The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1872-03-21
From the New York Tribune.l
4 COMMONPLACE NAN.
AMfe Lesson for New Beginners.


Some OF the specimens furnished by
our young friends at Yale OF their re
cent attempts at Journalism are full
I of philosophy and Jokes of the newt
abe college quality Boys will b,
bows, from generation to generation
and we have no right tOlaugh at thest
young fellows, when their raw you'll
manifests itself extensively. We were
every whit as positive and cOnceiteC
in our day; quite as apt to csekle Ovel
our new-fOund ideas, and to thrusi
/ them at every body We met with loud
logic; quite as certain that the world
WAS out of joint and that we were q
be made a. BIS to set it right. The
boys too, nowadays, rely on genius as
the salvation Of age, justas we did
It is the brilliant fellow VINO learn:
without study, and leaves his Aims
Mater in a crackle of eloquent fire
works, that is the demi-god among
them. They are apt, too, to cherish
q tender belief in him always. When
he is missed on the roll Of ''few i'm
mortal names," they blame the
world so slow to recognize genius, and
rank him with ChattertOn, one of the
wOHdrOus boys who have gone down
not into the grave, but country offices,
dry goods stores and groceries.
We wish all those herO-WOrshiping 2
boys Who are earnest, sincere fel-
lows, if a little feverish) could read
with older eyes the life of man who
died a few weeks ago, and understood
/ its meaning now as middle-age will
/ teach it to them We mean that OF
the missionary Bishop Patterson, ,mur-
dered by the cannibals in the South
/ Pacific A friend of the prelate, who
has published a sketch of him in the
! London Spectator, dates his acquain-
tance back to Eton, where Patterson
was famous cricketer and Oarsman.
| At Oxford he twas but a dull scholar,
/ with no especial gift, took little inter-
! estin the theological and political prob
/ lens of the day--Was, in short, color
| less and commonplace The Ouly
noticeable point about him was, that
whatever he tried to do he did with all
/ his might and to the extent Of bis
ability, however limited that ability
might be. Outside of this, he was an
/ honest, ,stIaigh t-fOrward, IOVable man.
| After college came years Of travel and
| ordination, marked by the same dog
| ged persistence in work that had made
him first in play, and utter uncon-
sciousneSs Ofself. His brain develop
ed its powers slowly but surely, and
always healthfully. The dull college
/ boy became one of the most profound
and exact of linguists, the steady,
powerful leader in University Reform.
IA man." says his friend, "distin-
guished always by his singleness and
and simplicity of aim, singulariy
I free from "perturbatiOns Of self,
or temper Of nerves." He went
| into the missionary work with no
spasmOdic resolve to become a mar
tyr; no imitation of enthusiasm; but
with the same practical, sweet-tem-
pered hearty steadiness in the duty
open before him. His life was passed
in going from one savage island to
another, in an open boat, wading and
swimming through the reefs, carrying
his life in his hand literally from day
to day. No man was ever more sue
cessful in reaching the hearts of his
savage hearers with his Masters mes
sage, and no man has ever left behind
him a more enduring work to aid the
labOrs Of others; he having mastered
twenty-five Of the Melanesian dialects
and finished thirteen grammars- The
man whe had within him the elements
of highest success, whatever profess
ion or business he had chosen in life;
but what was his reward? We find
a hint at it in a pathetic story which
he told in a letter to his friend of an
attack made upon his boat by the can
nibals of the widest islands, whittier
he had gone to preach, in which one
of his converts, boy Of eighteen
was wounded and died of lock-jaw
The chiidless Bishop writes of him as
if he had been a son. There was not
one word of complaint 4 am glad
said the dear boy in his agony, that
I was doing right. TELL my father
what l was DOING The last night,
his body being then rigid as bar of
iron, he said family, Kiss me, Bishop
and after a short time he fell asleep.
At the age when the flesh and the
devil are beginning their work with
boys, this lad was innocent as a child.
God has been meTciful to me to give
me this comfort"
The daring life and the tragic death
of this man set against the tropical
background of the Pacific coasts,
might serve to point many fervid
moral, but "the Bishop was plain
man. He did not like fine things
said about him or his work" Yet in
these days of ambitious struggles and
incessant friction between men of
unequal mental power, there can be
no more wholesome lesson for boys.
than to see here a lofty purpose which
commonplace man with ordinary
abilities may serve in life.