The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1902-01-30
MANY FINE
TRIBUTES PAID.
ChaS. F. FeChter Gets Some
Splendid Nagle Correspondence.
AN EXCERPT FROM ELOQUENT LETTER.
A Man High in Professional Life Wrnes
SympatieticaIly.
FORCE OF INTELLECT IS PUISSAN T
What Rugged Honesty, Fidelity of Purpose
Did for the Country
Boy.
An EXCERPT FROM ELOQUENT LETTER.
'ORcE OF INTELLECT IS PUISSANT T

Chas. F. Fechter is in receipt of many
letters f1om all sections of the country
showing in what profound estimation
people held the late John Nagle. The
following is an excerpt of letter from
a professional man, once ascholar under
John Nagle, but now eminent in his cal
ling:
John Nagle's span of life, not so
long, yet so rich in fruitage, is an inspir-
ing lesson, an all-prevailing encourage
ment to the honest youth of humble
origin. lowered by birth with health,
early taught by plain, God-fearing par
ents to love the truth, bred to the plow
and hoe, John Nagle achieved greatness
by sheer force of intellect. Men and
books were his college, and nature-the
signing of the trees the carol of the
birds, the whimple of the brooks, the
beauty of the shade grown flowers and
the grandeaur of law-abiding design,
We're his original research field-his
university
John Nagle's intense love for nature
and solitude and his too close com
munion with speculative ideals, made
him diffident and reserved to Il degree
of reticence toward all but his bosom
friends which We're very, very few.
Not unlike John Ruskin, with whom our
philosopher shared many peculiarities
Of style and habits, John Nagle's friend
ship was hard to win and easy to hold.
Fidelity was his cardinal virtue.
But it was after all as an educator
that John Nagles name will go down
on the scroll of-maY | say a lasting
fame? Not laundering amid the pomp
of national acclaim, but modestly, re-
luctantly, responding to the love and
pleading of those who understand.
Perhaps we are yet too near to John
Nagle to view his book in proper per-
spective, but as a heart to heart talk |
must confess to sense of sweet mystery
every time l read and re-read fragments
of his philosophy. Truly his was the
heart of Burns with the intellect of an
Emerson.
Many are the choice anecdotes his
early co-workers, now scattered over the
different states, filing the various pro-
fessions, love to recall when they meet
and talk over by-gone days. Here in
my home city there is strong bond of
common love common interest, among
those who knew John Nagle
In his newspaper life Mr. Nagle
never allowed himself to be drawn into
personal, acriminOus controversy. He
was good fighter, but he fought prin-
ciples, not men. On one occasion when
he was, without cause or proyocation,
viciously attacked by rival sheet he,
with his characteristic urbAnity, pres
ented the unfriendly editor with an
elementary text book on grammar, with
the remark that he could forgive him all
but his English
Superintendent Nagle's annual visit
to the back-woods school was always
epochmalling to the pupils, at least
and not infrequently to an indolent
teacher. On one of these visits Mr..
Nagle asked II little lad who he thought
was the greatest man in American his
tory. The answer came instantly:
George Washington On being asked
whether he knew any great living men,
the little fellows reply came with equal
promptness: Yes, John Nagle."