W.
О.
Saunders; Stormy Petrel
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THERE never was before and
probably never again will be
another North Carolina news¬
paper quite like the Eliza both
City Independent in its early days.
It was on June 9. 1908 that the
late W. O. Saunders, then 24 years
old. first broke into print in Eliza¬
beth City with a weekly newspaper
that in its hey-day was considered
one of the best-looking and best-
edited country newspapers in the
United States. And certainly the
most talked about.
Horn In Perquimans
Born in humble circumstances
on a farm in Perquimans County,
one of a family of five children,
he began at the very top rung of
the journalistic ladder as Elizabeth
City’s "boy editor" of the old Tar
Heel when he was only 18 years
old. His salary was six dollars a
week back in those days when it
was against the law for minors to
smoke cigarettes on the streets of
Elizabeth City.
At one time more than half of
the town's leading citizens wouldn't
speak to him. and his weekly
newspaper was taboo in the parlors
of nearly every so-called respect¬
able homes. People said he was a
(lend, a monster, a pariah, a crank
and an assassin of character who
had a face like a cherub. In the ear¬
ly days of his hectic career he wore
a cap and affected a loose, (lowing
black tie and was an ardent ad¬
mirer of the works of Elbert Hub¬
bard. the sage of East Aurora.
N. Y.
Once the entire male congrega¬
tion of one of the city's leading
churches, inspired by the hatred
and animosity of some of its mem¬
bers. marched from the church to
his house in a body Sunday night
and gave him twenty-four hours
in which to leave town. Several
shots were fired but neither the
outspoken editor nor any one of
the indignant churchgoers was
injured.
All the world loves a good fight
and following that alfair many new
subscribers flocked to his paper.
Scores of criminal libel actions
IO
tty G.
И.
DEAN
were brought against him, and for
years there was hardly a term of
court in several northeastern North
Carolina counties at which he was
not arraigned for trial. At one time
he was indicted in three different
county courts.
The Pajama Stunt
He gained nation-wide publicity
in 1929 when he appeared on the
streets of Elizabeth City i and later
on Fifth Avenue, in New York»
clad only in pajamas advocating
cooler a n d more comfortable
clothes for men in summer. Later
he travelled from coast to coast
and throughout Europe writing for
magazines of national circulation.
Often called an infidel, he really
had no quarrel with Christianity
and nowhere in any of his writings
against preachers and organized
religion can anyone find a word
against the Gospel of Jesus of
Nazareth. He believed the teach¬
ings of Jesus were practicable and
said the churches didn't. While
preaching Christianity’s creeds and
dogmas, he argued, the church
utterly refrained from facing the
economic obstacles in the way of
a literal acceptance of Christ's
teachings. He sought God himself
outside the church and many be¬
lieve he found Him.
"Only ideas arc bad," he once
said, "and it isn’t quite fair to call
men bad, for there are really no
bad men in the world; only bad
ideas. The reason there are so many
men with bad ideas in the world
is because of the thousands of years
of ignorance, superstition, mis-in-
formation and fear out of which
men are only just beginning to
emerge."
He laughed a great deal; laughed
at his enemies to keep up his spirits,
laughed to keep his wife and family
from getting discouraged, and
laughed to show the world that he
could take the hard knocks as well
as give them. Waylaid in dark
alleys, threatened with a pot of hot
tar and a bed ticking full of goose
feathers by his enemies he always
laughed and retaliated with even
stronger language in his editorials.
A Hard Worker
Editing the old weekly Indepen¬
dent in Elizabeth City 28 years
kept him busy from eight to sixteen
hours daily during which time he
put his best land worst!) into the
paper making some firm friends
and some very dangerous enemies.
His writings contributed not
only to the zest of living in North
Carolina during his time but to
sanity and courage. Much of his
bad works are now buried, dusty
and forgotten, in great stacks of
yellowing newspaper files: fading
recollections of those hectic days
of personal journalism when a
spade was often called a spade, or
worse.
Saunders' Independent w e n t
bankrupt in 1937 and ceased pub¬
lication after a brief career in
Elizabeth City as a daily news¬
paper. He tried free-lance writing
in Washington for a while and
then did organization work in
eastern North Carolina. He was
only 55 years of age when he died
in April, 1940. after his car plunged
over an embankment and into 18
feet of water in the Dismal Swamp
Canal near Deep Creek. Va.
Time heals all wounds and puts
halters to debate. Many of the men
he fought are gone and many of
the wrongs righted. And among
(he things he once said he had
learned were that people love the
truth, the whole truth and nothing
but the truth, about everything and
everybody — except themselves
and their family connections. He
learned that people had rather be
entertained than reformed any day.
He learned that there are few peo¬
ple with a liking for facts and
figures, but that nearly everybody
has a heart.
Albemarle and Clarendon coun¬
ties, now extinct, were the first
two counties in the State.
THE STATE. June 12. 1048
