The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-11-20
BnAersn,t gutellige1teer.
Tho Vale OF Fame.

All great men, or at least those The
world calls great, are not happy, and all
and the hereafter is often sacrificed al
the shrine of On unsatisfying and con.
surniug ambition, And what does il all
amount to in the end but vanity and
vexation? When we have spent oul
lives in the pursuit of worldly honOrs,
which is thought to adorn and emphasize
a great nare, we find it only the Dead
Sea fruit that is beautiful to the sight but
turns to ashes ct the touch. There il q
depth of woe and an exquisite refine.
ment Of misery which great men feel in
reviewing their past lives when nearing
the confines of the great unknown, the
fearful and unexplored beyond. Then
thoughts and reflections, serious and
unbidden, will intrude, which, like Ban
quo's ghost, will not down ct our bidding,
and the whispering of that still, small
voice will come in the lonely watches Of
the Silly night and disturb our waking
visions, telling of the cold river and the
dreary, dreamless shore beyond, where
titles and honors fade and fail.
This is true Of most of the 80 called
great of earth, but moro especially is it
true of the military hero who has built
his throne Of the bones of slaughtered
thousands and waded to it through seas
of blood. Prince Bismarck, tho great
German Chancellor, whose body is
rapidly wearing out with work and age,
has been brought to realize the fact, that,
IS far as happiness here, or the prospect
of it hereafter, is concerned, his long
and brilliant lico has, in the main, been
O failure. He has made no one happy
has bound up no broken heart, but caused
thousands To bleed, and dried no tears 0 f
suffering and want. His life mission,
with almost boundless capacities and
opportunities for good, has been worse
than wasted, and with sight of sorrow
and wall OF despair, he will leave the
world no better for his having lived in it..
But the bitterest dreg in the cup of
his misery will be the recollection Of the
victims slain in war which he might
have prevented, and the misery thereby
entailed on the living. After having
been the cause Of the sacrifice of more
than fifty thousand men slain In battle,
he now lives in hourly dread of the
aRsasain's bullet. He has even rcsorted
to deep potations and iethean draughts
Of the wine cup to lull conscience to
sleep and shut from his sight the ghosts
of his sictims clamoring for vengeance.
Such is lifes fitful fever, and such is tho
fate Of those who madly sacrifice their
all at the shrine of an unhallowed and
unsatisfyipg ambition. Bismarck 10 q
great, but, at the some time, an un.
happy man, and some Of his confes.
sions are in the diapason Of the fifth act
of Macbeth.
He 10 dovoured with melancholy and
remorse, aud is dscontented and diegust-
ed with his work. He lamenta his des.
tiny. which he feels to be an evil one.
He said to friend, in ono of his mel.
ancholy moods: II have made nobody
happy, and what numbers of people I
have made miserable. Without mo three
great wars would have been avoided.
Eighty thousand men would not have
been killed whose blood cries from the
ground for vengeance, and numbers OF
families of fathers, mothers, sisters and
wives would not have been plunged into
mourning"