The Portland daily press., 1894-04-05

of sadn ess about the last time ana When
I hear that one of our members is DEAD,
| frequently turn to the congressional
Record and see what was his last utter
ance on this floor"
Mr. Morse had done SO in this case and
found that the last utterance OF the
deceased was II would like to ask the
gentleman from Indiana question"
There was nothing very pathetic about
that, the only point was that it was the
last words of the deceased in the house
and furnished an excuse for the eulogist
to explain to the house the meaning of
the following stanza which Mr.. Morse
repeated with much dramatic power:
The last rose of summer
Left blooming alone
All thy lovely companions are faded
and gone
will not leave thee, thou lone one,
To pine on the stem,
Since the lovely are sleeping.
Go sleep thou with them.
Mr.. Morse explained that it was the TACT
that " it is the last rose of summer that
gives it's pathos to this little couplet. :"
Having cleared up this mystery MIR.
Morse attacked another-the dark day
of 1850. He had, however, to give this
one up, though he suggested that the
most plausible explanation WAS that the
smoke from burning forest fires in the
west met thick fog in the East.
AS the introduction of this mystery
was simply for the purpose of gloryfylng
the member of the Connecticut assem- bly,
who opposed motion to adjourn when
many thought the Judgment day right
at hand on the ground that the best
place for man under all circumstances
was at the post of duty the attempted
explanation Of this phenomenon was en-
tirely grautitous and possibly was
| made to show that much valu-
able information in regard to natural
phenomena might be conveyed in obltua-
ry garb.ss Mr.. Morse's passion for explana-
ton followed him throughout his adj
| dress. Thus speaking of Mr.. O'NeilPs
home life he said:
ran across little piece the other
day with the title "What is your life?"
| A little crib beside the bed,
| a little face above the spread,
| A. little shoe upon the floor,
| A little frock behind the door.
A little lad with dark brown hair.
| A little blue-eye face and fair.
A little lass that goes to school,
| A little pencil, slate and rule,
! A little winsome, blithesome maid,
| A little hand within his laid.
aThatn explained Mr.. Morse at this
point " is when he got married"
A little family gathering round,
| A little tI1rf. III q ned tear-d6Wod mound,
aThat" explained the speaker " is when
| the child died".
| A little cottage acres four,
| A little old-time fashioned store,
| little added to his soil,
| A little rest from hardest toll
| A little silver in his hair,
| A little stool and an easy chair,
| A little light of earth-lit gloom,
| A. little cortege to the tomb"
| And "thatn said Mr.. Morse 'is what life
is" Apparently Mr., Morse's eulogy was
constructed by first selecting from some
book of large variety of prose and
verse quotations and then hitching them
together with some comment of his own.
Gray's Elegy, Shakespeare's plays
Longfellow's Psalm of Life, Bryant'i
Thanatopsis, Plato's philosophy, the Book
of Daniel, the Episcopal prayer book-al
figured in it as well as "The Last Rose Of
| Summer" and "A little crib beside the
bed." All of it was we'll meant and al
of it was good in sense, but it is &
question if Mr.. O'Neill, looking dowr
from above" as Mr.. Morse said "fol
aught he knew he might be-" wouldn'l
have been better pleased if Mr.. Mors'
had said nothing.