Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-06-26
IN ME-
Knights Of Pythias EulogiZe
their Dead
IMPRESSIVE SERVICES
Held in RenShaw Hall Last Night
j. H. Leyson's Memorial
Address.

The annual memorial exercises of the
Knights of Pyt1ias were held last evening
at Renshaw hall. There was a large at
tendance Of Knights, who listened with
intense interest to the solemn services.
In the center of the hall the chairs We're
arranged in the form of a triangle, and
within the enclosure stood an altar, sur
mounted by a beautiful wreath of ever
greens and roses. When the ceremonies
We're concluded each membr of the order
present marched by the altar and dropped
upon the wreath a sprig OF myrtle. The
choir consisted of ten members Of the
Silver Bow Glee club. Chancellor Sig
Scllilling presided.
After the ritualistic exercises J. H. Ley
son, past commander, read the memorial
address, which was i'll part as follows:
"Mr. Chancellor Commander, Sir
Knights, Brothers, Friends-We read in
a book: And they rolled away the stone
from the mouth of the sepulcher.' The
love those disciples bore the crucified
Savior prompted them after their vigil
of the night, as the dawn of day came
glinting over the mountain top, to thread
their way through the olive and cypress
! groves of Gethsemane, far to the east.
ern part of the garden, where they had
laid their beloved master. They went to
watch, for fear that some one would steal
him away So we are assembled here
tonight, prompted by the love we bore
and still bear our brothers who have en-
tered that vast realm of eternal sleep.
Tonight we roll back the stone from the
door of our memory to recall, indeed to
resurrect the dear ones to living rooms.
In our minds eye we see them as they
We're. We recall their cheerful words and
kindly acts as though they occurred but
yesterday. The greeting smile the dear
face still wears for us; the words of en-
enlargement, caution, or needed admon-
ition, still sound in our ears. The help
ing hand, ever ready to relieve distress,
is outstretched to supply our want, Their
every act is a living principle of our no.
BILE order. They still live to us in all that
ennobles life on earth. Thus we recall
the voices from that echoless shore, and
again with those who ave en-
tered the ream of eternal night. We must
bear in mind, however, that our intimate
communion with them will depend on the
love we bear; for in that life Of love to
them we live again.. On the tablets of en-
during memory are faithfully registered
all the acts in their lives that can make
our life most noble. Whatever there was
" VI III SAio ~ l1ASih u ~
lie in the silent grave as we laid the dear
brother away: but whatever was brave
and benevolent and charitable and
knightly in his life, let us grapple to our
own souls with hoops of steel, and so
by this nobility elevate our own lives and
character, SO that as Knights of Pythias
we will be known of all men. If we sue
coed in this, then the ptoent power they
exert most firmly attests that they are
not dead, indeed in the in~tenseness of our
own lives for good they are the most vi
talized part, a living force. Thus the good
deeds they did live after them. The fact
that the good and manly form of our
brother has been laid away in everlast-
ing sleep we call death, is contradicted
in the potent influence of acts and
thoughts that live and must live after
him, for No man lives to himself alone.
What life or death is we know not. The
vitalized force that gives action to mat
ter is so subtle as to elude the skill Of
the alchemist to detect. The condition
of life or death is a mystery the human
mind has never been able to solve. The
p~rOfoundest researches of science and
philosophy are ba1iled at deaths door.
Indeed, whether this change is death or
life, we know not from a purely material
standpoint. Physicians tell us tina every
molecule Of matter is controlled by UNI
varying, i~nscrutable laws. Each atom
possesses the power of attraction, repul-
sion and cohesion. By this law Of attrac-
ton atoms are congregated together in
concrete forms. In nature these forms
seem infinite. The law of repulsion is
emphasized as much in the idea of nat
ural selection now generally adopted as
is the theory of attraction and cohesion
in the law of vital osmica forces. Each
molecule has it's special life expressed in
its power. Each atom has it's vital force,
even though but a particle of what we
term u~norganized matter. I may be able
better to convey to you my idea of what
| Death seems. 1t is but annthar form of