The editorial supervision of the May ICONOCLAST has
been to me a labor of love. The stress of circumstances
under which the work has been done, is too well known for
either explanation or apology for its shortcomings. This
issue of the paper is intended as a memorial of the man
who founded it; whose genius has so long adorned its
pages, and whose personality has endeared it to so many
thousands of readers throughout the land.
W. H. WARD.
. . .
In the Vicksburg Dispatch of Sunday, February 13,
appeared an article from the pen of Ida Clyde Gallagher,
of Vicksburg, a very bright and gifted writer, in which
she pays a feeling tribute to the character of W. C. Brann.
The article in question has been widely read and copied.
It was written while Mr. Brann was on his Southern lecture
tour, and is peculiarly appropriate to this issue of
the ICONOCLAST. I therefore reproduce it with pleasure:
"The development of all really great forces afford an
interesting study for the mind capable of grasping and
measuring them. The overflow of a river, the eruption
of a volcano or the devastation of a storm arouse admiration
even while they inspire terror and awaken awe. But
it is the purely human force, with its infinite variety, which
charms while it enthralls. A man born and reared, as
other men, bound by the same ties, subject to the same
laws, fettered by the same conventionalities, to throw off
the yoke of circumstances, break through the trammels of
the conventional, grapple with and overcome every obstacle
that lies in his path, until he reaches the summit of
Olympus and bodily fronts the Gods, or towers among men,
like Saul above his brethren. We may envy him, as we
ever envy the truly great, or be disposed to close his lips
in death, because he tells us unpalatable truths, yet
admire him secretly and in our hearts exalt him. We may
not confess as much while he lives and labors, but when
his lips are dumb in death, his breast pulseless, we lay our
hatred and envy in the dust at his feet, and rear in marble
a gleaming shaft to commemorate the virtues of the dead.
The name of "Brann" has inspired this homily; Brann,
of the ICONOCLAST, the man whose praises are being sung
loved by half the world, by the other half condemned, whose
whole life has been a battle and a march, who wars as did
the Titans and if he gropes blindly at times ever struggles
toward the light. This is the man who began his education
while rearing a family, and went from behind the
smokestack of a locomotive to the tripod of a daily paper.
Who in a few years has risen to dizzy heights of fame,
whose utterances are waited for and attended by more
than half a million people, many of whom he does not and
can not convert, but all of whom he impresses. A man
who is said to be an ideal husband and father, a tender,
loyal and devoted friend, yet whose entire existence is
devoted to a warfare against existing evils, bitter as death,
and uncompromising as the grave. You may not always
be right, Mr. Brann, indeed, we shrewdly suspect you are
not, but we respect you and admire you just the same,
because you attack boldly and fight fearlessly. Yes, we
admire you, and shall not wait to whisper it to your
tombstone either."
. . .
If the futility of brute force as an appeal to reason
required an object lesson, it might easily be found in the
fact that while the hand that wielded one pen lies
motionless in death, hundreds of others have been raised up to
fight under the same banner.
. . .
Several months ago a number of the students of the
Baylor University, acting without regard for the laws of
either God or man, attempted to mob the editor of the
ICONOCLAST in an effort to bridle his pen. The hand
which they sought to restrain has now been enjoined by a
court whose order is irrevocable. In every state in the
union men have come forward to take up a fight which
Brann himself considered ended, and the object is
accomplished. In reproducing tributes to the memory of the
dead editor I have felt it my duty in several instances to
blue-pencil certain passages which might have been
considered as reflecting upon those who are innocent and
unoffending. The moral here needs no pointing.
. . .
To his readers and admirers, who have uniformly
expressed regret over the death of her husband, Mrs. W. C.
Brann desires to return a woman's thanks for the kindly
sympathy extended.
* * *
SIMPLE STATEMENT OF FACTS.