Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1875-09-09
No. A.

Thousands upon thousands VIII IelucMOcA
the autocrats genial ways, his ready help, bis
cordial sympathy for struggling enterprises
the frank and magnanmous liberality with
which he disbursed his own means; in fine,
the native breadth and largeness of the mans
soul, as manifested in countless examples,
any one of which might have made the repu
tation of meaner creature-cven when the
possible worst has been told of him, and the
skeleton in his closet has been paraded Tor
public amusement and scrutiny Into the
final act OF his life shall not pry too curiously.
There are times in the careers of certain men
when the only thing tolerable or to De en-
dured by them is Death. Over this sad clos
ing Of 50 active and influential life let the
veil of Mercy he drawn. which the reflection
that even this clay, buried in the shadow or
impending dshonor, and heavy with despair
and all lamentable failure and ruin, may be
more worthy of esteem and loving remen-
brance than the surviving assassins whose
poisoned knives urged him on to the catas
trophe, and in whose midnight dreams his
pallid form can only be associated with the
pangs Of unavailing remOrse, or the craven
terrors Of abashed paltroonery.
From the San Francisco Chronicle, August 2S.l
No event in the history of California has
created q more profound impression than the
untin,ely death of William c. Ralston, late
President of the Bank of California. lie had
| been long and closely identified with the best
| progress of the State, with the development
| of its ming, mechanical, manufacturing ana
! financial interests; his generous hospitality
to all visitors had given hiW wide ana ia
vorahle reputation abroad, and his manifold
| acts of charity and good will toward his fel-
low citizens had endeared hiw to thousands
! at home. 1t would be difficult to point to
single enterprise of general utility which has
not in some way been aided and protited by
him, not so much from the hope OF personal
Gain to himself by the use Of the enormous
capital at his command as from an honest
pride in the State, an unfaltering confidence
! in it's future and an ambition to rendcrit fore
most in all that would make its peple happy
and PROSPEROUS 1t is safe to say OF him,
without fulsome praise, that he was man OF
noble instincts, of great heart, and possessed
Of a soul whose natural impulses were all for
good. His Judgment was by no means uner
ring. and his confidence in those in whom 1t
was once reposed was most difficult to De
shaken, even when it was apparent to the
dullest observer that it was misplaced. he
was man of intuitions rather than OF rea-
soning power. He felt rather than saw facts
and circumstances connected with either bus
mess or social life, and was-probably too
much for the station he tilled-a man of i'm
pulse, vet impulse always on the side of right.
No one can say he was without fault, but as
a whole his life and influence have told large
ly and solidly for good. His personal pride
has been keenly and fatally wounded by re-
interated and repeater newspaper attacks
made upon him, and under which, though
seemingly Indifferent, hts friends know he
has suffered intensely. What wonder that
under such pressure as he had sustained, tor
tured by the failure of the banking corpora
ton with which his name and fame have
been so closely associated, anticipating the
satisfactionwith which his msfortunes would
be hailed by his enemies, he sought the only
refuge left his pride and his despair, and
at last peace and silence in is grave. Let no
mao Judge him until he has learned to under
stand what was the burden he bore, and can
say for what price he would endure the daily
and most unmerciful scourgings he has re-
ceiyed at the hands of the assassins Of pub
lie and private character.
From the Alta Californian, August 2S
The journalistic duty has never exacted a
sadder task than that which claims our pen
) to-day. Had William G. RalstOn fallen IN
the fulmess of time, and under ordinary cir
cumstances, his death would yet have af-
fected vast number His unfagging energy,
: his untiring industry, his comprehensive
faculties and alike marvellous enterprise,
have made him, il measure, the handspring
of this community AT any time his with
drawal would have been a serious and IRE
parable loss. Dying as he has, among the
crumbling ruins of his own fortune by the
broken pillar of his fallen ambition, and amid
the agitating hours of the panic, the tragedy
becomes doubly, trebly awful. And yet it is
not as the business man upon whose dictum
much depended, that he will first be thought
of when his death is announced. 1t was the
favorite saying among his friends and asso-
ciates that he was the Prince of good fellows.
No man possessed in more eminent degree
that bon-hommie and geniality of manner
, which endears one to his fellows. His hos
pitality was proverbial, his generosity mex
haustible His friendship was ever reliable.
He had assisted many one to fortune, and
those who have suffered by the late disaster
will not grudge the tribute of sigh to his
memory. Even those whose business inter,
ests have conflicted with Mr.. Ralstons will
lament the man. 1t is sad that such LIE
r should have closed in such awful shadow.
, But whatever may have been the manner of
his taking off, no man more deeply and truly
regretted, nor one who could have been more
lily spared, has passed through the portals to
another life. Gloomy as the financial out
, look has been, it became last night second
arv consideration beside this new calamity.
, For friend and enemy-rich and poOr-re-
membcrng the bounty of his too short life,
: wish peace to the ashes of William Chapman
RalstOn.
At the Pinol mines, Arizona, recently, a
vein of fine silver six inches square was
2 struck in the AtheniuS mine, from which