The Evening dispatch. [volume] (Provo, City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1895-03-11
PROVO CITY. MARCH IL. 1895
REQUIESCAT In PACE.

Yesterday all that was mortal OF the
late Utah stake president, A. o Smoot,
was tenderly laid away from the sight
Of men, in the grave,
1t was bright, beautiful day. A
brilliant suns beams gilded the tower
ing mountains. the lovely valley just
awakening from the sleep of winter,
and the fair city of Provo where the
home nest of our beloved friend was
planted. When the early trains on all the
railroads brought immense throngs
from all the cities and towns of Utah
county and from every county in the
territory, to pay thelast sad tribute to
The memory OF ones-Goff 6 { the great men of
Utah, who had just surrendered
the life which God had entrusted
TO him back into the loving Fathers
hands. Eighty years of duty had been
paid and the old patriarch had so used
them that when he faced the grim
messenger there was no trembling.
For him the fullness of time had come
and he was ready. 1t was a beautiful
tribute to the worth Of the man, IN all
the walks and relations of life, that
thousands upon thousands of those
best acquainted with the worth of his
life's work to them, assembled from
afar and near to testify at his grave
side, to their veneration and their love
for the trusted leader, the spiritual guide,
and their personal friend who has just
been called by the Infinite to his rest.
No one can doubt that tue
plaudit, "Well Done" greeted
President Smoot when his spirit
reached the land of the leal few days
since. The infinite affection with
which he was regarded was not con-
fined to any one class of people, to any
one church. Such men, while none-the-
less devoted to their own views
and strict in applying them to the
every day business of life, win the af-
fectionate confidence of all, even those
of the most divergent and opposite
views. Too broad for mere sectarian-
ism or bigotiy, they belong to and be
come a part of the plan of Infinite
Goodness in working out the best good
of ali. The same gentle regret which
bedewed the eyes Of his Mormon
followers yesterday sent the tears
down the cheeks of his Gentle friends.
This is the tribute won by his rugged
and perfected manhood, by his great
worth as citizen, as a business force
and one of the factors in Utah's great
ness and progress.
The lesson of this useful life is: Do
earnestly what your hand finds to do
and remember that just God over
looks all. Not only has a grand church |
influence disappeared but good c1ti-
zen and good neighbor and friend |
has departed, good influence has
been blotted out. The immense Lhrong |
which gathered here attested the uni
versal esteem entertained for the man |
whom all knew and whom all loved
alike. Life is worth living. if at its
close the world Will say of US, friend
has lett US, good man is
gone, sorrow reigns. Only one in
ten thousand receives such an Ovation
as did President Smoot, but it is quite
sufficient when those receive the meas
ure of respect to which they are Justly
entitled. All may win this if their
lives are honest, unselfsh, pure and
praiseworthY. OF course one should do
right in all the relations of life, Simply
because that is duty, but more espec-
tally because it is right, and the re-
ward never fails to come. That is one
thing that those who live correct lives
can always depend upon. The old line
of the poet comes to US now who sang:
How sleep those who sink to rest,
By all their country's wishes blest.