Meigs County telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy [Ohio]) 1848-1859, 1858-03-30
From Arthur's Homo Magazine.
"Ile died RlCIl." ....

From Arthur's Home Magazine.
"ne Died RIcll."
4 People said this everywhere, when the
morning papers announced the death OF
John Russell, President OF the Bank.
/ They said it on Wall street where theycount
wealth by hundreds of thousands, aud ithey
said it in elegant parlors, and by luxurious
| breakfast tables, all over the squares and
avenues Of the great city; they said it, too,
in dark alleys, and in dark homes where
all his thousands could not buy back to the
millionaire one hour of the life that was to
them burden and a misery. Everywhere
it was the same story, ''He died rich"
His family and his friends thought so,
as they gathered around hesbedyide Of the
dying man; and you, reader, would have
thought it too, if you could have looked
around that chamber, into which death
was entering with his dumb footballs and
his ghastly presence. Oh, it was prince
ly room! Rare pictures flushed the walls,
that Winter day, with the glory Of Area
dian Summers; the fairest blossoms of
Southern Mays were piled thick upon the
costly carpet; and the daintily embroidered
drapery fell in soft, crinkled clouds from
the MASSIVE bedstead. And the owner of
all this magnifcence lay there dying; and
through all his life of more than lhreescore
years, he had struggled and toiled for this
to die rich! He had bought lands, and
sold them; he had sent richly freighted
ships to foreign ports; he had owned shares
in railroads, and stock in Banks, and now!
All! there was an angel who stood at
the bedside of John Russell in that dying
hour, and the man had nothing out of all
his life to give him; no generous, noble,
self-sacrificing deeds, which would have
been pearls, and gold, and all precious jew
els in the hand Of the angel; so he wrote
down at the close Of the last chapter of
John Russell's life, "Hs died poor"
And John Russell saw the words as his
soul followed the angel on that journey
which sooner or later we must all take,
and he knew then for the first time that
all the labor, and toll, and struggling of
his life OH earth, had only brought him
this verdict at the bar of the kingdom Of
Heaven, "He died poor"
"He died poor" A very few persons
said this of an old man who lay in back
chamber of small dilapidated building.
whose solitary window looked out on the
back garden of John Russel's residence.
The floor was bare, and there were only a
few chairs, a table, and a low bed in the
room. BY its side stood an old black wo-
wan, whom the dying man had OCCASION
ally furnished with an armful of wood, or
a loaf of bread. She moistened his cold
lips with water, or held the tallow candle
a., 10 L., l,r1 hot ha Y,,i,rbt
see once more the light of this world. He
had not dollar upon earth; his fortune
had taken wings and flown away; his wife
and his children had gone before him, his
friends had deserted or lost sight of him,
and now none remained to watch with the
old man till death called him, but the
grateful old black woman whom he had
saved from starvation. ... ..
But the angel with the book stood there,
too, and looking over that old mans life,
he saw how many good, and gentle, and
generous deeds frightened every year;
how he had been kind to the suffering,
and forgiven such wrongs as make men
fends, and stliven, though all the trials
and temptations OF his long, sad life, TO be
true to God and himself. So the angel
wrote under the last chapter of this old
mans life, and every letter shone like some
rare setting OF diamonds, "He died rich."
And the old man knew it, too, when he
stood at the silver gates of the Eternal
city, and they led him in. and showed him
the inheritance to which he was heir"
There was the house not made with
hands, with its columns of pearl, and it's
ceilings of jasper, with its pleasant rooms,
and its lofty halls, and its mighty organs
from which peal forever the notes of praise
to our God! u ...
There, too, was the pleasant landscape, |
with it's green avenues, its golden pavil
ions, its trees waving in the joy oil eternal
leaves, and its silver meadow lands sloping
down to the river of eternal waters. He |
was heir to all these things, and he took
their title deeds from the hands OF Gods
angels, and entered into their possession,
while they were saying pityingIy on earth,
''He died poor"
All, reader! how unlike it is with the
things here, and the things there. All the |
wealth OF this world cannot buy one acle
of the soil con the other side of the river"
nor one title deed to its pleasant homes, or
its fountains of sweet waters; but only |
live SO that when you sail out on the great
sea of death you shall bear with you to
the golden ports those blessed words of the
angels, ''He died rich," and you shall be
with your inheritance i'll the
''kingdom of Heaven" ,. .
ES-"I love to look upon young man.
There is hidden potency concealed
within his breast which charms and pains
me-" =
The daughter of clergyman hap
pening to find the above sentence at the |
cloea S,f q p;eco of bar therS' n,anuscript