The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1882-02-23
A WESTERN OBITUARY.

| apparently by Mark Twain, in the
Atlantic Monthly.l
he Is gone, Yes, he is gone, but We
have his obituary. He lived out towards
the rear of a western state, and there
also he died. That is enough about him
let us wave him aside; our fight is with
| the obituary. i think it contains rhet-
orical blemishes. Thus it begins:
! While yet on the threshold of animat-
ed strife, and no unkind visions confront
ed him on life's journey, overtaken by
the still voice of the tomb, he responded
by enlistiug in the great army of the
unreturning past"
L do not think these ingredients are
mixed properly. If there was a fight,
and the fight was in the house. ''thresh
DID" goes passably we'll with eliminated
| strife but not otherwise. But I do not
think that there was fight at that time;
he did not "enlist" until later, when he
was on a journey and was overtaken by
the still voice of the tomb. His mistake
lay in responding" he could have let
on that he did not hear, since it was a
still voice.
While yet in the spring time of youth
blossomed on his locks, the cold touch
of an untimely frost fell upon and nipped
life which WAS yet in bloom"
Now, you see, there was no fght, after
all; he froze to death.
But thus it is; when the lamp of life
shines brightest its extinguishment pro-
duces thickest darkness"
He had his lantern with him; therefore
he could have been nothing but scout,
sent out to hunt up the enemy. think
1t possible that there was no fight.
'Life, at best, is but an exiled wan
deiing pilgrim on a desert island, sur
rounded by the boundIess and merciless
sea of eternity, Oh whose barren coast
Inevitable death awaits on every side its
victim unawares."
Starved to death on an island, and
probably drowned, into the bargain
''unawares. Life is full of troubles.
"Ere yet the fruits of manhood's laurel
had ripened Oh his brow, he laid himself
70 rest in communion with the dead"
There is no reasonable fault to be
found with bis not waiting for the crop;
for even if the laurel yielded berry
which it does mott would not ripen on
persons brow.
'Ere yet the shadows of disappointed
hope darkened the horizon of dawning
future, he recline6 on his lowly couch
t-'--'i' -. Al .i>---- ,~>l1 ~.,a s,--.ntt,n
l do not like this. A person does not
travel with couch and lantern, too,
III such place as that Any why "cold
dust3 is the warm kind preferable2 And
dld this man lie down and cover up and
peter out IN the natural way, after all?
There arc many perplexing difficulties
about this history.
During many long years, with that
tiiial affection which makes child loved
by itsparents, and respected by its neigh.
bors, he has proven husband, father. |
son and brother -
f'ilial affection does not ssprove" anv-
thing. The official records of the comfy
VIII show whether he was father. moth
er, brother and sister or not, bnt filiaI
is no sufficient evidence of mora
abstract pretensions like these.
For his tolls he lived"
That is all right that pass: the
object of this inquiry is what he died
for-that, and which thing it was that
tilled him the most.
"But now that the tbuderbo,t of
heaven has fallen upon the hearthgtone
1f their family CIRCLE
Why, good land, be was struck bv
lightning! Take it all around. this is one
'f the most checkered death beds that
las ever came under by observation.
Destroyed IN fight, frost bitten, starved.
'rowned, squelohed in the TRANQUIL
ouch, splintered By the bolts of heaven,
1t is little wonder that he faded from
ur view.
lit may not, perchance, have been
iVen him to climb the dizzy heights of
where Bacon and Burke
'ere so often heard, or fathom deeplv
be bosom of science, where Huxley
nd Tyndall stroll with familiar step !"
The nautical phrase is misplaced there.
ne does not fathom a bosori. Neither
0 any but the most reckless people 90 {
,amping around in such place. t
but he is gone. He sleeps his long. :
'st sleep, unconscious of the night winds a
lat chant the requiem DER his grave. or s
10 very breezes that play among the
'nesome pine, making mnsic as though
'ch bough played the strings of Apollo's
olden harp
Very well. that's ell square and right
nd all to his advantage, too, but he c
isaed his obituary.
y. M. SPENCER, of Hartford, inventor
the Spencer rife," has invented a
IRIa- harrai rapaat;nr clot - -