The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast — Volume 12 — John Shaqi
The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast — Volume 12Brann, William Cowper
History
The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast — Volume 12
Brann, William Cowper
Brann, William Cowper, 1855-1898; Essays; Reformers
The procession was a very long one. It extended all
along Fifth Street from the house, and when Austin
Avenue was reached a large number dropped out of the
line, as was done in the Ross, Coke and Harris funerals,
and proceeded to Oakwood by other streets. A brass
band preceded the procession, playing martial music.
The street was lined with pedestrians and vehicles, some of
whom stood for thirty minutes waiting for the cortege.
The delay was occasioned, however, at the home. Soon
after the services were concluded, Mrs. Brann requested
that the casket be opened again, and her request was
complied with. For a few minutes she was alone with
her dead, and in that few minutes she gazed for the last
time upon her companion, her loved one and her husband.
When the procession reached the cemetery it was found
that a large number had preceded the cortege to the
grave, many vehicles and persons on foot being in waiting. A
large number went on the cars, three cars leaving the home.
The services at the grave consisted of an address by
Mr. J. D. Shaw, friend of the deceased. He said:
"My friends and friends of W. C. Brann: I come this
evening at the request of Mr. Brann's family to lay
tribute upon his grave. I speak as a friend living for a
friend dead. No ordinary man has fallen in the person
of W. C. Brann. Nature fashioned him to be a power
among his fellow men. By industry, by hard study, by
careful observation, by diligent research, by interminable
effort, he rose from comparative obscurity to teach and
impress the civilized world. In the person of W. C.
Brann we have an illustration of what may be expected
in a country like ours. He was a natural product of our
American democracy. He was a star that rose by dint
of his own effort, his own determination, surrounded by
circumstances that invited merit from the common people,
from the whole people. W. C. Brann was a cosmopolitan
character. He could never be confined within the
limits of a party or a creed. So great was his grasp,
so far-reaching his thought, that he lived in the world
and not in a mere party. He was found always with
that party or with that sect that represented what he
thought to be right and true. A peculiarity of this man
was his dual personality. Few people fully understood
him in this respect. As a bold genius, as an intellectual
giant, as a man armed and equipped with intellectual
fire, and as a man with a noble ambition to stand by
the right, he was a sworn foe of hypocrisy and fraud.
And when he took into his brave hands the pen, he made
fraud and hypocrisy quake and tremble. Burning words
came from his tongue, scorching and branding every fraud.
Men looked upon him then as a hard man, as a heartless
man because he told them the truth. But the other side
of this man's individuality, I, for one, have had the
opportunity to see. He could not only sow intellectually;
he was not only able to entertain the civilized world with
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