The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-08-23
Peter Caopar's Old Age.

The splendid force. our elderly men
remember, through which he was able
to hold his own against all corners al
most ever since the century came in
was there no longer, or the far-seeing
sagacity, or the swift intuition we may
well call genius, or the patience, or the
endurance, like heart of oak. The
strong man bowed to the inevitable
touch of time, the silver cord was looSed,
ard the golden bowl was breaking. We
all knew that, and how the earthly tab
ernacle of this house was dissolving
year by year But the lovely inner
light shone through with such q pure
and gentle radiance that we found it
hard to imagine how We would have him
other than he was at f0ur-sGore and
twelve. He brought back To my MEM
DRY when | would sec him that good
apostle Eliot, who. when he was a very
old man, and a friend asked him how
he Jared, said: My understanding is
not what it was some wears ago, and my
memory fails ne 4 little, and my speech,
but thank God nay character holds out
well, and grows. -. So he might have
said, and for this we loved him, so that
when tie good white head gave out a
little he strered more and more by the
heart. His love for our human kind
never failed, or his concern for Us, or
his faith in the teeth of all disaster. lie
was to many men what our good poet
was to one wha. when a friend said to
him: 'Why do YOU let that person
trouble vou?' answered, ''simply be-
cause there is no other man on earth
that | know OF that he can 90 to"
This, | think, was why we loved him
most dearly at the last, not for his work S
sake, but for his own sake. He was 50
simple and sunny hearted; it was such
beautiful old age. 1t was as when
you watch the SHOWS flying thick above
You while YOU sit among the vines and
| roses in quiet hooks we know OF, and
hear the birds singing summer songs in
/ the copsc 1t was such a beautiful old
age; and we knew it had not come to
him by a swift invasion of Heaven at
the last, but was the ripening of his
faith and his being,
He was tempted, no doubt, as we all
| the veSture OF linked steel under the
merchants garb, and the gauntlet UNI
der the silken gloVe-to grow little
harder as he grew older and more scant
of faith III the new life and the new time
to see good only in the first quarter
of his long span Of years, and evil only
| in the last. and TO set more store on the
dust of the grandfather than on the
promise OF the grandsons. These are
the temptations of old age. They glanc-
ed away from the gentle and believing
heart, and harmed no more than they
harm the risen saints No need to tell
him rs the years came on that except
| we are growing sweet and good there
can be no good in our growing old. He
| could tell you that; You could not tell
him. SO he won the treasure, the choi-
cest and best We can ever win, and one
| loved him less at the last for what he
| had done than what he was, the good
| old man with the heart OF a child. 1t
might fall in our WAY to suspect now
and then that the selfish and self
seeking might laIpose on him, but Nc
know they w..fr laken in, alter all, and
! not Peter CnCprs. l'ln great, good
h#.rt was like i HOIrFromh lau need
| ri but to tuu@a 1t. and it gave forth
treasure. ii'Has Good even To the evil
| ana aItaanaiul. Lei IL rriupmhar.that
to-day with 4 GREAT tender pride, and
store IT in oHr ..ctrts. So should for
r.'t car own gospels sam, at us, intAosG
| ti.Ins. did not men ike our dear friend