The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-07-31
Funeral of G. IL. Heath, Esq.

A large concourse of people paid their
last tribute to the dead attorney on Wednes-
day. The funeral arrangements were in
charge of Mr.. a. ID. Farwell. The ceremonies
at the house were of the customary kind.
The remarks of Rev. Mr.. Wright, pastor of
the deceased, are quite fully reported below.
The pail bearers were chosen from the bar of
Washington county, and were as follows:
S. G. Shurtletf, George w. Wing, Hiram A.
Huse, u. S. Stanton, Hiram Carleton, John
II. Senter, I. j. Deavitt and w. G.. Ferrin.
The bearers were taken from Aurora Lodge
of Masons and were the following: T. G.
Phnney, ID. Dewey, 2. II. Hinkley, L.
Bart Cross f. ID. Hyde, John Tuttle, A. G.
Brown and j. II. Burpee. The knights
Templar of Mount Zion Commandery acted
as the formal escort, and large company of
people followed the remains to the cemetery.
There the impressive Masonic ceremonial
was observed, Master Mason Collins
Blakely officiating. From the Rev. Mr.
Wright's address at the house the following
extracts will have public interest:
MR.. wRIGHT's REMARKS
In the death of Mr.. Heath a man in all
the Joy and pride and usefulness of full
vigor-a man actively engaged in a great va
rlety OF important affairs, man of incalcu-
liable value in the community, man whose
services were in demand on every side,
man whom everybody would have affirmed
to be needed here-has, in the inscrutable
providence of supremely wise God, been
snatched away in an instant If on Monday
morning we had seen him in crowd of
men we should have selected him as the
one likely to live longer than any other of
equal age in that company. But on Mon
day noon we asked, " Where is he?" He
was gone from human sight, and the form
in which he had dwelt, which ever sug-
gested to his acquaintances health, strength
and long life, was deserted, pulseless, dead
m all
make an effort of the mind to compel our
acceptance of the truth, our full acknowl-
edgment of the startling, benumbing fact.
Truly, - the race is not to the swift nor the
battle to the strong" And if anything
could make us realize the uncertainty of our
tenure of life, such an impressive in
stance of sudden death in the harness of
accustomed toll would do so. We may say,
and can say truthfully that Mr.. Heath
would have preferred the quick going to
lingering and painful decline, or even to
protracted helplessness and incapacity with
out pain, if the choice had been permitted
him. We may try to comfort ourselves
with the thought that he has entirely es-
capped physical suffering, that he was also
spared the mental anguish of anticipating
the sorrow his death would occasion others,
and that no thought of unfultilled plans
and unattained ambitions could have em-
bittered his last hours And still we do
not recover from the shock, and we hardly
yet feel that what we have learned is other
than distressing dream We think OF the
posts where he has stood on guard with
vigilance and fidelity, of the fields on which
he has done strenuous battle for the right,
of the public improvements of which he
has been an earnest and enterprising adj
vocate in word and in deed of the multi
tudes of individuals whose interests were
in some measure in his charge, and we say,
" We can not spare him yek" But the Su-
preme Disposer of what man proposes, who
dignities man by making him a laborer
together with himself, rebukes our thought,
and says, " know best where your brother
can be most useful. You can spare him
and you must" Probably no man could
have been taken from among us who had
so extensive and thorough an acquaintance
with the people in our county aud through
out our state as had Mr.. Heath. He seemed
to know everybody, and the antecedents of
nearly all, whom we could mention. This
wide acquaintance was promoted by the
geniality and atlability which characterized
him, and which aided materially in fur
thering his success in life and increasing
his influence among men. He was able to
meet people, of whatever class or condition,
as on a common level and put them at once at
ease, and rarely was he found so busy in the
midst of ofmultifarious duties that he could not
stop for some genial chat, some laughabe
anecdote, with the latest conner into his office.
1t is not simply, then, loss to our town,
Wnlcn has Dteu MS nome IOr some severn
teen years, that is deplored to-day. 1t is a
loss which is felt throughout a much wider
area, and we can almost hear the eXclama-
tion rising on every hand about us in our
state at large, How is the strong staff
broken -! "The strong staff yes; for
though death ever tells of human weakness
and frailty, yet, as we go back in thought
las we most naturally do at this hour) be-
yond last Monday noon, and picture our
brother as he was, it is the thought of his
strength that stands forth most conspicu-
ousy. The circumstances do not admit of
my attempting now any elaborate analysis
of his character, nor do propose to enter at
length into biographical details | will
simply allude to a few of the salient points
in Mr.. Heath's character; He has proved
himself in many respects an exceptionally
strong man. He was strong physically
his erect carriage and firm tread, his broad
shoulders and full chest, all indicated this
to the most casual observer. And we who
knew something Of the immense amount Of
work he did from week to week, how little
real recreation he allowed himself, how
frequently he braved serious exposures
without injury, and how, when occasion re-