20 JOURNAL OF THE 



public officials who were endeavoring to adjust, to reconcile, and 

 to go forward. His motives were misrepresented, his character 

 assailed, his abilities questioned, his work maligned. 



The effect of such an ordeal on a man of delicate nervous 

 fibre and of refined feeling may easily be imagined; nor can it 

 be wondered at that he was often impatient, often despondent, 

 and often fairly unhino;ed bv the obstacles set in liis way. 

 Almost every session of the State Legislature was a season of 

 humiliation, and, as he himself expressed it, of "real torture^' 

 to him. At the adjournment he would draw a long breath of 

 relief, and say the incipient paralysis Imd passed off and he 

 could go to work again and feel like a gentleman once more. 



In his own house. Professor Kerr's hospitality was unbounded. 

 Scientific visitors would sometimes remain with him weeks at a 

 time. He thought it his duty to entertain strangers, and every 

 public occasion in Raleigh filled his house with guests. He was 

 a most interesting companion, animated, receptive, sympa- 

 thetic, taking a vivid delight in conversation, and as ready to 

 listen as to talk. 



His belief in the outcome that there was in this State, 

 in the great future that lay before her people, was com- 

 mensurate with his knowledge of her natural resources. He 

 knew^ them well and rated them justly, and was never so enthu- 

 siastic, so vivid, so eloquent, as when dwelling on these advan- 

 tages. In his death the State has met with an inestimable loss. 

 In some respects he has lived ahead of his time. He was, in 

 his own department of work, more widely and favorably known, 

 and deservedly so, than any man the State has produced or the 

 State University has graduated. 



He was an exceedingly liberal man; a man of generous tem- 

 per, and of large views not only, but open-handed to every call 

 in State or Church, or private benevolence that his judgment 

 approved. He was deeply religious, and always prominent, 

 though in an unobtrusive way, in matters pertaining to his 

 church. As a Christian gentleman, those who have known him 

 best have admired him most. His heart was warm and gener- 



