The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-02-12
SPIRIT OF xzz PRESS.
Editorial Opinions Of the LEADING Journais
Upon Unrrout Tapics-Ocmpiled kverV
Day tor the EVENING Telegraph
FUNERAL HoNoRs.


FUNERAL HoNORs.
From the ~ Y. 7ribvrc. ..
One of DIR southey's forgotten eclogues
becins with "Whom are they usherlng from
the world, with all this long parade and pomp
of deathps-and from the response 1T appears
that the funeral is that Of an alderman who
died worth his plum. Those of our readers
who have a taste for such grimly brilliant dis
plays have found full descriptions in our
columns of the honors paid upon this side of
the ocean to the dust of George Peabody.
For our own part, as taste is licensed, we
cannot but regret that the obsequies of this
excellent and generous man were not con-
Quoted with something less of parade, and
with observances more indicative Of his
peaceful and private career. The stately
ship war; the little feet of armed vessels
which flosted in attendance, the thunderous
salutes which poured from 1.-THE adamantine
lips" of gigantic ordnance, the scenic arrange
ment of the chamber of state-are we wrong
in the suggestion that these are not tributes
which would have commended themselves to
the simple tastes of the departed merchant,
could he have foreseen them? Those
of his last thoughts which we're not given to
the amelioration of the condition OF the poor,
we're bestowed upon more than princely pro-
jects for the cultivation of the human intel
lect and train of school-children following
the bier as mourners would have been far
more appropriate than bristling regiments of
infantry moving with the precision of battle
array, as il they were following to the sepul-
ohre master of the bloody art of war. 1t is
a singular proof either of the poverty of our
resources or the perversion of our taste, that
we are unable to project and carry out public
displays even of the more peaceful character,
without @ profuse and most inappropriate
waste of gunpowder. If Mr.. George Pea
body had been the hero of battles-royal by
sea, or of great and decisive engagements by
land the etiquette of his profession would
have required his companions-in-arms to pay
him the usual professional tribute But the
excellent man was a dealer in stocks. II
would have made no difference, we suppose,
in the display, if he had been poet.
If some stranger unacquainted with the
truth had seen ''the funeral car" which was
used at Portland, miracle of sombre mag
nifcence, fourteen feet long and seven feet
wide, ten feet high, draped with black broad
cloth, and with black velvet, silver-fringed,
decorated with white tassels and black ro-
settles, and surmounted by stuffed eagle,
the whole being drawn by ''six magnificent
horses caparisoned in black to their feet, IF
q stranger had seen this, and heard the salvos
laundering from fort and arsenal; and if this
observer had been told that this was the
funeral pageant of q distinguished man,
would he for a moment have surmised that
these were honors paid to "a distinguished
philanthropist 2" Nor would his wonder at
the pomp without have been lessened by the
pomp within-the great hall from which the
light of the blessed sun was excluded, its
walls black with heavy hangings, its ceiling
supporting sable canopy, while the inscrip-
tions are Latin scrap from Sallust, and an
other Latin scrap from Terence, with two
more Latin scraps from nobody in particular
The catafalque upon which the bones of the
old philanthropist were laid was marvel of
upholstery. And finally the railway car which
carried Mr.. Peabodys remains to his little
native village was more mournfully magnif-
cent vehicle than any which ever before
moved over the iron road.
There was not one of these honors so they
had been appropriate, which the least genial
man would have grudged to the memory of
the great and charitable merchant; but we
must be pardoned for thinking that to great
extent they lacked sobriety and must have
been distasteful to deep and genuine feeling.
If ever good man deserved honors not in
the least theatrical, as little as possible con-
ventional, that man was George Peabody. The
Greeks would have wreathed his coffin with
the brightest of flowers and carried it upon its
last journey, with many song of triumphant
and hopeful significance.
We venture upon these remarks mainly be-
cause we deeply revere the character of Mr..
Peabody, and fully appreciate the excellence
of his example. In an age of profuse gene
rosity, his imperial largesse, bestowed by his
living hand, dwarfs all the mortuary gifts in
ecclesiastical history, and makes many a cele-
brated bequest small by comparison. Men
are not common who, having spent long years
in the accumulation of wealth, devote their
last days to its lavish expenditure. Apart
from the great foundations which will pre-
serve his name, Mr.. Peabody will be remem-
bered as almost the originator of new sys-
tenn of public munifcence. The miser dies
with his gold greedily clutched, leaving heirs
to wrangle over it and the law to waste it,
and the next generation will forget his name.
Mr. Peabody will be remembered as one
free from frequent infrmity of old age,
who divested himself of millions, and went
comparatively poor man, to the tomb.
"A MAGAZINE MYSTERY"