It is sad to think that this young and promising life was thus unexpectedly cut off, and by causes which seem to have been avoidable ones. It is probable that Mr. Grady unconsciously overtaxed himself on his Northern trip. He arrived in this city suffering from a severe cold, which would probably have yielded to a day or two of complete rest. But not only were there fixed appointments which he had come here to meet, but new engagements and duties were assumed, so that during his short stay here he was not only in a whirl of mental excitement, but was undergoing constant physical exposure.
A man of less rugged strength would have yielded under this trial before it was half over, but Mr. Grady’s physique carried him through, and those who heard his last speech, probably the last he ever delivered, at the dinner of the Bay State Club, will remember that, though he excused himself on account of his physical disabilities, the extemporaneous address was full of the fire and pathos of his native eloquence. But, although unaware of the sacrifice he was making, it is probable that Mr. Grady weakened himself by these over-exertions to an extent that made him an easy prey to the subtle advance of disease.
His death causes a vacancy that cannot easily be filled. The South was in need, and in years to come may be in still greater need, of an advocate such as he would have been. She will, no doubt, find substitutes for this journalist-orator, but we doubt whether any of these will, in so short a time, win by their words the attention of the entire American people or so deservedly hold their respect and admiration.
A NOBLE LIFE ENDED.
From the “Philadelphia Telegraph.”
The country will be startled to learn of the death of Henry W. Grady. No man within the past three years has come so suddenly before the American people, occupying so large a share of interested attention not only in the South but in the North. None has wielded a greater influence or made for himself a higher place in the public regard. The career of Mr. Grady reads like a romance. Like a true Georgian, he was born with the instincts of his people developed to a marked degree, and his rise to a position of honor and usefulness was certain, should his life be spared. But like the average man, even in this country of free opportunities, he had to fight his way over obstacles which would have discouraged if not crushed out the spirit of a less courageous and indomitable man. He was too young to take any part in the late great internal strife, but as a bright-minded boy he emerged from that contest with vivid and bitter memories, an orphan, his father having fallen beneath the “Stars and Bars.” His young manhood, while not altogether clouded by poverty, started him upon the battle of life without any special favoring circumstances, and without the support of influential friends to do for him in a measure what doubtless would gladly have been done could his future have been foreseen. But he started out for himself, and in the rugged school of experience was severely taught the lessons of self-reliance and individual energy which were to prepare him for the responsibilities of intellectual leadership amongst a people in a sadly disorganized condition, who were groping in the dark, as it were, seeking the light of prosperity. He never but for a short time left his own State, and as his field of observation and work enlarged and his influence extended, his love for it seemed to grow more intense. It became with him, indeed, a passion that was always conspicuous, and upon which he loved to dwell, with pen or tongue, and some of his tributes to the Empire Commonwealth of the South, as he loved to call it, will proudly be recorded by the future historian of the annals of the time.
It was as an active editor of the Atlanta Constitution that Mr. Grady found the sphere of labor in which he was to win high honor, and from which he was to send out an influence measured only by the boundaries of the South itself, if it did not extend, in fact, to the borders of the nation. He wrote and spoke, when appearing in public, from a patriotic and full heart. His utterances were those of a man deeply in love with his country, and earnestly desirous of promoting her highest prosperity and happiness. Some of his deliverances were prose poems that will be read with delight by future generations of Southern youth. They came forth flashing like meteors, doubtless to the astonishment of their author himself, for he seemed to reach national prominence at a single bound. There were times when Mr. Grady seemed to falter and slip aside in discussing some of the burning questions of the hour, but this was due to his great sympathy with his own people, his toleration of their prejudices, and his desire to keep step with them and be one with them throughout his work in their behalf. But he was an ardent young patriot, a zealous and true friend of progress, and the New South will miss him as it would miss no other man of the time. He set a brilliant example to the younger men as well. He reached for and grasped with a hearty grip the hand of the North in the spirit of true fraternity, and it is a pathetic incident that the climax to his career should have been an address in the very center of the advanced thought of New England. His death seems almost tragic, and doubtless was indirectly, at least, due to the immense pace at which he had been traveling within the past three years; a victim of the prevailing American vice of intellectual men, driving the machine at a furious rate, when suddenly the silver cord is loosed, the golden bowl is broken, and the people of the Southland will go mourning for one who ought, they will sadly think, to have been spared them for many years, to help them work out their political, industrial, and social salvation. The name of Henry W. Grady is sure of an enduring and honored place in the history of the State of Georgia, and in the annals of the public discussions in the American press, during a time of great importance, of questions of vast concern to the whole people.