The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-18
fContinued from Page Five.)

he had argued that grave responsibili- ties and great interests here demand d his personal attention and limited hig support of the Cuban cause to the influence of his forceful pen. no req sonabie man could have questioned the propriety of his course. For myself. felt that the course he did pursue was not justified by the circumstances. He was more needed here than there. ana to have his brilliant career terminated by a Mauser bullet in Cuban jungle would have been a lamentable waste. public calamity. Thus I reasoned. and so considered his course anything but wise! The course he pursued was characteristic of the man. I doubted the wisdom--but I admired the man in this as In many other instances Of like character.
 I have marked the act as character istic. by which I mean that though the incident was a mere episode. the spiril that found expression through 1t was not episodic; 1t was the constant. um form spirit of the man. The severe criticisms of his editorial course all in- yolve this To establish this fact oe- vond question, we have only to recall the emphatic declarations of his crit ics Was it not asserted or assumed over and over again by those unfriend- ly to him that when a man wrote as he did that he took his life in his hand? Was it not claimed with great vehemence and insistence that such was the universally recognized factE
 He it so, then; we shall not quarrel with the alIegation--particular since the event seems to have justfned the position. We shall refer to 1t only 10 draw the inevitable, irrefutable infer ence-his enemies themselves being fudges--he was a consistently brave man. physically brave, who constantly rislxed danger and death without finch ing.
 Moral Courage.
 But physical courage Is universally ronsidered a lower form of this admir-. able trait. What Is his claim to that higher form which men denominatc moral courage? The spirit that stands for one's convictions in the face or crit icisn and condemnation, misrepresen- tatiou: that accepts censure when one craves approval. blame when one mer- fts uraise, abuse when one deserves ap- ria,se. and vet stands steadfast to ones own conception of duty. Had he fhe grit to espouse and maintain the unpopular cause7 No one who knew our iamented friend can deny him the xneed of this high praise. the posses sion and the exercise or tnis noo,er Sorr, of cotirage was his abundantly; he made this amply evident over and over again. There were times when ne stood almost alone, there may have been instances in which he stood aoso- lutely alone. unsupported. save only ny his own individual convictions of duty and responsibility under the circum- stances of his peculiar position, when he proved himself ready to sacrifice every personal advantage. yea far more than this, to inperil the whole fabric that he had been so long laboring to build up under manifold dificulties and dfscouragements. There could scarce iy have been a more utter ignoring Of policy; he seemed never for a moment to. consider the effect or failure of his paper as a business enterprise. Often he must have penned editorials in the certain knowledge that he was alienat- ing support by the expression of his opinion. Sometimes the probable re- suit would be the loss of a whole sec tion. This was so noticeable that many predicted certain failure on account of
 That he was blind to what was so obvious to all others no one can be- lieve for a moment; but he gave no in- dication of sight. Men might stop the paper might threaten his life. should he ever appear in their community. might burn him in effigy-but change him they could not, nor alter one ex- pression, nor soften one word. On he went outwardly indifferent alike to re- monstrance from friend or reproach or foe, calm, strong. serene. resolute. self poised on the rock-ribbed. granite foundation of a conviction deep and broad, that had its own invincible courage. its own indomitable determi- nation to 'hew to the line Jet the chips fall where they may"
 Fellow citizens. you know that draw no fancy sketch. The bitterest enemy of N. G. Gonzales could not question this characteristic. and chal- lenge any, true man to deny that in 1t lies the essence of noble heroism, without which no man can be genuine ly great and with which no man can be really little.
 Some thing deserves to be said of MT. Gonzales's ability as thinker and writer. In another connection allusion has been already made to the circum- stances of his youth and early man. hood. We recur to those circumstances