The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-09-02

Browns men by the side Of their Captain,
at North Elba on Wednesday, was con-
Quoted with great simplicity and. in
deed, attracted little public attention.
The people who arranged the ceremony
seem to have been plain folk quite
unknown to fame. who put their hands in
their own pockets for the expenses Of the
affair, and were not associated with any
political or historical society.
We understand that Dr. THOMAS
FEATHERsToNHAUaH, OF Washington, first
conceived the idea that BROWN and his men
| ought to be at rest side by side. month
ago he exhumed at Harpers Ferry the
| bodies OF seven Of those who took part in
the famous RAID by name OLIVER Brown.
| STEWART TAYLOR, W. H. LEEMAN, WILL
lam THOMPSON. DAUPHIN o. THoMPs ON,
JOIN II. KAdI, and DANGERFIELD NEWLY.
Two others, JEREMIAH G.. ANDERSON and
LEWIS S. LEARY, the latter a negro, were
| also killed and buried at Harper's Ferry,
but their graves are unknown. The body
Of WATSON BROWN, JOHN Browns son.
was recovered and buried beside that of
his father In 1882. ABsALoM @. HAzLETT
and AARON DWIGHT STEVENS were badly
wounded In the Harpers Ferry fight and
were nursed in the jail there by the Qua
keress REBEccA SPRING, Of Perth Amboy,
M. When they were we'll enough they
were hanged, and REBBccA SPRING took
their bodies to her New Jersey homo and
secretly buried them. The bodies Of these
two men were also recently taken up
and brought to North Elba.
From the somewhat fragmentary news
paper accounts Of the ceremony on Wednes-
day and from other trustworthy sources
it appears that about 5000 people
gathered around JOHN Browns grave
in its mountain amphltheatre. Almost
all Of them were Adirondack farmers
and their wives and children, who had
journeyed from four counties to be present,
and who seemed to regard the occasion
as a solemn religious commemorate n.
There was sprinkling Of summer visitors
from Lake Placid and other nearby resorts.
The entire assemblage first sang Onward,
Christian Soldiers" An address was made
by the Rev. JOSHUA YOUNG, D. D., now a
very aged man. who oflciated at BRowN's
funeral forty years ago. The descendant s
OF tho EPPs family, colored, whose an
cestors BROWN originally brought to
North Elba, sang the hymn There Is
Land That Is Fairer Than Day" tho same
that their grandparents had sung when
JOHN BROWN was laid away. 1t Is the hymn
which those familiar with the life Of JOHN
Brown will remember was the one that the
old fighter loved to rock his children
to sleep with. Bishop POTTER spoke very
briefly. being present only as a neigh
boring camper. Some Of Browns old
Ossawatomie troop in Kansas, a few white
haired, trembling old men, delivered ad-
dresses which are discreetly described as
"long." The mountain auditors sat mo-
tionless. never taking their eyes from the
| oldmen. and hearing nothing that they said.
The Rev. DR.. Young delivered the benedlc-
ton. small detachment Of soldiers from the
| Twenty-sixth Infantry at Plattsburg fred
down into one deep grave in the sombre
shadow OF Mount Marcy.
Judged by logical, everyday standards,
| JOHN BROWN had disordered mind and
he died as the fool dieth. In levylng war
single-handed against the State OF Virginia
he committed sort Of insane treason and
| he was properly condemned and executed
for it; while his project of establishing
a colony OF free and fighting negroes
along the submits Of the Blue Ridge
was little less preposterous. But the
truth Is that these so-called schemes
were merely pretexts for the deliberate
self-sacrif1ce Of himself and his devoted fol-
| lowers. Time. which brings sweet revengas
as well as terrible ones, and whose sleepless
and unerring fingers tear down many a
marble statue and put unfading roses upon
tho humblest brows, has long ago done
Justice to JOHN Brown. There under a
| granite boulder surrounded by his little
company, he sleeps to-day, not the greatest
or among the greatest, but the most in
spiring figure in American history.
When his friends offered to plan his
escape from the Jail at Harpers Ferry
JOHN Brown refused, saying. at will be
better not to live" Choosing tho exact
and fnteiul moment. he sought by his own
death, under circumstances OF e1traor-
| binary emphasis and consplcuousness
which appealed with overpowertng force to
the peculiar poetic ideals Of the American
people, to supremelystir those living north
OF Mason and Dizon's line In the anti
slavery cause.
In this the verdict OF history pronounces
him successful. He set the North on fire.
1t was like ARNOLD Won WNKELRIED gath
ering the spears Of the Austrian phalanx
into his own breast. but making a way for
his fellow soldiers; or, In even truer paral-
lei, like LATIMER bathing his hands in the
fame at the stake at Oxford and crying,
I'VE shall this day light such r candle In
England as, by Gods grace. trust, shall
mover be put out" Throughout the Civil
War, on all the long marches. above tho
camp firos and In the hospitals, there
foatsd over the, Federal army the twin
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