The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-07-02

key school. Duty
problem, but belongs
Iii conscience, and an at
bore it by pleading lack Of
unity help is a weak effort to cover
deliberate betrayal OF sacred trust
Education is parental duty and cannot
be anything else. 1t cannot be made a
political task. The further it is removed
from the parental conscience the more
feeble it becomes in its methods and
ideals. and the less concern for it is felt.
Compulsory education is righteous
policy, but it should be the compulsion
Of a parental conscience instead OF the
compulsion of the law. 1t was in the
home that Robert O. Burton got his pr-
mary education.
He was only four years old when his
mother died, so he grew to manhood with
out the knowledge and benediction Of his
mothers love. Standing at the gate of
his childhood home through which he
was about to pass into the world of
harder tasks, no mother enters the scene
with her kisses and final words OF warn
ing. He was ready for college, but in the
disasters of war all the property left by
his mother and intended for the expenses
of her children's education had been lost.
The young fellow was ready without
purse, condition when poverty seems to
hinder progress. However opportunity is
rather a question of personal character
than favorable circumstances. Men who
have been nursed in the Lap OF depend
ence hunt easy tasks and feel themselves
fully excused for any failure growing out
of the lack of a ready and bountiful purse
but such weakness made no appeal to
young Burton. His mother had left him
money but it was gone: she also left
him a strong spirit and it was in full
strength. Her babe had come to young
manhood, and his soul was full OF faith
and purpose. Such man can go any
where a true man should desire to go.
Mr.. Burton did not belong to that class
OF students who led in the social life Of
the college. He was a worker. He had
the elements of a college leader, but his
energies were directed toward other ends.
Like Phillip Brooks in Harvard all hon
ored him as a man moving in real above
the common student Just what such
man means to a college can only be
known by those who have seen him and
felt him on the campus. There is some
thing of the mysterious about him, for
he seems to be the centre Of a great
secret This class of men do not dislike
company, but to them success does not
lie in the multitude they may gather
about them. The individual to them is
a universe in which all movements take
place, and young Burton was Of this tyre.
Robert o. Burton became leading law
yer. and many Of the wisest members Of
his profession regarded him, at the time
of his death, the leading lawyer of North
Carolina. The historical facts of his life
as a lawyer are few and simple. He was
admitted to the bar and practiced law at
Halifax for fifteen years, when he moved
to Richmond, Virginia, thinking it Of
fered him better opportunities. He re-
manned in Richmond one year, and then
came back to North Carolina and located
in Raleigh. where he died December o.
1900. The growth Of his practice from
the small interests trusted to a young
lawyer to the large and intricate prob
lens of corporations that tested the SUI
preme Court is a matter Of detail in
voved in the growth of the man and
explainable in those traits that made him
what he was. Robert Burton was the
cause of his own success. Some men sue
coed by chance, some by manipulation.
some by questionable shrewdness, and
some by the power of pesonality. This
last alone brings genuine success. What
comes from personal strength of mind
and character comes to stay. In the
world there is no energy that is higher
than that which goes into true character,
and what the world gets from it stands
as its best possession.
The leading element of strength in this
man was moral force. He had a high
order of mind the chief type of which
was massiveness. It's movements were
massive and it carried within it's grasp
wide sweeps of thought. 1t was not
quick in action, but, like great machine,
there was an apparent hesitation before
energy could be brought to pro-
duce movement He paused, there was
far away look, then a moment of resist
ance, a ,kindling of the eye, and in slow
and measured terms he began to speak.
All Of the preliminasics were explained
when his mind moved-they were the
preliminaries necessary to the motion OF
a massive nature. Many men thought
him unnecessarily quiet, but he could
not avoid it AS we'll blame the Missis-
sippi river for the stiffness with which
it pours it's waters into the Gulf. But be-
hind this mind was a moral force that
gave it energy and direction. The worlds
have been Indifferent to the
value of moral power in high intellectual
action. They assigned it to the sphere
Of social conduct, and attributed to 1t
the quality of goodness. But mind, high
order of mind, that has not behind it the
q pics of moral character moves in a
below the highest, and will never
all of it's resources and reach its
hts till driven upward by the
moral energy. In intellect
far superior to Luther, but
had no great character to
"a to the loftier regions OF
and Milton illustrate the
indeed, 1T needed proof
they may be found any,
myth of reason manifest
of logic is not the same
IS as when it is moved
inspiration into a re-
lsions are no longer ac-
authoritative truth. |
stood before jury or
Supreme Court all felt
no r,rO !