The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-18
COLUMBIA HONORS THE MEMORY
 OF EDITOR NARClSSO C. GONZALES


 here to note that they deprived him or the comprehensive culture of sys- tematic and sustained education under expert teachers. Like many anotheI noble aspiring boy of that sad, dark period. he was forced to forego the ad- vantages that are often now so light ly esteemed and so poorly improved by the youth of our land. He was in n large sense, self-educated. but nattve ability and virile character did much 10 compensate the great lack. One cannot help wondering what he would nave been had fortune been kindlier to him and allowed him to spend the years from 10 to 21 in an uninterrupted study in the best schools and colleges. in |, stead of in a battle for self-support and for the maintenance of loved ones dependent upon him and upon his oider brother. We must bear in mind this handicap in the race of life under which he labored. if we would do him justice. What he might have been we cannot tell, what he was we know full we'll.
 Reflect, if you please. upon the fer tility and versatility of mind that can put forth from. one to three columns of matter seven days in the week, the capacity to furnish without fail Its reg ular morning gxist every day in the week, day after day, week after week, month after month for twelve long years The mere volume Is something startling when you think of It.
 Consider also the character of this vast volume of matter; its uniform thoughtfuiness. the high level of its sustained ability and it's unfailing vigor Permit me to say that l was regular reader of his editorials. Often differed from him. sometimes very widely, but he never failed to command my respect for three constant charac- teristics: The seriousness of his atti- tude; the sincerity of his conviction; the clearness and force with which he set forth his views.
 He was a man of extraordinary mem tai vigor and of very marked moral force. His style. too. was very unu- sual; simple. dignifled, clear. forceful and remarkably pure and correct.
 AS have intimated I read habituaf- ly the major part of his editorials and I wish to say that If in all our South land he had his superior as an editor. 1t has not been my privilege to know the man: in my judgment he was far and away the foremost of such as came within the range of my reading. and this primacy he obtained before he had reached the full maturity of his pow CTS.
 His Browning Claim.
 We have been passing in review tho salient points of Mfr. Gonzales's char acter; we have found him a man of indomitable pluck, of great bravery. of high moral courage, of very exception al ability. But the possession of these characteristics alone, though each in an eminent degree, cannot account for the unusual honor conferred upon him: such qualities are fortunately not so rare among us that we need signalizo the possession of them by such a me- morial as this. We must go further to explain this tall shaft.
 We have already noted the fact that he held no public office, but lived and died a private citizen. He was as far removed from the politician as a man could well be, both in tastes and in habits. He was no man to mix with the crowd, the centre of an admiring throng of "heelers:" no hail-fellow- well-met with the multitude.
 Nor yet was he gatherer of hand picked fruit from the trees of popular favor; never the man to button ole | the individual, as a curb-stone broker | of politics, State or municipal; he had neither desire nor gifts for such effi- 1 ciency. Cannot you recall his figure l familiar to us as he went in and out | among us during those years of force | full service? You have often seen him walking down the street, usually alone; | quiet, reserved, dignifled, self-contain- ed; seeking no companionShip inviting | no condolences and imparting none; thinking his own thoughts. forming his own purposes. keeping his own coun- sel; near-sighted, with the usual aloor- ness or occasional intentness of look that uniformly accompanies this par ticular defect of vision; but, however myopic in bodily sight, acute and far ranging in mental vision, overlooking
 nothing and alert to every public in- terest. For. while a private citizen, he l was very eminent citizen. a pure pa triot. loving his State with intense de- | votion, proud of her traditions and | jealous for her honor with the sensi- | tive jealousy of a lover; a man of | broadest public spirit, always awake and alive to everything that made for the material or moral advancement of the Commonwealth or of the city. Be- | ing such as we have described, quiet | reserved, self-contained, how did his patriotism and public spirit find ex- | pression? % Though silent beyond many with the