FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 4.79 



shall never forget, and said briefly, ' I sometimes think that is what we came into 

 the world for — to make sacrifices.' And I know that the murmuring echo of those 

 words went with me all that day as we came down from the mountains and out 

 through the iron gorge, and it seemed to me that anyone must be very unworthy the 

 society which I had been permitted to enter who did not come forth from it a wiser 

 and a better man." 



Whatever views may be held as to John Brown's methods and questionable acts, 

 popular sentiment seems to'have largely condoned his crime. He has been awarded 

 a prominent place in history by the many thousands who regard him as the Apostle of 

 Freedom and forerunner of the great events which a few years later established tlie 

 principles for which he fought and died. Public opinion has modified during the 

 decades that have elapsed since his death. It is now universally conceded that slavery 

 was the cause of the great Rebellion, and, so, people are not disposed to make much 

 distinction between the fighting at Harper's Ferry and that which succeeded it. 

 Many believe, as they sing, that his soul went marching on, and that his wraith 

 might have been seen in the cloutl of cannon smoke that drifted away from the field 

 at Appomattox. 



In formally accepting this property on behalf of the State, it was deemed a 

 proper occasion for some ceremony, with public exercises of an appropriate character. 

 The farm having become the property of the State, it was decided to erect a flag-pole 

 on the grave, on which the national colors should be displayed daily, to better point 

 out the spot to which thousands now make a pilgrimage each year. 



A large United States flag having been donated by Colonel Henry H. Lyman 

 — an ex-member of this Commission, — a day was designated for the pole-raising and 

 unfurling of the flag. Notice was given, informally, that the event would take place 

 July 21, 1896, and on that day a large concourse of people from all the country side, 

 joined by the numerous guests from the summer hotels in that vicinity, gathered at 

 the old homestead. The people came on foot, in carriages, and in the four-in-hands 

 furnished by the hotels. 



It was a perfect day. Through the purple haze hanging over the wide, forest- 

 covered landscape, the encircling mountains loomed in solemn and impressive grandeur. 

 Everyone seemed to feel the quiet influence of the scene and the importance of the 

 historic traditions which the event recalled. The throng included the young, the 

 middle-aged and the old. Here and there gray-haired men were telling to a younger 

 generation the story of John Brown — " Old Osawatomie Brown." If the narrator 

 touched but lightly on the story of his outlawry and crime, it was only to better 



