Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1885-04-19
DONN PIITT'S FLEGY IN PROSE.


Concluded from Third Page.
crous. The theater was crowded by. should
say, some two thousand men, and of the two
thousand one 81 litary individual had read
Moses, and that was the feshy gentleman en-
gagged in assailing him. thought of Sidney
Smiths irreverent man who spoke disrespect-
fullp of the equator.
never saw illstrated before the hold Chris
tianity has taken on the popular mind. Col.
Ingersoll could ridcue Moses, he could even
express his doubts MS to God, but a slight al
lusion to our Saviour was followed by a dead
silence, that indicated that any attempt al
ridicule OF abuse in that direction would shock
even this hardened shallow, Indifferent
crowd. The friend of the poor, the afflicted and
| oppressed, who died teaching us that the road
to Heaven was through kindness to each
other-"Glory to God on high and peace and
| good will to men on earth"-holds his own
IN the hearts of humanity even in the hell Of
a theater, with theological end man raising
a laugh at the expense OF Moses.
| This gentleman claims to know all abOnt
everything, and vt, when on this occasion be
asked himself whether he believed in an ex-
istence after death he said he did not know.
do not claim to be clever, and never sought
to instruct any one, and yet had Col. Inger-
soil been asked, "Do you believe you exist
now?" he would have considered the ques-
toner a fool. Aud yet, both beliefs
rest on the same foundation. This thing we
call a." "me," myself" that thinks,
wills and remembers, believes, feels, knows
that it exists. 1t feels, knows and believes
that we existed yesterday and will exist to-
morrow, and forever. 1t is as easy to make
US comprehend annihilaton as it is to con-
vince us that We do not exist. have heard
divines spend hours in far-fetched arguments
and questionable facts, to prove the immor-
tality of the soul, when each soul within
hearing telt its existence, and could not, by
any process OF reasoning, be brought to COM
| prehend uOn-eXistence-or annihilstion.
Sitting alone amid these neglected graves
| of the poor, | read the great truth on every
| weather-stained, moss-obscured tombstone
about me. The untaught tolers of
the earth have put briefly and in
quaint words their mistaken faith to
record. In the Indian ground, not
| far off, is the same faith. And on no part of
the earth can a man be found who is not
born with that consciousness, that belief, in
him. Why then waste time in proving fact
| that only puzzles one when an attempt is
made to dsprove it.
Again, if this little life of ours here be all
and end all OF existence, death would be us
| easy and natural to US MS sleep. But, as we
are borne into this world in paiu-
| iul strite-we are born into that
| other existence in struggle. Pain
comes and pain goes with us. There is no
| preparation We can make that will familiar
ize US with the dreaded change. The old
man, with two-thirds of his ply steal being
already buried, looks forward to interests in
this life as keenly as the young.
All men are mortal save the man himself,
says the poet. We never take death into our
| confidence. LOOK at the narrow cell in this
vault have selected for myself, and try to
realize my mortal remains being showed III
| and walled up, when The hand that writes
this and tue body have so long regarded as
..me' shall be lett there in darkness, to mould
er in decay. But | cannot bring it home
| to palpable, familiar sense. | know that
! in a briet period-Oh! 50 brief-I shall be
t'ken down on some unpleasant medicated
proposition, and get worse aud weaker from
| day to day, when at last cry OF anguish
will go up from the one dear being-the one,
the only one in all this world who truly be-
lleNts III We-dHu tut uelSHuUI6 Will SdtucT
in and pull on long faces, with much seemly
| solemnity and no grief, and then follow the
hearse, while talking of the weather and the
crops, 10 this. my final home on earth. But
/ cannot make il famIliar-nor pleasant.
This musing. in the still solitude of a neg
lected graveyard is all well enough. but for
| myself to afford food tor worms and medita-
tiOns is not so agreeable.
was once making excellent time from
Bull Pasture mountain, in Virginia, during
the war, when we had be defeated by the
Con'ederates, with the late Colonel Crane.
when that gallant officer turned to me and
said:
81 don't want you to suppose, Dom, that
am scared. | am not. But, my dear fellow,
you don't know what singular prejudice
have against dyinGiust at this time"
And what a mockery is the funeral. Ii the
procession were reduced to the actual mourn
ers one hack would carry it all. Lucky is
the man who can fill one hack. | have a
seat vacant now in mine. DOM PIATT.
MAC o-CHEE, o May 81, 1884.