The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1890-07-31
raleigh State Chronicle.

(Raleieh State Chronicle.l
Shortly after the death Of the la
mented Henry w. Grady, the CAron-
iele announced to its readers that a
memorial volume, in the interest of
the wife and mother of the brilliant
journalist, prepared by Mr.. Grady's
CO. workers on the Constitution and
edited by Joel Chandler Harris, would
be shortly issued. The work has been
done-and we'll done-in the few
short months that has elapsed since
his death, and we have before US, from
the reliable publishing house of Cas-
sell Pub. Co., New York, N. Y, a
handsome memorial volume of over
600 pages. 1t is printed in large,
clear type, on heavy calendered paper,
is bound in an elegant and durable
binding, and contains striking like
ness Of Mr.. Grady, picture Of his
Atlanta home, of his boyhood home
at Athens, and of the Atlanta Con-
shtution Office. 1t is sold only by
subscription.
The first words in the handsome
volume are tribute from the pen of
Henry Watterson, who has long
shared with Mr.. Grady the position of
spokesman for the South. In sense
the dead orator editor was a disciple
of the great Kentuckian who closes a
short, appreciative and discriminating
monograph by saying:
can truly say that was from the
first and always proud of him, hailed
him as young disciple who had sur
passed his elders in learning and
power, recognized in him a master
voice and soul, followed his career
with admiring interest, and recorded
| his triumphs with ever increasing SYM
pathy and appreciation. *
; Such spirits are not Of generation,
but of an epoch; and it will be long
before the South will find one to take
the place made conspicuously vacant
by his absence.
The biographical sketch is drawn by
the loving and faithful hand of Joel
Chandler Harris, and never did this
talented delineator have task which
could SO inspire his genius. 1t is
written with the hand of affection, but
while warm and ardent in commem-
Grating the genius and labor of his
worker, it is not anywhere open to
the objection of being fulsome. In
deed SO great a genius was Mr.. Grady,
and SO wonderful his achievements,
that no praise would be deemed full
some. Now that the work is finished,
it must be with a melancholy salts
faction that Mr.. Harris and his CO.
workers reflect that they have made an
everlasting worthy memorial of the
most brilliant man this generation has
produced, and put in permanent shape
his great contributions to the thought
of the world.
The sketch enchains the reader. 1t
has the rare flavor Of unstudied ele-
gance and the charm of plain and
unaffected recital, made all the more
delightful by the frank expressions of
genuine admiration and love, born of
comradeship, that crowds its every
page. Prepared hurriedly - Mr..
Grady died late in December-a full,
round and complete biography is not
attempted, but the sketch, long
enough, succeeds, where many long
and elaborate biographies fail, in
bringing the actual living picture Of
the subject before the reader. AS we
read the short story of the life of the
man, whom this writer long regarded
as the South's greatest son, we feel
that we are in his very inspiring pres
ence, thinking his thoughts and being
animated by his wonderfully lovable
magnetism. If you had once seen his
attractive face, heard his inimitable
stories, been brought under the inhu-
ence of his great-hearted cordiality,
and been inspired by his lofty patri-
otism, Joel Chandler Harris brings it
all back to you, and makes you more
than ever deplore his ''untimely taking
off,"
Thousands of eloquent tongues and
trenchent pens have given expression
to what they regarded as his greatest
gift and greatest usefulness. We have
nowhere seen, in exact terms, an ex-
preston of what we believe he was and
did that chiefly entities him to the
grateful remembrance of the people of
the South. 1t is because he was the
Prophet of Cheerfulness. In no phase
does his work stand out so clearly, or
will it live so long to bless US, as in
his abundant Good Cheer. The South
has had an innumerable host of proph-
cts of the Jeremiah school in the past
quarter of century. Men of great
intellect have sat down in the ashes of
defeat and predicted nothing bright
for the future of their section. The
South needed Prophet of Cheerful
needs-a man full of hope and full of
faith, whose clarion voice should ring
out from the great State of Washing
ton and Lee to the Gulf, and call the
young men and old men to let the
dead past bury its dead, and to hear
the command, "That they 60 for
ward" Henry Grady came as such
prophet. Soon he filled his mission.
Soon the sons Of the South turned
their faces to the morning. Soon
| 'stowns and cities were hives Of in
dustry, the streams danced on their
way to the music Of spindles, and the
forest echoed back the roar of the