The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1897-12-14
told the story of his dead friends life

this time OF the only man / knew better
than most brothers do each other, and
whom / have loved with fervor exact
ly as l do my own. All that has been
incorporated in the resolutions is well
said, is true, and i should have pre-
ferred to sanction their adoption in si-
lent and unobtrusive sorrow. Yet it
has been told me that some words
should come from me on this occasion.
Nor can l help feeling that no other
man can speak Of Horace Buck as |.
| believe, too, that he would have me
speak of him now knowing that what
/ may say will be the expression OF one
above others who knew all that there
was in him, who shared his every hope
as a youth, enjoyed his every inmost
confidence as a man. divided his every
solicitude of life and participated in
them all with deeply affectionate pride
for over 26 long years.
Nevertheless | can write of him as
he himself always spoke of the dead
without sentimental sympathy and not
by way if sickening panegyric. He be-
lieved tha. the character and abilities
of man Were not 10 be made out
greater after death than before, and
that the same severe standards of Judg-
ment should be applied at all times and
under all circumstances. If charity was
due he gave II to the living as freely as
to the dead; if reprobation was just he
dealt it out no matter whether the man
he Judged was alive or in his grave.
Horace Riverside Buck was the son
of man of great intellectually ana
high honor but impatient and of a dar-
ing and aggressive nature. He named
his boy Riverside because he had
plantation called by that name and be-
cause when he suggested that name
everybody protested. Old-time resi-
dents of Mississippi remember Charles
L. Buck as full of genial impulses.
yet impetuous and so quick to resent
a slight or a fancied slight that he made
bitter enemies. Horace Bucks father
was born in Kentucky and descended
originally from Virginia people. The
first ancestor of the Bucks was the
Marquis de Calme a Huguenot noble
man. who lived on a farm in the Shen-
andoah Valley in Virginia, where he
died in 1855. The marquis was one OF
the original thirteen justices of Fred
erick county, Virginia, who held court
in Winchester in that state in 1143.
Il mention his paternal ancestry par
tcularly because it was from that
branch of his family that he inherited
many of the traits of his own dispost-
tion. He looked quite like his father,
having the same blue eyes which nerv-
ously snapped under excitement or in
anger. but which bespoke the impulse
of manly generosity just as strongly as
they flashed their hate. 1t was from
his father, too (although his mother is
a woman of most exceptional literary
talent), that he derived his natural and
extraordinary abilities. There was in
his father, as in him. "a nervous brain
which became entirely absorbed by
whatsoever was being revolved within
it.
Qualities of Brain and Heart.
"As a boy at the Hopkins Grammar
school in New Haven, when this
HtsCf n
peared in company with my older
brother Thomas lhis classmate and
most devoted friend throughout life),
it was very soon impressed upon his
classmates that beneath that stiff and
wiry hair and behind those pale blue
eyes We're qualities of brain and heart.
1t was quickly demonstrated that this
little Mississippian with his vernacular
idioms of the rural South, was destined
to be the leader of his class in scholar
ship. quickness of perception, breadth
of thought and social popularity He
endeared to him at that time those
scores of men who We're ineXpressibly
shocked by the news which brings this
gathering appropriately here to-day
and who have sent from all sections Of
the land spontaneous messages of sor-
row to his family.
'tAs a freshman at Yale college his
room was a rendezvous for his fellows
VINO lONeu 10 near MIN talk ana WHO
sought his counsel on class affairs
where the spirit of movement was
wanted. From an academic standpoint
the classics were very easy to him, and
with his prodigiously retentive memory
he found no difficulty in ranking high
in his class. 1t cannot be said that
Horace r. Buck was a hard student
while at eollege-if he had been, he
would have had no difficulty in taking
even higher honors. Still, he always
stood high, and at the same time
actively shared in the convivialities of
Yale life.
Il remember the night | was initiated
into a Greek letter society in the gram
mar school At that time he was a
freshman at Yale and / underclass man
at the school. Upper classmen had put
numbers of us in a corner of a big
room, then left us blindfolded to await
our turns TO be tossed in a blanket,
branded with ice. to be wet and other
wise subjected to pranks such as boys
indulge in ON like occasions. At the
time ] was but IA years old a puny,
delicate boy. unfit for such an ordeal.
But | tried to show no nervousness and
was momentarily expecting TO be
seized, when | left some hands gently
pulling me from the corner where ]
was and leading me out. Then l heard
Horace Bucks voice telling the upper
classmen who officlated at the ceremo-
nies. that he would not allow this boy,
referring to me, to be put through the
regular initiation: so he took the band
age off my eyes and l was spared. lie
had purposely gone to the meeting to
save me pain and annoyance. | men
tion this little episode to illustrate that
tender consideration of the helplessness
of others which marked his career
throughout life. There was no length
to which he would not go to assist a
person who needed help; and he nearly
always had in mind some anxiety TO
do something helpful for another This
noble generosity of heart made him as
popular as any man in his time in
Yale. II drew 10 him the actual graft
tude and Ioye of so many people and al
tachpd 10 him the humblest and plain
est man in his class no less deeply than
il did the most conspicuous and proud.
Bur he was very impulsive. and like
his father. generally had one or two
rows on his hands. He would just as
soaH fight as not. and on many occ1-
sjous it took a great deal of diplomatic
| care On the part of his friends TO keep
him out Of physical encounters.
brilliant Futura