The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-10-02

society at home apd abroad took him for that.
His name was written on the city, and strangers
from afar knew by it that they had got mere.
Whatever was peculiar, local, characteristic or
universal in California, business, manners, So
cie,y, he was its personification. was Cail1or.
MA athletic and happy IN tne CONSCIOUSNESS o Oh
exuberant life? to hin existence was play. I'M
pulsiye? the tide of life In him were noun
tain torrent. Generous? he was more. Uncer-
tain? he was the creature OF the moment.
Speculate? he walked with composure on the
O utter verge of things. Hospitabe? all his doors
were open Probably no man in the state had
SO many people commended to him by private
OF official introduction. He was more seen,
more exposed to view, and more constantly on
trial before men than any man among us. But
this glare of perpetual inspection and exposure
was not friendly to the true understanding of
his character and ability. He was child OF
the earth. natural material man, in the best
style. His bodily frame was the foundation OF
him, and the topmost SUBMITS were OF the
same stuff. His physical activity and energy
were the tireless expressions of an over-abund-
and reeking animal life, in which every muscle
laughed with delight, and every throb of the
heart was shout of childish joy. Outward
activity, external expression, the vehemence of
natural manifestations of an undisciplined ma
ture in which vast amount of miscellaneous
powers and passions lay il promiscuous con-
sion.
Lacking early education and discipline, his
great strength made him an easy victim OF the
pleasing conceit of self made man, and self
reliance became the strong weakness OF CHAR
acter whose citadel was not well manned.
In conversation with him, when l expressed
the opinion that he was not so much self
made man as a creature of circumstances, he
confessed that there was "a good deal of luck
about it." But he despised culture, and felt
satisfied that a training like that of Rufus
Choate would have ruined him.
His Intellectual constitution was singular,
vested ia his muscles more than in his nerves.
The practical was greater than the ideal, fact
greater than thought, the steamboat greater
than the man who made il. The whole universe
of things in his mind tapered the wrong way.
This immense practicability, with its host of
many-handed powers, disenchanted his being,
drove out idea and MYSTERY and depopulated the
groves of imagination. He was one of the most
completely and entirely physical men-even to
the degree that raised the question, to what
extent can the soul lead an unconscious life.
The quickness of his perceptions and the ra-
pidiy with which he passed from one thing to
another were striking and brilliant. When
asked in regard to them and how he attained
them, he replied that he did not know, but
Californians liked it. But that brilliancy of &C
tion concealed defect, as the crack of whip
covers the blemish of SPAWN. 1t was the on
ly method of his intellect Reflection, Consid-
Grafton, contemplation were impossible to him.
A properly ordered intellectual life, capable of
commodation in his franc.
The same physical qualities tinged the stream
of his moral nature as the waters of river are
tinged by the soil of its banks. Money was
ethics, no shadow of terrible reality. He never
seemed to me to have the remotest conception
that pound of avoirdupois had any eternal re-
lation to the specific gravity of the Garth; nei-
ther did be have any conception of the vast,
long-winded power of moral forces. Such were
the Limitations of his natI1ra and training. so
he seemed to me, whose relations with him
were simply those of man to man.
He had moods of freedom from the stress of
action, in which he was exceeding lovely, kind
and gentle. He had no long-cherished fires of
hate smoulderng in the ashes of old wrongs,
aid none of those meannesses that sometimes
attach to better men, the absence of which, in
men OF striking qualities, tends to give little
fiction to reputation, while it softens the severi-
ty OF human Judgment.
Such was the man of our time and our COM
mercial society. He was the product of the
time and OF his own will. In what proportion
those force blended to make him what he was,
none but God the judge of all can tell. In re-
spect of the scope of bis abilities, his character
and responsibility, he is to be judged by no
mere village moralist or pedagogic rule His
great powers were only equalled by their great
limitations, and his immense influence in
the affairs of young and rising. State
can only be accounted for on the ground of rea
ability to organize and control. His career is
one more epoch in the financial history of Cal
if0rnia, and his name will take its true place
in the memory of men by irresistible force of
moral gravity. He was surely more Califor
MAN than denizen of the eternal city. What
culture and discipline might have done for him
it is difficult to tell There were elements in
him that resisted culture. What he needed as
man and as business man was some firm
restraint and persuasion on his tempestuous
nature. As the master of an institution to
cherish and conserve the commercial interests
of society, he can be accounted for only in the
quality of commercial public sentiment. After
the sorrowful events that have passed, let our
minds be chastened to sobriety of thinking
Let US have no foolish conceit that wisdom
dwells especially with us business men, but let
us cultivate all breadth of honor and truth.
Let us not in moping sentimentalism run into
any foolish TRADE against money, or the pur
suit OF money, nor be drawing out the vanity
OF richesp' But let ms use our money with
justice, carefulness and charity. Let US &C.
quire more by honorable industry and frugality
and look with undazzled eye upon the awful
splendors of moral law, of which our money
Is an earthly token.
Concerning our fellow-citizen, deplore,hi
loss with truly human tenderness, and am
unwilling that he should go down into any
depth without this word of humane truth and
sympathizing pity. His end was fit conclusion
OF his career-impetuous, daring, tragic
commit him to that Almighty being whose
Judgments are q great deep, whose chastise-
ments rebuke the pride of man and turn his
beauty to ashes, and whose loving kindness and
tender mercies are from everlasting to ever
lasting.
iolf,allnu rnornino SeY,f x