The news & observer., 1905-12-31

genuinely great and with which no
man can be really little.
Ability.
Something deserves TO be said of
Mr.. Gonzales ability as a thinker ana
writer. In another connection allu-
sion has been already made to
the circumstances of his youth ana
early manhood We refer to those
deprived him of the comprehensive
culture of a systematic and sustained
education under expert teachers. Like
many another noble aspiring boy OF
that sad, dark, period, he was forced
to forego the advantages that are
often now so lightly esteemed and SO
poorly improved by the youth of our
land He was in a large sense self
educated, but native ability ana Vlrlle
character did much to compensate the
great lack. One cannot help Won
dering what he would have been had
fortune been kindlier to him and al
lowed him to spend the years from
10 to 81 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
older brother. We must bear in mind
this handicap in the race of life un-
der 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 it's
regular morning grist 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
thoughtfulness, the high level IF its
sustained ability and it's unfailing
vigor. Permit me to say that l was
regular reader of his editorials. Of
ten 1 differed from him, sometimes
very widely, but he never failed to
command my respect for three con-
stant characteristics:
The seriousness of his attitude.
The sincerity of his conviction.
The clearness and force with which
he set forth his views.
He was a man of extraordinary
mental vigor and of very marked NOR
al force. HIS style, too, was very
unusual; simple, dignified, clear.
forceful and remarkably pure and
correct.
AS / have intimated, I read habi-
tually the major part of his editor
ials, and l wish to say that if in all
our Southland he had a superior as an
editor it 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 ma
turity of his powers.
His Crowning Claim.
We have been passing in review the
salient points of Mr.. Gonzales char
acter; we have found him a man of
indomitable pluck, of great bravery,
of high moral courage, of very excep-
tional ability But the possession of
these characteristics alone, though
each in an eminent degree cannot ac-
count for the unusual honor conferr-
ed upon him: such qualities are for
tunately not so rare among us that we
need signalize the possession of them
by such memorial 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 we'll be- both in tastes and in
habits. He was no man to mix with