The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-09-24
Walter 4. Jackson-An Appreciation
by WIn. l. Christian.

To the Editor-Keferring 20 a per-
sonal and tender letter recently re-
cetved from you in connection. then.
with the illness or your late ueRs
editor. Mr. Waiter =. Jackson. I did
not know then what 70 say-bccaase
he Was still alive. But ! do now
ecaus he IS dead. l learn OF Aa
death today after an absence OF two
weeks from the goo genuine heart
OF my brilliant BOY. Bob Gray. ~ your
issue or September 1Et I ave read
every line Of what Bob Gray wrote
Doubtless few or your readers kuss
of whom he was writing For Jack
son was at the telegraph desk where
the unknown bring 10 life In the
newspaper world most that Is IN
known
The first time ] met vas
when he am into the News and OBJ
server office for a job. ! was then
alone. Everything Was against him
in appearance. his clothes We're
shabby, his eyes were somehow
averted. his face was sunken and
sallow and there was a physical
weakness and lack OF strength. tone.
in the voice that fails TO make one
look around twice. And Vt there
was something about this man that
did make me look around twice !
looked at the thinness or his legs and
the uncertainty ! knew he
itil dl the answer 10 ms dppllC2AAbI
for a job. ! looked at the humility OF
his face. and in the next instant ]
caught a beautiful sincerity stamped
there. his forehead was broad. his
imagination too accumulated for prac-
teal newspaper work. thought ]. but
there was about the man a certain
simple pathos and an uncertain force.
of which l knew nothing; for !
had never seen him before. the
force / felt sure was too uncertain to
be trusted at a telegraph desk. but he
went there as my discovery" as Joe
Daniels and / used TO call him. He
was a detected figure. for night after
night and month after month until
the early morning. with never a word
except a word that was humble with
his deep consciousness OF his own ig-
norance coupled with that patho~ that
had touched me from the first time
/ had seen him. l did not think at
first he would make a practical man.
but he did. His feat was one of the
greatest triumphs I have ever met
with. ] had sat at that desk myself
night after night reading 10000
words Of proof, each night. besides
writing some Sunday stuff, and /
knew how close 1t had TO be. the
reading, punctuation. p~aragraphing
and the judgment necessary 10 put out
his ind to put in that. l wondered
If my discovery" was going TO please
Joe Daniels.
The lamps, then. kept shining in
his pale face cleaning with the per-
SEPARATION of weakness. He thought
that did not see It, but / did.
That was Jackson as he came
and now, dear chap, is gone. Long
after I left the News and Observer,
he was then sitting at the window
late at nights as l happened to be
passing on the way to the Union sta
ton at Raleigh. I never failed to
stop and look in on im-th same
brave pathos was there in his face
becoming more Settled-tOo settled
for a man of his high ervou tenn
peram ent. the same brave repression
of feeling which was the basis of his
pathos was there, the same sweet
ness Of character and splendid umi
ity-I say splendid, because humility
is scarcely ever splendid. He worked
night after night and cid as much
to make the News and Observer as
any other man who was ever on II.
The honesty and efficiency of his
work as the months went came more
and more to light. lie was a man
whom l loved and later loved all the
more ecaus with the same splendid
and brave humility he failed to tell
me of those who were looking to him
for bread and water and shelter.
He was a man who under prope
conditions would have made a brill
liant writer. He was q gentleman of
whom North Carolina may always be
proud. AS a co-worker with me, l
remember him with as tender a love
IS any man l ever knew.
May God keep in III hearts Of those
whom he left the same sweetness for
his memOry as those who knew him
under greatest stress feel for it now.
remember a line from Keats:
Even the bees-1he almsmen of
spring bowers,
know there's richest juice in poison
flowers"
And out Of his Gethsemane-"clean
forspent" Walter Jackson walked a
man into the presence of his Maker
w r HRISTTA