Weekly Chillicothe crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1878-19??, 1881-10-06
REMARKS OF NOBLE |. PRENTlS


Upon the Death of President Garfield,
at the Memorial Exercises in Atchi-
son, September 2e, 1881.
How many a heart, crushed by the
blows Of fate, has looked up at the
smiling sky and around at the green,
bright earth and exclaimed, GLOW lit
tie sympathy has Nature with human
sorrow" Yet there is something in
tie very season in which we meet in
keeping with this our sad meeting
1t is the season Of the falling leaf from
oldest time the symbol Of mans NOR
tality. 1t is the season of faded flow
crs, emblems of joy that fly too sOOn
The sun shines, but we know that Win
ter comes; the pOmp of summer woods
has flown. Had we selected the day
aud hour it could not be more fitting.
Every human life, with its alterna-
lions of hope and fear, its joys and
50rrows, its sighs and laughter, is a
tragedy, and the falling of the curtain
at last is a solemn event. We cannot,
if we have the heart to feel, look upon
the fixed features, the folded hands of
the dead, without saying, "This is the
.pnd, and 50 80 back to the beginning
and retrace the pathway from the
cradle TO the grave, and there make up
or verdict and answer the question,
WAS This life failure ora success, a
Triumph or a defcat?'
With most, fear the heart faltcrs
a3 il makes its decision. The tolls and
tangles, the unsolyCd problems, the
crossed AID blinded paths of this world
do so confuse men, that it is seldom
That u life is full and rounded and com
pIclo. | remember in my childhood
the death Of a man well known in his
dag. he WI5 the scion of Il noble house
in England; he was Il model Of physic-
NJ manhood; he was writer Of almost
endless versatility; his pursuits, his
lHbur5 were in the direction Of what
men call pleasure; yet he died by his
own haud, and lcfJ as his last request
that they should write above his dead
racp. "J5EsliciyyiU,yig." "ATost unhappy."
/.IVEoiieiwimVy,p "lIogt unbappy,"
how many and many time il might
he written when il is not. The wrang-
la Of thc market and forum done. the
slriro for fame, for wealth, for power
puIcd and then lnc dead man IS laid
in bis rraye and the dark tragedy is
summcd IN in the sad confession of
Jirp3l railurc, "EDfelicisyiuuy"
Moi this shall be the epitaph of him
who today is laid to his rest amid a
nations mourning; not ours, amid our
loss, to feel that all is lost; not ours to
know that in his life earnest endeavor
was unayailng; worthy ambition but
the prelude TO defeat; not ours to feel
that life was but a useless sacrifice,
birth 4 calamity, and death y welcome
close to wasted days; not ours to feel
that even the boon of recollection is To
be denied, and memory sadly refuse to
keep the story of misfortune.
lie, if ever life is 4 victory, was Il
conQueror. His, if it ever comes Ia
mortals, was the fortune to drink of
the cup Of happiness; his, to escape the
calamitic9 which befall so many; the
proud m9n's contumely, the pangs OF
despised love, the Sights which patient
merit, Of the unworthy takes. His, to
die amid the tears Of almost universal
humanity to he borne in honor to his
native soil, to be buried with every
evidence that man can give Of aifec'
ton and honor, and his the watched
and warded grave, and memory to be
kept forever green.
The key note of this mans life, it.
inspiring and animating spirit, its in
roming soul, was Love. Love, wore
often lightly spoken, and, God forgive
us, often sneered at; secuted at by
those whose hearts have withered il
the furnace heat of seldshness. Love
at times WIDELY disbelieved in, writer
nowhere on merchants ledger or law
yer's parchment, and vet love, steady
changeless, inspiring, was the create
Of James A. Garfield, the beauteou
spirit that walked beside him all th,
days of his life, and spoke with tn
last utterances of his dying lips.
Porn amid tbe shadows of novertv
seeing MI about him the effects of i
cold and renressino hand in the scant,
meal the coarse clothing the humbl'
- a. o,,,.;c,,, F,oo of ,l,o ,,,;Joy,o,
moiber. NOT his to seIfshlv escone from
If MI. to Gv to some distant country
AND tbero tyin famo and fortune f9
HIM %imsoif , olono No tho ston5v ofreC
ton tho iovo that brrned in bis hear
Sor % ihoSo wost door forbade tho snIIis,
aod U tnV" ian"I,in VS G;,St % What % tTau I Lora h
w %nro SV1'g S,;th thano " his tn % oIing linz To- 70 th h
Iond To,v "f'h oF his mnthor ~ and % his sbrotbor