The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1872-12-13
After the Burial.

III Is uOne. Elrln 10 cUttn N5neS 10
ashes: dust to dust. To tho dead there
remains rest, and TO the living the bur-
den of life. Into tho hands of his SER
want God ga se great possibilities. He
took back TO God great achievements.
IL did not need the press and throng of
yesterday; the mute mourning Of men
aud women of all ages, ana conditions,
and religious faith I; the sombre state of
the funeral train wherein the highest
officers Of the nation bore their part not
less than the humblest citizens the
great multitude of people who waited
for hours under the wintry sky only to
bow their heads as their friend was
borne past them to his burial: lit did
not need all these To show the curiously
wide Significance of Horace Greeley's
life.
Tho generation that most misses him
Is tho generation that he finely touched
to so fine issues. Thirty years ago two
classes of young men awaited him. The
first was made up OF farmers, mechanics
artisans; industrious and thrifty fel.
lows, strong, honest, and capable, but
coarse, narrow, and uncultured. TO
them the tribune came as the revelation
ofa life undreemed of. A life of books,
and art, and daily beauty. A life of
knew labor to be their inevitable por.
ton, They saw how il might become
their highest dignity. Into prairie
cabin, and frontier hut, and settlers
saw mill, and artisans tenement went
these vivid thoughts of a new thinker,
and kindled wise discomfort and bet
ter endeavor.
Thesecond class was made up of dilet
tante and delicate youth. They did not
like the smell nor the manners of the
commonalty. They doubted, after all,
whether a paternal government was
not best for the masses. Culture was
their shibboleth. Life, at best, seemed
a little botched to them. They were
persons of the most cultivated distaste.
To them came this same Tribune like
the sound of trumpet, like the blast
Of the north wind. 1t was full of rude
health and rustic honesty. 1t shook
them off their narrow pedestals and
gave them the broad earth to stand on.
1t taught them that the value of culture
was its service to humanity.
From these two ranks of men came
the first recruits OF that great army
which Horace Greeley, more than any
other one man, raised up for liberty and
the rights of all men every where. The
time Is coming when Napoleon and
wellington Will no longer seem heroic
hgures In peoples eyes, because the
Ideas they typlhed VIII be seen to have
been Dase ana selfish. And In that day
the ueau Journallst, deiamed and mis-
Will come 10 tardy monumental honors
as the real hero, the human exponent
OF the divine idea OF love-.
IL Is common TO call him "our later
FRANKLIN" But that Is to belittle him.
Ihere Is likeness In the good natured
shrewdness, the practical wisdom, the
plthy speech, the wish to bene1it men
In homely ways. But the moral nature
OF the pupil was Infinitely broader and
sWeeter than that Oh the master; and
while Inc aphorisms OF the older sage
nave a slignt taste OF copper, certain
TWO penny nali-penny morality ana eX'
actness, the frugality and abstemious'
ness Whlch the younger practiced only
gave him the larger means of charity,
Whlle saving Tor the sake OF saving
seemed TO him only less ignoble than
spending Tor the sake OF spending.
More than to most men 1t was given
to MIN TO see OF the travail of his soul
anu De satished: yet the nation Is
coming 10 understand that no success OF
MS was so triumphant as that which,
on the 5th OF November, we all called
defeat. 10 nave educated people into
sucn stern anu nigh lOVe OF ioerty,
that when IL iancled however blindly,
his feet TO be turning into strange paths
1t should cnoose to follow his great
counsels rather than MS great leader.
ship, Is such glory as man might
well spend himself 10 win. There may
De an erd now OF tne cruei taunt that
ms vanity persuaued MN 10 be can.
uluate, anu snat ne counted on rove
ana commence from the people which
he had never possessed: The universal
grlei declares that not MS most sangu.
Inc friends, not he, himself, dreamed
OF the real aHection tnat went out TO
him. Never able quite to keep pace
with MIN, the people mad plainly strug'
gled up 10 positlOn from Whlch, with
larger vision, ne mad stepped to
nigner. When tney seemed 10 deny
him, they were his truest disciples.
God permits us the high ends We set
ourselves, Dut often changes the means
to better. Our leader, and those OF US
who followed MIN, believed that his
words and his works would convince
the people that magnanimity begets
magnanlmlty, forgiveness, repentance
and deeds meet for repentance; and
love the acts OF love. We see now that
only his death could be thus eloquent.
charitv Thev are swift tn nffar rsnar.
alton io the dead for ininstice done the
Iiv;ng And the day i: not far distont
whap Hnrace Graaieu,s Loot oct tho
can didacv that resulted from his mass.
ionata deS;ra to In nm tho haant;f,'I
and nrostrate sonth and IN see tho
nnion reunited and resnIendent will
seem the Whitest and bravest of Innu
II we had Westminster abbey, our
Irl6nO WOulQ yesterday nave De6n laid