The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-12-03

Pledge them anew by every noble sign;
1.-THE unforgotten" be the toast we bring,
J Syne."
A baritone solo was sung by Will
Watkins, accompanied with aIsvioln
9bligato by h. ]. Bauer. 20 a
MIR. johnson S Euiogy.
C.. B. Johnson, of Wilkes Barre. pro-
nounced an eloquent eulogy. In beauti-
ful language he told of the duty of Elks
and thefmeaning Of the evenings cere-
monies. In part he spoke as follows;
Every Elk must, as an indispensable
prerequisite to membership in the
order, be believer in q Supreme Being,
and Elkism reads this being in the glad
light have all too feebly attempted to
portray Hence, the prime purpose Of
Elkism Is charity--against which all its
other purposes but lean as adjuncts or
incidents. 4. ,t.st
AS Elks, We have no politics; no re-
ligion other than the religion of God
thus translated; but we seek to have
and to inculcate charity. We have but
one secret. and that Is as to the names
or the recipients of such practical char
ity--in the ordinarily accepted meaning
of the word-asS circumstances accord
US the welcome privilege of performing.
The faults of our brothers we write
upon the sand; their virtues upon the
tablets Of love and memory" And
this Is surely one of the noblest of all
the guises in which charity can make
itself known. e~..|
This is however, no brotherhood of
saints, and l sincerely trust that none
m nu upe,t s,,An 4.
saying as emanating from a desire to
create that impression. But it is or
ganiZed to do good on lines along which
the very humblest and poorest may do
II If he will. 81
An honored Custom. IL.
And We gather today, in accordance,
as you have been told, with an hon
ored custom of the order to give trib-
ute to the memory of those who were
once with us in these pleasures and du-,
ties, but have since been summoned
to the great beyond. We knew them
well, and loved them because We knew
them well. We are not here, after the
manner of the stock obituary eulogist
TO credit them in your ears with hay
ing possessed all the virtues in the
calendar. and with haying, therefore,
been impossible men. They were but
human. like. ourselves, and they had
their. faults. These we have written
upon the sand. They had also their
virtues. These we have Inscribed upon
the tablets Of love and memory. And
not the least of these virtues-in our
eyes, the greatest OF them-was their
devotion to the tenets of this order.
No man can yield that devotion and be
so seriously bad as to carry him beyond
the? reach OF the wondrous charity of
the God that made him and, with all
his frailties, placed him here for IN his
feeble way he had striven himself to be
charitable. in the fullest and noblest
sense, and this TO fulfill the first and
the last, the alpha and the omega of
the commandments. -"
We cannot forget that these, our
dead, helped us rear the beautiful home
that Elkism has secured to its con-
tingent in this fair city and where 1T
promises-and not a little from the
spur of the chaste and beautiful en-
bellishments Of that home-to flourish
In well doing. We cannot, we do not
chose to forget that they shared with
us in the perplexities, the disappoint-
ments, the sorrows that almost inevit-
ably attend the earlier and feebler
years of all the organizations of men,
and that they endeared themselves 10
us in thus becoming the willing CO.
bearers of these burdens. We have no.
monument of stone to rear upon the
mounds that now contain all that. Is
left of their mortal bodies We have
| no tablets Of brass on which to grave
the records of the, good they, did. But
| in our hearts we hold them In tender
! and unfading recollection, for we were
! brothers in what We, esteem. to be
glorious cause, and in that cause they
were good and faithful servaritsf ANU
that they were so, gave us impulse to
part with them, If unwillingly, still
confldingly.
A brief, responsive exercise, doxology
and benediction concluded the service,
which was arranged under the super
vision of d. +, Delaney, John M. Harris
and Alex Dunn, jr., the memorial COM
mittee. ...,s -
The piano accompaniments to the
vocal numbers were played by Profess
sor Richard Lindsay. ir