The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1863-07-28
He Died Rich.''

People said this everywhere, when the
morning papers announced the death OF john
Russell, President of tho - Bank. They
said it on Wall street, where they count
wealth by hundreds Of thousands, and they
said il in elegant parlors, and by luxurient
urrukrast tapiee all over the rquares and ay-
enues in tho great city; they said it, too in
dark alleys and squalid homes where all bis
thousands could not buy back to thu million.
aire one hour Of tho life that was to them
burden and misery. Everywhere it was
the same story. He died rch."
His family and his friends thought SO as
they gathered around the bedside of the
dying man; and you, reader, would have
thought 30, too, il you could have looked a.
round that Chamber into which death was
entering with his footballs and his gbas.Iy
presence. hiJ.
Oh, i, was princey room. Rare pictures
husLe1 the walls that winter day with tho
glory Of Arcadan summer, the fairest BIOS
SONS of Southern Mays were piled thick upon
the costly carpet; and the dainty embroi-.
dsred drapery fell in soft, crinkled clouds
crnkled clouds form the massive beadstead.
And the owner of all magui6cence Law theirs
dying; and though all bis life Of moro than
tbreescore years, he had toiled and struggled
LOT tnIs-Io uie Iicu! IIc neo .yvsnS iau,Is
and sold them; he had sent richly freigbted
ships to foreign ports; ho had owned shares
in railroads and stocks in the banks, and
now! f..-tru
All! there was an angle who stood at the
bedside Of John Russell in that dying hour,
and the man had nothirg out of all his life to.
give him; no generous, noble, self-sacrificing
deeds, which would have been pearls and gold
ard all precious jewels in the hand of the.
angel; so ho wroted down the last chapter Of
John RusselPs life, "He Died Poor"
And John Russell saw the words as his
soul followed the angel on that journey.
which, sooner or later, we must take, and he
knew then, for the fist time, that all the
labor and toll, and struggle for life on the
earth, had only brought him this verdict at
the bar otihe kingdom of heaven. "He
Died Poor" 2I
"He died poor" Very few persons said
this .f an old man who lay in back chamber
of small, dilapidated building, whose soli-
tary window looked out on the back garden
of John Russell's residence. The floor was
bare, and there were only few chairs, Ia;
bic and low bed in the room. BY its side
stood an old black woman, whom the dying
man had occasionally furnished with an arm
ful Of wood, Of breal She moistened his
lips with water, or held the talow candle
close TO his dim eyes, so that he might once
more see the dim light of the world. He,
had not dollar upon the earth; his wife and
children had gone before him, bis friends had
deserted or lost sight of him, but the grateful
old black woman whom he mad saved from
starvation. ~. .
But the angle with the book stood thero
too, and looking over the old mans life, he
saw how many good, and gentle, and gsner.,
Gus deeds frightened every year; how he had
been kind TO tho suffering, and forgiven such
wrongs as make men fends, and striven
through all the trials and temptations Of bis
long, iad life, to be true to God and himself.
So the angel wrote under the last chapter of
this mans life, and every letter shown lko
somo rare setting Of diamonds, "He Died
Rich" s''l
And the old man knew it, too, when he
stood at ihs silver gates of the Eternal City.
ard they led him in and showed him tho in.
Leritance to which he was heir"
There was tho house not made with hands,
with its columns Of pearl, and its 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
There, too, was the pleasant landscape,
with its green avenues, its golden pavilions,
its trees waving in the JOY Of eternal leaves,
and It's silver meadow lands sleping down to
tn, river of eternal waters. He was heir to,
all these things, for he had lad up for himself,
crown glory in the kingdom above, where
"moth and rnsl doth not corrupt" itsas