Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1918-03-12

4 into eye and reads there only truth
and steadfastness and unfailing loyal
t, and each heart knows that whether
there be speech or not the communion
OF souls is constant and complete. /
am proud to believe that such was my
relationship TO Neal Brown Wiscon-
sin has had no nobler son than he.
/ Nature was in lavish mood when he
was born. She gave him a massive
sand rugged frame, a head and face
leonine in their strength, and, best of
all, she endowed him with d soul in
which ignobTe thought found no abid-
ing place, great and generous heart,
as tender as woman's, and an intel
lect which claimed all learning as its
field
He never sought public office /
think, and he held it for only a brief
period, yet he was known throughout
the state and far outside its borders,
as one of the really great characters
of his generation. When his death was
\ announced the seriousness of the pub
lie loss was universally recognized not
only by his brethren of the bar. but
by the business world as we'll 1t is
not too much to say that every one
/
| OF his personality realized that loss.
J only the really great character can
command such recognition as this.
He was not what would be called
a close or exact lawyer He had a
robust contempt for what Shakes
peare calls the nice sharp outlets of
the law" He paid no tithes of
mint, anise and cummin," but he
omitted not the weightier matters of
the law, Judgment and mercy and
| faith" Great things attracted him.
Serious questions, important interests.
great affairs appealed to him, and
upon them he would lavish the wealth
OF his intellectual powers tirelessly.
effectively and without stint.
His mind was prominently a mind
OF vision; a mind which passed by the
little things and saw only the great
! things of life, and saw these often
with prophets eye.
in this sense he was great lawyer,
IN this sense also he was a great bust
ness man and a great citizen, not only
OIL his immediate community but of the
state at large. He delighted in books
and he surrounded himself with the
great books of the day as well as
| with the classics of all ages he gath
efed them not as a mere collector,
Dut as one who roamed with dis
crlmlnatlon and satisfaction through
the great literature of the world. His
conversation teemed with metaphor.
| quotation and allusion drawn at will
from the stores of his memory the
fruits OF his wide thought desultory
reading. Not only this, but in his
daily talk there were deep broad veins
of bubbling humor and homely phil
oSophy which made it a perpetual
delight. The same characteristics
marked his letters to friends and made
correspondence with him rare privi-
lege.
But after all it was out of doors
and under the blue arch of heaven
that his nature found it's truest ex-
preston and most complete satisfac-
ton. His outlaw spirit chafed under
the trammels and petty conventions of
our artificial life, and ever when the
recurring spring time Embossed the
icy letters binding the reluctant earth
he turned with joy from the desk, the
forum, and the drawing room to the
woods, the fields, and the waters. He
knew and loved Nature in all her
moods, and she kept no secrets from
him. Through the grOined cathedral
alsles of the forest, whose pillars were
the trunks of towering pines, through
streams whose ripping eddies and
tumbling rapids made the music which
he loved, he strobe with supreme con-
Centment.
Here he surrounded himself with
ms chosen friends, and here with gun
and rod and by the blazing camp fire
one came to know and love him best
AT such times and with such friends
he had no reserve, and to them he
disclosed the inmost depths of his
great soul.
Tie memorial well speaks of his
| lofty patriotism. He was a great
American in every sense. Not merely
dld his ancestry run back to the "em-
battled farmers whose shots rang
round the world but he was a real
democrat q use the word in it's higher
sense,) in his every thought. He
talked not over much of his sympathy
with his fellow men, who were the
victims OF untOward fortune, nor did
he blow any trumpet before him but
! Az NNiliOiloI4 dCSuF HIS ldlIH DY MS
works. He believed in America and he
believed in her mission on the earth;
he gloried in the fact that this was
the land of opportunity for all; that it
stood for liberty and humanity. and
eyen-handed justice to every citizen
however obscure, and he believed
that, in the present great war, Amer
lea was fighting the worlds battle
for freedom because she could not do
otherwise.
BY his untimely death the forces of
patriotism have been deprived of
great leader, one whose compelling
personality would have been of ines
| Unable help in the greatest of strug-
giles for democracy.
1t is lifting that the final words of
love and appreciation and farewell
should be said in this place where
his struggle with the world began and
where his first great triumphs were
won. am sure he would have wished
1t so, for he was first of all LAWYER
and not merely that, but he was al
ways proud of his profession, even as
| his profession was DrOud of him