The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1869-10-15
A PROFANE CHAPTER.
Last words of Great Mcn---Failure OF

A PROFANE CHAPTER.
Last words of Great Men---Failure o
the System.
| Marshal Neil's last words were
"L'armee Francaise % The Frencl
army.-Ecchange.
What q sad thing to see a mai
close a grand career with plagia
rism in his mouth. Napoleon's last
words were, "7ete darnaee,' (Head
of tie army.) Neither of these re
marks amounted to anything as ''las
Words" and reflect little credit upon
the utterers. A distinguished maj
should be as particular about his last
words as he is about his last breath
He should write them out on slil
of paper and take the judgment OI
his friends on them. He should
never leave such a thing to the last
hour of his lie and trust to an intel
lectual squirt at the last moment to
enable him to say something smart
with his latest gasp, and launch into
eternity with grandeur. No--a man
is too much tagged and exhausted,
both in body and mind, at such a
time, to he reliable; and may be the
very thing he wants to say, he can
not think of to save him, and be-
sides, there are weeping friends
bothering around; and worse than
all, as likely as not he may have to
deliver his last gasp when he is not
expected to. A man can not always
expect to think of natty thing to
say under such circumstances, and
80 it is pure egotistical Ostentation
to put it off. There is hardly a case
on record where man came to his
last moment unprepared and said a
good thing--hardly case where a
man trusted to that last moment. and
did not make a solemn botch of if,
and go out of the world feeling alb
surd.
Now there was Daniel Webster.-
Nobody could tell him anything. He
was not afraid. He could do some
thing neat when the time came. And
how did it turn out Why, his will
had to be fixed over and then all
his relations came; and first one
thing and then another interfered.
till at last, he only had chance to
say 81 still live,'' and up he went
OF course, he eidn't still live, because
he died-and so he might as well
have kept his last words to himself
as to have gone and made such al
failure of it as that. A week before
that, fifteen minutes of calm refiec- |
ton would have enabled that man to
contrive some last words that would
have been a c,edit to himself and a
comfort to his iamily for generations
to come.
And there wa John Quincy Ad-
ans. Relying oIhis splendid abili-
ties and his coolnss in emergencies,
he trusted to a hahy hit at the last
moment to carry I'm through, and
what was the resulR Death smote
him in the House Of representatives,
and he observed, canally, "This is
the last Of EARTH" TIE last of eartbI
Why the "last of eartL' when there
was so much more lefp If he had
said it was the last ros of summer,
or the last run Of shad, iwould have
had just as much point tit What
he meant to say was, "Atm was the
first, and Adams is the las9f earth
but he puts it off trihe 90 long, |,
and so had to 60 with thaLnmean- !.
ing observation on his lips. !
And then we have Napeon-l,
"Iste d'armes." That don mean ,
ANYTHING. Taken by itself, Head
of the army" is no more imr-tant
than ssHead of the police" Al vet ,
that was a man who could have aid :
a good thing if he had barred onhe Ii
doctor and studied over it awhil- - If
And this Marshal Neil, with haa q
century at his disposal, could b r
dash off anything better in his lal I
moments than q poor plagiarism
another mans last words, which wert
not worth plagiarizing in the first
place. "The French army!" Per-
fectly irrelevant-perfectly flat-ut-
terly pointless. But if he bad
closed one eye significantly and said,
ssThe subscriber has made it Hvely
for the French army" and then
thrown a little of the comic into his
last gasp, it would have been thing
to remember with satisfaction all the
rest of his life. do wish our great
men would quit saying those fiat
things just at the moment they die
Let us have their neXt-to. their last
words for a while, and see if we can
not patch up something from them
that will be little more satisfactory
the public does not wish to be out
ragged in this way all the time
But when we come to call to mind
the last words of parties who tool
the trouble to make the proper prep
aration for the occasion, we immedi
ately notice happy difference in tht
result.
There was Chesterfield. Lore
Chesterfield had labored all his life
to build up the most shining reputa
ton for affability and elegance o
speech and manners the world ha.
lever seen. And could you suppos'
he failed to appreciate the efficienc,
of characteristic "last words" in tn,
matter of seizing the successfully
driven nail Of such reputation ant
clinching it on the other side forever
mot he. He prepared himself. H
kept his eyes on the clock and hi
finger on his pulse. He awaited hi
chance. And, at last. when he kne,
the time was come, he pretended t
! think q new visitor had entered, an