Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1910-09-23

preston of his marked talent for
drawing.
Coming into the drugstore which
this scribe was then running, with
that frank and contiding mannerism
which ever marked his course and
accounts largely for the rapidity
with which he secured so wide cir
Gle of friends Leonard Childs form
ed an acquaintance with US at once
mutually agreeable and which with
the run of the years has ripened into
a deep and abiding friendship which
his removal from earthly associations
has only temporarily interrupted
Why and how this seemingly sim
pie country boy could unobStrusively
The was always polite and not Butt
lnsky) ingratiate himself into he
high esteem aud confidence of every
gifted persOl with whom he come in
contact, was continuous puzzle to
those who had failed through lack of
familiarity with history and biogra-
phies of the great personages of
earth all along down the centuries,
to get acquainted with that unerring
and somewhat mysterious truth, that
GENIUS knows no social or age dis
tinctiOnS in that common and subtle
affinity which has always drawn
painters, poets, orators, statesmen,
authors, sculptOrS, inventors, ar
lists, musicians, scientists, scholars,
savants and pulpiters together as
evidenced by the banquetting boards
of old where such diversified genius
es met regardless of clste or condi
tions and RECALLED themselves by bask-
ing in that urdefinable charm which
like some delicious odor flows out
from one to another to mutually
please and inspire.
This genOus boy felt the impulses
of his nature stirred to such gravita-
tions both to the Lying great and
the dead. The former was by his
actions known and read of all men;
the latter it was our gracious prlvi-
lege to know and somewhat direct in
his sitting at the feet of the Great
Masters dead and gone, or beyond his
circle to reach if awe, in their
books Thanks to the art of writino,
there has been preserved to pOsterl-
ty great deal of that which partic-
ularly distinguished many of the
great men of antiquity and those
through the ages since Embalmed in
books lie some of the richest intellec-
tuaE and choicest spiritual treasures
which God has seen fit to entrust to
mankind. Into these Leonard prod
ded with faithful and apprOpriating
zeal. The sciences, the arts, mechan-
les and the whole field of letters and
realm of spiritual matters enthralled
him and absorbed such time as he
could snatch from the ordinary du-
ties and his school text books.
In the school-room be was one of
the most punctual and faithful boys
When the school bell rang be was
either there, or hurrying on the way
with good excuse for tardineos,
and if kept away at all, for reasons
which rose superior TO his attend
ance. He had the most burning
thirst for knowledge, in fact that
stood out DIS one of the paramount
traits of character that distinguish
ed him from the ordinary youth.
though excepting the studies of
mathematics and map drawing, the
duties of student bore heavily upon
him and it was only by the
play of his indominatabe will
that he forged along through the
dugged maize of rudimen tary educa-
ton. His private reading was much
more congenial to him and pursued
with greater speed and ec.at than
the necessary prodding elemen taries
of the school-room.
He laboured under difficulties in
the classroom hard to appreciate by
his fellow students, for they could
not realize the lack of early training
and continuous favoring home envi-
ronment, which it was his misfor
tune to have missed. To illustrate:
He did not have opportunity to
learn his letters till he had gone
several years past the age at which
tie average american child is taught
them, and then he familiarized him
self with them on his own iniative
without any assistance whatever, by
taking a book and hunting out and
into clay every letter in the
alphabet, WHICH memorials of that
first struggle with written language,
are still-preserved among the effects
of his childhood days. In this respect
we consider him ahead of anybody
we ever heard or read of; Abraham
Lincoln rose under tremendous dis
colraging circumstances but we do
not think he started unaided quite
that low dowr, in climbing the lad
der of inteliectualism.
So pronounced was, his genius
that it rendered him as it has done
SO many who have enjoyed the gift