The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-06-05
FUNERAL OF LARON CUMMINGS
TOUCHING TRIBUTE TO VIRTUES
OF DECEASED.
Early Friends and Associates Were
the Speakers and Singers-His
Good Traits and His Faults.

The last sad rites over the remains OF
Laron A Cummings We're performed yes
| terday. The services were at the Odd
Fellows hail. under the direction of his
| friends and near relatives. Harry Gull
mer had charge, while Bishop o. F.
Whitney directed the services, which were
very impressive These gentlemen were
| the speakers of the occasion and followed
! a train of thought that greatly affected
their hearers
Music was furnished by a quartette
composed of Messrs- ii. G. Whitney, j. ID.
Spencer. George ID. Piper and w. u. Pat
rick, the iirst Two having been intimately
associated with the deceased in years gone
by. Their selections were beautifully
rendered, the first being Il Need Thee Ev-
cry Hour and the ciosing, Refuge OF
the Weary. The floral offerings covered
the casket, borne by three members OF
the order and three relatives. Jesse Fox
offered the opening prayer and A W.
Winburn the benedictlOn.
The first speaker was Harry Gunner.
the bosom friend of the deceased, who re-
ferred to his first acquaintance and early
associations with him, when he had every
opportunity TO know him thoroughly. He
was honest. manly and honorable In his
dealings and innately a gentleman No
one knew better than the speaker how he
struggled with his appetites, and how
frequently he conquered.
His worst failing was not his appetite
for drink" said the speaker. but his
ambition 10 do more than he had strength
to accomplish. He had great abilities, put
they were not equal TO his ambition And
this was the underlying cause Of all his
failures
Bishop Whitney followed. He said he
would not enter into a detailed description
ceased. That had been done already by
the man OF all men best qualified to speak
upon that subject When first the speak
er knew LarOn Cummings. he was the
bosom friend of Harry Culmer. whose
frank and candid narration of the good
qualities and failings of his oid-time
friend would commend itself 10 all 1t
was not right to tiatter either the living
or the DEAD, for tattery was falSenood- or,
if it ever contained truth. il was employed
to subserve ignoble ends
But honest praise is not nattery, con-
tinued Bishop Whitney.
1T is better sometimes to praise men
before they are dead, not to wait, and
strew flowers and kind words over their
graves.
when first I knew Laron Cummings.
he was the glass of fashion,, and the
all the avenues Of advancement open to
him. No one dreamed of the mtSfortuneS
that lay in wait for him.
The speaker was associated with the
deceased as a member of the WaSatch
Literary association in 1873, and later as
a member OF the Home Dramatic club
dramatic profession, and both were
anxious to excel. but nothing disagreeable
ever came between them
The only quarrel ever had with MIN,
of Brutus and Cassius." The bishop re-
ferred to the tenderness of heart mani
Tested by the deceased.
"A man whose heart can be touched by
4 sublime sentiment, beautiful strain
of music, or q pathetic and piteouS
spectacle said he, lis not bad man,
and that was Laron Cummings. He was
brave too as he was tenderhearted. IL
he was trifie proud and aristocratic in
his youth, it was because he felt that
with the honored name he bore and the
excellent lineage behind him, he had d
right to be somebody, and TO make his
way among his fellows
Bishop Whitney then entered upon his
DISCOURSE proper in which he showed the
impOssibility of man sitting in Judgment
upon the soul of his fellow man; how
God the perfect judge, gave men weak
ness that they might be humble and
Judged all men not only by the deeds done
in the body, but by the motives and de-
sires of their hearts. He quoted Burns:
WHATS done we partly may compute. but
know not what's resisted, and Emerson
on the conversations of calamity.
Bishop WhitneyS discourse was broad
and charitable throughout and so i'm
pressive and pathetic that his audience
was melted to tears
AT the cemetery, the Odd Fellows per-
formed the customary ritual OF their
order. and Bishop Whitney dedicated the
grave.