The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1898-04-13


bushes, in bitches, the buzzards OF the
summer heat the only attendants Gu
their obseonies. No one hut the Infinite
God. who knows everything. knows the
ten thousandth part Of the length ana
breadth and depth and height CT anguish
of the northern and southern battle
fields. Why did these fathers leave
their children and 90 70 the front, ana
why did these young men, postponlng
the marriage day, start cut into the
probabilities of never coming back: For
a principle they died. Life for life!
Blood for blood, substitution
Principle of Self Sacrifice.
But we necd not go so far. What is
shat monument in the cemetery: It IS
10 the doctors who fell i'll the southern
epidcmics. Why 90: Were there not
enough sick to be attended i'll these
northern latitudes: Oh, vc5; but the
doctor puts few medical books III his
ralise, and some vials Of mcdlclne ana
leaves his patients here in the hands CT
other physicians and takes tic rail-
train. Before he gets to the infected re-
giors he passes crowded rail trans reg
ular and extra, taking the fiylrs ana
affrighted populations He arrives III
city over which great horror Is
broodiug He goes from couch TO
couch, feeling the pulse and studying
symptoms and prescribing day after
dav, night after night, until tel
low physician says, Doctor, you had
better 90 home and rest; you lock mis-
erable." But he cannot rest while so
many are suffering. On and On, until
some morning finds him IN dellrium'
in which be talks of home, and then
rises and says he must 60 and lock a1ter
those patients. He is told to lie down.
but be fights his attendants until he
falls back, and is weaker and weaker,
and dies for people with whom be had
no kinship and far away from his own
family, ard is hastily pct away IN
strangers tomb, and only the fifth part
of newspaper line tells US Of bis sac
rifce-his name just mentioned among
FIVE. Yet be has touched the farthest
height of sublimity in that three weeks
of humanitarian service. lie goes
straight as all arrow to the bosom ct
him who said, u was sick and yc Wis
tied me-" Life for life. Blood fer
blood! Substitution!
In the legal profession l see the came
principle Of self sacrifice. In iS46 Will
liam Freeman. paunerizcd and idlotlc
negro, was at Auburn, n. y, On trial
for murder. He had. slain the entire
Van Nest family. The foaming vain
of the community could bSe bSee sept Off him
only by armed constgbles. Who would
yoluntesr->, be his counsel? No attor-
n; wanted to sacrifice his popularity
by such an ungrateful task. All were
silent save one, young lawyer with
feeble voice that could hardly be heard
outside the bar, pale and thin and awk-
ward. 1t was William H. Seward, who
saw that the prisoner was idiotic and
irresponsible and ought TO he rut IN an
asylum rather than put to death, the
heroic counsel uttering these beautiful
words:
Substitution.
Il speak now in the hearing of a peo-
pie who have prejudged prisoner and
condemned me fer pleading in his be-
half. He is a convict, pauper, negro,
without intellect, sense or emotion. My
cbild with al affectionate smile dlSarms
my careworn face of its frown whenever
[ cross ny threshold. The beegar in the
street obliees NE to give because he
says God bless you as pass. Ny dog
caresses re with fondness If | will but
smile on him. My horse recognizes mo
when fill his manger. What reward,
what gratitude, what sympathy and
affection can expect here? There the
prisoner sits. Look at him. Look at the
assem- blage around you. Listen to their
| i'll suppressed censures and excited fears
| and tell me where among my nelghbors
! or my fellow men, where. even III his
! heart, can expect to find sentiment,
thought, not to say Of reward or OF
| acknowledgment or even Of recognition.
| Gentlemen, you may think of this evl.
| dence what yen please, bring III what
verdict yoa can, but asseverate before
heaven and you that to the best Of my
knowledge and belief the prisoner at
the bar does not at this moment know
why it is that my shadow falls on you
| instead of his OVID. y
The gallovs got its victim, bat the
post mortem examination of the poor
creature showed to all the surgeons aud
to all the world that the public We're
wrong and William II. Seward was
| right, and that hard, stony step OF
obloquy in the Auburn courtroom was
the first step of the stairs of fame rp