The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1893-01-26
HENRY BLOUNT.
A Beautiful Tribute to the Gifted Ed
itor of the Wilson Mirror.

HENDERSON, n. c., Jan. %, 1898.
EDITOR GOLD LEAF :-Ilearn with great
pleasure that the genial and gifted Henry
BlOunt will soon commence a lecturing
tour in North Carolina.
OF course every one at all acquainted
with letters will esteem it privilege as
well as great pleasure and profit, to
hear him.
His pen seems to have caught the tiDts
of the rainbow of love, and his eloqrenct
on the platform reminds us of Lysias.
upon whose lips the Grecian legend de-
clares, bees paused to sip honey.
Mr.. Blount has a marvellous imagina
ton, which has been cultured to a a pre-
eminent degree by complete tour of
the field of literature, from which he has
garnered the richest treasures of the hu-
man mind. At his command the most
sublime scenes of nature, the grandest
incidents of the past, the terderest emo
tons OF the heart, and the most glorious
pictures Of the future, are presented to
his audience as if in a grand frescOe by
one Of the Masters.
AS rhetorician, Mr.. Blount is unique
and absolutely sui generis, his vehicle of
expression keeping even pace with his
imagination.
1t may be, that he shows a greater
fondness for adiectives than fixed and
frigid rules and accepted models would
allow, but then he is an exception to
rule, and has style essentially his own
With Mr.. Blount, adjectives represent
sentiment, sympathy, and Ruskin said
without sentiment, the world would not
be fit to live in"
Paganinni violated almost every rule
OF the science OF music, and yet his name
will go down the centuries as king of the
king OF Instruments.
In the armOry OF BlOunt's great DOW
ers, glitter the weapons of irony, satire.
sarcasm and invective, but his heart is
too warm and generous for their fire.
quent use.
Wit and humor twinkle in his eye,
dance on his pen point, and from his
tongue leap into the hearts of his hear
ers, dlspelling the gloom of weary hours.
But 1T lsnot MIR. Blount's Imagination,
nor his wit, nor his rhetoric, nor his sd
tire, that constitute his chief strength
and excellence; it is his deep. warm, ten
der pathos, reminding one of the ex-
qulsltely soft and tear-compelling pic
lures OF Nathaniel Hawthorne.
lie mas written some reflections and
Poems, notably his poem entitled "At
My Mothers Grave" shat would strike
responsive chord in the heart of man,
UNIVERSAL, giving forth a music sweet as
human Sorrow can draw from Human
Love
IN this age OF intense mammOnism and
selfishness, the charity and nobility of
this chlvalric son of Carolina. is a reve-
iatlon and a blessing Somemaster has
said:
EVERY lecture should be like a CORN
than column, representing learning and
logic, adorned with flowers. typifvino.
the graces OF rhetoric, wit, humOr and
elocution.'
Such lecture l should expect from
Henry Blount.
wish to say also that in Justice to
themselves, in justice to their sons and
daughters, the people of North Carolina
and the South, ought no longer to wait
tor lecturers to come to them from New
York and the North, but they ought to
recognize. encourage, and reward the
talent and genius at their own doors.
The South to-day has but little litcra-
ture, because her sons and daughters
nave not been encouraged, and some
times we are forced to the conclusion
that that appreciation of scholarship
and brllllancy in letters. that was once.
one OF the chief glories of the South has
been paralyzed by the base liza. orialism
OF the age. Such, however. is Ia. fame
and power of Henry Blount the,,, y no
doubt he will be greeted by l;,re.. adj
ences everywhere. W. R. HEHHy.