The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-11-30
A MEMORY OF THE BoYHooD
 OF TENNENT LOMAX

Exquisite music triumpant and tende. rose last Sunday over the bier of dis tinguished son of Alabama when Mrs Bonnet Griffin's pure, clear voice was heard by a vast congregation assembled to pay the tribute of lament and praise to Tennent Lomax resonant and heart reaching, vibrant with eternal hope, rang clear the undying words: T know that my Redeemer nveth-and that I shall see God"
 To one listener, grey with the passing years and their sorrows, the music rolled back the shadows and flooded a day that Is dead with light. As she sat near the casket and chancel laden with native wreaths and flowers. memory flew back to the period of his earliest school life, when in Dr. Cox's female seminary in Mont gomery, very young boys being admitted to primary grades, Tennent was little pupil whose-morning face-as he enter ed with book and slate was a daily in- spiration to his teacher and joy to his classmates. This greyhaired woman of the present was then one of the big girls in an upper class, and to her music teacher the young geography learners re- cited directly after the close of her sing ing lesson: now would the teacher termi- nate the music abruptly as the little fellows filed in and waited. disturbed, puzzled and possibly bored, to have their coming of the earth's maps ignored while a big girl was vocalizing! One boy. little Tennent. serene with consciousness of les sons mastered, gave always respectful attention to the closing music lesson, sometimes a pleased attention. On those days when the ambitious singer was striving not to divorce the wondrous melody and words of the glorious an- them Mrs. Griffin sang last Sunday, II know that my Redeemer loveth"'-this lit- tie boy would sit silent in rapt interest listening, the forgotten book closed In his lap, elbow on knee and chin on hand in boyish fashion. his face lighted up and deep eyes glowing, making picture that lived in the memory of the girl who was old enough to recognize genius In child's face-a picture that come back vividly and with a rush of tenderness when that same song was sung at tho closing scene of a career which had fulfilled every promise of his boyhood and satisfied the pride of the fondest of mothers. What like music has power to hold associations that carry us back and make us live again past scenes? And what can so lift our souls toward Heaven?
 She remembered, too, a later time when she had asked the aid of MT. Lomax the statesman in a god cause reminded him
  a child She remembered his reply mark ed by the chivalric courtesy and generosi- ty which entered in his private and public life-the assurance of his pleasure In serving one "to whom he had given Hve-long respect"
 While the State mourns a faithful ser want, and Montgomery a loyal citizen it is his old friends of whose youth he was a part; it is the companions at the State University who saw him win first honor, the young men who companioned him when he earned the medal in the law class. and the women living here who watched the boy grow to manhood, 1t is they who best realize how sad is the home where his mother sits with memo ries of the earlier and later years of the son gone before to join the father for whose loss she was to him all that en- dowed mothers are to worthy sons.
 Her sorrow is their sorrow.
 K. H. M.