The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-08-11
roRGEr-ME-Nors AND VIOLET
Shall Sprinkle the Sod Where In
gerso1l Sleeps.

And where the ground is bright with
friendships tears,
For get-me-nots, and violets heavenly blue,
Spring glittefing with the cheerful drops
like dew.
With the passing of that acknowl-
edged loyal citizen, able lawyer, gifted
orator. and faithful friend - Colonel
Robert G. Ingersoll, there are, nat
urally, many comments being made up
on his character, his career, and
chiefly as to his creed. One Of the
most beautiful tributes he ever paid
to friendship was a death eulogy.
tinctured with the same essence OF
doubt that pervaded the prayer of the
man who prayed: 80 God, if there be a
God, save my soul, if I have a soul. "
So Ingersoll exclaimed: Farewell! If
this is the end, then you have left us
the sacred memory of a noble life.
If this be not the end. there is no
world in which you, my friend, will
not be loved and welcomed. Fare
WE'LL
How unlike this the tone of faith
that breathes through Wordsworth
ordinations of Immortality:
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting
star,
Hath elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar.
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory, do we come
From God. who is our home.
Yet Wadsworth, the nature poet, who
Did teach to know,
That, in all life, even in the flowers that
There may be seen the shadows of in
fnity.
was not more true to the divine in
stinct of soul-life than Emerson IN his
lode to the Rhodora":
Why thou vert there, rival of the rose.
I never thought to ask. 1 never knew
But. in my simple ignorance, suppose
The self-same power that brought me
there, brought you.
In his capacity to appreciate the
blessing and to hold fast the qualities
of true friendship Ingersoll was
grandly equipped. In his delightful
home life, pictured by those who have
basked within it's sunny atmosphere,
he was a model companion, a devoted
father. In his associations with young
men there was also a brotherly affin-
ity that told of a heart still tingling
with the freshness of youthful emo
lions. In these and In his profound
scholarly tastes there are links that
bind him to a common humanity and
call forth a degree of respect from his
censorious critics. But we are asked
to honor Ingersolls memory because
mo man has been less understood
What plea exists that these words
for a fOrbearance we might all claim.
What individual, whether his acquaint-
ance ranges in broad circles, or wheth-
er it is circumscribed by limitations
that render him at least comparatively
obscure, hopes or believes that he is
fully understood even by the members
of his own household? And in this
very weakness, this lack of perfect
entrance into the soul garden that God
has planted in every human being, lies
our strongest dependence upon the
Heavenly Father. Man, indeed, sees
darkly, but He, the Advise, compre-
hends our meanings, and knows how
infinitely higher, and broader, and
deeper than any form of expression
we may command are the Utmost de-
sires of our heart to be good. to live
right, to make of this world an earthly
paradise-from which we may at the
last emerge into that clear and radiant
sphere where
The SOUL of origin divine,
Gods glorious image. freed from clay,
In heavens eternal sphere shall shine
A star of day.
--Addie B. Ellington, in Iowa Register.