The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-12-01
LIKE BOB
INGERSOLL.
Capt. Joe Waters Eloquence at
the Funeral
Services of VIM. p. Douthitt
This Afternoon
DOM EQUALLED
By That of the Greatest OF
American Orators
Funeral Was Held at the House
at 2 O'Clock.

The funeral of William P. Douthitt
took place this afternoon at 2 o'clock
from his late residence, 1901 Kansas av-
enue. The services were under the
auspices of Lincoln post, G.. A r. and
were conducted by Rev. NJ. F. NfcKira-
han. The music was furnished by
quartette composed of Mrs.G. w. Park
hurst. Mrs. L. S. Ferry, Mr.. H. L
Shirer and Mr.. James Moore. The
songs selected were Rock of Ages"
He Giveth His Beloved Sleep" and
Lead Kindly Light" Short addresses
were made by Col. C. W. Reed, and
Chaplain G. W. Burdge. Capt J. G.
Waters spoke in behalf of the Shawnee
county bar.
Capt. Waters said:
1.-The glory of our state, her hopes of
glory in the days that are yet to be,
the high destiny for which she seems to
have been marked, are largely due our
bold pioneers and early settlers who,
on lifting anchor, set the ships helm
straight for the North Star and held
her to her course throughout the temp
est and the night; who SOwed broad
cast on the unbrOken sod of an aka
line desert the seeds OF liberty, water
ing them with Sacrificial blood, and
harvesting in the fleet space of a de-
cade, an empire of freedom.
Here the hostile tents were first
pitched over and against the fugitive
slave law; here was the first gun fired
at the Dred Scott decision; here was the
and here above those humble cohorts
first floated a banner against slavery.
When these emigrants turned their
faces westward to succor and save
Kansas, the MayfloWer sailed again.
| They were as of heroic mould as the
Pilgrim Fathers, their purpose as high,
their deserts as great. Duty blaZed
their way and they pursued it without
hesitation or questioning. The scenes
made memorable by their brave deeds
are monuments to mankind. common as
thu W9WSidR in mOnaGtiC
| Spain.
They planted the church on the
skirmiSh line and it's resonant bell was
| the bugle of their advance Their al
! lignments of cattle We're made upon it's
| steeple. Their barrack was the COM
| mon school, and twelve thousand of
| their trained soldiery are now the
army to guard what they won They
| helped wash the stain out of the flag.
| BY a courage that knew not death, by
a ValOr that ScOrned the dying, we have
| been given a priceless heritage whose
| blessings shall extend to enrich all the
! tribes and races of men.
In the very lap of peace, on the
/ smiling breast of prOspering and
| happy continent, with all that is glOr-
| ious in wholesome law, with all that is
| splendid in institution, with all that is
magnificent in a people, as from the
| mountains summit we sight the ranges
| of blue hills far and away, SO, from our
crOwning vantage height. we see
! prOpheSy of grander years to come, and
! over his cOrse, by the bier of one of
| these sturdy men, I would say as may
! be read beneath the dome of st. Paul,
! Look about you for his epitaph.'
! "A free state man from the start, the
valued counsel defender and friend of
| the free state cause, one of those who
| grounded Lincoln with courage and
| hope, he saw and was part of this bit
| ter struggle from beginning to the end;
| a participant in great events that over
i Tapped their extended horizon, and
which We yet remain too close to meas
ure He lived to see doubt bear the
| blossom of success, and faint expectan-
| cy fill the Union tree with the apples of
! liberty To roughly paraphrase a sent
! iment of Byron, on such an awful morn,
/ the grandeSt day would rise. Some day
1 we will provoke history to provide us a.
! nearer shrine than Plymouth Rock 1t
| is seenly, 1 think to say on this Occa-
! sion, that the dead man cOurted no un-
/ merited compliment while living and
! desired none when dead. The truth
| would please him best. When L come
| to speak of him, 1 feel as if it were
! that the unchristened cup was made to
| hold the Sacramental wine. The COM
| pulsion of friendship, the inexora bic call
/ of duty demands that this man whose
| praise was for others, should have been
| told above his coffin lid, the hearty
/ words he himself deserved when living
And the heart touches the lips free a
/ the brooks sing through meadow lands
| and deep as the currents that set to the
| sea.
| Il will not speak of him as a lawyer
| for that will be done in an apter way
| elsewhere. Time out of mind, he has
| stood at the very front of our bar,
| without fear and above repTOach.
] His services as a soldier were of
| short duration and for the brief peri
| cd he was in the field, it was crimsoned
| by no great battle. He participated in
| the battle of the Blue, guarded the
| state line against the marauders with
| Price and after the ignominious retreat
| of that confederate chief, returned
home with his command and laid his
| muSket down. His services entitled
| him to become a member of the Grand
Army of the Republic and at the time
| of his death he was an honored and
| city. But, antecedent to the war, he
| did a soldiers duty against the Inyr-
| rnidons of slavery, and a want of mus
| ter at that time shall not deprive him
/ of his battles nor rob him of his vic
| tories. He was of a breed of men who
| should be the last to perish from off
| the face of the earth.
| L think l new him; his ambition was
| for others; his life was threaded with
! a sentiment the mercenary could not
| understand; his love was unselfish.
| his days were full of burdens some of
/ them self imposed, much of self denial
| which he assumed as a nninistration of
| affection or as the kinder office of
| love
| Here, on this site, forty years ago.
he built himself a hOme-environed by
| the startled silences of centuries, and
| the wild, untenated prairies The
| bleak hills of Highland to the east the
| blue summit of Burnett's Peak Wester-
! ly. and the sluggish Shunga nunga
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