Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1890-04-05

of leaving great philanthropes in their
wills for disappointed heirs to quarrel about
and the orphan courts to swamp, are be-
coming their own executors and admins
traitors After putting aside enough for
their families for ''he that provideth not for
his own, and especially those of his own
household, is worse than an infidel'i, they
are saying; What can | 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
colleges, or the libraries that design for the
public welfare, and while vet | have full
capacity to enjoy the satisfaction of seeing
the good accomplished There are bad fash
ions and good fashions, and, whether good or
bad fashions are mighty.
One of the good fashions now starting will
sweep the earth-the fashion for wealthy
men to distribute, while yet alive. their
surplus accumulation. 1t 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
on month after month, and year after year,
and after one court decides it ascends to an
other court and is decided in the opposite
direction, and 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 gointo elaborate process TO prove
that the father was crazy and therefore in
competent TO make will; and there are men
on the jury who think that the fact that the
testator gave so much of his money to the
Bible society, and the missionary society, or
the opening of free library is proof positive
that be was insane and that he knew not
what he was signing when he subscribed TO
the words: In the name of God amen. l.
being of sound mind do make this nv last
will and testament
The torn wills, the fraudulent wills. the
broken wills have recently been made such
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 picture gall
lery for our town." OF, "What plans can you
draw me ont for a concert hallf' or. Il am
specially interested in the incurables, and
how large a building would accommodate
three hundred of such patients@' or, The
church of God has been great help to me
all my life, and | want you to draw me a
plan for church, commodious, beautiful,
well ventilated, and with plenty of windows
TO let i'll the light; | want you to get right at
work in making out plans of such building,
for, though am well now. life is uncertain,
and before leave the world | want to see
something done that will be an appropriate
acknowledgment of the goodness of God to
me and mine; now when can | hear from
your
this. What a grandeur of benehcence 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 mani Do not say
so when he is dead say it now. 1t would be
a good thing if some of the eulogies we chisel
on tombstones were written on paper in time
for the philahthropists to read them while
yet they are alive. Less post mortem praise,
and more ante-mortem!
A poor Scotch lad came to America at
twelve years of age. and went to PittsbUrg
He looked around for work and became an
engineer in a cellar, then rose to become a
telegraph messenger boy, then rose to a posi-
ton in a railroad Office. then rose to place in
telegraph Office. then rose to be superIn-
tendent of :. 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 free library in Allie
gheny City, and now offers two million dol
lars for free library in Pittsburg. This ex-
ample will be catching until the earth is
revolutionized
How majestic such men in comparison
with some l wot of, who amaSS wealth and
clutch it with both han Is until death begins
to feel for their heart strln g, and then they
dictate to an attorney last will and Tesla
ment in which they spite some daughter
because she married against her fathers
wish, and fling few crusts TO God and suf-
ferlng humanity, as much as to say: Il
have kept this surplus property, through all
these severe winters. AMI through all these
long years, from needy and suffering world,
and would keep it longer if | could, but As |
must give it up, take it, and much good may
it do your Now we begin to understand the
text: BETTER is living dog than dead
lion"
Who would attempt to write the obituary
nf hn of ha load
lions of law the dead lions of medicine, the
dead lions of social influence? Vast capacity
hal they, and mighty range, and other men
in their preSen e were powerless as the an
telope or heifer or giraffe when from the
Jingle a Numidian lion springs upon its
prey. But they get through with life. They
lay down in their magnificent lair. They
have made tleir last sharD bar5ain. They
have spoken their la5J hard word. They
have committed their last mean act. When
a tawny inhabitant Of toe desert rolls over
helpless. the lioness and whelps fills the air
with shreks and howls, and lash themselves
into lamentation, and it is a genuine grieffo
the poor things. But when this dead lion of
mOnstrous uselessuess expires there is moth
ing but dramatized woe, for Better is liv-
ing dog than dead lion
sly text also means that an opportunity of
the living present is better than a great o.
portunity passed. We spend much of our
time in saying: "lf | only had" We can
all look back and see some occasion where
we might have done great deed, or might
have effected an important rescue, or we
might have dealt a stroke that would have
accomplished vast result Through stupid
ity or lack of appreciation of the crisis, or
through procrastination, we let the chance
go by. How much time we have wasted in
thinking of what we might have said or
might have donel We spend hours and days
and years in walking around that
dead lion. We cannot resuscitate it. 1t
will never open its eyes again. There will
never be another spring in its paw Dead as
any feline terror of South Africa, through
whose heart thirty years ago Gordon Cum
ming sent the slug. Don't let us give any
more time to the deploring of the dead past.
There are other great opportunities remain !
ing. They may not be as great, but they are
worthy our attention. Small opportunities
all around, opportunities for the saying of
kind words and doing of kind deeds. Help |
lessness to be helped. Disheartened ones to
be encouraged Lost ones to be found.
Though the present may be insignificant as
compared with the past, Better is a living
dog than dead lion.
The most useless and painful feeling is the
one of regret Repent of lost opportunities
we must and get pardon We may. but re-
grets weaken, dishearten and cripple for fu-
ture work. If a sea Captain who once had
charge of a White Star steamer across the !
AJantlc ocean. one losSy mShU runs on a !
rock off Newfoundland, and passengers and |
ship perish, shall he refuse to take command
of small boat up the North River, and say:
81 never will go on the water again unless l
can run one OF the White Star liner Shall |
the engineer OF a lightning express, who at
the station misread the telegram of the train
dispatcher and went into collision and for
that has been put down TO the work of
engineering on a freight train, say: Il
never will again mount an engine IN
less can run yestlbule express Take
what you have of opportunity left Do your
best with what remains Your shortest viii
ter day is worth more to you than can be the
longest day of a previous summer. Your
opportunity now, as compared with previous
opportunities, may be small rs a rat terrier
compared with the lion which at Matabosa,
fatally wounded by the gun of David Liv-
ingstone. in its death agony leaped upon the
missionary explorer and with its jaws crushed
the bone of his arm to splinters and then
rolled over and expired, but, Better is e
living dog than dead lion
Ny text also means that the condition of
the most wretched man alive is better than
that of the most favored sinners departed
The chance of these last is gone. Where thsy
are they cannot make any earthly assets
available After Charlemagne was dead he
was set in an ornamented sepulcher on
golden throne, and crown was put on his
cold brow, and scepter in his stiff hand,
but that gave him no dominion in the next
world. One Of the most intensely interest
ing things [ saw last winter in Egypt was
Pharaoh of olden times the very Pharaoh
who oppressed the Israelites. The inscrip
tionS on his SarcODhacus and the writiuT ON