The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1895-05-13
ARP AND HIS WIFE.
THE OLD PEOPLE ARE LONELY NOW
THAT THERE ARE NO CHILDREN
With Their Musical Voices Kesounding
Through the old Home-The Chill
dreh Married aud Gone.

1.-THE evil that men do lives after them.
The good Is oft inferred with their bones.
Mark Anthony said that the dead
| body of Caesar, but / do not think he
| meant it. Perhaps it was partly sarcasm,
| like the rest of his speech. The good deeds
| of good men outlive the bad deeds of bad
| men. The poet Longfellow said it better
and more truthfully:
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime"
| The evil that men do does not live long
after they are dead. The influences of bad
men stop with their breath. Who mourns;
who attends the funeral who pronounces
the eulogy? But mark the sweet breath
of grief when a good man a good woman
dies. When a stone falls into the bosom Of
a CLASSY lake 1t is said that the shock is
not confined to a little space around where
it fell. but the circles widen and recede
until they reach the distant shore, and
even the earth has felt 1t. Just so the lives
OF good people are all the time giving out
wavelets that never stop. They reach from
man to man, from father to son, and so
on down through the corridors of time, and
like the flow of peaceful river they nour-
ish as they go. Good examples and good
influences outlive bad ones.
l was Eliminating about this because of
the recent death of two good people whom
loved and who were my personal friends
A man and a Woman-CampDeI NaIldCe Oh
Atlanta and Mother Sparks of Rome.
Their time was out and 1t fitting
thing for them to go and nobody grieves,
except in a sad. sweet way. In fact it was
a triumph for them to die-a victory.
Major Wallace, In hts nineteth year. hau
outlived all the companions of his youth.
He had seen many panics and many periiS;
had lived in sunshine and in Storm had
spent his youth and part of his manhood
WI railroads, nor tele-
graphs, nor steamships. nor cotton gins,
but he marched with the procession ana
was among the first to build railroads ana
to operate them. In active progressive
busy life for more than sixty years, he
never wavered from the path of duty and
justice, but his whole life was adorned by
good will and good temper. What cheer
full old age he carried. l have letter be-
fore me now that he wrote me on his
eightieth birthday. a kind, cheerful, nope
full letter. full of love to God and love 10
man, and it was written with gray goose
quill in round. strong hand and without
blot or blemish. / know that children
should not bank too much on fathers
reputation. but still children. grandchildren
and REORGANIZATION have right to
be proud that Campbell Wallace's blood
flows I'm their veins.
And that good old mother in Israel, Mrs.
Ann Sparks One of the heroines we DO
not find in the books, but heroine all the
same How bravely she went through the
peri.s and trials of the war; how nobly did
she take the place of husband and father;
how lovingly and tenderly did she rear the
children Lett in her charge; how serenely
she trusted in the God of the widow and
the fatherless; what comfort she was to
her church, and how ardently she loved
everything and everybody whom God
loved / never met her but what l felt
hiatt for bar and i never
think of her without realizing the sweet
incense that emanates from the memory OF
the loved and blessed dead
No The good is not inferred
with their bones. 1t will continue to live
and bless generations to come. Suppose
every person should live and die like these
two--weu. that would be the dawn OF the
millennium.
Old people are getting scarce anG lonely.
None but the aged know anything of that
peculiar feeling that comes over man
or a woman when they hear of another
Death among the flock that grows smaller
and smaller as the years roll or. Another
one gone-and after while another. When
q man nears his three-score years and ten
ne is almost afraid to count up the num-
Der who are left. 1t makes him feel lone
some and unconsciously he whispers: zone
shall be taken and another left"
Tor more than two months my wife AMI
l have been living alone-all alone in
great big house with eight rooms-not even
a cat to NEW nor n canary bird to sing.
But we sometimes borrow a grandchild
fol day or a night and our kindred visit
US quite often. Nevertheless, the fact re-
mains that our children have all left us
al now ! sit at one side of q little round |
table and my wife at the other as / ask
a blessing at our daily meals. Its funny |
isn't it? Forty years ago | bought an eX-
tension table for the children were COM
ing along and every three or four years a
new leaf had to be put in and By and by
the table grew lOnS-very long and there !
were five children on each side. Soon n
boy left us and then a girl and a leaf was |
taken out. Then two more boys and an |
other girl and another leaf was put away
in the clCset-and SO it has been going on
and on until now all the leaves are gone !
and the table is round. But we will have |
two of the girls back from Florida soon |
and little gran1child and home Will look !
bright again. My wife keeps busy looking |
after her flowers and making little mystic |
rious garments like she used to make when |
you and l We're young, MaSgie," and l hoe !
the beans and potatoes and transplant the |
beets and pick the strawberries and dig |