The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-07-15
AN EXTRAORDINARY cROwNER,s
QUEST.

We have been reading obituary notices
always impressed with their truthfulness.
They are prepared under such solemn cir
cumstances, in the very face of death and
of the unknown future life, that their vera
clousness, for a long time, was unques-
toned. At last, however, our confidence
in these descriptions of all virtues, human
and divine, to the dead, was slowly shaken,
and now we can only give unlimited Gre
dence to an ''organ." If paper belong
to some officeholder, or "glorious - party
leader, there's the place TO tack on ones
confidence, even with a double engine,
stern-wheel sewing machine, to the flying
shirt tail of the devout, veracious ''organ. "
We had thought, too, that the propensity
to exaggerate dead mems virtues, and con-
ceal their vices, was growing stronger.
But in this we were wholly mistaken.
There lies before US the Vidette, marvellous
proper newspaper, published at Sulphur
Springs. 1t is the special organ of those
wonderfully good people who will hold
great temperance convention here il Aus
tin, on the twenty-seveHth instant, and
therefore the springs it affects are sulphu-
rous. 1t prefers even birthstone to whisky,
and that accounts for the absolute, simple
when they talk about the dead. There was
never such an honest verdict rendered
by a jury as that uttered by the read
ers of the Tiaette. 1t tells us that
James Whiting was found dead at Sulphur
Springs, a jury of inquest was impanneled,
and its verdict wasv id9ihH1'fos 4"
'As' We, the Jury, find that james Whiting
came to his death by the excessive use of
whisky and exposure to the sun, causing
what is commonly called sun stroke.
"JoHN S. CoFFEY, Foreman"
We like that verdict. 1t is simple, clear,
and goes straight at the uuvaruishUd truth.
Its excellence consists in the value of the
lesson inculcated. III aman die of whisky,
at Sulphur Springs, the fact will be con-
ceded and published. The consciousness of
this must be a terror TO whisky guzzlers.
How easily that jury mIght have said, che
died of sunstroke," or s'of gastro-entere-
tls." What cruelty to the reputation of the
dead might have been avoided by that sup
pressiO Ueri which papers and parsons COM
mend in practice and condemn in theory.
This honest, ,,single5minded jury will not,
suffer the world to doubt, The man died
of sunslroke, but the jury proceeds to ex-
plain that it was whisky and jim-jams that
struck irst.-It- is -the-truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth, and we
can't help commencing the conduct of the
sulphurous jury as a proper example for
preachers and editors and writers of obitu-
aries. 1t is Gods business to make angels
of. men; it is ours to tell of them before
this transformation supervenes, and there is
no foundation N wisdom or necessity or
Justice for that absurd old maxim, invented
by some schoolman and approved by maud
lin sentimentalism, which tells US nI nisi
6snum de naOrtuis ticen1lei1n est. Honorable
lives have gained nothing, if knaves must
be honored alike with the wise and worthy
after death. Cicero and Cataline should
not be entombed in the same mausoleum.