542 Chronicles of the Cape Fear River

twenty thousand people, by Governor Kitchin in cordial and
spirited remarks, and delivered a notable address to the people.
After a rest in the afternoon, a banquet was served to the Presi-
dent in the Masonic Temple, at which representative citizens of
the city and State were present. The menu was prepared and
served under the immediate supervision of the Ladies’ Commit-
tee and in all respects could not have been excelled. The Presi-
dent made a short address after the dinner, and then repaired
to his private car at the depot and proceeded to Richmond, at
which place he ended the tour he had made of the Western and
Southern States.

On the same evening at the Chamber of Commerce, there was
given a “smoker” to visiting members of the press, at which

many fine and eloquent speeches were made, and this consti-

tuted one of the conspicuous entertainments of the occasion.
The local papers of the city and State printed elaborate accounts
of the reception and illustrated cuts of the scenes which fea-
tured the doings of the day.

WOODROW WILSON’S YOUTH IN WILMINGTON.*

In the autumn of 1873, when Woodrow Wilson was just
reaching his seventeenth year, and while his parents were re-
siding at Columbia, he entered Davidson College. After finish-
ing his examinations at the end of the first year, however, he
fell ill and was taken to his home, then in Wilmington, his
father having just been called to the pastorate of the Presby-
terian Church of that city. He remained in Wilmington
throughout the year 1874-75. It had been determined that he
should go to Princeton, and he spent the year being tutored in
Greek and a few other studies which it was thought might be
necessary for entrance to Princeton.

In truth, there was a good deal of play done that year, too.
The boy had grown too fast, and was hardly fit for the rigid
schedule of college. So he “took it easy” in a city, the first
in which he had ever lived that possessed any particular local
charm. Wilmington was an old historic place. It was a sea-
port; for the first time Woodrow saw a ship and caught the
smell of the sea. Foreign shipping floated in the noble river

1Based on Hale’s Life of Woodrow Wilson.

Peace Restored 543

or lay at the docks. Wilmington was a great depot for naval

stores; its lower streets were redolent of the deep. Talk also

was still full of adventures of the blockade runners of the war

lately ended. What imaginati
gimative youth f
would have haunted the docks and shade a

really too young for th oe ;
h g ne associations into which
€ was now thrown. Dr. and Mrs. Wilson immediately achiev-

ing devoted popularity, the manse swiftly becoming a social
rendezvous of the city—a city of gentlemen of good compan
and women who would have been esteemed brilliant the wala
over. It was a young man very différent from the raw youth
of Davidson who, one day in September, 1875, took the Wil-
— ae Weldon'train for the North.
uring his senior year at Princeton he concl
best path to a public career lay through the law. an oe
?

therefore, he matriculated in the law department of the Univer-

sity of Virginia, that seat of liberal le

Thomas Jefferson. arning organized by

osen profession. It was not till Ma
1882, that he finally determined where to locate, and then he

— an office in Atlanta. His father continued to reside in
—— until April, 1885, when he accepted the position of
oe of theology in the Southwestern University, at Clarks-
— 2 : ——s In the fall of 1898, Dr. Wilson made Wil-
= _ 1s winter home until his death, J anuary 21, 1903.
© a tablet was unveiled in the Presbyterian Church as a

memorial to “Rey.
loved Pastor of Th, Joseph R. Wilson, D.D., Faithful and Be-

This char

eae ming little town at the mouth of the Cape Fear

alee aoa in colonial days as Fort Johnston. It was a
rison of a fort mM; and its only importance pertained to the gar-
honor of Gahr? which mounted twenty-four cannon, named in

abriel Johnston, colonial governor. In 1792 it was