The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-10-03
John Howard.

IL Is WHAT the good men do that lives
after them. The evil is like taint in
the blood. However long time it may
lingeF, poisoning 40 il goes, at last it is
eradicated. The good sc,ss on. 8ut it
is not always that with o noble heritage
left to humanity name is linked .undy-
ing. SO it seems to have been, howe. er,
with the selfdenying, simply-living, no
ble Howard--a man whom "all the blood
of all the Howards" would not have en-
nobled like his life of toll and suffering,
spent, as Burke put it, "taking the gauge
and dimensions of misery, depression
and contempt" After q century has
elapsed, the name of Howard is still q
watchword, symbol of the open heart
and generous charity, of tie soothing
hand and soft step, of melting sympathy
and watchful care, of the midnight vigil
in the halls of the rich and in the huts
o. the poor. Wherever mighty and un-
sparing affliction has obliterated all dis
tinctions and fused all men into humani-
ty, and made native nobility in man
stand out bright in the darkness of woe,
the name of Howard still lives to be q
stay and hope for the we'll and a comfort
for the sick and afflicted. 1t was no ac-
cident led to the adoption of tho name
Howard Association" of which we hear
30 much. 1t was kindred ideas and 81 M
pathies which saw in the name of q man
who produced @ revival of that broad
humanity which ia the fundamental idea
of Christianity, ft appellation.
John Howard, F. Il. S., was born in
1925, at Hockbury, near London, the
son of tradesman, and inherited an in
dependent fortune. It was not used for
any low ends, not even for that higher of
low ends mentioned by the poet, who ad-
vised the acquisition Of wealth
-, "Not for to hide it in ditch,
Not for. o train attendant.
But for the glorious privilege
OF being independent"
Far from seeking independence. he
used it in making himself the slave Of
humanity in physical sense, but there
by secured that soble independence of a
man whose moral n2ture lifts him above
iii trammeIB OF sense and low desires.
He was on mission of mercy to Lisbon,
after the great earthquake, when he mel
with misfortune which was the director
of his future life. Captured by French
privateer, his life IN prison determined
his life-work amongst the wretched and
vile, to alleviate sufferings and seek some
restoration of the means Of neral reform
of which the criminal was deprived by
prison life and discipline He visited
Inost of the prisons of England, and in
duced the Common to begin system o
prison reform. From that, l774, ht
spent his life travelling over Europe, Wis
iting prisons and hospitals, nursing anc
relieving the sick, sharing the prison fars
with the worst criminals and exhibiting
the most heroic devotion. He was tenn
perate, self-denying, simple in habit!
and, in diet, ripidly abstemious.
In 1890, aftai life time spent in goot
works, he died on the field, of honor a
his post 1t may seem that auch o lifi
shoulG have ended as homo with friends
! about the couch, and the sympatheti,
hands of wife and children to soothe anG
| careas and catch the whispered farewell
of one on whom the curtain has descend
ed in the last act. His last act vas ons
oi piece with his life. A terrible pes
thence of fever had broken out on the
Black Sea, and he hastened TO labor fol
the relief of the suffering aGL study the
causes of pestilence in the interest Of
coming generations, when he was stricken
down at Cherson, and died away from
country, home and friends, but died al
his post, walking the dreary round ON his
beat, guarding Others against death
Such life is fitly perpctlated in the
name of Howard in our cities, where
hundreds and thousands of heroes, i'm
bued with the same humanity, enlisted
in the same cause, win the same bright
crown, either in an honorable death no.
bly, won, or in an. Gpproving conscience
Perhaps no earthly ramc fingers or earth.
ly fame is enshriped, but what of that
The commanders name fingers on pages
to be written years after, but the reward
for duty as. honestly and as nobly per-
formed has been awarded equally to him
who sleeps in an unmarked grave, per-
haps never missed from the roll of the
world.--MashpiNe american.