Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-07-22
LAST WORDS or GREAT MEN,

afternoon, were, IN! beltef. Hau tneSe
words been spoken without reference to
any question propounded to him-had
they dropped involuntarily from his lips
they would be given the peculiar signifi-
canoe usually accorded the NAL utter
ances of noted men. For a mar of Mr..
Ingersoll's views on religious questions
to indicate with his last breath that
things We're better With him, would be 10
advertise to the world that the great ag-
nostic did not catch any momentary
glimpse of the post norton horrors that
are supposed to await men of his type.
On the same theory that the truly good
so often see the beautiful gates ajar, and
when dying indicate in their last words
the triumph that waits them, it might
have been said that Mr.. Ingersoll had an
threshold of eternity that he was enter
ing upon a knowledge of the truth. and
that it was indeed 'better" than his past
career of uncertainty and doubt. But
Mr.. Ingersolls last words will not admit
of that construction, for his remark was
made in response to a question from his
wife asking how he felt. 1t was an utter
ance or the part of the dying mar that
was of the earth earthly. 1t had no spir-
itual significance whatever. The chances
are he actually felt better when he ut
tered his last words, and had no premo-
milton Of his approaching doom. His life
went out in the twinkling of an eye, and
doubtless the physical comfort and re-
pose that Immediately precedes I'M dis
solution was not recognized as death by
the celebrated doubter.
The world has been taught to believe
that the wicked die hard. Judas Iscariot,
the first doubter Of note, hanged himself
and died in great agony of mind, accord
ing to the best authorities, while Voltaire
is reported to have frothed at the mouth
and carried on horribly in a spasm of re-
morse, when death claimed it's own. SIM
liar reports have been published about
Thomas Paine; and the friends of Mr..
ure to know that nothing in the death of
the great agnostic can be construed into
a condition Of mental agony and mind
torture growing out Of his false philoso-
ply as to the relationship of man to
God. Were his last words capable of a
moral rather "a a purely physical in
depreciation it would require a very vivid
Imagination to show that they 1~neantSre-
p%entance on the part of the speaker, and
'better' judgment in selecting a path
way through life. =.
AS a rule the world attaches too much
men. In a majority Of instances dying
remarks would. lose their value were all
the surroundings known. An excellent il
lustration of this fact is found in the
writings of Ben Perley Poore. who re-
counts the death Of Daniel Webster.
Thousands Of college essays have been
founded on the beautiful text furnished
by the last words of that great mani
still live!" Mr.. Poore relates how Mr..
Webster happened to make this remark.
AS everybody knows, the great constitu-
tional lawyer was much given to drink.
With all due respect for his honored
ashes, he was at times in his life close
to the edge of what is known to modern
life as the 'lusher." When on his deatf
bed the physician ordered his nurse tc
minutes, should he arouse from the ap'
parent torpor in which he seemed to rest
and fifteen minutes later repeat the dose
and then at the expiration of another fiji
teen minutes again repeat the dose, "pro-
vided he still lived" The instructions
were carried out, but thinking him ASLEEP
the nurse was about to overlook the las
dose, when the sufferer opened his eye:
languidly, glanced at the clock on thu
wall at the foot of the bed, and Mindful
of what the doctor had said, remarked
81 still live" He got the dose of brandy
he was figuring on, but he never spoke
again.
Great men should be measured by thei
} life work, not by the desultory remarks
that may fall from their lips when tn,
wings of the death angel pear to thei
bedsides the final messages of fate.