Joel Chandler Harris' life of Henry W. Grady including his writings and speeches
History
Joel Chandler Harris' life of Henry W. Grady including his writings and speeches
Grady, Henry Woodfin, 1850-1889
As I have said, he reserved his editorials for occasions or emergencies,
and it was then that his luminous style showed at its best. He employed
always the apt phrase; he was, in fact a phrase-builder. His gift of
expression was something marvelous, and there was something melodious
and fluent about his more deliberate editorials that suggested the
movement of verse. I was reading awhile ago his editorial appealing to
the people of Atlanta on the cold Christmas morning which has already
been alluded to in this sketch. It is short—not longer than the pencil
with which he wrote it, but there is that about it calculated to stir
the blood, even now. Above any other man I have ever known Mr. Grady
possessed the faculty of imparting his personal magnetism to cold type;
and even such a statement as this is an inadequate explanation of the
swift and powerful effect that his writings had on the public mind.
He had a keen eye for what, in a general way, may be called climaxes.
Thus he was content to see the daily _Constitution_ run soberly and
sedately along during the week if it developed into a great paper on
Sunday. He did more editorial work for the Sunday paper than for any
other issue, and bent all his energies toward making an impression on
that day. There was nothing about the details of the paper that he did
not thoroughly understand. He knew more about the effects of type
combinations than the printers did; he knew as much about the business
department as the business manager; and he could secure more
advertisements in three hours than his advertising clerks could solicit
in a week. It used to be said of him that he lacked the business
faculty. I suppose the remark was based on the fact that, in the midst
of all the tremendous booms he stirred up, and the enterprises he
fostered, he remained comparatively poor. I think he purposely neglected
the opportunities for private gain that were offered him. There can be
no more doubt of his business qualification than there can be of the
fact that he neglected opportunities for private gain; but his business
faculties were given to the service of the public—witness his faultless
management of two of the greatest expositions ever held in the South.
Had he served his own interests one-half as earnestly as he served those
of the people, he would have been a millionaire. As it was, he died
comparatively poor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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