Tent school, — barring three or 
 four boys, — none was Inside the one-mile zone. 
 
 In spite of the difficulty of reaching the school, 
 the record of attendance was above the average
 
 POPLAR TENT 23 
 
 of the present-day city school. Only rarely did 
 a boy play hookey, for the penalty was two lick- 
 ings, — one at home and one at school. No matter 
 how inclement the season, the scholar that missed 
 a day would need to have a good excuse. Missing 
 the roll-call counted up more demerits than a 
 breach of discipline. A certain number of ab- 
 sences-without-excuse would call for expulsion. 
 
 The curriculum was limited, and the little pil- 
 grims were not weighted down with books. Few 
 were further advanced than reading, writing, 
 arithmetic, and spelling. On the last two the 
 country school was particularly strong. Davies' 
 arithmetic and Webster's blue-back were the 
 standards, — and good spellers were turned out in 
 those days. I can recall two things I learned at 
 this country school. One was to chew tobacco. 
 The other was to write a good "hand." The 
 poverty of the people was pathetic to look back 
 upon. Few scholars were able to afford store 
 ink. The common substitute was the ink-ball, — 
 that unique product of the horsefly and the oak 
 tree, — which produced a purplish-colored fluid, 
 having the merit of enduring qualities. The quill 
 pen was an abomination with which the children 
 had small patience. Many of the boys could draw 
 a slit from a chair bottom and with his "barlow" 
 fashion a better pen. The copy book was a few 
 sheets of common writing paper sewed together,
 
 24 MY SCHOOL DAYS 
 
 and the schoolmaster always wrote the text. This 
 was generally some popular ditty. From the back 
 of my head comes the first well-remembered copy 
 I was called upon to labor over with tongue and 
 pen: 
 
 "My pen is bad ; my ink is pale, 
 My love for you will never fale." 
 
 In those days a rhyme would not pass unless 
 it both looked and sounded right. The spelling 
 was a minor consideration. The deprivations of 
 the time were reflected in another way. On the 
 dismissal of school for the day there was no 
 loitering on the playground. The pupils hastened 
 home, where there were turns to do about the 
 house and on the farm. After school the boy was 
 a farmhand, the girl a housemaid. Crops were to 
 be cast, cultivated, and harvested; cows were to be 
 milked, and the chickens had to be looked after. 
 It was by firelight in many instances, by candle- 
 light in others, and in rare cases by the light of 
 a lamp, that the children's tired bodies would bend 
 to the task of study. But the sleep that followed 
 was deep and sound, and the eyes that greeted the 
 dawn knew no heaviness. With the snappy vigor 
 of youth, these scions of nobility were off with the 
 rising sun for the routine of another day, whose 
 exactions they well knew, but of which they were 
 not afraid. There were no "lifts" in an auto- 
 mobile, no rides on a wheel. The monotony of
 
 POPLAR TENT 25 
 
 the tramp was only varied, on occasion, when 
 an empty wagon might be encountered going 
 their way. Did one ever know a driver that did 
 not take as much delight in giving a group of 
 children a ride as it gave them to get it?
 
 IV 
 
 VACATION REFLECTIONS 
 
 Such were the limited possibilities of a common- 
 school education in the best type of the country 
 school. Vocational instruction was as an idea 
 unborn. Even in the larger schools and colleges 
 there was lacking any appearance of the me- 
 chanical equipment considered so necessary to the 
 practical youth of the present time. The textile 
 department was not even a dream. Drawing les- 
 sons were luxuries for the children of the rich 
 only, and no thought was given to wood-working. 
 There was indifference to the possibilities of the 
 development of a practical education. Perhaps 
 it was ignorance, perhaps it was the fact that the 
 parents were too seriously engrossed in the greater 
 problems that confronted them in the rehabilita- 
 tion of their fortunes, to give much attention to 
 the schooling of their children, — quite content 
 with the accepted understanding that they were 
 getting "book larnin'." It had never occurred to 
 
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 VACATION REFLECTIONS 27 
 
 them that agriculture should be taught in the 
 school. The minds of the rising generation were 
 directed from the farm, rather than to it, and con- 
 sequently no thought was given to the immense 
 opportunities awaiting the coming of the magic 
 touch of Science in agriculture. 
 
 The slumber of the country over the golden 
 wealth concealed under the fuzzy coat of the 
 humble cotton seed was an instance. My vaca- 
 tions were spent at the home of Jacob Stirewalt, 
 at Mill Hill, where from one forebay were run 
 in succession the wheels of a flouring mill, a saw- 
 mill, a woolen mill, and a cotton gin. The latter 
 was my special delight, and I became, to all in- 
 tents, a "hand" about the gin. 
 
 By common consent the duty devolved upon me 
 of keeping the gin-room clear of the accumulation 
 of cotton seed. A door from the floor on which 
 the gin was located opened out over the stream. 
 I had been provided with a wooden shovel, and 
 with this I would dump the seed from the door 
 into the water, whose swirling eddies would carry 
 it down-stream and away. In a season I have thus 
 thrown to waste the seed from a thousand bales. 
 But that was not all. The seed that was not given 
 to the water was burned as the easiest way of 
 getting rid of it. The farmers that brought 
 cotton to the gin did not want to be bothered with 
 the seed. Some would carry two or three bushels
 
 28 MY SCHOOL DAYS 
 
 home for planting, but many were even less provi- 
 dent. 
 
 The scenes of these wasteful days are as fresh 
 in my memory as if they had occurred but yester- 
 day. It was fascinating to lean from the door of 
 the gin-house and watch the miller start the 
 water wheel. With the raising of the gate in the 
 forebay there would come a tumultuous rush of 
 water, boiling into a white foam. It would leap 
 from one wheel-box to the other until the ac- 
 cumulated weight, — as it filled the boxes to the 
 point from which it took the perpendicular drop, 
 — would cause the wheel to begin slowly turning. 
 As the wheel gained momentum, the flow of 
 water would be cut down to the normal force, and 
 with a musical rumble, the machinery would re- 
 spond to the motion of the overshot wheel. And 
 as this water came rushing and roaring by the 
 gin-house, it would clear the channel of the ac- 
 cumulated nuisance in the shape of cotton seed. 
 Ah, the golden dollars that were floating away! 
 Had Science come to the schoolhouse a few years 
 sooner, how much more quickly would the South 
 have rallied from the impoverishment of the war! 
 During a vacation season my share alone in the un- 
 witting destruction of wealth in the cotton seed 
 must have amounted to $7,250 or $8,000. But 
 that was merely a small item in the whole de- 
 plorable truth. The cotton seed of the entire
 
 VACATION REFLECTIONS 29 
 
 South, — now a source of revenue at the rate of 
 $12 and $15 a bale, — was wasted treasure. 
 
 But there was a time when the farmers came 
 close to the discovery of the gold mine over which 
 they were walking. It was the idea of cotton-seed 
 meal — an idea that took hold of the mind of a 
 man in Georgia. He figured it out that the seed 
 ground up would produce a meal that would be 
 fine for fattening cattle. After some experimenta- 
 tion he evolved a cotton-seed mill, and came to 
 North Carolina with it. He found an attentive 
 listener, — and eventually a believer, — in Chas. F. 
 Harris, of Concord. Mr. Harris purchased the 
 patent rights, and put up the first cotton-seed oil 
 mill in the State. 
 
 It was a primitive affair, and was located in the 
 barn at his home. The mill itself was on the 
 order of a large coffee grinder. At one side of 
 the barn an old-fashioned horse-power cogwheel 
 was built, which was connected with the mill by 
 shafting. The speed was obtained by the vast 
 diameter of the rim of the large cogged wheel 
 and the diminutive side of the shafting cog. Hand 
 labor was employed in unloading the seed from 
 the wagons and in feeding it to the hopper. The 
 process was slow and the result, — by reason of 
 the crudeness of the mill and its failure to thor- 
 oughly separate the meal from the hulls, — was un- 
 satisfactory. But the principle of the cotton-
 
 30 MY SCHOOL DAYS 
 
 seed oil mill was there, and no doubt the present 
 perfected system had Its Inspiration from this 
 pioneer effort. 
 
 I well remember the first customer at the Con- 
 cord Cotton-seed Mill. It was W. G. Means, who 
 brought in a two-horse load of seed from his 
 father's farm, three miles west of town. I had 
 been tending the mill and was there when he 
 came for the meal. It amounted to a little over 
 a bushel. Means was mad. 
 
 "What," he roared, "Is this all the meal I get 
 from my wagon-load of seed?" 
 
 He was at length convinced of the sad truth, 
 but his wrath was not appeased, and he never 
 came back. The product of this mill was a coarse, 
 rich, yellow meal, resembling grains of modern 
 gunpowder, — a glistening, sticky, oily mass. The 
 farmers that used it as cattle feed bore testimony 
 to Its value as a fattening food and a butter pro- 
 ducer. Their only objection to it was based on 
 its expensiveness. Fed to cows in its concentrated 
 richness. It produced butter that very properly be- 
 came famed as golden. 
 
 The operation of this first crude cotton-seed 
 mill is evidence that at that period the light was 
 almost dawning. The application of a little 
 scientific learning would have given the country 
 the meal, the oil, and the hulls of present-day 
 commerce. Let some mathematician figure out
 
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 VACATION REFLECTIONS 31 
 
 the extent to which the wealth of the South would 
 have been increased had the groping theories of 
 this Georgia pioneer regarding the possibilities 
 of the cotton seed been followed up to a practical 
 conclusion!
 
 GENERAL LANE 
 
 Hard on the heels of the soldiers returning 
 from the war, came General James H. Lane, com- 
 mander of the famous Lane's Brigade, — glori- 
 ously identified with the history of a hundred 
 Virginia battlefields, — and whose crowning effort 
 was written at Gettysburg. General Lane's com- 
 mand was chiefly of North Carolinians, and with 
 his fortunes broken, but with spirit undaunted, in 
 the humble capacity of schoolmaster he turned to 
 North Carolina as a perspective field of liveli- 
 hood. He found the outlook discouraging 
 enough. 
 
 He secured a vacant building, — a large barn- 
 like structure, — collected a suflliciency of the rude 
 benches of the times, and opened a high school. 
 His army comrades, to a man, sent their sons to 
 the General, and he had the largest school in 
 that part of the State. It lasted but two short 
 terms, however. The poverty of the people 
 
 32
 
 GENERAL LANE 33 
 
 caused General Lane to reap his pay principally 
 in promises, though his tuition fees had been 
 placed at the starvation point. 
 
 Though gentle at heart, the old warrior's soul 
 had been embittered by the reverses of the civil 
 strife, and he was unconsciously stern and rigor- 
 ous in his handling of the boys. There were sev- 
 eral adults in his advanced class, and to these he 
 gave the soldier treatment. Many of the younger 
 boys remember hiding their faces in terror as the 
 General was castigating some one of the bigger 
 boys. He used a bunch of hickories, and he would 
 stand on tiptoe and come down at a rate war- 
 ranted to make the dust fly. Only one student 
 ever made resistance, and the flogging was pre- 
 cipitated into a fist fight, which the student, — 
 who came out second best, — no doubt recollects 
 to this day; for he escaped with his life, and is 
 yet in business in Concord. There had been no 
 softening influences to tone down the rugged lines 
 in General Lane's face when the time had arrived 
 for him to take his departure from the field of his 
 first civic endeavor after the war. 
 
 The hopes of his heart blasted by the fateful 
 finality at Appomattox, and a pauper in purse, he 
 went forth to other and broader fields. 
 
 His strong point was mathematics, and arith- 
 metic and algebra were the standard studies in his 
 school. In Concord he had been given the nick-
 
 34 MY SCHOOL DAYS 
 
 name of "Old Figgers"; yet his subsequent career 
 was characterized mainly as a teacher of military 
 tactics, he having been first identified with the 
 Charlotte Military Academy. 
 
 The writer came again under General Lane's 
 tutelage at the Virginia Agricultural and Me- 
 chanical College, at Blacksburg, — now the Vir- 
 ginia Polytechnic Institute, — and there found that 
 time and the warmer smiles of Fortune had soft- 
 ened his nature, and that off the parade-ground he 
 was as gentle as a woman. Yet, as a disciplinarian, 
 the spirit of the old soldier still animated his breast. 
 The cadets wore the bob-tail jackets of the original 
 Johnny Rebs. The parade-ground was used for 
 training and not for display, and forced mountain 
 marches served to give the boys a seasoning some- 
 what approaching that of veterans. The iron of 
 defeat was yet in the General's soul, however, and 
 his combativeness was manifested in faculty rows. 
 This pugnaciousness culminated in a rough-and- 
 tumble argument with Professor C. L. C. Minor, 
 on the chapel platform, — an incident that seems to 
 have marked the beginning of a line of subsequent 
 faculty troubles, and to have led to a train of re- 
 organizations that finally caused a change in the 
 name of the institution itself. From Blacksburg 
 General Lane went to Missouri, where he served 
 as professor of mathematics in the School of 
 Mines and Metallurgy, and later went to the 
 Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College,
 
 GEN. JAMES H. LANE 
 
 Facing page 34
 
 GENERAL LANE 35 
 
 where he finished out his life work as military in- 
 structor. 
 
 It was a characteristic of General Lane that 
 he never referred to the Civil War, nor to its 
 outcome. Whatever emotions may have stirred 
 his bosom, his lips were sealed. He was dumb 
 alike to reminiscence and to incident, and his pe- 
 culiar aversion to any discussion of the conflict 
 was respected. 
 
 General Lane was not a military genius. He 
 had forced himself to the front as a leader by 
 the boldness of his plans, the daring of his actions, 
 the coolness of his judgment, and his absolute 
 freedom from any feeling of fear. He was one 
 of the bravest officers that the South produced, 
 and he wrote for himself a brilliant record on the 
 pages of the history of the Confederacy. Yet this 
 valiant leader of a mighty army turned his back 
 upon the scenes of military glory to face the open 
 door of a country schoolhouse! Of such heroic 
 stuff as this was made the rank and file of the 
 Southern soldier. The land was full of men of 
 such caliber, — men of whom this Confederate 
 general was typical.
 
 VI 
 
 THE POWDER BOTTLE 
 
 To a class of boys and girls, — ranging in age 
 from eight to twelve years, — the teacher one 
 morning read the story of the Cabarrus Black 
 Boys, whose famous exploit in blowing up a train 
 of powder-wagons belonging to the British army 
 forms one of the most stirring incidents in Revo- 
 lutionary history. 
 
 As the story goes: The British forces were 
 marching through this section of the State, and 
 the wagon-train that carried the powder supply 
 went into camp at a point on the old Charlotte- 
 Salisbury road, six miles west of Concord. A 
 band of patriots concocted a plot to destroy the 
 wagons, — a plan that was carried out success- 
 fully. Stripped of detail : The people who had de- 
 cided upon this blow at the British cause met at 
 an appointed place, and after blacking their faces 
 and otherwise perfecting a disguise, sallied forth 
 to the woods in which the wagons were parked. 
 By stealthy operations they succeeded in laying a 
 
 36
 
 THE POWDER BOTTLE 37 
 
 train of powder from the wagons to a safe dis- 
 tance, and to this they then applied a match. The 
 result was the blowing up of the entire train of 
 wagons. 
 
 The location of the Black Boys' exploit is 
 historically established, and is frequently visited, 
 — being easy of access. Periodical efforts have 
 been made to have the event commemorated by a 
 monument, though to this day nothing has re- 
 sulted. At recess that day the blowing up of the 
 British powder-wagons formed the topic of con- 
 versation of a group of boys, and their fertile 
 young brains were soon forming ideas. One of 
 the boys remembered having seen a cigar box of 
 powder in a closet at his home, and his announce- 
 ment of this fact set plans on foot to get pos- 
 session of some of it. That was easy. One of his 
 companions produced the very thing in the shape 
 of a six-ounce bottle, and with this carefully con- 
 cealed, the youthful emissary slipped home, got to 
 the powder, filled the bottle, and returned, with- 
 out having been discovered. 
 
 Then a discussion arose as to what should rep- 
 resent the British wagons. Various schemes were 
 suggested, but all were rejected. At length it 
 simmered down to a simple proposition of blow- 
 ing up the bottle itself. It then developed that 
 the whole crowd was a little band of cowards, for 
 none volunteered to strike the match. The tense-
 
 38 MY SCHOOL DAYS 
 
 ness of the situation was at the moment reheved 
 by the discovery that there was not a match in 
 the crowd. That led Caleb Swink into a bit of 
 indiscreet boldness. 
 
 "Pshaw!'' he boasted, "if I just had a match 
 I would make her go." 
 
 He stood committed to do the deed of bravery. 
 
 "Wait there!" shouted Harbin Partee, as he 
 disappeared on a run for the schoolhouse, re- 
 turning shortly with a coal of fire on a shovel. 
 Swink demurred, saying that he had called for a 
 match, but Partee argued that the coal would 
 answer the purpose, and clinched matters by dar- 
 ing Swink to "make her go." 
 
 Then began a remarkable performance. The 
 bottle was placed firmly on the ground, and the 
 boys gathered around in a circle. The coal of fire 
 was placed on the mouth of the bottle and Swink 
 endeavored to punch it down with the blade of 
 a knife. After he had made several unsuccess- 
 ful attempts, Partee forgot caution, and went to 
 Swink's aid. The two boys were squatted on their 
 knees, — Partee sitting rather straight and punch- 
 ing at the coal. Swing leaned back, drew in a 
 long breath, then bent forward with his lips close 
 to the coal and blew hard. Instantly a great bal- 
 loon-shaped cloud of white smoke ascended into 
 the air, and the Black Boys of history became the 
 little black boys of tragedy. The faces of both
 
 THE POWDER BOTTLE 39 
 
 Swink and Partee were terribly blackened and 
 burned. They were carried to their respective 
 homes, and for weeks it was a question whether 
 Swink would come through with his life; and even 
 If he did so, whether or not he would ever see 
 again. 
 
 Partee's injuries were less serious; but it was a 
 month before he was able to return to school. 
 Swink's recovery was slow and doubtful, but in 
 the course of time it became known: first, that he 
 would get well, and later, that his eyesight was 
 safe. Then the miserable days I had gone 
 through were turned to days of rejoicing, for it 
 was I who had stolen the powder for the juve- 
 nile reproduction of the blowing up of the British 
 powder-wagons. To this day any one having 
 business in the office of the treasurer of Cabarrus 
 County, who will take the trouble to scrutinize 
 the features of the presiding official, will find there 
 souvenir scars that mark the "Black Boys' " inci- 
 dent of his early school days. Partee's family 
 were refugees from the yellow-fever in Memphis. 
 He later returned to his native city, and became 
 a successful man of affairs, though of the for- 
 tunes of his later years I have heard nothing.
 
 VII 
 
 THE DROMIOS 
 
 Bill White was always going around humming 
 Sunday-school songs. "Take it to the Lord in 
 Prayer," was his favorite. 
 
 White was built on lines that would have de- 
 lighted the eye of a Cubist. There was nothing 
 round in his make-up. Angularity and big joints 
 were all over him. He had a way of taking a 
 short step with his left leg and a long step with 
 his right, — his head slightly cocked, and his chin 
 up. He would hum his everlasting songs-without- 
 words until he came to the last line, and then he 
 would intone the completion of the sentence, be- 
 ginning in a deep, growing bass, and winding up in 
 a sharp falsetto. 
 
 None of the boys cared to have White about 
 on account of this peculiar characteristic; but he 
 did not bother any one in particular, except John 
 Burkhead. It was soon evident that Burkhead 
 regarded White as something of a nuisance. Hav- 
 ing discerned this fact. White began to manifest 
 a delight in testing Burkhead's nerves. Burk- 
 head was physically a twin for White, — not so 
 
 40
 
 THE DROMIOS 41 
 
 stocky, but a little taller, with the same an- 
 gular frame and knotted joints. He always car- 
 ried his head lowered and eyes rolled up into 
 the sockets. He looked as if he were ever ready 
 for a fight; and he not only looked it, — he was. 
 
 The two boys lived on the same street, directly 
 opposite each other, and were constant com- 
 panions. So far as any one ever knew, they 
 neither liked nor hated each other. 
 
 White kept up his persecution of Burkhead 
 for several days before the trouble broke out. 
 It was at "big recess" that the climax came. White 
 had managed to cut out Burkhead from the 
 crowd, like a steer from the herd, and began cir- 
 cling around him, humming the well-known song. 
 Burkhead had stopped still in his tracks and, 
 with head lowered, watched his circling enemy out 
 of the corners of his eyes. White had hummed 
 to the last verse, then, singing it out, wound up 
 by smashing Burkhead on the jaw. 
 
 The response was instant. Burkhead's big fist 
 landed against the side of White's head with a 
 force that might have floored a mule; but it only 
 jolted White for a moment. Then the two set 
 in to see which was the best man. After each 
 had knocked the other down several times, they 
 got into a clinch, and for the next few minutes 
 first one and then the other was on top, — the 
 under-dog meantime getting a tremendous ham-
 
 42 MY SCHOOL DAYS 
 
 mering. The fight was a draw when the two at 
 length rolled apart and began knocking off the 
 dirt and pulling their clothes into shape. 
 
 "Now," hissed Burkhead, shaking a battered 
 fist in White's face, "maybe you won't come 
 bringing it to me in prayer again soon." 
 
 "Maybe I'll do that very thing," taunted 
 White. 
 
 There was still an armed truce between the 
 two when Bill Willitts entered school. This fel- 
 low towered over all the boys, and had a fist two 
 sizes bigger than Burkhead's. He soon developed 
 into the school bully. The smaller boys shrank 
 from him with the instinct of self-preservation. 
 Meantime, Willetts had been trying to "pick a 
 fight" with either Burkhead or White, — or both. 
 While neither of these was inclined to put himself 
 in Willetts' way, he took no particular caution to 
 avoid the bully. 
 
 It happened that Burkhead was first to take 
 the test. A moment or so after he and Willetts 
 had "mixed," word got out of what was going on, 
 and the school was pretty soon gathered around. 
 When White came up Burkhead was getting the 
 worst of it. Willetts had him down and was 
 pounding him at a terrific rate. Only a momen- 
 tary hesitation convinced White that it was time 
 to act. He had been pacing to and fro at the 
 long-and-short-step gait, humming his favorite
 
 THE DROMIOS 43 
 
 song, when suddenly he shouted out the line: 
 " 'Take it to the Lord in Prayer!' " 
 And at the words he landed on Willetts' back 
 with a pile-driver lick. 
 
 Willetts raised up to see what had hit him, 
 when Burkhead quickly slipped from under him 
 and joined White on top. The two had the bully 
 at their mercy and literally battered his face into 
 the ground. When they ceased the punishment 
 and permitted Willets to get to his feet, a thor- 
 oughly conquered bully slunk from the school 
 grounds, — and was seen no more. 
 
 After this encounter there might have been 
 expected some manifestation of feeling on the part 
 of either Burkhead or White; but there was none. 
 It was noted, however, that White never again 
 hummed the particular song that had irritated 
 Burkhead, but he acquired a new habit: He gave 
 the school the benefit of his full repertoire. 
 
 And the boys actually got to loving him for it.
 
 VIII 
 
 THE ROGERS SCHOOL 
 
 The reconstruction of the common school sys- 
 tem had its beginning with the coming of Mr. B. 
 Frank Rogers, who later became one of the most 
 successful elements in the commercial life of our 
 section of North Carolina. 
 
 Mr. Rogers was the antithesis of General Lane, 
 of whom he was the immediate successor in the 
 educational field. The Rogers regime was one 
 of sunshine and laughter. There was never a 
 dull day in his school. Gifted with great orig- 
 inality and an infinite sense of humor, he injected 
 into the daily routine of school life a spirit of 
 optimism and cheerfulness, which tended to make 
 the Rogers schoolhouse an attraction that com- 
 bined education with entertainment. The latter 
 was reciprocal, — each scholar contributing to it 
 as the inspiration might strike the teacher. As 
 in the cast of some modern opera troupe, there 
 were stars for the leading parts and lesser lights 
 
 44
 
 THE ROGERS SCHOOL 45 
 
 for the minor roles; but every scholar was an 
 actor. 
 
 Mr. Rogers never used the rod in the general 
 acceptance of the term. His desk was always 
 littered with a collection of crooked cedar stubs, 
 — a little thicker than a lead pencil and about 
 two feet long. It was through the unique use 
 of these stubs that he kept the school in a good 
 humor. Sometimes a boy would be deeply en- 
 grossed in some occupation, — an employment that 
 the teacher had observed was not connected with 
 the studies of the day, — and would be aroused 
 by a resounding whack on the head. Looking 
 up, he would find the teacher laughing into his 
 face at his pained surprise, and ready to raise 
 another knot by way of dismissal. 
 
 On occasion, — when some "stalled" student 
 would be arraigned at his deck for assistance, — 
 books were forgotten, and attention was riveted 
 upon the proceedings. The teacher would use 
 the stick for making punctuation marks. During 
 the performance the boys would take advantage 
 of their understood privilege of giving expres- 
 sion to their enjoyment of the entertainment; but 
 if any one were unseemingly boisterous, he would 
 be called to the desk, and himself put through a 
 performance. Mr. Rogers' originality was of 
 a practical bent. There was never a day at 
 school when he failed to discuss some event of
 
 46 MY SCHOOL DAYS 
 
 current interest. The important news In the daily 
 paper would be read and commented on, and an 
 interest was created in the political questions and 
 the economic issues of the times. The most com- 
 monplace incidents of the school-room would be 
 turned to account. 
 
 There was one day when the teacher happened 
 to ask a scholar on a rear seat this random ques- 
 tion: 
 
 "How many days are there In this month?" 
 
 The question was addressed to Lafayette 
 Brown, and he responded: 
 
 "I dunno." 
 
 The school was at once all attention, for it in- 
 tuitively knew that something was coming. 
 
 "General Washington Lafayette Bonaparte 
 Brown," called out the teacher; "come up here!" 
 and Brown marched to the desk. 
 
 "Don't know how many days there are in this 
 month, eh?" And Mr. Rogers reached for a 
 stick. 
 
 "Thirty days hath April — " Brown had begun 
 in desperation; but the teacher stopped him. 
 
 "None of that Mother Goose nonsense," came 
 the warning. "Hold out your fist!" 
 
 Brown obeyed, and responding to the com- 
 mand, presented his fist, knuckles up; whereupon 
 Rogers explained to the school how to tell the 
 number of days in each month in a way in which
 
 THE ROGERS SCHOOL 47 
 
 no mistake could be made. Whack! went the 
 stick on the first knuckle of Brown's fist. 
 
 "That's January, and it has 31 days," said the 
 teacher. 
 
 Then he proceeded to show that, counting down 
 the knuckles the top of each one represented a 
 month with 31 days. The spaces between repre- 
 sented a month of 30 days, this holding good 
 with the exception of February, with its 28 days 
 in common years and 29 days in leap years. 
 
 There was not a boy in the school who failed 
 to grasp the utility of this method of accounting 
 for the days in the month. 
 
 One day the class in hydrostatics had a prob- 
 lem in atmospheric pressure, — a problem that 
 seemed difficult of explanation even by demon- 
 stration on the blackboard. Finally Mr. Rogers 
 hit upon an expedient. He filled a glass with 
 water and placed it on his desk. Then, with a good 
 deal of patience and no small degree of skill, 
 he fashioned a siphon from two straws, giving 
 one long arm and one short one. The short arm 
 he placed in the water and instructed one of the 
 boys to "give a pull" at the end of the longer 
 straw with his lips. This was done, and the water 
 was seen to flow up the shorter straw and out 
 through the longer arm, until the glass was 
 emptied. This practical demonstration of how 
 water can be made to run up-hill by simple pres-
 
 48 MY SCHOOL DAYS 
 
 sure of air, gave interest to the study of hydro- 
 statics by the school. 
 
 It was a lazy, dreamy summer day when Jim 
 Cook got his name of "Jiggers," — a name that 
 sticks to him to this day. Cook had been black- 
 berrying with me and the girls, and all the morn- 
 ing at school was in a restless state, — scratching 
 his arms with both hands and rubbing his shanks, 
 first with one foot and then the other as high 
 up as the foot could reach. 
 
 Mr. Rogers had been watching him with some 
 curiosity, and at length called out: "Cook, what 
 is the matter with you?" 
 
 "Nothin'j" was the response, " 'ceptin' these 
 here jiggers is a-bitin' me." 
 
 The teacher led in the laughter, and the school 
 felt that fun was in the air when he summoned 
 Cook to the front. 
 
 "Come up here. Jiggers," was the command. 
 
 Cook was placed on the platform and there was 
 a little sport with the stick, during which, for the 
 school's amusement, there was drawn from the 
 boy a detailed story of the blackberrying expedi- 
 tion, after which he was made to bare his arm. 
 The teacher then produced a microscope and in- 
 vited the school to line up. There followed an 
 instructive talk on the "chigger," — its habits, 
 characteristics, and how to get rid of it. Cook 
 was told that in shaking blackberry bushes, he
 
 THE ROGERS SCHOOL 49 
 
 dislodged quantities of these parasitic mites, and 
 that some of them had fallen on his arms and 
 hands and had been scattered over his body, bury- 
 ing themselves under the surface of his skin. 
 There they had become gorged with blood, which 
 caused the irritating sensation that had aroused 
 Cook to so vigorous a state of activity. 
 
 The pupils were given a study of the little red 
 bug under the microscope, and after all had wit- 
 nessed it in operation, they were told of the most 
 approved method of getting rid of the pest. One 
 of the boys was sent to a drug store for a phial of 
 ammonia, and Cook's arm was rubbed with a 
 rather strong solution. It had the desired effect. 
 Cook was then given the phial and sent home with 
 the advice to make a thorough job. 
 
 So it went from day to day in Rogers' school: 
 always some practical demonstration of incident, 
 or event of easy grasp by the pupils, by means 
 of which was imparted knowledge never to be 
 forgotten. 
 
 It was not to be wondered at that Rogers' 
 School leaped into early and lasting fame. From 
 a modest beginning, with but a small group of 
 neighborhood boys, it became renowned for miles 
 around, attracting a scholastic personnel that was 
 not excelled in the State. 
 
 The best testimonial of the splendid work that 
 B. Frank Rogers performed as an educator is
 
 50 MY SCHOOL DAYS 
 
 found in the ratio of successes to failures that 
 he turned out. Eighty per cent of Rogers' boys 
 are successful men of affairs to-day, — business 
 and professional men, — who, but recently called 
 upon to mourn him dead, paid him tribute as 
 friend and guide and counsellor invaluable.
 
 MR. 11. 1-. ROGERS 
 
 Facing page SO
 
 IX 
 
 IN RECONSTRUCTION DAYS 
 
 Since deciding to have these sketches put into 
 print, I have concluded that the object of the 
 work would be materially advanced by incor- 
 porating the following bit of Reconstruction 
 data, taken from a letter by my mother, — Mary 
 Annette Harris, — to her daughter, Mrs. James F. 
 Shinn, — a letter that was read at a meeting of 
 the Norwood Book Club. The experiences nar- 
 rated were common all over the South among the 
 dwellers in the county. The incidents of Re- 
 construction government will serve to give a 
 clearer idea of the difficulties under which the 
 Southern people took up the task of educating 
 their children, and the discouragements under 
 which they labored, to lay the foundation of the 
 present educational structure of the South. 
 
 "The Reconstruction period in the Southern 
 States began with the surrender of Gen. Robert 
 E. Lee, at Appomattox, and ended with the rein- 
 
 51
 
 52 MY SCHOOL DAYS 
 
 statement of the South into the Union in 1870, — 
 though active measures for this event were not 
 before Congress until 1867. In the meantime the 
 people of North Carolina had been under mili- 
 tary rule, — first under General Schofield and then 
 under General Canby; with W. W. Holden ap- 
 pointed Provisional Governor by President An- 
 drew Johnson, General Scofield's first act was 
 to issue a proclamation of freedom to every slave 
 in the State. It is impossible fifty years after 
 to so write as to give the present generation of 
 young people a realizing sense of the disorder, 
 the painful surprises, and upheaval in the do- 
 mestic relations between master and servant in 
 every home. 
 
 "Your father came straight from the field at 
 Appomattox to our home at Sandy Ridge, near 
 Concord; and there we remained through the 
 Summer, with no money and scant provisions. 
 Enough of our field hands stayed to work the 
 corn and cotton, which had been planted before 
 the surrender and were then up and growing. 
 Martha, our cook, had disappeared, — taking all 
 her children but one, — Lize, — who was left to 
 nurse the baby. She, too, in a few days vanished 
 suddenly, taking the road for Concord, to com- 
 plain to the Freedman's Bureau that I had slapped 
 her, which, for once, was the truth. I had not 
 become accustomed to deliberate disobedience on
 
 IN RECONSTRUCTION DAYS 53 
 
 the part of servants. Your grandmother sent us 
 from town one of her old servants, — Aggie, — to 
 cook for us; but Aggie had never been allowed to 
 do a full day's work, being too old to be so bur- 
 dened. However, she did more and better than 
 I had expected, until (alas!) the wagon sent to 
 town in the morning came back in the evening 
 with a dried-up specimen of humanity in it, — 
 Aggie's mother, who had come from somewhere 
 up the North Carolina Railroad to live on her 
 daughter's 'Forty acres and a mule.' The land 
 and mule not being in hand, both mother and 
 daughter got away somehow without saying 
 goodbye. 
 
 "A regiment of Federals camped during the 
 Summer at Winecoff's grove and overran the 
 country, trading their good coffee and sugar for 
 buttermilk and onions. We got our first real 
 coffee from them. The Freedman's Bureau was 
 established in every town, to hear complaints of 
 the negroes in the Summer and to compel the 
 owners of the land to give them a share of the 
 crops in the Fall. The officer in charge of the 
 bureau in Concord was a young man that had 
 lost an arm in the war. He had been married 
 only a few months, and had brought his wife 
 with him; and being afraid of being poisoned at 
 a hotel or private boarding house, they rented 
 rooms, hired a negro cook, and went to house-
 
 54 MY SCHOOL DAYS 
 
 keeping. The officer's wife suffered the terrors 
 of death every time he would go into the coun- 
 try, being sure some awful Southerner would mur- 
 der him. 
 
 "So passed the Summer, and by orders from 
 Washington, an election was held in October to 
 restore civil government in the State. Jonathon 
 Worth, of Randolph County, was elected Gov- 
 ernor, — defeating W. W. Holden, — and held 
 office for two years. 
 
 "The people were beginning to feel that they 
 could breathe easily, when, in 1868, another elec- 
 tion was ordered. The Convention and the elec- 
 tions of this year brought a culmination of our 
 troubles. Every negro of twenty-one years and 
 over was given the ballot; and 20,000 white men, 
 property-holders, responsible for the good gov- 
 ernment of the State, — men intelligent, versed in 
 literature and political economy, — men of upright- 
 ness, who had all been Confederate soldiers as 
 well, — were denied the right to vote, while the 
 negro field hand, the hostler, and the carriage 
 driver (to whom the alphabet was a puzzle and 
 who could not read a syllable of his ticket) were 
 ushered in at the polls to drop the ballot in the 
 place pointed out to them. Moore's 'History of 
 North Carolina' gives the reason why the Con- 
 vention of 1868 was ordered so soon after that 
 of 1865.
 
 IN RECONSTRUCTION DAYS SS 
 
 "This first Convention of October 'passed or- 
 dinances repealing the ordinance of secession of 
 May 20th, 1861, — the abolishment of slavery and 
 invalidating all contracts made in furtherance of 
 the war. The people refused to ratify these or- 
 dinances; and, while accepting the situation and 
 submitting in all quietude to the authorities im- 
 posed, they were yet resolved to take no part in 
 these constrained reformations.' The Legislature 
 of 1868 was composed principally of negroes, scal- 
 awags, and carpetbaggers. The State was at their 
 mercy. 'The reckless expenditure produced the 
 utmost excitement among the tax-payers and soon 
 resulted in such a strain on the State's credit that 
 her obligations became wellnigh worthless in the 
 stock markets.' 
 
 "This hybrid Legislature issued millions of 
 bonds, which it succeeded in selling, — and which 
 the State repudiated, — but which are yet bobbing 
 up here and there to remind the world that ras- 
 cality once had North Carolina by the throat. The 
 negroes, — excited by their new-found freedom, 
 and incited by their new-found friends, — organ- 
 ized the Union League, to see how much mischief 
 they could do (and how little work) ; thus becom- 
 ing dangerous to life and property. This accounts 
 for the sudden and terrifying appearance of the 
 Ku Klux Klan, whose ghostly figures soon dis- 
 banded the League. But before the League fell
 
 S6 MY SCHOOL DAYS 
 
 to pieces, many depredations and outrages were 
 committed. These were summarily punished by 
 the Ku Klux Klan. Governor Holden issued re- 
 peated orders demanding the cessation of violence. 
 At length, when a negro legislator, — Stephens by 
 name, — was murdered in the courthouse at Yan- 
 ceyville, — murdered so mysteriously that the per- 
 petrator was never discovered, — the Governor, 
 under authority of the Shoffner bill, called out 
 troops, under command of George W. Kirke, of 
 Tennessee. 
 
 *"In a few days, more than a hundred citizens 
 of Alamance, Caswell, and Orange counties were 
 arrested and imprisoned. Among this number 
 was Josiah Turner, editor of The Raleigh Sen- 
 tinel. He had daily, in righteous indignation, 
 'dipped his pen in vitriol,' and in biting sarcasm 
 and ridicule, exposed the infamous proceedings 
 dmong the law-makers of North Carolina. The 
 readers of his paper will never forget the fearless 
 editorial, which would have brought the blood, like 
 a whip-lash, to a sensitive man's face. These 
 soldiers under Kirke, were called 'Kirke's 
 Lambs,' in contemptuous irony of their brutality 
 in the treatment of the prisoners in their power. 
 
 "For bringing troops into the State in times of 
 peace. Governor Holden was impeached, found 
 guilty, and declared incapable of holding any 
 further honor or dignity in the State. Lieutenant- 
 Governor Todd R. Caldwell, of Burke County,
 
 IN RECONSTRUCTION DAYS 57 
 
 took Holden's place as governor. Caldwell died 
 while in office, and was succeeded by his lieutenant- 
 governor, Curtis H. Brogden, of Wayne County. 
 
 "By 1870 the best people of the State had got 
 upon their feet again, and in the election of 1872 
 sent Gen. M. W. Ransom and Judge Merrimon 
 to the United States Senate. In 1877, our 'War 
 Governor, — Zebulon B. Vance, — was reelected 
 governor by an overwhelming majority. North 
 Carolina had come into her own again. 
 
 "All that the hatred of the North could do 
 to ruin the South had been done, but neither in- 
 tended humiliation nor actual spoliation could 
 crush the manhood of her sons; and, in the su- 
 periority of their Southern blood, they have arisen 
 and made the South what it is to-day. We can 
 well rejoice that we are the most coveted section 
 of the Union, blessed with abounding prosperity, 
 — our people God-fearing, law-abiding, peaceful, 
 and contented, happy in the manifold mercies and 
 advantages of what has been so well called 'God's 
 Country.'" 
 
 THE END
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
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 THE LIBRARY
 
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 27!^ My school 
 
 H2UI4A2 days. 
 
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 H2l;i4A.2 
 
 AA 000 662 887 9