The daily intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Territory [i.e. Wash.]) 1876-1881, 1878-01-23
An Eloquent Tribute.

Walter Leman. the veteran actor who
has resided in San Francisco since 1850
and whose good old face is still to be
seen occasionally at the Californis
Theatre. paid the following beautiful
tribute 10 the late Nathan Porter, over
the bier of the deceased Senstor in the
Odd Fellows Temple in San Francisco.
The elegance of diction and purity of
expression viii rank it with the choicest
of funeral orations, not excepting that
delivered by Baker over Broderick:
This insnimate clay. wreathed in the
beautiful but fading emblems Of immor-
tality. is the vacant temple of q noble
spirit gone forever. With the approval
of those who loved him most and best.
and whom he best and dearest loved, as
an old and lifelong friend I stand here
to mingle with them and you my SYM
patby; with them and you to place q
single chaplet of remembrance upon his
bier. The perhaps pardonable egotism
implanted in every human breast leads
me to think that upon almost any occas-
ion Of human joy or human sorrow we
should have sufficient self-possession to
soy what 10 most appropriate to the
event and to the time; but an event
like this dispcls the illusion and tells us
that the eloquence of the rhetoricisn,
the grsces of oratory and the gift of
tongues are powerless when tho lips
are tremuleus with grief and the heart
too full for utterance. Yet the Great
Master tells US that
"The grief that does not speak
Whispers the o oerfraught heart and bids 1t break"
So speak must; but. Oh! what shall l
say What word shall address to the
honored dead, my dear, dear friend?
Friendl Aye, how in this world that
holy term is misconstrued, misapplied
and misunderstood. We ell know that
friendship is too often q mere spark,
kindled a. the blaze of false sentimen.
tality by breath and scattered by
breath like as the futter of a butterhy's
wing. But such was not the friendship
of Nathan Porter. No! The friend of
my young manhood, friend of my ma
turer years, the friend Of my advancing
age. always aud everywhere was. for
almost half century, to me and mine
u tried and true aud faithful and devo-
ted. constant friend. What, then, shall
say to you Of him. It would be in
sulting the intelligence Of this weeping
audience. insulting his character. to
stand here and throw the flowers of
fiattery or adulation upon his grave.
mol that would be what he himself
would scorn.
''CAn storied urn. or animated bust
Back 70 ~ mansion call the hesting BREATH
Can Honor's voice invoke the silent dust,
Or hstfery soothe the dull. cold ear OF Death,'
1t would be doing double injustice to
him to base my hnmble tribute to his
memory upon the grounds of personal
friendship alone. That could not do.
True. he was oil in ell to me; but he
wss more than all in oil to the beloved
circle that clustered around his happy
hearth to the dear, afflicted, invalided
partner of his sorrows aud his triumphs
and his joys; to the loving, dear child
rem, whose affection nestled and clung
around the manly column of his father
ly and parental character as the ivy
twines around the sturdy oak-such he
was to them and to his friends; but
alone and beyond all this. there was ia
him q catholicity Of humanity that
went out and beyond friends and kindred
and home. It embraced the world. 1t
went out to the members of that great
profession which he honorsd by his
character and adorned by his talents; to
the members Of that grand association
who IN him found the fruest exemplar
OF their motto, "Friendship, Love snd
Truth" to society at large: to mankind;
to the world. With the largest charity
for the frailties OF humanity, there was
implanted in him the most unaltsrable
support of right and the most invincible
Of wrong, whether the
wrong rode in silk and purple or grow
elled in wretchedness and rags. The
slave OF no dogma. his religion was his
blameless life; his creed the selden rule
to do unto others what you would they
should do unto you. As con and brother,
ss husband. father. friend and man,
there is no slur or blot upon his spotless
escctcheon. The blandishments and
temptations of Official station that also
too often dun the brightest shield. never
placed single sInirch upon the blazon-
~ OF his. As between right and wrong.
ms honest voice never gave forth an
uncertain sound. and in the path of
duty he could be ssduced by no artifice
and conquered by no valor. In short. to
sum bis character in little. "his life was
gentle, and the elements" in him blend
ed 90 graciously that
Mature might stand up
And ssy 10 ali the world. THE was . man"
Just called to share in the legislative
councils Of great commonwealth. for
which the judicial cast of his mind and
his rare cxperlence eminently fitted
him. and where be would have suppl
mented the usefulness and hcnors of
busy life by greater usefulness and
honors yet 10 come; just called hardly
across the threshold: hardly within the
vesiihule of the Temple of the Future.
the pail of death has fallen upoh him in
An instant, and shnts him from our