The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-07-29
/. D. M. SWEAT.
The Last Rites Over the Remains of a
Distinguished Citizen.

Family, friends, neighbors, citizens in
high official position and prominent IN
the various professional and business
walks of life gathered yesterday afternoon
at two o'clock to listen to the services
over the remains of Hon. L. u. M.
Sweat, which took place from his late
residence ON the corner Of High ana
Spring streets.
Rev. John Carroll Perkins oficiated and
first recited the Lords prayer which was
followed by readings from the scripture.
Rev. Mr.. Perkins then said:
1t is most marvellous experience to
take ones place in the life of human
kind, and pass from youth to manhood
and enter into the sunset years. Life it.
self is a strange and inexplicable journey.
There are few of us who reach to any
thing like completeness. There are few
of us who pass the long since established
goal OF tho three score years and ten.
There IRE fewer yet who grasp the
problem stha5 underlie the structure OF our
humanity. Too easy is it, to but simply
pass the time in dull appreciation of the
laws of life; to know but the merest out
skirts of the purpose of God; to dwell
ever in the suburbs of the worlds activity
and aspiration. With the infinite reaches
of human achievement before u.s. with
the busy earnest industry of mon around
US, building up institutions, creating
great corporations, formulating the lest
results of legislation. shaping the paths
and processes of social betterment and
progress with the ideal aspirations Of this
same humanity in the promises of what
may be, how few of us enter into these
things with understanding and with
profit. There are after all but few, who
have the poise of mind; .he balance and
proportionate sense Of what can be &C.
colnplished; the power to weigh con-
ditions, to consult with other eager souls
In such way as to accomplish real re-
suits
When men like this are found they are
always looked upon as leaders They are
called when the masses would be repre-
sented in public places; they are SUM,
moned when the popular voice would
come to best expression.
Every age has its public men, mon who
voice the hopes OF other men; men who
plan and shape conditions under which
the world must make its onward way.
We who gather here today are conscious
of man who has passed through the
stages of human life, vouohsafed TO tnem
more fortunate, with mind ana splrl1
alert to the prominent problems OF our
national Development. Here was one who
caught the spirit of leadership through
the rapidly growing interests OF this
nation and saw the tendencies of our
public questions and played most con-
picuous part in that which has been the
material Expansion of our young repup-
lie. Here was a man whom many cltizens
have often honored with their confidence
and suffrage; have trusted with their
hopes and plans; have made conspicuous
because they felt in him keener mind,
a stronger will, a power OF organization
and of wise Observation-Disclosures who
would bring into the social and political
arenas the spirit of direction.
When man like this enters into our
attention we see as we cannot common
" see the panorama as it were of our
national expression. 10 us who are
younger, our minds filled with sense of
what our country is, the nation seems
almost like an eternal creation. We think
of her principles, her traditions, her hopes
as if the age Of centuries had sat above
them, and the pledge Of permanence were
in their hand.
But here is man whose fathers
memory went back to times before our
national life was born; and he himself
took the place In the struggle OF principle
of government that had no presidents; he
was part of a national growth in
material and territorial expansion where
in he and his friends were pioneers.
There is no more wonderful creation
that that of growing life, planted in
the tentative sort of a rural community:
nourished on the traditions Of spirit OF
independence, that at last eliminated In
great republic; growing into an under
standing and appreciation OF the hopes
that inspired the pioneers; and taking its
part in the shaping and guiding and
directing of the questions Of adIninistra-
%iov, nm whit ho pprati nrC N
must find their life. There are but few
families left in our changing social life,
in which as here SO many traditions OF
political and social interest have found
exemplifcation, in which that kind of
living that belonged to the fathers found
its fruitage and its elimination.
We meet to-day in the memory of one
who through long years has most con-
spicuously represented q distinguished
family of Maine; and through him that
family has been marked not only in the
state, but in the nation; and in foreign
nations. For the education and develop
ment OF such a life as his requires the
broader culture, the association with the
varied types of civilization; an acquaint-
ance intimate with other active minds
throughout the world. His alliance
through nearly fifty years with another
family prominent in the development OF
our city s life, gave constant encourage
ment to the broader cultivation of the
spirit of public interests of literary ap.
and an active prosecution OF
those things that keep the mind in touch
with the conditions of human progress.
There was no fading away Of interest
in what the world was about. There was
always an eager response to the questions
that a gitate great civilization. 1t is lives
like this that mark 81 definitely the
transition that always comes between the
generations of men, land in the transition
they who have been endowed with the
Gift of representing best the stages of life
which they pass are the marked
men Of their day and hour.
At the conclusion of his remarks Rev.
Mr.. Perkins offered a fery ent prayer
which was followed by the benediction.
The pail bearers were DR.. Weeks. Judge
Webb, Speaker Reed, A. W. Coolnbs, Gen.
S. j. Anderson, Ex-Governor II. B.
Cleayes, Judge Putnam and Edward II.
Daveis.
There was a profusion Of beautiful
floral remembrances ON every side, and
the interment was at Evergreen cemetery,