The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-05-03
Dead Lions"
.Talnlage.

1# uNou IIoHS' lney are people OF
tHeat capacity and large opportunity,
Dlng nothing for the Improvement
society, nothing for the overthrow
evil, nothing for the salvation OF
\ @nls. Some of them are monetary
!, Dns. They have accumulated 80
ANY hundreds of thousands of dol
rs that you can feel their tread
men they walk through any ST eel
come into any circle. They can.
IB one financial move. upset the
noney market. That they are lions,
lio one doubts. When they roar.
MALI Street. State Street and Bourse
jS$eanble. In few years they will
ne down and die. They will have
gAat funeral, and | ng row of
fine &rrages and mightiest requi-
ems willroll from the organs, and a
polished shaft of Aberdeen granite
will hdicate where their dust lies.
but fG all use to the world that man
nigh as we'll have never lived. A
an experiment as to how much he
can cary with him. put ten cent
piece n the palm Of his dead hand,
and five years after open the tomb,
and yol will find that he has dropped
even tie ten-cent piece. A lion!
Yes, bn a dead lion He left all
his treauie on earth, and has no
treasurein heaven. What shall the
stone-cuter put upon the obelisk
oyer him' l suggest, let it be the
mans nane. then the date of his
birth, theI the date of his death then
the appropriate Scripture passage: :
"Better is F, living dog than a dead
liOn."
But / tha,k God that we are hav-
ing Just noWan outburst of splendid
benefcience that is to increase until
the earth is girdled with it. 1t is
spreading with the speed of an epi
demic, but with Just the opposite ef.
feet of an epidemic. Do you not no.
tice how wealthy men are opening
free libraries, and building churches
in their inatiye village? Have you
not seen how men of large means,
instead of leaving great philanthrO-
pies in their wills for disappointed
heirs to quarrel about, and the orphan
courts to swamp, are becoming their
own executors and administrators ?
here are bad fashions and good fash
idnS, and, whether good or bad, fash
inns are mighty. One of the good
ashions now starting will sweep the
earth-the fashion for wealthy men to
distribute, while yet alive, their sur
plus accumulation. 1t is being help
ed by the fact that so many large e5-
tates have. Immediately after the
testatOr's death, gone into litigation.
Attorneys with large fees are en-
ployed on both sides, and the case
goes on month after month, and year
after year, and after one court decides,
it ascends to another court and is de-
cided 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 60 into elaborate pro-
cess to prove that the father was
crazy, and therefore incompetent to
make will; and there are men on
the jury who think that the fact that
the tes:ator gave so much of his
money to the Bible Society. or the
opening of free library, is proof
positive that he was insane, and that
he knew not what he wss signing
when he subscribed to the words: "In
the name of God, amen. /, being of
sound mind, do make this my last
will and testament"
The torn wills, the fraudulent wills.
the broken wills. baye recently been
made such spectacle to angels and
to men that all over the land success
full men are calling in architects and
saying to them: "HoW much would
it cost for me to build a picture gal
lery for our town ?" or, 81 am spec
tally interested in the incurables,
and how large building would ac.
three hundred of such
patients 2" or. 1.-THE church of God
has been a great help to me all my
life, ana / want you to draw me a
plan for church. cOmmOdious, beau
tifuI, well-ventilated, and with plen'
ty of windows to let in the light; |
want you to get right to work in
out plans of such building,
for, though l am we'll now, life is un
certain, and before 1 leave the world
want to see something done that
will be an appropriate acknowledge
ment of the goodness of God to me
and mine now, when can l hear
from you ?"