Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-08-01
THE LESSON or DEATH.

The Trappist monks are notified every
fifteen minute by a bell that life is fleet
ing swiftly by. But the daily
ment over the telegraph wires that an
other personality. once prominent before
the people, has passed away, serves
about the same purpose for the ordinary
laymen. And perhaps these %nounc
ments on the whole are more effective,
as the world goes. than would be the tin
Cancellations of a bell dividing that
portion of eternity by courtesy called
ringing into the ears of every man, wo-
man and child on the face of this great,
unwieldy globe. g."
The death of every person carries with
it a lesson Of greater or lesser import
ance to one who reads it Alright, but
when a prominent individual passes away
wildly depicted before the eye. Such
lessons should be impartially studied.
that the living may the more thoroughly
appreciate the good and the true and at
tach less Importance to the superficial
side of life.
Today the information is given the
world that Kate Chase Sprague is dead.
The busy throng will give to the passing
of this woman but little thought, yet she
was at one time the most courted. the
most petted, the most admired butterfly
in The social circle of the national capital.
She enjoyed a national reputation for
beauty, and in that respect was the
Lily Langtry of her time. Her sparkling
wit and remarkable brilliancy as a con-
versationalist were known the country
over, and during the time of Lincoln,
when her distinguished father, Salmon
P. Chase, was in the cabinet, and for
many long years thereafter, she was the
brightest star in the galaxy Of celebrated
American women.
But like many splendid women OF her
type, she married money and accepted
misery for her dowry. Though her dis
tinguished husband filled the guberna-
torial chair of Rhode Island. and warmed
a. seat in the senate of the United States,
and rolled in wealth and was a prince in
the entertainment of his friends, there
was no natural affinity between them.
William Sprague was the ENJOYABLE and
unloved husband of a lovable and loving
woman.
The old, old story of gossip. scandal
and separation followed, with a scatter
ing of the sprag. ue fortune. the destruc-
ton of the social prestige of the wife and
her lapse into obscurity close to the
rugged borders of actual want. The
truth of the gossip that was famed into
flame by the sensational press of the day,
and rolled over by the delectable tongue
waggers and t~ale-bearers of social life,
was never demonstrated to the satisfac-
ton of fair-minded men. But it's effect
was just the same. The fairer the target,
the more deadly the aim.
With a view of subduing the proud
| spirit of Roscoe Conkling, and giving his
political enemies a better opportunity
to crush out the towering ambitions of
the man, his name was unpleasantly con-
neeted with that of Mrs. Sprague, and
another vulture's feast was spread be-
fore the gossiDs of the world. And SO it
goes. Vanity of vanities. The bright
and brainy Conkling, an orator in his
own right-a genius in the realms of
human dignity-died like a peacock with
it's feathers pulled, and his place in his
tory is being gradually obliterated by the
corroding hand of time. Mrs. Kate
Sprague. once the social throne before
whom the gods of High Olympus knelt
in admiration, dies in obscurity with the
trail of gossip in the wake of her down
fall from power.
Yes, the lessons of death are being
daily learned, and they teach the value
Of humility and worth-of humbleness OF
heart and rectitude of conduct-of discre.
ton and duty, of resignation and hope.
The CREE PROBLEM -