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Show JVhercupcn the Governor of North Carolina jajj to the Governor of South Carolina . . itfO: & K':s$K 'yy. 'H-Ay. . y:cP'l:i "'. .. ''v: :":' . ' y--'y' v-: '. :" :-; , -' " v " t I V ' , 'f I , j ? V y v ' i i i - . r.'V"' ' ; ' -'ij.f'" s -J n n s fc ' A- , x . 5 v !- ' " - , e a. v ' 1 "a 4 &ss.s a N 5 "f , v v " - "' THE TWO GOVERNORS ' ct: :m (he original painting by John Mulvany in the Brevoort hotel, Chicago, and here reproduced for ' or! the first time, by courtesy of the management of the Brevoort.) id k: 1 1 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON ; Western Newspaper Union. 'ec';. T'S a long time between drinks!" :is f-1 Everybody knows that's what the governor of North e i-i Carolina said to the governor of South Carolina. Jalp.put who knows, for sure, which governor said it, to whom gre3 kas addressed, or when and where and under what cir-litpstances cir-litpstances it was uttered? For, as so often happens in the aters fe of an historic utterance, there's some dispute about all f the A . , .K points. ;hini of:; own in North Carolina, eme:: 'ever, there's no doubt on a of them. Natives of that vg twill tell you the incident ion ; ch started that saying on tract way to immortality took r te just a hundred years p this month and if you M),lE:!i to be traveling on jimoi'Ne 70 between Raleigh and iddritham they will point out """f uthe house where Gov. !Ei RdB. Dudley of North ane-folina said to Gov. Pierce h Butler of South Caro-tttf Caro-tttf ''It's a long time between o,i;h.' nly he inserted Ct. llh word in that sent-pic sent-pic to make it more em- itic! the North Carolina ver- 51 'he story: f hPitable home of the ttn'p ,s',Nancy Jones, be-lt be-lt tnJ lSh and Durham was Z t0 notaWe visitors. ' , on a June day in 1838 fcM fa great flurry in the wr not one governor, S J aPPraching. While ones supervised prepara-Laney- dean of te2odervants-hurried Ched another slave to j. ;me wol water i;Cv- Edward B. Dudley , lcr batted over their '"e old ney hovered nearby. f.a,t en of home's :1toa"a' ed her ears. She vlMo the kitchen. k did you heah , wrruied servant whis- '(.hi?. Govemor Dudley I ;;Samnl0"gtime f-gtlhattherewassuch k: fcere t butler at there-t,S5aUtalkS there-t,S5aUtalkS 00 Ccasion for K,;Jf-e Preserved. hWtheNNonh CaroIinians "JDurhaancyJenes house '.;ted?'acUeretyyoumay 30-. the tethe very tab'e tlc.' wo governors did their drinking. For it is preserved in the home of Mrs.'C. Trenholm McClenaghan, a great granddaughter grand-daughter of Mrs. Nancy Jones. Journey to Columbia, S. C, however, and you will hear another anoth-er version of the story and be shown another house in which the historic incident is said to have taken place. This house was the home of L. D. Childs, first president presi-dent of the Carolina National bank in Columbia. When James L. Orr of Anderson, S. C, became governor in November, 1865, there was no executive mansion available for him in Columbia. So he accepted the invitation of his friend, Childs, to occupy a portion por-tion of his home. There he was visited (date not given) by his friend, Gov. Jonathan Jon-athan Worth of North Carolina, who took office in his state in December, De-cember, 1865. There, according to this version of the yarn, the chief executive of the Tarheels gave voice to a gentle hint about his thirst in the words which are still used wherever drinks are drunk and drunks drink. Another Version. Still another version of the famous fa-mous yarn identifies neither the two governors nor the date of their historic meeting although Raleigh is given as the place. This story is as follows: Some white fugitives from South Carolina found refuge in North Carolina. The governor of South Carolina demanded their return but the governor of North Carolina, Caro-lina, for political reasons, was unwilling to grant the request. A heated correspondence followed and finally the governor of the Tarheels invited his fellow-executive to a banquet in Raleigh. There the governor of South Carolina Caro-lina made a speech in which he again demanded the return of the fugitives and ended up by turning to the North Carolinian and asking: ask-ing: "What do you say, governor?" gover-nor?" Thereupon the governor of North Carolina replied: "I say it's a long time between drinks. A variation on this version places the meeting of the two governors gov-ernors not far from the state line i South Carolina (instead of Raleigh), where its executive hinted that he had state militia assembled to back up his demand for the return of a runaway slave (instead of some white fugitives). One version has Gov. Zebulon B. Vance of North Carolina making the famous reply to Gov. Wade Hampton of South Carolina, while another credits it to Gov. John M. Morehead of North Carolina without identifying the governor of South Carolina. Still another version says that Governor Morehead made the remark, re-mark, not to a governor of South Carolina, but to Henry Clay. "The remark had political significance, meaning merely that the party to which both of these gentlemen belonged be-longed had not been in power for a long time. Hence the metaphor: 'It's a long time between drinks.' " A Different Locale. And finally there's the version which takes the locale of the incident inci-dent away from either of the Carolinians Car-olinians although agreeing with a version already cited in having Governor Vance of North Carolina and Governor Hampton of South Carolina as the two participants. It says that the incident took place at White Sulphur Springs, W. Va., where in 1858 was built a hotel known as "Old White," predecessor of the present Greenbrier Green-brier hotel at the place. For years White Sulphur had been the favorite summer resort of all the smart people of the South and it soon became the custom cus-tom for the governors of the southern states to meet there for two weeks during the summer. Vance and Hampton had been friends long before the Civil war but after they had been elected governor of their respective states state rivalry had kept them apart, especially in social intercourse. During one of these summer meetings they met at the bar in "Old White" where a famous mint julep was the favorite drink. Then it was that Hampton is supposed sup-posed to have said to Vance "It's a hell of a long time between drinks." Incidentally, the bar at which they are supposed to have stood on that occasion is still preserved at White Sulphur. When the Greenbrier was built in 1913, "Old White" was partially dismantled. The oak bar-top, said to have been 60 feet long and in one solid piece, was cut up to make the front desk of the present hotel there. Oft-Told Tale. The principal evidence in support sup-port of the belief that Dudley and Butler were the two governors involved in-volved in the famous "long-time-between-drinks" incident is the testimony of Joel D. Whitaker. Whitaker was the grandson of the Widow Jones, from whom he often heard the tale as it is related here, and the father of Mrs. C. Trenholm McClenaghan of Ra-leiqh Ra-leiqh to whom he handed down both the tale and the table previously previ-ously mentioned in this article. If indeed it was Governor Dudley Dud-ley of North Carolina and Governor Gover-nor Butler of South Carolina who were responsible for this famous bon mot, they are worthy of more than passing mention, especially since both men had interesting careers. Dudley was born in Onslow county, N. C, December 15, 1787, the son of a wealthy planter who had represented his county in the state legislature for several years. The son grew up on his father's estate and succeeded to its ownership. He entered public life at the age of twenty-four when he was elected elect-ed a member of the legislature from Onslow county and in 1814 he was sent to the state senate. In 1816-17 he represented the borough bor-ough of Wilmington in the legislature legis-lature and in 1829 he was sent to congress as a Jacksonian Demo- Jilt: ilk crat. He served until 1831, then declined re-election, declaring that "congress is no place for an honest man." In 1834 he again represented Wilmington in the legislature and was the last man sent there by that ancient town since the system sys-tem of borough representation was abolished by the convention of 1835. This convention also changed the method of electing a governor. Previous to that time it had been done by the legislature legisla-ture but after 1835 the state executives execu-tives were chosen by the people and Dudley was the first governor gover-nor chosen under the amended state constitution. At the end of his second term Dudley retired from public life and died in Wilmington October 30, 1855. Soldier and Statesman. Equally distinguished and more versatile was the governor of South Carolina Pierce Mason Butler. He was born in the Edgefield Edge-field district of South Carolina on April 11, 1798, the son of William Butler who served in the Revolution Revolu-tion under General Lincoln and became a brigadier-general in the Continental army and later a major-general of militia. Young Butler was given a military mili-tary education and entered the army in 1819. He rose to the rank of captain but resigned his commission com-mission in 1829 to return to Columbia Co-lumbia and become president of the Columbia bank. He was a banker for six or seven years, then returned to his first love, the army. He became a lieutenant-colonel lieutenant-colonel of a South Carolina volunteer volun-teer regiment with which he served throughout the war against the Seminole Indians in Florida. In 1836 Butler was elected governor gov-ernor of South Carolina and served for two years. During his administration the era of railroad building in that state began and a charter was granted to the Great Western railroad which was to connect Charleston with Ohio, Kentucky and the Mississippi valley. val-ley. After his term expired, Butler But-ler was made agent among the Cherokees in Indian Territory and was entrusted with aspecial commission com-mission to the Comanches in Texas. While he was engaged in this work the war with Mexico began and Butler immediately resigned from the Indian service and organized organ-ized a regiment of volunteers known as the "Palmetto regiment." regi-ment." He distinguished himself by his leadership at the battle of Cerro Gordo. At Churubusco he was wounded in the leg but insisted in-sisted on leading his men in a bold and hazardous charge against the enemy. During that charge he was shct through the head and instantly killed on August Au-gust 20, 1S47. |