The Opelousas courier., 1890-05-31

Inent. and will, with benignant and a,l-s,,e-
gestlye Smile. say, eyes, It is as 1 told the
Worio many centuries ago-better is small
IacuiSy actively used than great talent i'm
lion.'h ~ n"A oeao
The simple fact is that the world has been.
anu the world is now, full of dead lona'
They are people Of great capacity and large
opportunity, doing nothing for the improve
menu OF society, nothing for the overthrow
o. eVli, nothing for the salvation of souls.
some OF them are monetary lions. They
nave accumulated So many hundreds Of thou.
SANDS or dollars that you can feel their tread
when they walk through any street or come
into any circle. They can by one financial
move upset the money market Instead Of
the ten per cent. Of their income which the
Bibie lays down as the proper proportion of
their contribution to the cause of God, thew
donot give i've per cent, or three per cent.
or Two DER cent or one ner cent. or a half
per cent, or a quarter. per cent. That they
are lions, no one doubts. When they roar
Wall street, State street, Lombard street and
the Bourse trernble.
In a few years they will lie down and die.
They will have a great funeral, and a. long
row OF tine carriages, and mightiest requiems
Will roll from the organ. and polished shaft
OF Aberdeen granite will indicate where
their dustlies, but for all use to the world
that man might as well have never lived.
As an experiment as to how much he can
carry with him, put a ten cent piece in the
palm of his dead hand, and five
years after open the tomb, and you
will find he has dropped even the
ten cent piece. A lion! Yes, but a
dead lionl He left all his treasures on earth,
and has no treasures in heaven What shall
the stone cutter put Upon the obelisk over
him? I suggest, let it be the mans name,
then the date of his birth, then the date Of
his death, then the appropriate Scripture
passage: Better is a living dog than a dead
lion"
But l thank God that we are having just
row an outburst of splendid benehcence that
is to increase until the earth is girdled with
It. 1t is spreading with the speed Of an cpl
demic, but with just the opposite effect of an
men are opening free libraries and building
churches in their native village? Have yor
not seen how men of large means, instead
of leaving great philanthropies in their
wills for disappointed heirs to quarrel about
and the orphan courts to swamp, are be
traitors? After putting aside enough for
their families for she that provideth not for
his own. and especially those Of his own
household, is worse than an infidel'l, they
are saying: "What can I do, not after [ am
dead, but while living and in full possession
of my faculties, to properly direct the build
ing of the churches, or the hospitals, or the
public welfare, and while yet l nave full
capacity to enjoy the satisfaction of seeing
the good accomplishedp There are bad fash
ions and good fashions, and, whether good o.
bad, fashions are mighty.
One of the good fashions now st.cSing will
sweep the earth-the fashion for wealthy
men to distribute, while yet alive, the,
surplus accumulation. It is being helped By
the fact that SO many large estates have, i'm.
mediately after the testator's death, gone
into litigation. Attorneys with large fees
are employed on both sides, and the case goes
OF month after month, and year after year,
and after cue court decides it ascends to an
other COURTS I'D is decided in the opposite
direction, ano then new evidence is found,
and the trials are all repeated. The children,
who at the fathers funeral seemed to
have an uncomfortable grief, after the
will is read go into elaborate process to prove
that the father was crazy, and therefore in
competent to make a will; and there are men
on the jury who think that the fact that the
testator gave so much of his money! the
Bible society, and the missionary society, Or
the opening of a free library is proof positive
that he was insane, and that ne knew not
what he was signing when he subscribed to
she words: I'm the name Of God, men. I,
being of sound mind, do make this my last
will and testament.
The torn wills. the fraudulent wills. the
broken wills have recently been made such o
spectacle to angels and to men that all over
the land successful men are calling in archi-
tects and saying to them: "How much
would it cost for me to build q picture gal
lery for our town. or, "What plans can you
draw me out for a concert hallg' or, Il am
specially interested in the incurables,' and
how large a building would. accommodate
three hundred of such patientsf' or, 1.-THE
church of God has been Q great help to me
all my life, and | want you to draw me a
plan for q church, comrnodious, beautiful,
wal~evptilated, and with plenty of windows
ds-eJTn the light; I want you to get right at
work in making out plans of such a building,
for, thought am well now, life is uncertain,
end before | leave the world I want to see
something done that will be a appropriate
acknowledgment Of the goodness of God to
me and mine; now when can I hear from
your
In our own city we have many examples OF
this. What a grandeur of beneficence has
our fellow citizen, Mr.. Pratt, demonstrated,
building educational institutions which will
put their hands on the Nineteenth century,
and the Twentieth century, and all the CEN
turtles! All honor to such a man! Do not say
SO when he is dead, say it now. Tt would be
a good thing if some of the eulogies we chisel
on tombstones were written on paper in dme
for the pnilanthropists to read them while
yet they are alive. Less post norton praise,
and more ante-morteml
A poor Scotch lad came to America at
twelve years of age, and went to Pittsburg.
AZ ~~1-~l --..- e. ~-1 1000 r-N n-
engineer in a cellar, then rose to become q
telegraph messenger boy, then rose to a posi-
ton in a railroad Office, then rose to place in
O telegraph Office, then rose to be superin-
tendent Of q railroad, then rose till he became
an iron and steel manufacturer, then rose
until he opened free libraries in his native
land and last month a free library in Allie
gheny City, and now offers two million dol
lars for a free library in Pittsburg. This ex-
ample viii be catching until the earth is
reyolutionized.
How majestic such men In comparison
with some I wot of, who amass wealth and
clutch it with both hands until death begins
to feel for the heart strings, and then they
dictate to an attorney q last will and tesla
ment, in which they spite some daughter
because she marie against her fathers
wish, and dinaa fauScrusts to God and suf-
fering humanlgy,as much as to say: Il
have kept this surplus property, through all
Shese severe winters, and through all these
long years, from . needy and suffering world,
and would keep it longer il I could, but as I
must give It up, take Il, and much good may
&c do your Now we begin to understand the
text: "Better is q living dog than a dead
non.n
Who would attempt to write the obituary
OF the dead lions Of commerce, the dead
lions of law, the dead lions OF medicine, the
dead lions of social influence? Vast capacity
had they, and mighty range, and other men
In their presence were as powerless as the an
teIope or heifer or giraffe when from the
jingle a Numidian lion springs upon It's