The Connecticut labor news., 1925-01-24

patient in that charity that "suffereth long and is kind" To the men and women of labor, if he felt impelled to censure, it was given face to face. Be- fore the critics of labor, if his sense of justice would not permit defense, he refused to condemn. If he could not help he would not injure. Never would his voice mingle with the howl ing of the mob-"Crucify him, cruelty him!" Too well he knew that there is ever waiting a Judas to betray, would-be Caesar to destroy.
 Vanity he had not, for vanity is but the hand-maiden of weakness. Ire mendous pride was his, the pride that accepts without complaint the conse- snatch victory from defeat, to meet disaster with a smile; the conscious pride of rectitude that fears no probe, that courts the piti1ess lifht of full publicity.
 Neither promise of success could lure nor fear of failure frighten him from the great highway of right. The primrose path melting into wide, vague distances, held for him no charm. He was a mind of definite clearness, his character of unpurchasable integrity. For him the glitter of gold held no allure. If aff1uence and ease had been his goal, walth could have been his for tn lifting of finger. To offer him "all the sun sees, or the close earth wombs, or the profound seas hide tempted him not. Poverty was no cross, riches would have been bur den.
 He was imperious yet gentle, and, like all great souls, he had the heart and the winning simplicity of child hood.
 His was a nature of deep affection, the proud affection which gratefully accepts but which never requests.
 In the pain of those he loved he was the veriest coward, for himself suf- fering but evolved the strength with which it bear it.
 He was as keenly sensitive as the tenderest woman, but no slander, hatrde, envy, contumely could swerve him from his rightful course.
 He lived with his own self-respect, he ever sought his own appreciation. Secure in that, he could live serene no matter how the storms might rage.
 That the forces of destiny nodded his life into the worlds greatest labor statesman took from the realm of music a possible interpreter of extra ordinary promise. Through all his life his most entrancing, exquisite happi- ness centered in the opera. There was no weariness so profound, no disap- pointment so keen, no hurt SO heart breaking, but that an evening at the opera could not bestow its compensat- ing benediction.
 To physical fear he was stranger; his life's achievements were a sur passing demonstration of unconscious moral courage. Few there are who knew that in the last years of his life he lived in almost total blindness. He was dependent upon someone to walk with him, to travel with him, to read to him. At the age when the average man considers active. life as ended, more than half blind, he carried on" sct1 r1f 0f varied work that well might tax a man 40 years his junior. Never was he heard to complain, never did he make a friend or colleague feel uncomfort- able or i'll at ease because of his han dicap. So perfect was his manner, so quick, keen, retentive his mind that his friends forgot his semi-blindness ac- quaintances and strangers did not sus- pect it. And that was as he wished it to be-no plea for sympathy, no spe- city consideration because of physical disability, but only a strong man brave ly fighting the battle of life and be- lieving with all the intensity of his soul that the battle in which he was engaged was for the ultimate good of all the people.
 Born under a foreign flag, as child brought across the waters to the land of his parents adoption, in boyhood and young manhood, in maturity and in age, he loved his country with a flaming, consuming passion. My country, 'tis of thee, blest land of 1ib- erty," were to him no idle words. To him they literally meant Hand of lib- erty,' and with all the ardor of his in tense nature he unremittingly de- nounced that which savored of unfree- dom, of restriction of liberty.
 He believed in his country, in the matchless greatness of its institutions,