State

December 8, 1934 THE STATE Page Twenty- five Great Men Whom I Have Known A WIDESPREAD ac¬ quaintance lias been (lie greatest asset in ay forty years of news- taper work. People in- Tlll'iltl! «его plenty of them in .\orlh Carolina at the turn of the century, anil Mr. Krynut tells you of his association with Joe Caltlucll. Matt Itansoni. Jeter Pritchard and numerous others. Wilmington; E. F. Avdlett , of Elizabeth City, ami many more. By II. E. C. BRYANT terested me more than books or Noenery or other bloodless things. Mixing and reporting, therefore. came easy, and I dodged the more serious tasks of writing. On returning to Charlotte from the Shemwcll trial at Lexington, in 1895, I became handy man to Joseph P. Caldwell. It was then that I com¬ menced to see and study nil sorts and conditions of people. My contacts before that had been limited to Providence township. Mecklenburg County; to Raleigh, where I attended the old Л. and M. College for three months; to Chapel Hill, and to Lex¬ ington. «’here I spent two weeks on my first assignment. A Hard Working Crew One of the first lessons I learned in Charlotte was that Mr. Caldwell and the two members of his staff worked about 14 or 15 hours and seemed to enjoy it. Miss Williams, city editor, gathered and wrote, in a long, straggling hand, from four to six columns of news a day, covering everything from a church meeting to a political pow-wow. Soon after I arrived she went to New York for a brief vacation, fell ill while there, and remained away 2fi days Substituting for her I lost about a pound a day during that period of time. T have never seen her equal in a woman re¬ porter for industry, capacity and determination. She wore heavy -soled shoes, and tramped the town daily. Everybody knew her. I learned early that headlines helped to make stories. Л policeman told me that he had found two fat hens, in a tow sack, under the Charlotte platform, and I wrote six lines about them. The next morning, when I read the item. I was amused and delighted to see this heading: “Orphan Hens Found by Police.” Mr. Caldwell had written the head, lie had a keen sense of humor. Howard A. Banks, third member of the working trio, was a finished writer, and an enthusiastic church- man. He, too, reveled in wit. In n few weeks after leaving the I'niversity I had met n dozen or more successful lawyers, witnessed an in¬ teresting murder trial, ami met a brilliant editor, a remarkable woman, and a devout Christian. During the strennous days that followed I added to my list of acquaintances some of the foremost men and women of the State, many of whom were very help- ful to me in Infer years. Among those whose fame or noto¬ riety extended throughout the state were: Frank I. Osborne, who served as attorney general of the State, and afterwards became a Federal judge: Col. Hamilton Г. Jones. Arm blend Buiwell. Charles W. Tillett. Cnpt. George F. Bason, and W. C. Maxwell, of Charlotte; Cnpt. W. B. Ryder, superintendent of the Ghnrlotte di¬ vision of the Southern Railway; Cnpt. K. S. Finch, commercial agent of the Seaboard Airline Railroad; Ex- Senator Malt W. Ranson. Senators Marion Butler and Jeter C. Pritchard. W. Л. Поке. of I.ineolnton. Inter Chief Justice of North Carolina. David A. Covington, Пепгу В. Adams, and William C. Heath, of Monroe; Judge Risden Tyler Bennett, and James A. Lockhart, of Wades- horo; John D. Shaw, of Rockingham; Paul R. Means and James F. Cannon, of Concord ; James W. Wilson, of Morgnnton ; R. R. Clark, of States¬ ville; Clement Manly. John W. Fries. R. J. Reynolds, and A. K. Holton, of Winston-Salem : Michael II . Justice, Rutherford Ion : J. Ii., E. Y. Webb and Robert L. Ryhura, of Shelby: A. II . Boyden. Kerr Craige. I». II. Clement. Charles Price. Theo. F. Klnttz. and John S. Henderson, of Salisbury, and others active in politi¬ cal, legal and business. 1 ndded to this list as the days passed. At l>olitieaI meetings I came in contact with Janies II. Pon. of Raleigh; Don Gilliam, of Tnrboro; W. A. Guthrie, of Durham; Daniel L. Russell, of Ransom, a Great Orator One of the most interest¬ ing persons I met was Mr. Ransom, just passing from the political stage when T commenced my newspaper career. I had heard him make a great stump speech a few years before, at Monroe, twenty odd miles from my father's farm. I was one of a thousand men and hoys who rode many miles to participate in an old-time horse-back procession, and to attend a Democratic rally, at which General Ransom was to be the speaker. Tall, erect as a pine, and striking looking lie made a wonderful impression on me and hundreds of other young fellows that day. TIis hair and heard were iron grey, his face ruddy, and his voice clear. For three hours he discussed flic tariff, and other issues and not a man left the hall. He wore a dark grov suit, stiff-bosomed linen shirt, and. ns he spoke, he kept adjusting his detachable cuffs with his hands. Ransom’s Confusion My last experience with the "greatest. Roman of them all” came a few years later, when he appeared at a Confederate Veterans' celebration at Lenoir. The Spanish- American war had been fought and won by the T'nitcd States. Worth Bagiev had died a hero, and North Carolina was proud of him. П1ч name was a house¬ hold word Standing near Mr. Ran¬ som T noticed that lie was n hit uneasy about something. He kept looking around. Soon he saw me. and. recognizing me as a friend and cm ployee of Mr. Caldwell, he got up and came to me. “How are you. young man. and how is my dear old friend. -Toe Cald¬ well?” I answered that we were quite well. I could sec he had something else on his mind, and he leaned close to me and whispered : "What is the name of that confounded place where En sign Bagiev was killed?” I told him Cardenas Bay. and a few minutes later he rolled it out in an eloquent speech.