Newspaper article:JeffriesLemuel bday WCD20Jun1906 p1 b - Wayne County Democrat June 20 1906
- Article title
- Still Harnessed at Sixty Eight
- Newspaper title
- Wayne County Democrat
- Date of publication
- 1906/06/20
- Page number
- 1
- Industry
- Public Administration > City and County Administration
- Information > Publishing Industries, Publishing Industries
Full text
Friday Captain Lemuel Jeffries, local editor of the Wayne County Democrat, passed the sixty eighth milestone of his life, still harnessed to the business that has claimed his attention and his best faculties for nearly fifty years.
No one ever thinks of suggesting to Captain Jeffries that his mentality is growing old. Physically, the marks of time may show in his slightly stooped figure, his gray hair, his face scarred by contact with many phases of life for several years more than a half century; but from eyes as true and bright as they were forty years ago, the mental vigor still shines luminant, untouched and untrammeled by either time or the prejudice of many experiences.
Captain Jeffries is the oldest newspaper man in Wayne county today, actively engaged in the business. He is the dean of the profession in a field that has felt his influence known his kindness and recognized his ability for so long that this brief sketch is wholly inadequate to even a meagre portion of the interest that surround his personal annals.
Today Captain Jeffries is active at his post in the office of the Democrat and Daily News. The work that he has performed so long and so well appeals to him still, with the same glamour, the same desire to perform his part of it well, as of old, and marks him as one possessing the true instincts of the scribe, born and not made.
If space permitted how worthy would be the task of drawing his life sketch for the perusal of those who have known him so long, and whose memories would verify whatever of eulogy and commendation we could contribute.
Almost fifty years ago, when the tocsin of civil strife called the thousands from the north he marched away with that noblest band of men that ever repelled the foes of liberty. During the fight his record shows that he was one of the truest and bravest of the men that went to the great war.
In after life, we believe he has marched to the call of duty with as much good will and bravery as he exhibited when he followed the old flag and wore the blue. Following these duties he rose to the rank of Captain. Following the duties that his life has presented he has risen to the rank of one who always speaks well of his fellow men, has sympathy and true friendship for those he meets, speaks not ill, even of his enemies if such he has, though such as they must be rare indeed.
It would be impossible to do justice to Captain Jeffries without referring to his rare trait of perpetual good nature. In telling of him as the employee of the Democrat and News see and regard him, many pleasant things crowd upon our mind that we would say. When one writes of a brother scribe of whatever school liberality and appreciation that is his due should have its say; and as we pen this close to the side of our friend and mentor, we feel inclined to remark of the characteristics rather than of the attainments, great or small, of his life. Great we believe they have been, but small in proportion to the intellect that has often guided his hand in the service of newspaperdom and his friends.
With true sympathy, and the beautiful symphony of a mind that has always been attuned to the music of kind and appreciative words, he has performed, as for hundreds of others, the noble task of saying sweet things for and about the dead.
Space, even to an editor is always limited. As we write the pressman is yelling for the forms. But, before we close, let us pronounce our thanks to him who has stood important to the success of the Wayne County Democrat for fifty years, and who has given the greatest newspaper of Wayne county the best of his life and work.
The summit of his life was reached and passed eighteen years ago. As he steps cheerfully and in no haste down the incline we strew at his feet the flowers of recognition of appreciation, and of thanks. Though the sun is sinking, we believe the horizon line is yet far away. The rays still glow and cast forth warmth and energy; the colors are still bright and still vibrate and change. Let the garlands be moistened and their fragrance will stimulate along this way, until the light departs behind the granite hills and the obelisk points to a realm where sweeter, brighter, better things than earth's laural crown await the completion of life's work well done.