The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-06-26

| the organization of the company; a
director of the Worcester, Nashua &
| Rochester railroad and later trustee for
the bondholders; director in the Ameri-
| can Powder Co., in the Massachusetts
Mutual Life Insurance Co. of Spring.
| field, in the Samson Cordage Co., in the
Sawyer Betting Co. of Cambridge, and
| in other companies besides being joint
or sole owner In active supervision over
a number of other mills and other busi-
ness enterprises.
Mr.. Smiths love of nature and out of
door life led him until physical inflrm-
ity prohibited, into the woods and by
the brooks. After business and age in
terrupted the more constant indulgence
in these joys, q brief annual fishing trip
celebrated for many years the old ardor
and vigor.
But nowhere so thoroughly as In tho
home did so many phases of Mr.. Smiths
character find such significant and var
led expression. Not only did the beau
tiful trees, flowers and shrubbery with
which both his winter and summer
places abounded receive his personal
supervision, but his fine taste, most un-
usually compounded with practical wis
dom, provided with all the wholesome
luxuries cf the city the exquisite sum-
mer home set down on the Maine coast
among the virgin pines several miles
from a primitive harbor village.
Different as We're the handsome Wor-
cester place and the dainty cottage with
its gardens, as host he was invariably
the same Mr.. Smiths love Of family
life and his devotion to his home find
ing expression also in the most charm-
ing hospitality, unfailing, unstinted and
apparently equally enjoyed by both host
and guest. A hearty and unaffected
NHG1 Go; A.
door If, indeed 1t had not run before
to meet one at train or steamer not one
/, opportunity would be lost during the
stay, however brief or long to promote
the comfort and convenience of the
guest, and at the close ever some spec
ial renewal by word or deed of the old
welcome.
Truly, if the embodied ideal of that
difficult and charming virtue hospital
ity were to be chosen, 1t might be here.
After the same fashion as his hospi-
tality, was Mr. Smiths simple courte-
sy, unaffected, unfaillng. often enliv-
ened with humor equal to any occaS-
ion, dgnified, and without burden to
the recipient Usually reserved and
undemonstrative, often plain spoken,
sometimes blunt, he was always sin
cere and reliable The same brief. kind
ly greeting was always received by
neighbor, friend, employee and servant.
Those who once merited his short, de-
cided unimpassioned rebuke seldom
incurred a second, and all who served
him admired his justice and quiet APP
probation of faithful service, repaying
it with devoted loyalty. "
Often, too was gratitude due for his
quiet and unostentatious generosity to
objects that commended themselves to
his deep, though reserved, sylnpa thics.
Such i'm merest outline was his Life,
itself filed every moment with indus
try, devotion, activity until the phys
ical infirmitles that began several years
before his DEATH and which had been
persistently pushed aside with a mar
velous power Of will and body, would
no longer be ignored. but insisted uron
recognition and at the last upon sub
mission, with a will as inexorable and
a power more irresistible than his
whose will and power had so long
withstood them.
Two weeks and a half before his
death, Mr.. Smith went to his seashore
home in Maine to seek rest and relief
from the heart trouble and asthma that
were sapping his life.
Apparently benefited by the freshness
and quiet of the coast. and restless for
his routine of activity, on Monday,
June u, 1899, Mr.. Smith took a last
look about his loved gardens at Mu-
nasca and returned to Worcester pre-
siding at the regular meeting Of the
trustees Of the savings bank on Tues
day, the afternoon of the day Of his
arrival, so punctilious was he in the
performance Of his duties to the last
One week later, Tuesday, June 20.
the end came quietly. The story of that
week is one of growing infrmity ard
knowledge of the inevitable, and yet
one of most extraordinary patienLe
and constant cheerfulness. Peace has
it's opportunity for devotion to Ideals,
no less than war. Less striking, not so
auickening to the imagination, yet no
less real. Sickness and death at home
gave Mr.. Smith the same choice of he
roisrn as comes to others in the camp.
What shall we name him who embodles
his ideals and lives his faith into deeds,
his creed into practice, although in the
comparatively barren circles Of family
and business2 Is he the less an 'deal-
list because he does not theorize or "X-
plain? May not such an one, with Ar
thur. have elsewhere his justification?
81 have lived my life and that which
Nav He within Himself make pure"
Strong personality is a tonic III life
10 ones associates. and the practical
idealism indicated in this brief memo
rial is the stuff of which the progress
of the world is largely made.