The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1869-10-07


Wha. sad thing 1t is to see man close
a grand career with a plagiarism in i his
mouth. Napoleon's last words were "1ete
d'armee" (Head of the army Neither of
these remarks amount to anything as "last
words" and reflect little credit upon the
utterers. A distinguished man should be
as particular about his last words as he is
about his last breath. He should write
them cut on a slip of paper and take the
Judgment of his friends on them.
He should never leave such thing to
the last hour of his life, and trust to an in
tellectual squirt at the last moment to ena-
BILE him co 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 time, to be reliable; and may be-,
the very thing he wants to say he cannot
think of to save him and besides, there
are his weeping friends bothering around;
and worse than all, as likely as not he may
have to deliver his last gasp when hei not
expecting to. A man cannot always ex-
pect to think of natty thing to say under
such circumstances, and so it is pure ego
tistic ostentation to put it off. There is
hardly a case on record where man came
to his last moment urprepared and SAID
good thing-hardly case where a man
trusted to that last moment and did not
make solemn botch of it, and go out OF
the world feeling absurd.
Now there was Daniel Webster. No
body could tell him anything. He was
not afraid. He could do something 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 "
still live," and up he went. Of course, he
didn'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
a failure of it at that. A week before that,
fifteen minutes of calm reflection would
have enabled that man to contrive Some
last words that would have been credit
to himself and comfort to his family for
generations TO come.
And there was John Quincy Adams.
Relying on his splendid abilities and his
GOODNESS in emergencies, he trusted to a
happy hit at the last moment to carry him
through, and what was the result? Death
smote him in the House of Representatives,
and he observed, casually, "This is the
last of earth" The last Of earth Why
the "last of earth," when there was so
much left? If he had said it was the last
rose of summer, or the last run of shad, 1t
would have had just as much point to it.
What he meant to say, was, Z" Adam was
the first, and Adams is the last of earth,'
but he put it off too long, and SO he had
to 90 with that unmeaning observation on
his lips.
And there we have Napoleon. 1ete
darmee.". That don't mean anything
Taken by itself, "Eead of the army" is
no more important than "Head of the po-
lice" And yet that was man who could
have said good thingif he had barred
out the doctor and studied over it awhile.
And this Marshal Neil, with half ccntu-
rv at his disposal, couldn't dash off any
thing better in his last moments than
poor plagiarism of another mans last
words, which were not worth plagiarizing
in the first place. "The French Army"
Perfectly irrelavent- perfectly flat-ut-
terly pointless. But if he had closed one
eve significantly and said, "The subscri-
Der has made it lively for the French Ar
N.Y." and then thrown little Of the COM
ic into his last gasp, it would have been a
thing to remember with satisfaction the
rest of his life. l do wish our great men
would quit saying these fiat things just at
the moment they die. Let us have their
next-to- -their-last words for while, and
see if we cannot patch up something from
them that will be little more satisfactory.
The public does not wish TO be outraged
in this way all the time.
But when we come to call to mind the
last words OF parties who took the trouble
to make proper preparation for the occa
sion, we Immediately notice a happy diff;
ference in tho result.
There was Chesterfield. Lord Chester
field had labored all his life to build up the
most shining reputation for affability and
elegance of speech and manners the world
has ever seen. And could you suppose he
failed to appreciate the efficiency of char
acteristic "last words" in the matter Of
seizing the successfully driven nail OF such
a reputation and clinching it on the other
side forever? Not he. He prepared HIM
self He kept his eye on the clock and his
finger on his pulse. He awaited his
chance. And at last, when he knew his
time was come, he pretended to think a
new visitor had entered, and so, with the
rattle in his throat emphasized for dramat-
ic effect, he said to the servant: "Shin
around, John, aud get the gentleman a
chair" And then he died, amid thunders
of applause.
Next we have Benjamin Franklin.
Frank il, the author of Poor Richards
quaint sayings; Franklin the immortal
axiom builder, who used to sit up nights