The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-01-17
James Ryder Randall.

Augusta CnFonlcts, January 4o'
 Today the press of the world an- nounces the death of the author of My Maryland" and in common with all who have been touched by the words of this thrilling waF-song we pay tribute to its writer. But 1t is not as the poet that we who have long known him miss him most, nor or that genius of his that we wish to speak here, a. ny. earth for that other world for which he has so long striven to fit himself In his breast dwelt the heart of q child. unsullied by his passage through kept him clean and pure and sweet.
 There is not 8 man on The Chronicle today that does not treasure pleasant memories of this editor of past gen gan their service and most of them he has helped and aided in every way to follow along the lines in the profession he loved so well. Even to the last he loved to write and the aewspaper of leisure hours. He sought not display nor loved, as might be expected from one of whom much had been written. the blazonry of his name in type. He him and Sore with gentle patience worthy of a saint of the oiden days the rebuffs and sli1gs and arrows of fortune. Though his life lay not along Mained but accepted the lights and shadows as heaven-sent guides to the Eternal home. To have Known him is today q tender memory, for he was of from all others. He lived in the world but not of 1t and when he left 1t there departed Q benignity, 8 simplicity ot goodness as rare as if Is unappreciat- cause we knew him" and surely than this. higher tribute to worth is paid to few.
 editor of this paper and The Constitu- tionalist--a Chronicle predecessor-and wrote in prose words that gained added reh0wn for the writer of his famous poems. some of which I,i are one, though 1t is doubtless by this he will longest be remembered. He was 2 fluent writer and a serious one. When working lp his best vein ms copied all over the land, though grad ually he Became unappreeiated. Yet he never rallied at fate, bu9 bore him self nobiy and with. the same gentle of triumph. Only recently he was the feted' and admired 'Iion" of the state of Maryland and readers of The Chroni- cle are familiar with the tributes paid him in Baltimore and at Jamestown. It was the erowning recognition of his fame, yet a few days ago he returned to Augusta, which he had come to look upon as home, just the same ut- assuming. unpretentio1s. gentleman who had gone to be the guest of his native state.
 MT. Randall loved the South with an intensity unfathomed by those who had never seen him when he was aroused. Kept by weakly constttu- ton from serving the Confederaey as a soldier, his martial ardor found ex- pression in that deathless war chant, Maryland, My Maryland" In its beats the proud restiveness of the chained spirit pulses the loud alarum of the war drums, vibrates the deathless spirit of patriotism; 1t Is incentive, challenge, a paean of praise, call to arms, virile, masterly-sueh poem as only great crises can call forth, such e song as only a soul like Ran daIls can sing--a soul as gentle as a girl child's, yet thrilling with the Vigor of a tempestuAus manhood. That poem is Randall; It breathes the real man in every verse and 1t shall carry to posterity the spirit of the man who forget 1t. the South cannot. and ulti- mately the great United States cannot for 1t Is q rhyned glorification oi patriotism.
 James Ryder Randall sS dead. but in his song 1Iis spirit lives. and leaps and sings, and inspires and will continue to until long after oblivion has swept who sorrow at his passing today. But better than all this, must be to him the knowledge that it was not in vain that he subdued his strong spirit and made himself the Randall we have known in recent years, for he sleeps as one who has fought the good fight who has kept his falth--a gentle soul