The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-12-04

messengers or discovery or adventure,
now are plowed by immense modern
vessels of steam carrying commerce to
every part of the globe, and not con-
tent with supplying the markets that
exist, the civilized world is striving In
Asia and Africa to extend the field of
its influence. The walls of exclusion
erected around the old but still sell
dom-visited and comparatively UNI
known countries of the other hemis-
phere are gradually giving way beneath
the repeated assaults of modern activ-
| ity and dynasties whose foundations
had been laid deep and strong. when
modern nations were still in the thrall
of barbarism, are slowly yielding to the
force of modern civilization and are
compelled to pay a reluctant homage
| to the spirit of the age.
sThe mind of man has grown with
| the growth of time, and he has wrung
from nature her most closely guarded
secrets, has made steam do his bidding,
and caused electricity to become his
obedient servant. Time and distance
exist no more, and the most widely sep
| arated peoples are for all practical
purposes more closely bound together
now than were two cities of the same
province a few centuries ago. The in
dividual workman no longer follows his
trade as his own master, but becomes
part of a large manufacturing estab-
| lishment and every branch of industry
now is organized on a colossal scale
Truly, we live in a time where every
thing moves with gigantic strides.
But though the art and skill of man
is daily doing what in another age
would have seemed impossible. and
what the widest Imagination would not
have dared to dream, though our mod
ern buildings may nningle with the
1 clouds and add story to story until they
kiss the sky, though inanimate ma
chimes may do the work of a thousand
human hands, though man may har-
ness the waters that once ran to waste
and utilize them to move the wheels Of
vast manufactures, though he may
measure the storms of the air and fore
tell their action, though he may read
the stars and predict to the fraction of
a moment their every movement,
though in a word he may have reduced
all nature to his dominion-still he is
the same being of flesh and blood and
immortal soul, the same man that he
4 w
and there comes a time when he must
leave mother sister. wife and babe, all
that he loves in this f1eeting world and
solve for himself the great mystery
which all must solve where life merges
into death, when living form becomes
unfeeling clay and the spirit wings it's
flight to it's God.
| Though the membership of our lodge
is nearly as large as that of any in the
State, yet we have been specially for
tunate and it was not until this year
that death invaded our ranks. In the
exercises that we held in former years,
our memorial day had not the same sig
nificance to us that it possesses to-day,
for this is indeed a day of sorrow, and
when the roll of the dead is called a
silence falls ON this gathering, as we
realize that to two names there is no
response, that two brothers who this
time last year were with us in the full
bloom of manhood now sleep beneath
the sod.
Brothers Harry S. Smith and Thomas
Dwyer have passed from this earth, and
we shall pause a moment to place a
| flower on their graves. The former was
a resident of Woodland died at Ration,
N. NJ. March 8, 1899, and was buried at
Woodland. While he was not perhaps
known to all the members of the lodge,
those who enjoyed his acquaintance
knew him to be gentle, courteous and
honorable and possessed of all the
qualities that in a man we respect and
admire.
Thomas Dwyer died in Sacramento
| September "a, 1899. At the time of his
death he was Chief of Police of Sacra-
mento City and had filled that position
with the highest credit. Everybody
knew brave, manly, genial Thomas
Dwyer, and to know him was to love
him. The very soul of honor, no mean
thought ever entered his heart. Faith
| full to every duty in life, kind to every
one who suffered, true to every friend,
devoted to his family, he died in the
zenith of his youth, in the midst of a
career, typif1ed by zeal and honorable
impulse and furnishing an example of
the esteem in which the community
| holds a young man who follows the
paths of rectitude He was like the
| chivalric knight of old in the pursuit
of what he deemed his duty, and it may
be that his death was FASTENED by an
act of bravery, when, taking his life
in his hands, he stopped on the public
i streets a runaway team, never dream
ing of danger to himself. Brave Thomas
! Dwyer the lodge of which you were
SO respected member will not cease to
cherish your memory but on each re-
curing memorial day will sadly recall
your early death when the career of
your mature manhood was just open
ing before Won Honor to YOUR name
peace to your ashes.
HAS not this day a lesson for us all
as we assemble here to recall the vir-
tues of our dead? Sometime, on some
other memorial day, our names, too, will
be inscribed on the roll of the dead, and
some assemblage such as this will hear
tribute paid to our memories. Let
our lives be as our order teaches that
they should be, governed by the prin-
ciples of friendship, charity and broth
erly love. Let us reflect that life at
best is short and that the duty of kind
ness we owe to our fellow man should
not be put off till tomorrow for to-
morrow may never come.
1.-THE present only is ours, and let us
live so that when our time comes to
join the innumerable throng who have
preceded us to the home beyond the
grave we may close our eyes in peace
and depart from this world with the
sense of duty done, with charity to all
and malice to none''
The Elks' quartet sang Last Hope"
the closing exercises were conducted
and the audience filed out and the SER
vices were over