The Indianapolis leader. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1879-1890, 1881-10-29

II sketch entitled sour Great Editor,
Colonel Forney in his Progress, referring
to George d. Prentice, says:
We had said many severe things of each
other; but common love of common
country soon made US, to the end of his life
friends. His son, CORTLAND Pr-ntice had
fought for the Rebellion, aud was killed in
the battle of Augusta, on the 18 h of Sep
TENDER, 1862; and the obituary of his father
was curious piece of parental grief and
patriotic ecstacy. These sentences closed
the heartfelt tribute: "Oh, if he had fallen
il his country's service, fallen with his
burning eyes fixed in love and devotion upon
the flag, that, for more than three-fourih s OF
a century, has been star of worship to hi
ancestors, his early death, though still ter
rible, might have been borne by his fathers
heart. But, alas the reflection that he fell
in armed rebellion, against that glorious old
banner, now the emblem of the create
and noblest cause the world ever knew, is
full of desolation and almost of despair
But our love for him, undimmed by tears of
grief, is and will remain an amaranthine
flower apon tie grave of our buried years"
George d. Prentice was the soul e
chivalry. Love of country was planted in
his heart, and the seed burst into flower. in
the midst of the blood and fire of the Re
belllon st bis own door The wal over his
dead body was also the HYMN of his death
less patriotism. When Harvey, his bitter
Democratic opponent, of the Louisvill-
Democrat, died. he spoke of him with manly
sympathy; and when Horace Greeley came
to Louisville to lecture, Prentice VIZ te
these memorable lines in his honor:
tha ~
Thou bravest, TRUST, best of men;
For have marked thy strong career,
AS traced by thy own sturdy pen.
I've seen thy struggles with the foes
That dare q thee TO the desperate fight,
Aud loved to watch thy goodlv blows
Dealt for the cause thou deem st the right
Thoust dared to stand against the wrong,
When many faltered by thy side;
Iii thy owe strength hast dared be strong,
Nor another relied.
Thy bold thoughts thou'.t dared to think,
Thy own great purposes svowed,
And none have thee shrink
From the fierce swges of the crowd
Thou, all unaided AID alone,
Didst take thy way in life's young years.
With no kind hand :Iasped in thine own,
No gentle voice tc sooth thy tears
But thy high heart power could tame,
And thou hast never ceased to feel
Within thy veins a iecred flame
That turned thy iron nerves to steel.
know that thou AIT not exempt
From all the weaknesses of eartb;
For passion comes t. rouse aud tempt
The truest souls OF mortal birth.
But thou hast " ell fulfilled thy trust,
In spite OF love ald hope and fear;
And cen the temp@t's thunder-gust
But clears thy SPIRITS atmosphere.
Thou still art in tbf manhood's prime,
Still foremost md thy fellow men,
Though in each year of all thy time
Thou hast comprsssed threescore and ten.
Oh, may each bessS sympathy.
Bresthed on thee With tear and sigh,
sweet flower in thy pathway be,
bright star in thy clear blue sky.
The Louisville Jousnal, conducted by Mr..
Prentice, was thorfgh party paper but
the taste for the poettS of Mr.. Prentice his
gifts as iinguist, and his high literary as
pirations, attracted many of the best
writers to his columns, and brosdened his
own influence. There was no other editor
like him, or equal to bin, in the South. His
New England culture sustained him like
an armor, and although he never evaded a
responsibility, rqufled before menace, or
fattered power, heI was as graceful as a
woman to those he ved, and as courtly in
his relations 10 the rnter sex as a knight
of the olden time lad he lived in France,
where the great JOURNALIST Is often a leader
in the Senate and the Assembly, Cabinet
minister and an Academican, George Dl
Prentice would have been the counsellor of
Kings, the associate of philosophers, and
more than the equal Of the richest commoner
in the Nation