Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1897-12-06


wish we had been 1t all teaches US
the lesson that we need to be careful
how to deal with those about us, when
every death carries to some circle OF
survivors thoughts of so much omitted,
and so little done, Of so many things
forgotten, and so many more which
might have been repaired. There is no
remorse so deep as that which is un-
availing If we would be spared its
fortunes, let us remember this in time.
+" If thou dost bid thy friend farewell.
Though but for one night that farewell
be,
Press thou his palm without thine;
How canst thou tell how far from thee
Fate or caprice may Lead his feet?
Men have been known TO lightly turn
The corner of a street,
And days have grown to months and
months
To weary years ere they have
Looked in loving eyes again.
Parting, at best isunderlaiG with tears
With tears and pain.
Therefore, lest sudden death should
come between,
Or time or distance,
Clasp with pressure true the hand
OF him who goeth forth-unseen fate go
eth to-
Yea. find thou always time to say
Some earnest words between the idle
Lest with thee henceforth day by day
Regret should walk
But now let us turn for moment
to those dear absent ones whose memo
rieS We eulogiZe to-day. They are
dead. For them mirth pauses, the
scourge is withheld, the menace stayed,
joy rests her huttering wings, pains
eli icr : u 1,,ov In
her everlasting surcease. They are at
rest. They sleep under the solemn
pines, the sad hemlocks, the fearful
willows and the embracing vines. They
sleep beneath the shadows Of the clouds,
careless alike of the sunshine or of
storm, each in the windowless palace of
rest. In the winter. the pure snow,
whittier than their marble shafts, is their
robe. In the spring time the grass and
flowers, beautiful emblems of another
life, grow and blossom on their graves,
but all unheeded, for they sleep on. To
the suppressed sob of dear ones over
the tomb of the falling tear they are
alike oblivious. The ships crowd the
busy marts Of trade and plow the ocean
with their commerce; the rivers still
run on to the sea; the merry laughter
echoes over the smiling fields; the cur
tains of night fall upon the earth and a
million stars shine out from the empy-
real dome of the skies; Apollo stands
in his chariot and still holds the reins
and lashes his steed with fury along
the well beaten pathway of the sun;
the music of the spheres rolls on
through the universe and dies away like
e4p Nf 41o !, A
but to all alike oblivious our dear cab
sent brothers" sleep on in the graves
where our brethren have laid them.
In life they labored diligently with
us in disseminating and practicing the
great underlying, fundamental princi-
pies of our Order-charity, justice,
brotherly love and fidelity. They CO.
operated with us to make our days less
burdensome, and to embower life's
pathway with fadeless flowers of enjoy
mentp peace and love. Side by side with
us they shared in the rich treasures of
rare enjoyment, of good fellowship, Of
close companionship which flow from
association with our beloved order.
Hand in hand with US they discharged
the solemn obligations resting upon all
of us in common. Together we endeav-
ored to suecor the distressed, to cheer
the respondent, to aid the unfortunate,
and to carry sunlight and warmth into
the gloomy abodes of misery. Jointly
we sought to dispel pain with pleasure,
to give smiles for tears, and laughter
for grief And in obedience to the SOL
emn injunction laid upon us we did
these things in secret, without ostenta-
ton or parade, and in such a manner
as not to touch the pride of or bring
the blush of shame or humiliation to
those who. either by misfortune or by
their own faults or frailties 1--WE stopped
not to enquire which, had become the
benefciaries of our efforts.
But what beyond? Is death the end
of all? Is it all when we close the eyes,
when we spread the winding sheet over
the dead and shut up the room? Is it
all when with beautiful service we bury
our dead? Is it all when earth has
done her work and has taken to herself
again-earth to earth, ashes to ashes.
and dust to dust-the outward forms of
our loved ones? All, no; there is some
thing beyond. It has been the univer-
sal belief of all peoples and all ages
that the soul of man survives after the
death of the body. 1t is that belief in
Immortality which comes not to the
heart of man from without. but issues
from II in a resistless food of convic-
ton that prompts exercises like we are
holding to-day.
Sailors tell us that there is bird
which they have named Mariners
Bird" that they have seen in every
quarter Of the globe, but always above
the clouds and near the Jfue2 nasr If
scorning to sail, save on the sea of
ether. They claim TO have seen it
holding on its majestic fight amid
the blaze of auroral splendors that
scintillate in the polar air, it's plumage
afiame with electric brightness; they
have seen it where equatorial heats
make lurid the sky, its crest rudy
with the glow of the tropic sun; they
have seen it cut with its broad wings
the incandescent train of the comet,
and flash amid the raining fire of
bursting meteors, in clear atmosphere,
and skimming the azure pavilion of
cloudless skies, and, anon, family dis
cerned amid the misty galaxies of the
Milky Way; they have seen it meas
uring with its wings the constellation
of the southern cross while doubling
the capes. By day and by night, in
calm and in storm, it never pauses,
but dashes and floats ever onward, far
beyond rife range, as if disdaining
49, II i