The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-07-16

An unusual tribute to Conductor Phil McRae. who died of apoplexy when ban dts held up the Louisville and Nashville New York-New Orleans express near Greenville last week, was paid yesterday by Dr. Henry M. Edmonds, pastor of the South Highlands Presbyterian church.
 Dr. Edmonds, during his pastorate in Montgomery, knew MT. McRae well, and he was a remarkable man. Speaking of his acquaintance with him. Dr. Edmonds said:
 Conductor Phil McRae who died when the Louisville and Nashville train was robbed south of Montgomery last Friday, was an unusual man.
 He had as many elements of nobility in him as any man I ever met. He had the directness and simplicity of children, the modesty of the saints, the courage and loyalty of the ideal soldier. He lived
 in the atmosphere of the old prophets and psalmists and of ancient hymns; but he had none of the hardness that is often breathed in with that air; the sermon on the mount was second nature to him.
 we have all seen the house shaken with his great laughter. He could not withhold one ounce of his 2S6 pounds when he laughed. I have feared on several occasions that he would burst blood ves- sel when somebody's good story or some train of amusing circumstances gradually mounted to a climax. And we have all seen his tears flowing down his wide face at the smallest suggestion of pathos. It was easy to touch his water box, as he used to say. We have all seen, too the
 laughter stop and the tears dry up before a flame of anger, when he met meanness or unworthiness. rare, irresistible com
 bipation of lovely quality was in old man Phil Simplicity and wisdom l strength and tenderness, humanity and heavenliness were mixed in him in won-
 drous fashion.
 "Somebody ought to write Captain Phils life. It ought to be told to show how splendidly a man can live in com paratively small place. It ought to be told for the simple reason that a char l acter like his ought to be embalmed and kept for a wider acquaintance than that which knew and loved him in the i flesh A proper biographer would re- late how he came up to Montgomery ;es a big, raw boy to begin his task, and | how he performed 1t, every iot and little, until the end: how he made friends; | how he gave and remembered not that | he gave; with what clear eyes he saw | life and God; how simply and quietly
 and honestly he lived; how gradually he | came into the lead of Masonic bodies, | how he loved the brethren, and with what unctions and moving voice he rolled out the mighty sentences and I sentiments of the rituals with what | humility and delicacy he conducted himself in his church relationship, and | how finally he was exalted to the elder
 ship in the Presbyterian communion. | The story teller would finger long over the scene of his first public prayer. He would tell how diffidently he consented to try, then how nervously he began how the coins and his knife rattled in | his pocket, as his fingers unconsciously | touched them. Then we would be made ] to hear again that voice, beginning in | the very bowels of the earth with. | Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling | place in all generations.' Our hearts
 would stand still again as he mounted
 on strong wing from peak to peak. find | ing entrance at last into the presence
 of the Most High Himself. And there he
 talked with God. And we wondered
 with wet eyes. The chapter on the way | in which he dealt with difficult prob
 iems and troublesome passengers on his
 trains would be worth the labor of all
 the book. The stories of his resourceful-
 ness, his patience. his sympathy, his
 the leniency that was never weak. aud
 the firmness that was never harsh, will
 be told up and down the road for years | to come
 "A real biography would rightly in-