Johnstown weekly Democrat. (Johnstown, Cambria County, Pa.) 1889-1916, 1890-01-03

of more local character. The city OF
Atlanta undertook in 1885 to enforce To-
cal prohibition, and Grady became an
ardent champion of the ''dry" element.
Owing to difference of opinion among
the managers of The Constitution the
paper was not committed TO prohibition,
but Mr.. Grady waged the warfare of tite
"drys" over his own signature. Many
amusing things occurred during the
campaign. Grady and some other edi-
torial exponent sometimes took opposite
sides in the same issue of The Constitu-
tion, and The New York Sun, which al
ways takes humorous view of the &C.
centricities of the fraternity, called this
"double back action journalism. The
prohibition excitement continued for
three years, hut The Constitutions posi-
ton after the first campaign, which
made the city ''dry," was strictly neutral.
AS u local character Mr.. Grady
won personal fame He was called the
autocrat of Atlanta, and was almost as
hard to reach, when he chose to be,
as the Grand Llama. One of the stories
of his cast iron sway in the sanetum is
that he acted upon the Thunderer's motto
of never taking anything back. One day
a man whose obituary had appeared in
The Constitution made his way to Mr..
Grady's room, and with fire in his eye
demanded denial in the next days
issue. The editor, who was almost as
broad as he was tall, rolled careless
ly over until their eyes met and cool
ly declared that this would be impossi-
bic. I'VE have put you in as dead"
said he, land yet you come to us alive
and ready to kick, if not kicking; so I'll
make it all right by putting you among
the births"
Mr.. Grady's latest triumphs were
in oratory. In responding to toast at
the banquet of the New England society,
in 1886, he gave speech to the sentiments
he had long cherished and written about,
and, fortunately for his fame, he was
listened to and applauded by representa-
tive men of the whole nation. II was
then that he stamped the phrase New
South" and became the acknowledged
champion of southern progress on new
lines. He awoke the next morning to
find himself famous. A year later Mr..
Grady engineered a very successful
southern exposition at Piedmont, near
his home, and here and at Augusta he
delivered two powerful oraticns on the
problems of the south, industry and the
race question. Now the south applaud
ed, and in a sense responded to his lead
ership. The recent effort of Mr.. Grady
before the Boston merchants was bold
summing up of the results of the move
ments for progress with which he was
Associated for the past ten years.
Grady was a voluminous writer. His
thought was clear, although the language
usedwas somewhat involved. Asaspeaker
he was ready and forceful. His stature
was low, with a well developed figure, and
his face was full of expression. A smile
played continually about his lips, and a
pair of very bright eyes lighted up his al
most swarthy skin. Some neighborly
critic, in 4 spirit of faint praise, dubbed
him a genial Irishman," his ancestry
having been exiles of old Erin. The title
was not q misnomer, for he was brim full
IF geniality and far too good natured to be
a partisan leader Perhaps his greatest
work was to prove by example that
a young man of liberal and progressive
ideas can rise to power in the south and
have n large following among men of
his own generation