242 Chronicles of the Cape Fear Rwer

posed upon in order to exhibit the discipline of the academy.
On one occasion “Brad” created a sensation by exhibiting a
brass pistol, with which he declared he would shoot his uncle;
but it was found that the lock was broken, and this bloodthirsty
design came to naught.

Eating during school hours was strictly forbidden, but several
boys who were incapable of very severe intellectual exercise
managed to smuggle apples, pies, cakes, and chunks of molasses
candy into their desks, which they bartered for sundry informa-
tion about the next lesson. Galloway said that Solomon’s dog
did not bark himself to death trying to keep them out of the
Temple of Wisdom.

Archie Worth, beloved by all, was so pestered by his hungry
associates while he ate his pie at recess, that he had to climb the

gatepost to enjoy his repast in peace. From that day he was
known as “’Tato Pie.” Years afterwards, while he was limping
along the roadside during the war, some strange troops passed
him, and one of them exclaimed, “Well, if there ain’t old "Tato
Pie from Wilmington!”

Wednesday was given up to lessons and exhibitions in decla-
mation. Bob McRee, in “Robert Emmett’s Defense,” and Eu-
gene Martin, in “The Sailor Boy’s Dream,” headed the list and
melted us to tears. Clarence Martin, Junius Davis, Gilbert and
Fred Kidder, Alexander and John London, Cecil Fleming,
Dunean and Richard Moore, Platt D. Walker, John D. Barry,
John VanBokkelen, Willie Gus Wright, Levin Lane, Griffith
McRee, John Rankin, Tom Meares, Sam Peterson, Sonny West,
Eddie.and Tom DeRosset, Stephen and Willie Jewett, Willie
Meares, Willie Lord, and others not now recalled, gave promise
of undying fame, in their fervid renditions of ‘Sennacherib,”
“Marco Bozzaris,” Patrick Henry’s “Liberty or Death,” “Mark
Antony’s Oration over Ceesar’s dead Body,” “Kosciusko,” “The
Burial of Sir John Moore,” “Hamlet’s Soliloquy,” and ‘“Hohen-
linden” (alas! so few survive), and John Walker and big Tom
Wright divided honors on the immortal “Casabianca.” Henry
Latimer and the writer were “tied” on the same subject, and as
IT was without doubt the worst declaimer in school, my competi-
tor had an easy victory.

Our teacher endeavored to impress upon our minds, by re-
peated admonitions, the importance of graceful pose and bear-
ing upon the platform. The declaimers were required to bow to
the preceptor and to the audience before proceeding with their

Interesting Memories 243

speeches, Some of these motions were very ungraceful, and
others worse. Willie Martin’s bow was like the forward move-
ment of a muscovy duck; whereupon, Mr. Jewett admonished
him and directed him to watch Mr. Edward Everett on the occa-
sion of his forthcoming eulogy of Washington, which was the
talk of the town. On the following Wednesday Willie was
called to the stage to imitate the great speaker in his bow to his
audience, which was done with an expression of intense pain in
his stomach, to the great delight and derision of the whole school.

One of the most memorable exploits of our school days was
that of Walter G. MacRae, who came with his brother Roderick
to the old school near “The Castle.” He had the most retentive
memory I ever knew, and once when a column of the Daily
Journal, edited by James Fulton, which usually contained (to
us) the dryest sort of political twaddle, was read over to him,
he repeated it “sight unseen,” almost verbatim, to his admiring
audience. Many years after, we belonged to a local debating
society, and on one occasion MacRae was obliged to comply with
his appointment as the principal speaker. Picking up a book
from the table, he gave us the finest selection of the season. At
its conclusion we took the volume from his hands and found it
to be a child’s spelling book. He had recited one of Rufus
Choate’s celebrated orations.

Some of the pupils, mere lads at the commencement of hos-
tilities, fell in battle for the Lost Cause; others have dropped
by the wayside in the journey of life, and only a few survive,
of whom we recall the names and well-remembered faces of
Eugene S. Martin, Leighton Boone, Thomas H. Wright, Gilbert
P. Kidder, Richard Moore, Thomas D. Meares, John London,
George G. Thomas, Jordan Thomas, Platt D. Walker, J. T.
Rankin, N. B. Rankin, A. ©. Worth, W. E. Worth, John F.
Shackelford, John T. Northrop, James I. Metts, John B. Lord,
Stephen Jewett, Henry G. Latimer, John M. Walker. The roll
of living and dead is an honorable one and, notwithstanding un-
pleasant recollections by some who were harshly treated, reflects
honor upon the memory of him who trained them. He was
always proud of his boys; and well he might be, for it is a well-
established fact that Mr. Jewett’s pupils were thoroughly pre-
pared for college in all the necessary branches of their matricu-
lation; and that many who were unable, by the intervention of
the war, to enter college, owed their comparative success in life
largely to the early mental training under that able preceptor.