The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1897-10-08

cine. that he lived to one hundred and
forty years. A man of undouDted vera
city on the witness stand in England
swore that he remembered an event
one hundred and fifty years before.
Lord Bacon speaks of a countess who
had cut three sets Of teeth, and died
at one hundred and forty years. JOS
eph Crele, of Pennsylvania, lived one
hundred and forty years. In 1881 a
book was printed containing the names
of thirty-seven persons VINO lived one
hundred and forty years, and the names
of eleven persons who lived one nun
dred and fifty years.
Among the grand old people Of
whom we have record was JACOB, the
shepherd of the text. But he had a bad
lot of boys. They were jealous and
ambitious and every way unprincipled,
Joseph, however, seemed to be an ex-
ception, but he had been gone many
years, and the probability was that he
was dead. AS sometimes now in house
you will find kept at the table va
cant chair, plate, a knife, forK, TOT
some deceased member of the family,
so Jacob kept in his heart place for
his beloved Joseph. There sits the ola
man. the flock of one hundred and for
ty years in their fight having alight-
ed long enough to leave the marks OF
their claw on forehead and cheek and
temple. His long beard SHOWS down
over his chest. His eyes are some
what dim, and he can see farther when
they are closed than when they are
open, for he can see clear back into
the time when beautiful Rachel, his
wife, was living, and his children
shook the Oriental abode with theil
merriment.
The centenarian is sitting dreaming
over the past when he hears a wager
rumbling to the front door. He get!
up and goes to the door to see who MAJ
arrived, and his long absent sons iron
Egypt come in and announce to hin
that Joseph, instead of being dead, ii
living in an Egyptian palace, with al
the investiture of prime minister, mex
to the king in the mightiest empire o
all the world The news was too sud
den and too glad for the old man, ant
his cheeks whiten, and he has dazeC
look. and his staff falls out OF hi
hand. and he would have dropped hat
not the sons caught him and led hin
to a lounge and put cold water on nj
face, and famed him little.
In that half delirium the old mai
mumbles something about his son 10
seph. He says: You don't mean 10
seph. do you? my dear son who ha
been dead so long? You don't mean 10
seph, do you?" But after they hal
fully resuscitated him, and the new
was confirmed, the tears began thei
winding way down the crossroads o
the wrinkles, and the sunken lips o
the old man culver, and he brings hi
bent fingers together as he says: 10
seph is yet alive. ! will go and SCI
him before l die"
1t did not take the old man a grea
while to get ready, warrant you. H
put on his best clothes that the shep
herds wardrobe could afford. He go
into the wagon, and though the age
are cautious and like to ride slow, tn
wagon did not get along fast enough
for this old man; and when the Wagon
with the old man met Joseph's chario
coming down to meet him, and JOSEPH
got out of the chariot and got into thu
wagon and threw his arms around hi
fathers neck, it was an antithesis o
royalty and rusticity, of simplicity anC
pomp, of filial affection and paterna
love, which leaves us so much in doub
whether we had better laugh or cry
that we do both. So Jacob kept tn,
resolution of the text will go anC
see him before l die"
What a strong and uDfailing thini
is paternal attachment! Was it not al
most time for Jacob to forget Joseph
The hot suns of many summers haC
blazed on the heath; the river Nile haC
overlooked and receded, overlooked anC
receded again and again; the seed haC
been sown and the harvests reaped
stars rose and set; years of plenty and
years of famine had passed on; but
the love of Jacob for Joseph in my text
is overwhelmingly dramatic. Oh, that
is a cord that is not snapped, though
pulled on by many decades. Though
when the little child expired the par
ent may not have been more than
twenty-five years of age, and now they
are seventy-five, yet the vision of the
cradle, and the childish face, and the
first utterances of the infantile lips are
fresh to-day, in spite of the passage
Of half century. Joseph was as fresh
in Jacobs memory as ever. though at
seventeen years of age the boy had dis
appeared from the old homestead. l
found in our family record the story
of an infant that had died fifty years
before, and said to my parents: What
is this record, and what does 1t mean?''
Their chief answer was a long, deep
sigh. II was yet to them a very ten
der sorrow. What does that all mean?
Why, it means our children departed
are ours yet, and that cord of attach
ment reaching across the years will
hold us until It brings us together in
tlS palace. as Jacob and Joseph were