The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-18

and directed by the energy and ffsight of Barnas Sears and !. l.. M. Curry, ex- pended, in stimulating ways, themselves, the sum of $z.47s,sN.1s. No more impress sive evidence of the influence of thls fund and of the monumental work of Curry and Sears can be found than in Q plain recital of these facts.
 Tn every one of the Southern States today there is . public system of schools more or less complete. To bring this to pass a war-stricken region has expended l66 millions of dollars. Normal and in- dustrtal schools for both races, sustained by general and local taxation, exist in every State. Thirty great institutions of higher learning have been revived or es- tablished. Five thousand Southern boys are studying technological subjects where ten studied them in 1873. Practically all cities or towns of 5000 population main tain school system from which boys and girls may pass to college. The per- centase of illiteracy for the white race in the twelve Southern States has been re- duced from s6 per cent to 1e per cent, and of the colored race from S7 per cent to 62 per cent. And greater than all this, generous and triumphant public senti- ment has been aroused that will make these performances seem feeble in an- other decade. Can 1t be claimed that ever
 
 much good was accomplished as has been accomplished by the expenditure of this $2,47s, 5N.1s plus the heart and brain of men like Curry and Sears and their col- leagues and followers?
 Tt was given to Curry to see Southern Governors from Montague to Heard. hold ing educational mass meetings, and to know the time when, if a responsible man lived. who opposed the idea, of public education. he. at least. had learned the trick of holding his tongue. He had watched and tended the growth of con- science about public education and sys- pathy for and interest in the plain man; and he could not fail to see the oncoming of greater efficiency and exactitude of thinking and more scientific interest in all social phenomena
 Dr. Curry's Americanism.
 'The most vivid impression I always received of pr. Curry was his intense and complete Americanism. He had be- lieved in his youth. in the ethics, at least. of secession. He did not change that belief in his old age Calhoun was second only to Aristotle in his regard, and yet he was the most ardent American l have ever personally known. The flag stirred his highest eloQuence, the great unrended nation, with its needs, It's dreams, its perils. its ideals. appealed to him like nothing else on earth. His was the first voice to declare that there was no place for a Helot in our American sys- tenn, and that the negro must be trained properly for life in this nation. He was among the first to urge common sense as against sentimentality in the education of the negro. He denounced vehemently the proposition to divide them for educa- tional purposes on the basis of race as un-American, undemocratic, unchristian, unwise. He 1t was who first pointed out that the strategic point of the whole edu- cational battle was the untaught white man and his child. He 1t was the first to thunder out to colleges and universi- ties that education was one whole thing, and that the colleges and universities must come out of their isolation, and, un- der the operation of the principle of the 'noblesse oblige,' lead the fight for the education of all the people. He made the world know something of the courage and patience and self-reliance of the Southern struggle for seif-realization, and he made the world believe that there was strength and purpose enough in this people to solve their own problems with justice and wis., dom.. In the discharge of all these du- ties of the pioneer and the propagandist, no man in America since Horace Mann has shown such energy and enthusiasm ds .. A1' 33. SuEty' r1e nau the genus for giving himself out, and the equipment of intellect and temperament necessary for his many.sided duties. Before the Legislatures of every State. from the Po- tomac to the Gulf, from college platforms, in great national gatherings, by country crossroads, and in little villages wherein some impulse stirred 8 community to bet ter it's life. his voice was heard for twenty years. frf'
 T saw him for the first time in 1883. A thriving North Carolina town was propos- ing to tax itself for adequate school facil- ities. This was not then an everyday oc- currence in North Carolina. Curry stood before them and plead with passion and power for the children of the community. remember how he seized a little child impulsively and with dramatic instinct placed his hand upon his curly head and pictured to the touched and silent throng the meaning of a little child to human society. It was the first time had ever heard man of such power spend himself SO passionately in such a cause. It seem- ed to me, and to all young men who heard him. that here was a vital thing to work for. here, indeed, a cause to which a man might nobly attach himself. feeling sure that, though he, himself, might fail. the cause would go marching Erandly on.
 @1A 4AoRAA@A6 &SAeSAAR&Os
 And now what Is the lesson of thie sincere life, for we are not here this evening to mourn Dr. Curry or to recount in formed fashion the details of his life or to enumerats his specific achievements I know of no happier life than pr. Cur rvs. There is not an earnest man here who does not thrill at the thought of living such a life of work and of mak- ing such an end of triumph. We do. in- deed, sorrow with her to whom his daily presence meant strength and joy. We do indeed. miss him here and everywhere we miss the tonic of his unconquerable youth, his noble mien and presence. the vibrant tones of his voice. the old-fash- toned eloquence ouh.of the heart, the garnered wisdom <an@ experience. the sympathy. the vitality, and holiness of the man. My own heart has a sense of loneliness for loss of him, for loved him as men love one another as the younger man sometimes loves the elder, who has reached out to him warm, strong hands of sympathy. helping him thus to live .loyaIly with his higher self and who has stood to his sight an embodied ideal But we wage not any feud with death It is the commonplace of life. Ii is taught everywhere in nature and in literature, by the bright-winged ephemera that Hutter apout ih Ihe soiuen sunsnlne after the spring rains. and by the sol emn imagery running through human writing wherein life Is likened to the fly ing cloud, the stuff of dreams, the flee. ing shadows and the vapor that vanisheth away, The strongest of us all shall short. ly. as time runs, be otherwise, even as our dead friend and leader, and the chil- dren playing in the fields shall stand ir our places doing the worlds work Mat. thew Arnold. in Dover Beach, calls hi. = nd hid. ho,.