The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1897-04-29

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THE 0l0k ION. Il. +. BRISTOW, Of Aberdeen, on OF the most profound
SOUTH. | - lawyers, gifted scholars and elegant gentlemen that it
has ever been the good fortune Of the writer to know, delivered a speech a
few days ago before the bar association Of Aberdeen at a meeting held in
honor Of the memory Of Hon. L. +. Houston, in which he gave expression to
the following very beautiful sentiment:
Gentlemen of the association " are met tin bar meeting to give some OF
porate expression Of our feeling on the occasion Of the passing away Of not only
n mar, but Of an epoch; Of the perishing from our midst Of not only a personals
ty, but Of a type! In the grand old man, Judge Locke Z Houston, whose mem
DRY we are met today to honor with these simple exercises we had with usn not
only AN individual Of distinguished and lofty character but also a memory, we
mourn to say, the last lingering memory Of the noblet statelsst, grandest civil
iaauon this world has ever seen.
One by one these stately land marks Of a golden age have passed quietly
away until there remained to nj but one, Locke f Houston a not unworthy
type of the great men Of q great age among whom We knew him to be pnmus in
ter pares and now he has gone, and there remains to Ms but a dim memory, n
.halhus conjecture Of n peculiar civilization that has passed away forever
Surrounded " w g ire by a new life breathing a ley atmosphere stunned
and deafcnod with the rush and roar Of a nw world, into which new and alto
gether strange and nutred elements have been let loose by the results Of tn,
great civil war 1t is ns absolutely impossible for is to rightly Judge of and mp
predate The civilization Of which Judge Locke f. Houston IA both a product
and an ornament, rs it would be for the EsqumanS, born and reared among the
eternal arctic SHOWS to conceive unwittngly of the endless snmme and the pro
life and generous vegetation Of the tropics
I'm SCOTS novel Of the TaNsman when. riding along under the Burning
sun of Syria, the Scottish Knight of the Leopard spoke to saladin of the frozen
lakes Of Scotland over which n hundred horsnen had ridden their iron shod
animals for miles the Saracen, curling hs lips eontemptuonsy answered: Tits
we'll written, list to a Frank and hear a fable And 30 it ia now, TOO much, alas
Unfortunately. we have permitted the enemies Of the grand old southern civihza
ton to write our history and pronounce Judgment upon our social system; and
when We re occasionally told of the gbores of the First Temple of the grandeur
ing patdarchal institutions and plantation manners" with the progress of the
last half Of The nineteenth century.
Tits true those days IRE gone, never to return, and he who undertakes the
oloa lauhtor tenp~res aci. has an exceedingly invidious task, But, however
nvtlions the task, on this occasion when we are met to pay III sad tribute of
honor and esteem to the memory of one Of the nobest of that noble age, do take
gone never to return. In the midst of this fcversh haste and hurry; this selfish
quest WHf ne" wealth. IWN rHsn ana FifHIpI I u ~is seeking tnfIHIuH, / turn |
with an indecribe longing and regret to the noble old days and the stately old
gentleman Of the past
They aud their beautiful civilization have passed away, In the language
# the great orator, Edmund Burke The unhought grace of life; the chief de
of nations; the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise, is gone
III is gone; that Sonsmliy Of principle, that chastity of honor which felt a stain
like n wound which inspired courage while it mitgated feroeiy, and under
vice Itself lost half It's evil by losing all its grossnes"
1T was in the midst Of snch an age such a culture such a chivalry that Judge
character was moulded and with all those natural advantages ofmind
morals and person, small wonder that he should develop into the magnificent
specimen of manhood we have known He a a man preennently of the old
with the peculiar faculty incident to that society of asimulahng and
adopting everything ncw that was noble, chiyalrous and of good report
Concluding this magnificent tribute, Mr. Bristow says: Is
But he has gone from H. and with him as have said. has passed away an
He lived TOT ripe old age even passing the four score years to which
by reasono Of strength he was permitted to attain, Carrying with him. as he
loes the last yestge of the old heroic south we mourn his death deeply earnest 1
y sincerely. as the death of memory, the death of a faith, almost the death of
hope Tomorrow we take up our lives anew, but We miss the presence of that I
link, which the person Of This grand old man has so long bound us to the
past o
"Tendcry beautiful this day, with the pathetic beauty Of this last sad fare n
veil, is the great memory which gathers ISL this little farewell meeting! Look p
pon this grand life that has closed, and of the passing of the noble civilization r
which it was the product the saddest of all faces the face of the irrvocable |c
tares at MS from this farewell IL IS a farewell to the stately old south; to the :
md summcr Of n peoples manhood; to that beautiful simplicity we shall a
ever see again On this earth; the unhought vamr which fronted world in arms "
nd died fronting it To all these last farewell! Not till all noble grace de- |c
win their memory depart" ST