The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1890-05-01
TRIBUTE TO GRADY.
Sermon by Rev. T. De Witt Tall
mage, D. D.
He Speaks in Glowing Terms of the Life
and Death of Henry w. Grady,
the southern Editor and
Orator.

sermon was: 1.-THE Life and Death of
Henry w. Grady, the Editor and Ora
tor" He took for his text portion of
the first verse of the eighth chapter of
Isaiah. 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
roll, large roll, and write on it with
pen, not an angels pen, but
mans pen. So God honored the
pen and so he honored manuscript.
In our day the highest 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 espe-
cially to every journalist: take thee
great roll and write in it with a mans
pen"
Within a few weeks one of the strong.
est, most vivid and most brilliant Of
those pens was laid down on the edi-
torial desk in Atlanta, never again to
be resumed. l was far away at the time.
We had been sailing up from the Med
iterranean sea, through the OAR
danelles, which region is unlike any
thing 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, He had Just
passed Patmos, the place from
which John had his apocalyptic
vision. Constantinople had seemed
TO come out to greet US, for
your approach to that city is
different 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 exhi1aration, was suddenly
stunned with the tidings of the death
of my intimate friend, Henry w.
Grady. could hardly believe
the tidings, for / had left on my
study table at home letters and tele-
grams from him, those letters and tele~
grams 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 | walked about as in dream, and l
resolved that, getting home, would, for
the sake of his bereaved household, and
for the sake of his bereaved profession,
and for the sake of what he had been to
me- and shall continue to be as long as
memory lasts, speak word in apprecia-
ton of him, the most promising of
Americans, and learn some of the sali-
ent lessons of his departure.
have no doubt that he had enemies,
TOR 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 projects 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 l am glad
that l told him while he was in full
health what thought of him. Memorial
orations and gravestone epitaphs 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 mountain of japonicas and
Gala lilies heaped on funeral cas-
ket BY little black volume of
fifty pages containing the eulogiums
and poems uttered and written at the
demise of Clay, and Webster, and CAL
houn, and Lincoln, and Sumner the
world tried to pay for the forty years of
obloquy it heaped upon those living
giants. If l say nothing in praise of a
man while he lives will keep silent
when he is dead. Myrtle and weeping
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
oosequies can atone for non-appreeia-
tion OF the man before he fell on sleep.
The hearse can not do what ought to be
done by chariot But there are impor-
tant things that need to be said about
our friend, who was a prophet in Amer
lean journalism and who only few
years ago heard the command of nv
text; Take. thee great roll, and
write In it with mans pen.''
his father dead, Henry w. Grady. a
boy fourteen years of age, took up the
battle of life. It would require long
chapter to record the names of
orphans who have come to the ton.
When God takes away the head Of
household He very often giyes
to some lad in that household a
special qualification. Christ remem-
bers how His own father died early.
leaving Him to support Himself and His
mother and His brothers, in the carpen-
ters shop at Nazareth, and He is in
sympathy with all boys and all young
men in the struggle. You say: ''oh, if
my father had only lived l would have
had better education and would have
had 3 more promising start and
there are some wrinkles on
my brow that would not have
been there" But have noticed that
God makes special way for orphans.
You would not have been half the man
you are II you had not been Obliged
from early days to fight your own bat
ties. What other boys got out of Yale
or Harvard you got In the university Of