The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1888-03-08
Memorial Address on General Logan
BY HON. T. B. REED.
February 8, 1888.

February 8. 1888.
General Logan died full Of honors;
but, alas! how full of years. Through
out his life, cut off in its richest flower
he had every token of popular favor,
every sanction of popular esteem. HIS
name was familiar in our mouths as |
household words. His martial face |
and figure kindled the imaginations OF |
his own generation and will kindle the |
hearts of the young and generous IN
many generations which are to come.
But it is not because he held high
places, or because he looked, and was,
every inch soldier that we erect this
memorial tablet here. High places
may come of fawning. High honors
are not always worthily won; and God
sometimes shows, by the people He
gives it to, that He is as cOntemptuOus
of great Office as He has been said to
be of great wealth. This church is not
Hall of Heroes in which to celebrate
human greatness. 1t is rather dedlca-
ted to the nothingness of mortal glory
and the beauty of eternal life. TO him
who sleeps, whom this tablet commem-
crates, all the lofty things Of this world
are but dust in the balance. The great
name he won, the honors he bore, his
place among the foremost are as moth
ing to him now. The noble words of
tribute which fell thick upon his bier
are to him but as the empty air. Even
that supreme day of his life, when rag
ing with the divine fury of the soldier
utterly fearless, before his sullenly re-
treating battalions, he tore victory
from the very jaws of defeat; even that
great day, worth a whole lifetime OF
peace, is to him but one among the
fading visions of earth. What room is
there for earthly pride? How can we
be prond of noble birth, of great pos
sessions, or even of great intellect?
They are all but the gifts of the Mas
ter; always demanded back with usury.
This tablet commentaries one who
rendered back his gifts with usury an
hundred fold. He filled out to the full
measure of completeness every oppor-
tunity he had in life, and his life was
full of great opportunities. With
every year he grew in strength and
power. Every year found him better
fitted for the service of his country.
Could i give him lOftier praise? But
if human glory be naught, why do
praise the dead? Because praise of
the dead is the noblest incentive to the
living. Poor wanderers that we are
on the stormy seas, how it lightens the
heavy heart in the dark hours to see
flash out the great beacon-light left on
the shore by some strong soul which
has breasted the waves before our day !
/ have seen Logan breasting the waves
in the dark hours, and L have seen him
safe in the sunlight on the shore.
When | first knew him in Washing
ton. eleven years ago, Logan had just
experienced the ingratitude of Repub
lies. Cast out from his seat in the
Senate, with the re1uent tide of popu
lar feeling setting strong against him,
with the blood of youth no longer i'll
his veins, and with the lessening years
before him, he faced the future. He
was neither silent nor accomplishing.
The men who meet adverse fate with
silence and smile are stOry-book he
roes, not real men. Logan was hero
of the old Homeric type. He made the
welkin ring when the world went
wrong for him, and the world liked
him because ne was so intensely human.
With iron courage he set himself to re-
trieve his fallen fortunes, and to render
himself worthier of his future. The
history of his success needs no repeti-
ton.
Eight years afterwards | saw him
in the full sunlight of prosperity. 1t
was under the beautiful summer sky of
Maine. He had just been victorious
in the greatest civic battle of his life.
He had there shown the great qualities
which had added immeasurably to his
fine. Through the rare days of that
week of June, surrounded by the shout
ing thousands, thrOnged by his old
comrades in-arms, amid the strains OF
martial music and the incense of honest
admiration, surely he had right to be
happy, if happiness be for mortal man.
Under the genial impulses of those
bright days all the nobler qualities of
his nature came out, and was amazed
to find that the sturdiest combatant 1
ever saw had heart as gentle as
child's.
The Farmers Alliance of Texas has
declared in favor Of protection. No
free trade wanted. The Randall Pro-
.o..;o,, CI,,b Of Pirmin0houo A1ahap1o