The Lancaster ledger. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1852-1905, 1854-07-26
From the Portsmouth Va, Globe.
Thomas Ritchie.

Thomas Richie, the long time E,ltor
OF the Enquirer, and lately of the Wash
ington Union, was no ordinary man, and
no ordinary praise will fit his epitaph, no
commonplace eulogium come up to Just
and deserved panegyric. Ii gh compli-
ments have been paid TO his memory, the
warm, spontaneous need Of thos1 who
had in some way known him. And few
in the American Republic in this first
half Of the 10th century, but had some
how, through some channel or impression
or other, known Thomas Richie. 10
know him, was either to admire or love :;
ofentimes both. The press, the pulpit,
the literary stylus, have spoken or written
at his funeral; all came to praise, where
all could not come to bury him. No an
tecedent differences restrained or withheld
the pen that paid its ready tribute to the
worth Of him to whom so much was due.
No selfi.hness, jealousy nor envy cooled
tongue that pronounced votive requiem
TO his fame.
The very general and wide spread pub
lic notice and remark his death has elicit
ed, speak how deep and favourable an
impression his active and distinguished life
have made upon this generation. His al
most e4r at the head Of the CITY or me-
troPoitan journal OF vast political or liter
airy influences, and the humble and OBJ
scure editor Of the distant village gazette,
seem to have been equally familiar with
his career and equally impressed with the
high and brilliant character OF that career
How many high, and how many humble
owe their political faith and convictions
10 his earnest teachings.
When in 1904 he emerged from the
privacy and obscurity of the Virginia cIois-
ter-a school room-and indited the firsl
hurried but nervous editorials of the En-
quirer, it was seen that a hand controlled
the quill that would make sensation in
the editorial world If the writer lived. 1t
i, not too much to say, that that h,nd
has left the broadest, deepest, aud most
brilliant mark upon the editorial pag IS Of
this countrys history that has ever yet
been there transcribed. This is no full
some eulogy 4; for 10y those who have had
the best claim to be considered rivals in
his appropriate sphere, he has been vari
ously styled the Ajax" the Achilles"
the "Nestor," the Napoleon" of the
Press: terms Of encomium which have
been freely, and never derisively no. iron
ically accorded.
All through the columns Of the Engui-
rer and the Union, while he was with
them, there sparkle thu gems of his geni.
us and the graces Of his rhetoric, showing
the more brightly, because set in ground
work Of political and philosophical wis
dom and practical sagacity. He was
no
"Tissue web of fancy,
Adorned by artful wit"
but the granite sentence with the vein Of
gold. And il in the elegant polish of a
paragraph, the sword seemed diamond
hilted, the blade was the true steel and
did its intended execution with signal sue
cess and dispatch
FIVE NAV be permitted to class the
style Of his writing according to our own
appreciation Of it, we shoald call it--An.
glo Saxon romanesque, or the solidity
and severe purity OF the Anglo Saxon, or,
namented often with the graces and met
aphor allowable and practised by the Au-
GUSTAV writers. His illustrations from Ro-
man and Greek history were equent and
always apt aud imposing. He was often
very sententious, pointed, laconic. But
when writing something for the smaller
but more intelligent class Of his readers,
who he felt would read and ponder every
line he wrote, he would indulge in more
latitude, in style, in argument, in ilustra-
ton I: but without any departure from
clearness, perspicuity or logical sequence
and force. We have often heard il said
by persons every ay competent and ca
pable Of giving a critical dictUse' that
they derived moro delight fro reading
Mr.. Ritchie's extended leaders, than from
any political essays written on the CONT
nent. These leaders besides the quail
tiles We have referred to. always possessed
q fresh raeiness, spirit, vigonr, an orig
inality, sn individuality Of thought and
expression about them, that were not to
be found altogether elsewhere in the jour
mails OF the day; and uors young editors
have tried 70 form their style after his than
after that Of any editor Americs has pro-
i dueed. ~
Mr.. Risshies polidcswas rigidly Amer.