The broad ax. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1895-19??, 1917-02-17

/ After a life replete with epoch-mark-
ing events, kaleidoscope in its changes,
filled with the plaudits of a multitude
of admirers, after having achieved I'M
dying fame, not through tame and
passive submission to conditions that
were bar to every desirable attribute
of true manhood, but through standing
firmly and aggressively for those
principles upon which are based all
worthy progress, and having left rec
ord Immortality emblazoned in the his
tory of men, Frederick Douglass passed
away at Anacostia Heights, District of
Columbia, February Goth, 1895, the
world losing one of her famous orators,
nation one of its great statesmen,
and race its greatest man.
What meaning and inspiration should
we derive from this life? What should
it typify to us and what of the quail
ties possessed by him should we strive
to emulate?
We know that he possessed patience
of the highest degree, patience of the
enduring kind that enable men to work
and worry, patience fed by an unalter-
able ambition to seek the substance in
stead of the shadow, patience without
which he would have succumbed early
in the struggle to climb out of the mi
asma of ignorance to the purified at
mosphere of intelligence.
And then there was logged deter
mination that knew no insurmountable
obstacle, that did not admit of vacil-
Iation and temporizing, a determine
cial bequest, would render more GER
tain our steps onward and upward to
the golden sunlight of equal opportu-
nifty. What else but determination
kept alive his ambition to learn, when
it was necessary to steal the time and
chalk and the reward of discovery was
certain and dire punishment What
else kept alive his dream of liberty,
when the lessons of his trade were be-
ing impressed with Oaths and blows
noted more for force than effective
ness!
Add to this a perseverance and ten
acity of purpose that knew not defeat,
but enabled him to concentrate upon
desired goal, and be the progress ev-
er so slow, never to give up or turn
aside until it had been attained, ten
acity that enabled him to face the most
bitter criticism and hostility without
fear in his heart. And this brings us
to one of the most renowned and ad-
mirable of his qualities, the moral and
physical courage of men.
My first boyhood memory of Doug
lass was when he was scheduled to
speak in a small Indiana town in the
early 90's. This event was declared a
county holiday. People for miles
around drove in with their typical
country vehicles, the town was crowd
ed, and the appearance of the grand
old man was a signal-fOr universal and
prolonged applause. How different
this reception contrasted with the one
accorded him on the occasion of his
first visit to this section just before
the civil war, when he faced one of
the most hostile audiences of his ca
reer, it being necessary to punctuate
his address with various blows of self
defense, in order to maintain his pres
ence on the platform, and when at last
his speech was prematurely ended by
final rush of his assailants, the
doughty Douglass welded his trusty
hickory with such an effect that when
he went down at one end of the club,
goodly number had fallen at the
other. This was the beginning of the
deep and profound respect which the
Hoosier state has ever since enter
tanned for Frederick Douglass.
His was the courage that did not re-
main silent or hesitate in denouncing
evil when great moral principles were