The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-01-04
HIS HONOR AND BIJAH.



ger Performs Bijah's Duties.
Detroit Free Press
His Honor was there in his accustomed place,
and the clerk sat at the same desk; but when
men looked for BIiah they found stranger off,
Ger exercising his functions. They marveled
much at this, and they whispered together but
it was only when his Honor rose up with tears
in his eyes that the truth was known.
Biiah was dead.
Our Bijah--your Bijah-the good old janitor
whose name was a household word in every land
where the English language is spoken.
We who knew him in the flesh forgot that
he was growing old-that the years had slipped
past until the burden was heavy one
to bear. We sometimes remembered that
he was wifeless-that his few surviving relatives
were scattered-that he was a man without q
home. but he did not grow old to u.s. The frosts
OF cid age touched his scant locks, and wrinkles
came to testify that ne was descending the path
of life, but he would not have it that he had be-
come an old man.
Verify, diamond in the rough AS a child
he sat in the shadows of poverty; as a youth he
had no advantages of education; as man he
must solve the problem OF life with Drawn and
muscle. And so he came to the public diamond
IN the rough, but he brought with him such a
sympathy for the erring and unfortunate that
the men. and women, and children Of America
forgot his rough points and became his friends
and defenders
ADO ne Is QeaQ
A thousand lost children have been taken
kindly in his arms, their tears of fright wiped
away with fatherly hand, and his soothing voice
has said to them: 81 will soon take you home
to mother Women whose lives have been a
struggle with poverty and despair have come to
him for kind words and for bread, and not one
has ever been refused. Men who had been un-
fortunate have found in him an honest sympa-
thizer and kind adviser In his gongs and
comings his cheerful voice and big heart made
the world better.
And to-day he lies in his last resting place
old, poor in purse. with grand procession of
carriages, but with more hearts sorrowing than
we can number. There will be no monument to
all that. When the world owes debt of graft
tude. it does not repay it in cold and unfeeling
marble
How often this old man lying dead-this man
with such heart as the world seldom hears Of
has pleaded with justice to give the young and
unfortunate the old and despairing one more
opportunity to retrieve themselves we who have
seen him daily know best. How many owe to
him as much as themselves the fact that they are
living in the sunshine of honest life to-day we
will not say. 1t is grand eulogy on the dead
to say OF aims He wronged no one-all were
his friends"
And that big heart has stopped it's beating,
and that gruff voice, of which children even
wore not afraid, will be heard no more on earth
If he did not profess Chrstianity--if not found
on his knees among praying meL-if his voice
did not sing the hymns of salvations-he had in
his heart charity, sympathy, forgiveness. That
was the record he took with him into the valley
of the shadow-across the dark river to the
brighter shore. By it he will be judged, and
thousand hearts will plead: MAY he find peace