The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1915-11-23

No man in Richmond is better quail
fed to talk about Booker T. Washing
ton that the Rev. J. P. Wallace, at
whose church memorial services were
held Sunday night to honor the men,
DRY of the dead leader of the negro
race.
Mr.. Wallace and DR.. Washington
were friends for twenty years, and his
remarks concerning the friend who
has passed to the great beyond are
interesting. Rev. Wallace said:
Most of the grand characters Of
ante-bellum days have passed, and
the others are swiftly being removed
from the stage of action. Many of
their labors are now records of his
tory. But in the passing, as grand
and noble as many have been, no
stroke of death has removed a nobler
or more useful character than Booker
T. Washington.
'In his death a character of world
wide reputation passed. This country
lost one of it's most useful and fore
most citizens. The colored people lost
their most distinguished advocate and
defender. His life was all the more
remarkable, because he was product
of ante bellum day-a slave boy.
uC SLcp LIOIu SldVcIy " a CAd1 az
ter of worldwide reputation, to one of
the foremost citizens of this large,
wealthy. populous country is simply
a stride unreasonable and hardly con-
ceivable. Times and conditions gave
the opportunity to the large, noble soul
of Washington, touched with the spirit
of DR.. Hawkins, who was the noblest
of the New England type, and by Gen.
eral Armstrong, who was the son of
an early missionary to Hawaii, and
born on the island, furnished the inspi-
ration to Washington. The New Eng
land purity and the missionary zeal,
reinforced by tutors of self-sacrificfng
women of the abolitionist and Puri-
tanic stock fired the soul Of Washing
ton with zeal to Go thou, and do
likewise and touched as he had been
by the cruel curse of slavery, having
tasted it's baneful influence, he forgot
self and began living for others.
"As Moses, General Washington and
Lincoln was born characters of des-
tiny, so was Booker Washington. He
became a Moses to his race and a
Lincoln to his country Schooled in
Egyptian bondage, the burning bush
was ever before him to inspire his
courage. and the pillar of cloud and
fire led him on to certain success.
HE knew no Alps too high to climb,
nor no valley of despair too deep to
descend Nor was there a night SO
dark but what the pillar of fire cast
halo of hope and light on its horizon.
Difficult tasks which would have daunt-
ed the average mans courage, were
but incidents and spurs to his success.
He knew no disbursement. accepted
no defeats. He believed where there
was will there was way He sat
rot down to weep in despair. He had
a message that was burning in his
stu,-as the fire burned in Isaiah's
n 4cs.- With this message and I'M
(auHtc courage he knocked at closed
doors. His courage and faith in God
and man drew the bolts, loosened the
lars and opened the doors which made
Tuskegee possible. He raised from
his individual efforts over $15O,000 per
year to run the school, besides a ST.
100000 endowment and 100000 of
property value. His message was the
voice of 100000 outraged freedmen
who were innocent victims of the cruel
institution of slavery. Their cry was
no longer freedmen but an oppor-
tunity for a better, higher and nobler
life-a mans chance. No race ever
had a leader who was truer to his