\1RGIXIA BIOGRAPHY
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fill servitors tenderly bore him, shoulder
high, to his last resting place, in the quiet
country churchyard, on a spot overlooking
a typical lowland Virginia landscape — the
land he loved best.
His services to his city, to his county, and to the state cannot be detailed here. In time, the actual record of them will most probably be known to few beyond deter- mined students or "the curious." But they will long endure as a great tradition. He was never in public life, as the term is commonly understood, nor did he hold any public office of importance. Yet he was reckoned the first citizen not only of Rich- mond, but of the whole commonwealth. No such private funeral was ever seen in the state, though the simple rites were held in a country church several miles from the city.
But, while not holding public office, he frequently spoke at great public meetings, and his words always carried tremendous weight. He was not so much an orator in the highest sense of the word, as he was a most persuasive and convincing speaker — his frankness won good-will and his trans- parent honesty carried conviction. His man- ner was singularly simple, earnest, virile, without a touch of that artificial gravity, that so many "weighty orators" and "ripe divines" see fit to assume in delivering themselves of ponderous platitudes.
He wrote quite as well as he spoke, and when any "burning question" kindled the eager interest of the people, the leading ar- ticles, easily recognized as from his pen. in the great journal he controlled, were accept- ed, even by those opposed to him, as the candid utterances of a man, who had made conscientious investigation, and, who, with an eye single to the honor and well-being of city, state or country, presented to them the truth as apprehended by a clear head and an honest heart. He would resolutely put aside the most pressing business mat- ters to thus give editorial expression to his convictions, whenever he deemed that the public weal demanded it, for he was no op- portunist, but held to Archbishop Whately's admirable precept that "it is not enough to believe what you maintain, but you must maintain what you believe, and maintain it because you believe it." Here, as in his public speaking, he struck straight from the shoulder, but never "below the belt," for, as
VIR-5
has just been said, even his political oppo-
nents, while regarding him, as they did
every other independent thinker, as a wrong-
headed doctrinaire, allowed that he was
scrupulously fair.
There was, however, one exception, and the incident is worth recalling, as it made a profound impression at the time. Some subordinate on the staff of his paper "The Times" (for it was before the days of the consolidated '"Times-Dispatch"), wrote an account of what had taken place at a meet- ing of the "City Democratic Committee." A member of that committee took umbrage at the printed report and immediately demand- ed a retraction from the editor. Mr. Bryan had not even seen the article, but he at once made careful investigation, satisfied himself that his subordinate had reported the pro- ceedings accurately, and declined to make any correction or apology. The aggrieved politician, thereupon, demanded "the satis- faction usual among gentlemen." ]\Ir. Bryant, with a courage that few can realize today, promptly declined the challenge in a letter that is a model of courtesy, firmness, and cogent reasoning, the blended spirit of an humble Christian and fearless citizen, sworn to maintain the law. breathing through every line of it. Duelling, many sober- minded people still think, had its undoubted uses in an earlier stage of society, but, in the evolution of manners, those uses had passed. D'antres temps d'autres moeurs, as Voltaire pithily says. In Virginia, "the code" may be said to have received its mortal wound from the tragic AIordecai-^McCarthy duel — the refusal of a man of Mr. Bryan's unques- tioned courage to accept a challenge, gave it the coup-de-grace.
To those who possessed the privilege of his intimate personal friendship, it is but sober truth to declare that his loss is irre- parable. Other civic leaders as public-spir- ited as he, will, no doubt, arise again, but to his old companions-in-arms, whose faces have long since been turned toward the wes- tering sun. there can never be another "Joe" Bryan. They loved him so dearly, apart from admiration, because he made them feel that their afifection was returned with like intensity and with an invincible fidelity.
In what is called general society, he will be missed longer that falls to lot of most men in this prosaic age. He was possessed of a singularly handsome person Tthe out-
