The Covington leader. (Covington, Tenn.) 18??-current, 1917-11-01
AMBETIoN AND AcHIEYEAlENT

IN their youthful days Mr. C. Har-
ris Brown, the brilliant Young edi-
tor of the Jeckson Sun, and Rev. H.
ris brown, the brilliant young eii-
odist minister. who lately came from
Emory College and has taken charge
Of 09. J /. Weber'5 church in Jack
soa while that eminent divine il ab-
sent in us. Army camp, were play
mates and scho0lmates in COvington.
where the happiest years of both their
lives were spent. Nj Brown made
Covington his home fol- 4 number Of
years and in his youth gave promise
of the useful and bright career which
he is now fulfilling. Mr.. Rose is a
native of this county, and an Of his
life was spent here until he decided
10 enter the ministry and went to
Emory College to prepare himself
for his great ealdng. He, too. gives
bright promise Of making a name for
himself. Mr.. Brown lately went to
hear his old chum a6acll from the
pulpit he is filling ini jackson and
this is what he had to say about it in
a recent editorial in the Sun:
I'VE went to hear him preach Sun
day this young minister Who mas come
into our midst to fill the pulpitof the
elderly pastor who has gone into
United States army camp to bear the
cross among 10000 men. We had seen
him before, but not I'M the pulpit
Twelve or fifteen years ago IN the
county seat of a small county border
ing on the Mississippi river he was
growing up with the weeds that lined
the street upon which the houses of
our respective parents stood. When he
was not busy growing up with the
weeds he was wrestling with the
value of X or trying to ascertain
why Caesar insisted on dividing Gaul
into three parts. Ng
But if some one had said then that
this tow-headed playmate and com
panion would ever occupy the pulpit
Of a big church in a cityjbf 20 900
people we would not have stopped at
the tame expression of calling our in
formant falsifier. Out in the wood
shed in a rainy dav conference he
had repeatedly told us Of his inten-
ton to become tight-rope walker
in circus.
Had he not tried it out on two
plow-handle ropes tied together, and
stretched from the henhouse to the
garden gate? 1t was in those wood
shed conferences that he impressed
us fiImly with the dignity of the pro-
fession of tight rope walking and the
everlasting honor of being connected
with circus that he came very near
winning us over.
"And now he is preaching. How far
removed from early boyhood dreams!
1t was Grantland Rice who said
"Boyhood dreams OF manhood and the
world that lies. beyond,
"A, ceaseless roameF upon the earth,
a care-free vagabond."
"Thus it was on those Sunday af-
ternoon swimming trips or the jaunt
at daybreak with rare bird eggs as
the objective that he felt his territory
too badly circumscribed. Following
a circus with a tight-rope act for
ours--a kind Of brother or companion
act-was the program that nee led
only a few years for realization.
The first .intimation we had oe a
break in diplomatic relations, with
old Nick on the part Of our young
minister of today was when he aban-
doned the fishing rod and diving
board and forfeited his membership |
in "the dirty dozen" club. Then it was
that he saw ambitions first flush, |
when
"Boyhood dreams OF Manhood in the
swirl and swoop of strife,
Dreams of laurelled highways
through the battlefield of life"
"Algebraic equations, geometrical
and the 30 Catalina" Of
Cicero began encroaching on the
time usually spent in corner lot ball
games Of afternoons. Perhaps it was
because he grew tired of running bas-
es or balls that were lost in the high
weeds in Captain Simonton's garden;
or was it because he was retting up
his own lessons in the afternoon in
order that he might help younger
brothers and sisters at night With /
theirs and in the spare moments as
sist his father in the grocery store
in earning livelihood for a large
family? at any rate he quit playing
ball.
These few Intervening wears have
found him applying himself closely
to his books and especially to the
Book Of Books. Nazareth, Getnsemane
and Calvary hold for him now even
greater interest than did Poindexter's |
pond or the wild grapevine clusters
in Col. Sanford's farm back in boy
hood days.
There is wealth Of inspiration in
his life and his achievement. He
might have been-well, let's see, he |
might have been still growing up with /
the weeds and his territory still bad. /
" cireumscribed. But instead-ah, I
how true:
'The heights by great men reached +
and kept
Were not attained bv sudden flight, |
But they, while their companions
slept,
Were foiling upward through the
night" @tsl