The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-01-09
NOTED GRAVES OF THE YEAR

UUIEU 0nAvEO Ut lie lean
Continued from Fourth Page)
than either, he created a nation. The
GROWING of William, King of Prussia,
in the gorgeous palace of the French
Kings at Versailles, January IS, 1871,
was due more to the political genius of
Bismarck than to any other man or
set of men. This was the goal of his
| ambition, and he, the man or iron and
blood" followed it with lion-like cour-
age and sleuth-hound persistency. He
had a right to prepare the epitaph for
his own tomb and make it sayas he did,
Bismarck, the friend OF Germany and
servant of William The end he
sought-the unifcation of Germany
was noble end, but the means he en-
ployed to gain his ends were often most
ignoble. The memoirs recently pub
lished by his friend and biographer,
DR.. Busch, reveal the private life of this
notable public servant of his king and
country No Jesuit ever believed more
in plicitly or practised more utterly the
dotrine of doing evil that good may
come, than did Bismarck. His success
was the success of INSCRIPTIONS and
constituencies might. To gain his ends
he did not hesitate one moment to en-
ploy brute force or serpentine fraud.
He spent millions of dollars in buying
and bribing German newspapers, to
scatter lies and peddle scandal. This
prostitution of the press was carried TO
such an extent that men have been
compelled to speak of "the reptile
press" of Germany and to look on Bis
marck as ''the arch reptile the most
unprincipled and villainous editor the
world has ever seem" He was colos-
sal in infamy as he was in intellect. 1t
is known that he changed the wording
of a royal telegram with the avowed
purpose of precipitating a war between
France and Germany. He acknowledged
to his friend, DR.. Busch, that he had
brought about three wars which had
caused the death of $4,000 men. But
said he, 81 have settled that with God
however" He settled it, suppose, by
reading the little book entitled DAILY
Spiritual Refreshment for Believing
Christians" which he carried with him
ard was found in his room after he
had hurried off to meet Napoleon at
Sedan.
Henry Drummond in one of his adj
dresses, published since his death,
speaks of the growing interest that So
ciety takes in the history of great men.
The popularity of books of biography
shows that greatness is appreciated,
and appreciated in order to be initiated.
When our admiration of great men
leads US to try and live like them, then
the more we admire the better for US.
But the difficulty is to get our great
ness pure. The well is deep, the foun-
tain sparkles, but what of the quality.
Too often in our study of great lives We
find that the life we thought would be
a pattern to follow becomes beacon to
shun. We must recognize the difference
between greatness and goodness. The
one may exist without the other. 1t
did in the case Of Bismarck. In him
greatness was divorced from goodness.
We see this divorce on other great
careers We had military greatness
without goodness in Napoleon Bona
parte We had intellectual greatness
without goodness in Bacon. We had
poetic greatness without goodness in
Byron. We had financial greatness
without goodness in Jay Gould. SO
Bismarck may be classed among the
greatest of politicians and among the
meanest of men. We do ourselves ana
our children a wrong if we allow his
political success to confuse our notions
Of right and wrong. The question that
we have to face and answer is this, is
the moral law obligatory in statesman
ship? Are chicanery and fraud, bri-
berry and lying compatible with Christ
ian craftsmanship? Has the decalogue
and the golden rule of Christ a place in
a political campaign?
You cannot for a moment imagine
William Ewart Gladstone adopting the
tactics of Bismarck. You cannot mag
inc him offering bride to the London
ssTimes" to circulate a scandal that
would reflect on his political opponents
and gain for him some temporary sue
cess. You cannot imagine Gladstone,
in the Darkroom of some saloon, con-
cocting rat-hole schemes of duplicity
and fraud in order to gain votes to his
narty or cause. Such a thing is abso-
lutely unthinkable.
The wise, strong statesman will never
use a. lie toA1erve his cause or country.
The wise, sttong statesman will never
enter into agreement with hell to gain
a vote or paSe a measure. Gladstone
through AIN the sixty years OF public
service wore the white flower of a
blameless life. Whatever record leaps
to light in after years he never shall
be shamed. No memoirs or letters
will ever rise to smirch his reputation
or dim the splendor of his fame. He
stands out as conspicuous for moral in
tegrity as for mental supremacy. His
spotless character is more sublime than
his service, more eloquent than his
speech. 1t is difficult to imagine two
characters more opposite than these
two statesmen. We saw wherein their
lives ran parallel, but see also how di-
vergent they were. Bismarck was a
stout defender Of the divine right of
kings. Gladstone was the able adva-