The news & observer., 1895-09-14

Ga, and was well known in North Caro-
lima. He was warm friend of Henry
Ward Beecher and in 1884 they spoke
from the same platform in advocacy of
the election Of Or. Cleveland. When
Mr. Beecher died, DR.. Hall delivered the
Grafton at his funeral and also at the un,
yelling of Mr.. Beecher's statue in front
Of the city hall. He was park commits
sioner, a civil service commissioner, and
took more prominent part in public
affairs than any other Episcopal clergy
man in the country, He was built on
broad guage and was deeply interested
in whatever made for the betterment of
the people.
DR.. Hall was fond Of getting into the
mountains Of North Carolina, far from
railroads, whenever he could take yaca-
ton. He loved to come in contact with
the hardy, unlattered mountaineer. He
esteemed a man as a man. He never
tired Of telling Of an incident that first
gave him a knowledge of the inbred
hatred of the revenue officer. Going up
the mountains with guide they came
to deep ravine in a thickly wooded
part of the mountains.
"Man killed over there last week"
said the guide"
what had he done?" asked DR.. Hall.
Revenue officer" replied the guide.
''But" persisted DR.. Hall 'what crime
had the officer committed?"
He was revenue officer" again said
the guide.
1t was long time before DR.. Hall
could be convinced that the fact that the
man was a revenue officer, charged with
breaking of moonshine stills, was crime
enough, in the eyes Of his guide, for the
severest punishment.
On June End, 1885, DR.. Hall delivered
the baccalaureate sermon before the
graduating class at Chapel Hill, and in
all the history of the University it is
doubtful If sermon so great in practi-
cal wisdom and in faultless and capti-
waiting rhetoric has been delivered at that
seat of learning. The impression pro-
duced by that sermon remains as fresh
and inspiring with this writer to day as
on the day when the eloquent words fell
from the man Of God. The text was
"Why stand ye here all the day idle ~
and his subject "The Call to Work. The
following quotation from that sermon
illustrates one of the points he empha-
sized:
II speak rather to the class who are
celebrating idleness in reputable ways.
Perhaps the shortest way to this idea may
be found in the differences of the two
men whose names are most familiar TO
us-Patrick Henry and Thomas Jeffer-
son-the former, who started the ball OF
the Revolution, repleate with genius,
and gifted with an eloquence which the
latter lacked and honored. My own es-
TEEN for Mr.. Henry is largely based on
Mr.. .Jefferson's testimony to his elcqu-
ence, certainly much more than on Wirt's
biography Henry was beyond question
one of the most fascinating idlers that
ever illustrated the eecentricities OF
genius. His education was largely gain
ed from the hither end of his fishing
rod. Now and then Nature will take
one of her pets, and put him to this
school, where, idle to all appearance,
careless, in short, as to all ordinary laws,
he is yet made somehow to think rightly,
and throw off shams, and dig down into
the eternal laws of his being, muse
Of the incongruities of Kings three
thousand miles away, and of oppression
around him; and he is trained, not by
bell or book, but by an inward law Of
genius, that he cannot evade nor quite
ignore. But imagine, for once, what
Henry would have been, and | think |
can see that he himself revolved it in
sober age, e,-if he had been gifted with
Jeff~son's laborious industry. II, in
broader scenes than he dreamed Of when
a youth, he had been possessed of the
training and stores of elevated thought
and learning of the sage Of Monticello,
he would have been to-day without
peer on the register OF American bene
factors. AS Jefferson said of him, ne
set the ball of Revolution in motion.
Yea, he often gave it fresh impact after
ward; but the lines of his course were
marked out, not by him, but by two of
the most laborious statesmen that we
have had, namely, Jefferson andHamilton
Any one Of us in reading their bi0gra-
phies must feel ashamed Of the defects
and sins Ct his own education. Both Of
them great, and full of native power,
mere toilers, whether in silent study, in
the duties of profession, or as a states
man and public official. They may be
pointed at as men who, however else
they may have erred, never stood idle in
school, in the market place, the forum or
the Senate. They had goal before them
from the beginning; and they kept their
eyes fastened upon it, turning them
never aside to any fascination.