The news & observer., 1905-12-17
RANDALL'S PASSION FOR ART.
Story Of Brave Life Livei Against Odds, Nobly and
With Fortitude.
BY r. l.. GRAY.

dall is page in which the sorrows
and disapnointments are SO illumin
ated by unquenchable bravery and en-
thusiasm as to give the completed mar
rative the tone of that most perfect
tragedy which moves to it's curtain
with the definite touch of completion
in the incident of death. The soul of
tragedy after all. is personal courage
mixed with the faith that knowingly
and with appreciation of its impo-
tence faces the inevitable with a shout.
The dark waits for all. happy or sor-
roWful, weak Or strong. The mere
passing into the shadow is a common
place. When. hastened by fate along
the road, one sends back from the
dark laugh. defeat becomes achieve
ment Randall was so brave that
death must have been auologetic in
his presence.
A country boy. in dire poverty. un-
educated and stung with the half
baked resentment of youth against
hard conditions. Randall might have
made of his life an easy groove in
which. he would soon have calloused
against the perception of pain. AS it
was, with the fine defiance of his soul,
he chose deliberately to cultivate and
nourish the ability TO feel. In this de-
sign he acted with the instructive as
surance of self-knowledge. Another
man might shaVe counted the cost,
might have hesitated at difficulties.
Randall, in the mountains of Burke
county, with three dollars in his
pocket put his grip on his back and
walked from the valley of his life into
the world with the confident amaze of
child and the fire of a crusader.
Put face to face with unknown condi-
tions he walked uD to them with
modesty that was almost diffidence
and yet with the certainty in his heart
that he would cone with them in the
end. Through all his life. checkered
with disappointment and grief and
burdened with weakness of body, RAN
dali still kept fast to the secret of his
power waiting with infinite patience
for its recognition but satisfied in its
possession.
Consider yourself without means and
without friends going forever to a far
country because there. perhaps. there
may be happiness and content. How
would you go about it? What enquir-
les would one make. how the objec-
tions would present themselves, how
the doubts would crowd about How
would YOU go about it2 On whom
would you rely? How you would hesi-
tate and question and delay. Ram
uall knew the way JO go WAS TO pack
grip and leave. He went, this country
boy. out into the world to the Univer-
sity. He knew there one student
Somehow he seems to have hung to
him as the thread of his impertinence
in the face of odds. He had no money.
He was not prepared. He could not
even ride on the railroad. Yet he had
heard that the University was the
place to go to learn to be what one
III A1,nA Il rIo.t lN( bf FNnl
ace OF dreams in the midst of the des-
ert. Immeasurably was it far distant,
incalculable were it's difficulties. Yet
it was the concrete of ambition. And
the world after all was small. He
would walk. At least had God given
him legs. Time was but a speck in
eternity, distance a measure of miles.
The poor have plenty of time and toll
is the same the world over. In his
own account of these things Randall
states the facts without introspection.
Impulse is built on argument but it
leaves no trail 1t was simply a mat
ter of going, of weary trudging
through the cold over illimitable
roads. of cramped and chilling rest by
the wayside of the stolid determina-
ton which discards thought as so
much unnecessary luggage. 1t is only
the mon who are not used to battle
hict The real participants have been
too busy to remember more than the
inconseouential details. They are not
far enough away to catch the gran
deur Of the picture.
Yet it would be a fine thing to
translate the backward look of the
boy leaving home. to sound the sudden
chill which follows on the execution of
new purpose. to picture the strangl1ng
of the last doubt and the swallow in
the throat as he faced the road. Di-
vided as it is with crises. life faces
each recurring decision with peren-
nial sense of it's finality.
SO Randall came to the University,
timid and alone. Somehow he man
aged to stay. He worked and studied
and grew Under the influence or
brighter lives there wore away the OLD
idea of unjust discrimination, of re-
sentiment against his lot. He became
happy in feeling himself expand.
Faith came to him calm but glorious.
He worked and worked He endured
passively with knowledge that he
would succeed. His spirit softened
and glowed. His courage was no lon
ger stubborn and impulsive; it was a
still and patient light. Seeing that
he must wait, he believed the more in
himself as he perceived the difficulties
more clearly. AL the University as
during his whole life Randall was
frankly Door and as frankly proud.
He would do almost anything for the
little money that he needed but he
feared charity as he did nothing else
Yet even in his pride, he knew how to
receive and when to deny His graft
itude maintained its dignity; it inva-
riably involved q return. Randall was
hapDiest when he could give. His gifts
held the same wonder as his achieve.
mentS.
You must remember that this man
was an artist. Always he had sketched
and drawn nictures The mountains
spoke to him in parallels of beauty
through the evening mists the dim
outlines of their bulging crowns limited
to him the uniformed shadows of his
hopes. The streams told him the won-
der of their ceaseless variation OF
rythm. The colorS of the woods. the
vague tones of purple and grey dis.
tances, the poignant green of Spring.
time, the pure nakedness Of Winter,
the vivid glories of morning and sun
set spoke to him ceaseleSSly of color
and romance-told him with all the
seductive mystery of nature that, like