Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1896-08-20
A STRANGE COMPACT.
Two Men Agree to Let Their Last Word
Go on Record.

Go on Record.
One day two classmates were talking
jokingly about death and the inevitable
tombstone inscriptions that they
thought too often misrepresent charac-
ter. They considered themselves quite
the equals in good morals of the best
men with whom they were acquainted,
and as deserving of laudstory epitaphs
as the silent men whose virtues in life
are proclaimed in our graveyards.
81 am willing to stand by anything
/ say or do in this life, and hereafter, as
WELL said the younger of the two. II
am sure l am us good as the average
man, to say the least"
THAT. 1 think, is beyond dispute"
answered his friend. Our lives and
words show what we are to-day. The
future will also show what we are then.
But I've been thinking while we have
| been laughing, and am inclined to make
a suggestion. 1t Is this: Suppose we
make ar agreement-that is, if you are
willing to stand by your words-that it
| is our wish that the last sentences we
utter in life shall be the cpitaphs to be
| placed upon our tombstones."
agreed" cried the other, hastily,
and almost without thought, and they
at once drew up their agreement in legal
style.
Years passed. The two men drifted
| apart. Their strange compact lost its
significance, and was almost forgotten.
One day the elder of the two took up
a paper and read the announcement of
the death of his friend. Then he re-
membered the contract He found the
| agreement, put it into his pocket, and
took the next train for the place of his
| friends death.
He found that the dead man had been
q widower for some years. The visitor
was cordially received at the house OF
mourning by an only child, son just
| growing into manhood
do You know what your fathers
last words were? 2" asked the newcomer.
mo, sir; he died suddenly of apopleXy,
in his store"
The friend went to the store. There
he put the same question. An embar-
raised silence answered him. He in
sisted on a reply, stating that he had
good reasons for making the request.
The head clerk then took him apart and
explained:
"Your friend died in his office in At
of anger He was unfortunately given
TO violent attacks of temper, and sup
pose at this time it was the lush of
| blood to the head that carried him off.
He had just received 4 letter, stating
that large customer had failed who
was owing us large bill. This made
him furious, and he began to curse. l
hesitate to repeat them, sir, but If you
feel that you must insist upon it, his
last words were"
The white-haired man whispered a
blasphemous sentence in the shocked
ears of his listener. To have engraved
it upon a tombstone would have blasted
the dead mans name with absolute dis
honor.
Very greatly moved, the visitor took
the agreement from his pocket, and
with trembling fingers tore it into tiny
bits, and put them into the fire. Under
these circumstances it was impossible
for him to carry that declaration to the
house of mourning. I'D
He buried his friend. Then he went
home. The moral shock he had received
and the thoughts that followed gave
life a serious meaning to him. Death
now took upon itself the Office of n
Judge. It assumed control of his
thoughts, and caused him resolutely to
set guard upon his lips.
Weeks passed. His self-restraint rip
ened into habit, and took on a. higher
moral purpose. New views came to him
of God and of his own relations to men.
His words ere long became the express
sion of reverent sentiment, and his
character assumed unconsciously the
attitude of sincere, upright living.
Changed, enlightened, purified, he had
entered a higher plane of life.
Could words from the dying lips of
such man shock the living and bring
dishonor to the dead?-Youth's Com
panion.