always done at the front; there were enemies in the rear, and the moral conflict was not less than the physical."

TESTIMONIALS.

Resolutions by the Grinnell Board of Trade, by the directors of the Savings Bank and the First National Bank, and by the Faculty of Iowa College, testified to Mr. Grinnell's worth and pre-eminent services; also by the executive committee of the State Temperance Alliance, of which he was a prominent member and officer.

In a published interview, Hon. Charles Aldrich, of Webster City, Ia., legislator, and formerly Chicago editor, said, "I believe that he did more with voice and pen to make the resources and advantages of Iowa known in the East than any twenty other men." Postmaster Brandt, of Des Moines, said, "He was a grand man. Foremost in every good work, he has been a mighty force in the moral, intellectual and material history of Iowa, and to his influence we owe much of our proud position."

Rev. James L. Hill, D. D., of Medford, Mass., editor of The Golden Age, and former student of Iowa College, wrote:

'Iowa's present greatness did not happen. Let us cheerfully accord honor to whom honor is due. . . . I remember most vividly of all the patriotic meetings in which Mr. Grinnell was the chief speaker during the war. Since then I have felt the cradle of liberty rock. I have heard the best American orators in Faneuil Hall, and Gladstone and John Bright in impassioned addresses in parliament, but it was no such event to me as when the eager, expectant citizens at Grinnell came together in the church to give evidence at the slightest touch of the magic orator of the depth of their pent-up emotions. For the sake of brevity let me only catalogue three out of many things I would like to number for which the citizens of Grinnell owe their founder never-ending gratitude.

"1. He honored the church and its Sabbath in the eyes of the whole community. It will be impossible for me to forget how he held up to public scorn any man in the colony who had not respect enough for the Lord's Day 'to get up and put on a clean shirt and go to meeting'. He did stand up manfully for the decencies of life. He did create a sentiment in favor of respectability. By reason of his words and influence the hard-worked somnolent farmers would in harvest time direct their teams, followed by playful colts, toward the village church. If no one else would preach he would preach. Our preachers dealt mostly in 'canned goods' in those busy days; we thought we were honored to have a sermon preached to us that by its local allusions had evidently been inspired by the occasion.

"2. It was worth a lifetime to have given such testimony to temperance. Those of us who, since graduating at the college, have resided in places that have no scruples, even about license, see with great distinctness how far in advance of his time was the man who so many years ago laid the foundation of a prohibition town in the remote, unbroken West. His influence made it impossible to traffic in intoxicants upon those acres. His spirit has touched thousands who from that municipality have been called to a life work in other communities.

"3. He is remembered by us for the encouragement he gave to labor. Some of us who were working our way through Iowa College, without ever receiving a dollar from home, cannot forget the inspiration of his words. When we read Robert Burns' poem 'Is There For Honest Poverty?' we would get an incitement that only words from J. B. Grinnell would surpass. On the Fourth of July, at the celebration on the Common, he would drag us up on the stage and make us frightened

youngsters honor the American eagle. We for a few bewildered moments would forget how ill-dressed and tanned we were, and go home resolving that we would by dint of study and practice make ourselves worthy of the recognition he had given us. Having great facility of speech himself, acquired by long years on the platform and stump, he was merciless on those who would not try.

"If all who love him and honor him had been allowed to follow his bier the line would have reached the cemetery long before some who composed it had left their town. He was an unselfish man. He was a public-spirited man. Currents that were set in motion by him have changed the course of many a life. His imagination was quick, his sympathies sensitive and strong, his wit ready and his sense of pleasure always alert. It was like an instinct with him to be in good cheer. The sight of a multitude would kindle his whole being. He had a great capacity for genuine good fellowship. He was an age maker."

At the 35th Annual Meeting of the Congregational General Association of Iowa, 1890 (making it a rule to attend as Mr. Grinnell did, notwithstanding his many occupations, and present on this occasion though an invalid), he summed up his life work and aspirations: "The soil was consecrated to temperance, education and religion, sending forth lights which we pray may never be dimmed; and may these successes be an augury and prophecy of the conquest of our beloved Iowa for Christ."

INDEX.