The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1889-06-29

hottest purposes that can actuate human
endeavor or stimulate human zeal--the
family.
From Its organization to the present
time our order has paid more than
SCI, 500.0 900 TO the benefciaries OF deceased
brothers, and at an average cost Of sl7 per
annum, or $3.50 per $1,000. What COM
pany can show this record? appeal TO
the history OF insurance. Gan all the
agencies abroad, can all the systems at
home endure the comparison? DO not the
many failures OF companies with bright
promises teach mournful lesson 10 hui
manity? Do not the large number OF sal
aried agents and costly buildings show
that in all othor systems save the Knights
OF Honor and similar assessment bodies
insurance Is not furnished at cost? have
no war TO wage with other systems, old
line and mutual. They do a good work,
and should be encouraged. Many officers
in these bodies are also Knights OF Honor,
and their word is like their bond, bot in
comparison with the plan OF our order the
victory must DO left TO us.
Winter and summer, through evil re-
port and through good report, in sunshine
and storm, the record We have made
beams along the valleys and flashes upon
the mountains with splendor unap-
preached and unapproachable. II was
claimed that AZ the first touch Of adversely
enthusiasm would cease, tho membership
decline and the order pass out OF exist
ence.
Five years after It's organization, with its
strength untried and with predictions OF
failures from thousands who had seen
similar ventures como to nanght, II was
put into the cruciblo OF afilic.ion. The
furnace beneath glowed with consuming
heat Surely IL could not endure so
mighty trial III ackness above II, left
alone in the flames. even the light OF the
stars Withdrawn. the aching hearts OF men
appealing TO II, the cries OF widowhood
ringing within its ears, surely II would DO
powerless, and pass from the Kissing cal
dron into the vast emptiness that mocks
human endeavor. The gloom thickened,
day became night, the awful heat grew
white as snow. and still the orphans chung
10 II as their one last refuge. With mems
experience II must fail. But not so. Be-
meath the power OF God, and upheld by
Him, IL at last came forth from the test
purified and strengthened. and without
the smell OF fire upon It's garments.
Do you remember the pestilonce, before
whose baleiul strides any other city than
Memphis would have abandoned It's homes?
What then? Wonld the knights OF Honor
be able TO pay their death lossos7 Would
they not desert their sick and fail 10 bury
their dead? In those days, (may they
never come again), friendship seemed a
delusion, affection a mockrry, and tho
only passion that remained to man was
wild aud hopeless fear. What was the
record then2 Not Knight OF Honor neg
lecied, nor a death claim unredecmed.
The order In 1878 paid in yellow fever
death losses in this city alone the SUN OF
S2O0.0OO. In addition TO this, thousands
OF dollars from the order at largo reached
our suffering brothers, Whence did II
come? From tho pine forests OF Maine. 10
the matted and dismal swamps that fringe
Florida, 10 the Gulf OF Mexico; from tho
Northern lakes, from New York harbor,
along tlic wondrous West and ON to tho
Golden Gate OF the Pacific. Witl~out
stint Il came, and with Il the better assur-
ance that ~ long n a knight OF Honor
needed dollar here, he should not ask in
vain. Men may deride sentiment, and
talk only Of business but the history Of
our race, dark though Il be, Is full OF ex-
amplcs OF selfsacriiice.
Rome boosted OF her Marcus Curiius,
who leapt into tho yawning gulf TO save
the Eternal City. Grecian cloqucnco has
handed down 10 all coming generations
the memory OF Leonidas, until Their
mopyln has become n mighty inspiration.
Tho Swedish Charles, the British Nelson,
tho American Lawrence, the German
Frederick, the Irish Emmett, the Scottish
Bruce, have all digniiled human nature
and rest In honorable graves till the great
awakening Of eternity. Every nation has
It's heroes, In whose honor poets have
woven chapleis OF immortal verse, and 10
Is well that their names should live
through all the coming years But there
aro others for whom no poets have sung.
Tor the commomoration Of whose virtues
no marble rises 10 greet the morning sun
In scci. Of laurel In the earth the blossom u lhcir
And somewhere. waiting ior Ia birth. tho shat, .,
In The stone.
To whom do refer? Not those who In
the roar OF carnage swept on with inn
pctuous fury ill the opposing enemy
melted before their final charge. Nor yet
again lhc gallant captain wounded upon
bis ship aud begging 10 have her coloru
for his winding sheet. Honor 10 them,
and 10 all In every cline who have seen
'thc glory OF such graves M may come be-
tween the shacklcs and the curse OF being
slaves" But 10 him who In pcstilenco
takes his life In his hand, 10 baltic with
an unseen foe. the deadly malaria, the un-
pitying fever. What OF him7 With no
one 10 cheer, nor trumpet 10 sound the
advance OF coming friends. he crcpt along
the alloys OF Memphis, the ilickcnng light
In some far or window making still mOru
ghaslly the dying features OF tho forgotten
poor. Entering loaihsomo apartments,
breathing noxious cllluvia until finding
even his service In vain. no at lasl
knelt beside the couch Of the sufferer,
and In icrycit prayer committed the dead
10 Him who yet shall make the dead alive.
What of him7 Marble may never emilia
ron his naine nor genius weave him an
immortal crown, but We should utter HE
name with quiet gratitude that he belongs
10 the race Of men. Like Gen. Calnbronne
at Waterloo, when the loadcn hail Was
moving down the Old Guard a. tho grass
Of summer, like him the knights OF
Honor, IN the periilcncc Of rs. seemed d
shout defiance 10 the awful scourse, and
with his last response cry "fhe Guard
dice. but never suuondcn."
within the las, month the distress cal
has been sounded from Pennsylvania. and
the response has been sent from Mem.
phis FIST, and will echo along the line,
till there shal, not be within that stricken
valley a suffering knight Of Honor. NOT
the wife nor child Of knight Of Honor
shall lack ior food. Today every dollar oil
the proverbs Of this assembly has boon for
Nardcd for the same blessed purpose. In
ancient Scotland. upon her Wild mount
aims, valch-ffes were lighted a, the ap