The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1890-03-06

d., to-day. Many hundreds of person:
did not gain admittance. After an
exposition by DR.. Talmage of passages
Of Scripture descriptive of the influence
of the pen, James Montgomery's hymn
was sung:
Who are these in bright array,
This innumerable thrOng,
Round the star night and the day
Tuning one triumphant song?
The subject of Dr. Talmage's eermon
was: "The life and Death of Henry
w. Grady, the Editor and Orator.
He took for his text Isaiah VIII,
"Take thee a great roll, and write
in it with a mans pen.' The preacher
said:
To Isaiah, with royal blood in his
veins and habitant of palaces, does
this divine order come. He is to take
a roll,a large roll, and write in it with
pen, not an angels pen, but mans
pen. So God honored the pen and SO
He honored manuscript. In our day
the mightiest roll is the religious and
secular newspaper, and the mightiest
pen is the editors pen, whether for
good or evil And God says now to
every literary man, and especially to
every journalist Take thee great
roll and write in it with a mans pen. "
HOW THE NEWS REACHED DR.. TALMACE.
Within few weeks one of the
strongest, most vivid and most brilliant
of those pens was laid down on the
editorial dask in Atlanta, never again
to be resumed. | was far away at the
time. We had been sailing up from
the Mediterranean sea, through the
Dardanelles, which region is unlike
anything l ever saw for beauty. There
is not any other water scenery on earth
where God has done SO many pictur-
esque things with islands. They are
somewhat like the Thousand Islands
of our American St. Lawrence, but
more like Heaven. Indeed, we had
just passed Patmos, the place from
which John had his apocalyptic vision.
Constantinople had seemed to greet us
for your approach to that city is diff
ferent from any other city. Other
cities as you approach them seem to
retire, but this city, with its glittering
minarets and pinnacles, seems almost
to step into the water to greet you.
But my landing there, that would have
been to me an exhilaration, was sud-
denly stunned with the tidings of the
death of my intimate friend, Henry
w. Grady. l could hardly believe the
tidings, for had left on nay study
table at home letters and kilograms
from him, those letters and kilograms
having warmth and geniality and
wit such as he only could express.
The departure of no public man for
many years has SO affected me. For
days l walked about as in dream,
and | resolved that on getting home,
| would, for the sake of his bereaved
household, and for the sake of his be-
reaved profession, and for the sake Of
what he had been to me and shall con-
tinue to be as long as memory lasts, l
would speak word in appreciation Of
him,the most promising of Americans,
and learn some of the silent lessons of
his departure.
l have no doubt that he had enemies,
for no man can live such an active life
as he lived or be SO far in advance of
his time without making enemies,
some because he defeated their pro-
jects and some because he outshone
them. Owls and bats never did like
the rising sun. But l shall tell you
how he appeared to me, and am glad
that | told him while he was in full
health what thought Of him. Me
mortal orations and gravestone cpl
taphs are often mean enough, for they
say of a man after he is dead that
which ought to have been said of him
while living. One garland for living
brow is worth more than a mountain
of japonicas and Gala lilies heaped on
a funeral casket. BY little black
volume Of fifty pages cont aiming the
eulogiums and poems uttered and writ
ten at the demise of Clay and Webster
and Calhoun and Lincoln and Sumner,
the world tried to pay for the forty
years of obloquy it heaped upon those
living giants. If say nothing in praise
OF man while he lives will keep silent
when he is dead. Myrtle and weep
ing willow can never do what ought to
have been done by amaranth and palm
branch. No amount of Dead March
in Saul rumbling from big organs at
the obsequies can atone for non-appre
citation Of the man before he fell on
sleep The hearse cannot do what
ought to have been done by chariot.
But there are important things that
need to be said about our friend, who
was prophet in American journalism
and who only few years ago heard
the command of nv text oTake thee