Gilliam's literary talents and mature
judgment make him a competent
critic. He says:
Arrived at the little town of YVhite
ville his native home last Tuesday
I was deeply grieved to learn of the
death from typhoid fever of Rev.
James Chester Rockwell, which oc
curred about two weeks ago in Ten
nessee. He was a comrade of mine
in years gone by when I was as pure
as the beautiful snow. We were
together in a literary companionship
which ran like a splendid story. He
was a noble youth as I knew him, with
a wide horizon of beautiful promise.
His soul was shot through and through
with color and form and grace and
music and light and he walked in a
poetry of motion. There was within
him that "magic of the universe" by
which the secret rhythm of nature is
unlocked. What he wrote in verse
touched you, because it was charged
with a message of a heart. Tender
love songs, erratic sonnets of epic
strength, were the work oi this pas
sionate young lyrist. All of it was as
simple and gentle as a ballad, and yet
it never lacked in dramatic fire so in
separable from poetry and eloquence.
At the time of his death he was a min
ister in the Baptist church. As he
once sang of (he late Father Ryan s6
we sing of him
" Within the Master Poet's Home,
His weary feet are now at rest."
BECOMES SOLE OWNER.
On account of the death of Mr. W.
W. Hall his half interest in the Roa
noke Yews, Weldon, was recently
sold. Mr. John W. Sledge, surviving
partner, became the purchaser and is
now sole owner and editor of this old
and well established newspaper. Mr.
