Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-12-16
+" He Died Poor

The body of the late Vice President
will be committed to the tomb tomorrow
and so will end the last Journey of Henry
Wilson. The crowds of sorrowful faces
which have clustered around his bier at
every point where the funeral cortege has
rested betoken the high place which the
departed statesman occupied in the es-
TEEN OF his fellow countrymen, and are a
tribute to his life and character as tender
and touching as it was deserved.
The career of Vice President Wilson is
one that can be studied to great advantage
by the youth of the country and by those
of mature years as well. He died as he
had lived, poor in purse-very poor, in
fact, for one occupying his position-but
rich in all else that makes life a success
and death triumph. Mr. Wilson, as we
have before averred, was re-eminently
good man; but now that he is dead moth
ing relating to his life contributes more to
his honor than the fact that he died poor.
Through that crucible, the civil war,
when the opportunities to acquire gain
were great and his position a continuous
temptation, he passed; yet she died
poor" Through long years of Senatorial
life he stood, directing, curling, man
aging, in a manner, colossal schemes of
public enterprise, where millions could
have been diverted to his own pocket, and
yet, all honor to him that the words can
be repeated, He died poor" Henry
Wilson could stand before his people and
say to them as was said by one before
him:
And now, behold I am gray-haired and
have walked before you from my childhood
until this day.
Behold, here l am; witness against ne be-
fore the Lord and before His anointed whose
OK have taken? or whose ass have / taken I?
or whom have / defrauded? Whom have l
oppressed? or of whose hand have 1 received
any brlbe to blind mine eyes Herewith?
The death of Mr.. Wilson, occurring
almost simultaneously with that of Will
lam B. Astor, has given rise to compari-
sons between the two men. Astor had
devoted his life to money getting and
could boast of being the richest man, per-
haps, in the United States. His property
is valued at more than one hundred mill
ions, and is Of kind that constantly ap-
preciates in value. We are called a nation
of money -worshipers, and yet behold
where the honors are bestowed in this in
stance! The Cresus is buried with
scarcely regret. The flags are not low
cred, the drums are not muffied, there are
no public expressions Of sorrow at his loss
He is entombed and forgotten. A costly
monument may be reared above his grave,
paid for out of the money he himself had
accumulated, but it will not be tribute
either of love or respect. On the other
hand, the nation mourned for Henry Will
son. His example will not be for
gotten, and his name will be cherished
among the brightest of those who left the
world better for having lived in it. Surely
it is not all of life to accumulate riches.
1t is not the end of existence to hoard
millions and inhabit costly palaces. There
is something better than this, and it is an
honor to the human heart that now and
then the true is distinguished from the
false, and that genius and virtue are gra-
ciously recognized as above rubies and
more valuable than the wealth of Dives
Chicago Inter- Ocean.