New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-07-11

found faults and errors in 1t, and how few I'M
derstood the difficulties of the work. or thought
OF the tagged and weary man who hao
done his best, and had not done it badly. Bless
the breakfast table critics how sharp they
were and how knowing Bless also the
sagaciOus gentleman who had month IN wh,ch
TO consider the matter TO turn it over ie'sureiyt
to ransack the chambers OF memory, ana 10
take down book after book from the library
shelves He would have finished it all charm
ingiy in the day time, but not quite so well at
Two o'clock III the morning, with the hlght
editor at his elbow and the night foreman
bowling through the speaking tube. :.
The public is not incOnsiderate-it IS only
ignorant. The newspaper is mystery OF the
manufacture of which it knows hardly any
thing Those who give 10 it the enthusiasm OF
youth, the vigor OF manhood, and whatever
wisdom old age may have brought with IL
might huve won an abiding fame in this depart.
ment of literature or the other, in the fields OF
SCIENCE, in the arena of public affairs. Iasie
Or accident has betrayed them into humble
sphere of human exertion, nor do they quarrel
journalism rarely leaves it; he still plods on in the
daily toll winch for him has rare
fascination. Often there is no fame for him.
The clevcrest newspaper man may be utterly
unknown, and not forgotten only because lie
has never been remembered. His heart, how
ever is stout at any rate and come competency
or the lack of il, come the highest or the
humbest position, he still tolls with
rrepIessible cheefuness, and hopes when
all is over that his associates who survive him
will be reasonably sorry or solemn at his
funeral.
Only Yesterday great many OF us were
gathered together to take our last look at
familiar face, and TO see in cold obstruction q
a noble form which for so many years we had
only known as full of activity and animation.
We all listened, | am sure, with as much
pleasure as was compatible with the occasion,
TO the tender and admirable words which tell
from the good clergyman, as he pronounced
his large and catholic estimate OF DR.. Rpleys
religious nature. Nothing could have more
perfectly bcfitted the place and the time. III
so incompetent person az myself may, IN TINS
quite different place, offer to the dead man OF
letters, to the departed journalist, a stammer-
ing sentence or two of tarewell-tO the writer
whom we all first respected and then reyer-
enced, an inadequate tribute, let me try
to impart to those who read me
some sense of the great work which DIR. Ripley
had done for the American mind and for
American culture, through the medium OF the
daily press. We write about pOllticlans-h
wrote about sages and the immortal of the
earth We discuss things which Tomorrow Will
be forgOtten-he spoke to an army OF readers,
of the books which they should read and of the
books which they should avoid. 1t Is when l
consider such accomplishment as his, that am
prOudest of my vocation. 1t was given to him,
il is not given to most of us, to keep close TO
the great argument of human duty informed
and guided by elevated thought The columns
ever but these thinkers who knew him as
mentor, only not inffallibe because humanity
is always fallible, will sadly miss bis assistance,
and will associate with flames when are wider
and higher, the name of one who was much else,
but who was also journalist.