The evening light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1881-1883, 1882-02-02

ferent sort of age from this, if the sen.
ator's prophecy is realized. The splen.
did eulogies, pronounced upon the late
Senator Carpenter by his peers in the
forum of his eminence, are greatly dc.
served and worthy of the speakers and
the occasion. But the senator has
taken for his horoscope. not the lllum
mated realm which only the prophets
eye discerns, but the actual, where
hope and heaven clothe with attrac-
tive raiment the minds desires.
L should be obvious to senators that
for several generations the world has
had very little time to write histories,
has furnished but one or two worthy to
be called so, and less to read them.
When a man dies in any station he is
forgotten unless before oblivion covers
him he can get statue, or other ceno-
taph, in which case he will be remem-
bered, or at least his identity inquired
about by the curious, till some other
statue or cenotaph, or more likely an
electric or railroad station takes its
place. The world is too busy with the
more congenial work of self-indulgence,
of finding snowy receptacles to display
the vanities of life, or in other words
its vanity fairs; too busy scooping
places to hide Its dead to occupy itself
with constructing inches for its great
people, or even with discovering who
they really are. The fact is, everybody
in this age, is more or less great; and
as all its lively people are occupied in
a grand sweepstakes to win the hypo-
thetical cup which is to constitute the
badge of eminence, there is too much
confusion to admit of any getting final
ly over the quarteg stretch.
There is much else, or perhaps more
of the same difficulty seen in another
light, in the way of Senator Carpen-
ter's eminence passing down to future
ages. The gaping spectators that
surrounded the ancient forums where
giants carved their places in the
worlds history, have disappeared from
the face of society. There are no
more spectators, or men of moderate
stature. All, who are not themselves
in the forum, are giants all the same,
and employed in securing common
level as reCompense for not being
there. Or, what more prevails, who,
as followers of the only universally
known, or recognized god, Mammon,
sell themselves into transient service
to that greatness which has usurpcd
privilege, and bring it an imaginary
fame.
And again it has been the misfortune
of Senator Carpenter to employ his
great abilities chiefly in congress,
where SO much alloy has worked its
way into the true metal that fame, who
like fortune, is probably a blind god
dess, is as likely to pocket the coun-
terfeit as the true coin, or pass both
by. 1t has been a bad field generally
for greatness to occupy or work.
But everything is fast and loose.
The universal God is Mammon, and
Fraud and Audacity are his apostles.
The true great man, since kings have
failed and pedigree has had a lively
escape into obscurity, or unregard, is
the millionaire, whose ancestry are
usually solid myth, and who drinks
life, like another Belshasser, out of a
golden chalice and doesn't care a but
ton about the "mene, meme tekel uphar-
sin" that has been scratched on the wall
by fullows who haven't themselves got
the ducats. The consequence is that