The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-04-28
Pater a n rps Old Ara.

The sulen.4iI f,r.:a. 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 loesed,
ard the golden bowl was breaking. We
all knew that. and bow the earthly tab
ernacle of this house was dissolving
year by YEAR. But the lovely inner
light shone through with such pure
and gentle radiance that we found it
hard to imagine how we would have him
other than he WAS at fOur-score and
twelve. He brought hack TO my mem
DRY when | would see 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 Years ago, and my
memory fails me a little, and my speech,
bat | thank God ms Character holds out
well, and grows. So he might have
said, and for this we loved him, so that
when the good white head gave out
little he steered 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. He
was to many men what our good poet
was TO one who, when friend said to
him: ''Why do You let that person
trouble youo' answered, simply be-
cause there is no other man on earth
that / know of that he can go to-"
This, think. was why we loved him
most dearly at the last, not for his work
co xo hat -, 1. col 10 xxyaS co
simple and sunny hearted; it was such
a beautiful old age. 1t was rs 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 copse. 1t was such beautiful old
age: and we knew it had not come to
him bv 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
are who have seen much of life, to wear
the vesture of linked steel under the
merchants garb, and the gauntlet I'M
der the silken glove-to grow little
harder as he grew older and more scant
of faith in the new life and the new time
to see good only in the first quarter
of his long span OF years, and evil only
III the IdSl. anu W Stb 1t'tC StOiC OIl INC
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 as the wears 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 impose on him, but we
know they were taken in, after all, and
not Peter Cooper The great, good
heart was like a honeycomb. You need
ed but to touch it, and it gave forth
treasure He was good even to the evil
and unthankful. Let us remember that
to-day with great tender pride, and
store it in our hearts. We should for
get our own gospels some of us, inthese
times, did not men like our dear friend
read TO us the lessons of the day. Rob
ert C0ltger's EL2o0y.