The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1897-11-11
HENRY GEORGE.
A BRAVE, HONEST, STEADY MAN OF SIN
CERE PURPOSES,
The Remarkable Career of Remarka-
bic Characterize Made a Deep and
Lasting Impression On the InteIlec-
uaI Life and Thought of His Time.
(Asheville CitiZen.)

| MS greatest attractions to those who
had had the privileges of meeting and
| talking with him face to face If he
came into town TO lecture, it was ten
to one that he avoided a reception
committee, If one were in waiting, anC
made his way, after the old habit of a
newspaper man, to the nearest news
paper office. If he could there dra W
about him men who enjoyed conversa-
ton Of the higher sort and could listen
as we'll as talk, he was seen at his best,
| because then one got near to the man.
Quiet, unassuming, with nothing oi
| dogmatism in his mental makeup, he
rather sought for the opinions of 9th
ers then pushed his own forward. Dis
| astrous collisions with adversely had
not soured his naturally sweet natur e;
the fact that he had more than once
been made the victim of corporate in
science and intolerance had made him
neither vndlctive nor bitter. He
clung tenaciously to the truth as he
saw ii, but he had no claim to a mo-
nopoly of information. The beauty
of his diction and the wealth of his
vocabulary, coupled with the catholicity
of his opinions, made him a delighted
conversatlonalist, while the simple ma
ture of the man formed a setting as
beautiful as it is rare in an intellect SO
brilliant.
Such being the man George it is
difficult to recognize him in the ag-
gresslve denunciatory speeches he made
in the campaign that closed for him
only few hours before his death. He
was of course moved by terrible
earnestness and he lacked nothing of
courage. But however strongly he
felt moved against Croker and Plat
as political bosses, it was not like him
to be indiscreet in speech not to say
violent. We see now that he ought
never have been drawn into the cam
paign at all; and the impression is al
most forced on US that he had begun
some days ago to be affected seriously
BY the physical disturbance that was
undoubtedly hurried to its fatal cul
mination by too severe campaigning.
But he will be remembered by his
books, by his written words, pondered
over for months and years, rather than
by the speeches of heated canvass
for an office he had no ambition for
The best of his mental effort is of
course in his writing. 1t would be
hazardous to venture the opinion that
they will place him with the immortals;
but at least they have been among the
most original and powerful of the in
tellectual contributions of our genera
ton; and as they largely represent an
ideal towards the attachment Of which
men will always strive-the greatest
possible freedom for the individual
the thoughts they convey are certain
to live in one form or another long
after he who pressed them on our at
tention during this generation may
be forgotten.
Henry George was short, sturdy
man, with a good physique, upright,
large head, full red beard, big bald
spot, and blue eyes. He was born, as
stated in the Citizen Friday, in Phil
adelphia on Sept. 2, 1880, of Amerl-
can parents. His ancestors were part
English, part Scotch, and part Irish,
with bit of German blood. He went
to school until he was IA years old,
and then went to an office and after
wards to sea.
He was nothing until, in his garret
away on the Pacific coast, he wrote
book, won for il publication and
worlds attention and interest. Mr..
George had to 60 slow-plod along
and wait for the slow growth of an ap-
probation. Georges life in San Fran
cisco was like thousands of other mems
lives in large cities uneventful. He
was a printer at first in Sacramento---
but very different kind of printer
from some. On the old Sacramento
Reporter they needed man to "fake'
"pony" express kilograms. The spur
of this work, the dreadful need of It's
results, and the hours George had to
give it, led him into a train Of thought,
and when the first telegraph wire
came to the coast he had his plans per-
fected. Then, as now, certain papers
with influence and wealth had secured
the right of news, and those papers en-
joyed a subject franchise from the
Chicago newspapers.
When the Atlantic and Pacific tele-
graph was started, that being an IN
dependent enterprise, George started
East, located in New York and Wash
ington, and devised SO perfect cypher
system that the large papers OF San
Francisco, enjoying the franchise,
promptly made terms with the lnven-
tor. The Bulletin, the leading paper
then in San Francisco, (1S69) invited
Mr.. George to an editorial chair at
salary of $4,000, gold. He probably
could have held that to this day II he
had been content TO remain simple
Harry George under George X. Fitch
and Ben Avery, and do hack work,
but he had ideas and one Of the first
of them was the land question.
He got his first impression of the
land question by observing the wrongs
made possible by the Spanish land
grants in California, which were con-
tirmed to the United States by provls-
ion of the Guadalupe Hidalgo treaty
tn IS4S. By that he saw that tracts
of land under Gods garden, 50 to
support tens of millions IN comfort and