Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1900-04-15
THE GRAVEYARD PROXY
Matt Schatzlein's Graceful
ribute to his Dead
Friend.


Committee in Rene last Thursday,
Matt Schatzlein, of Eureka county,
paid graceful tribute to his dead
friend, Mr. Fletcher, late of the Cen
trail Committee, by voting his proxy
on five important roll calls. While his
act has been criticized as somewhat in
formal, calm consideration OF the
matter shows that allowing the dead
partisan to occasionally lift his voice
(by proxy in the party councils, is
stamped with the approval of ancient
custom in this State.
In the early history of the common
wealth Senator Sharon esta blished the
custom of embracing the Virginia City
cemetery vote ia the primal. elections
and occasionally, when the corpse was
not too old to retire from the registry
list. in the general election. lie felt at
liberty, where the dead had Len close
personal friends, not over ten years
under the sod and Were of known re-
publican principles, to allow them to
assist in bringing about results at the
primaries. Occasionally Democrats,
whose partisanship was not too rank,
We're granted the same privilege.
In this connection one cannot help
recalling the words of the illustrious
author of the "Elegy Written in !;
, Country Churchyard, the most in
/ spired versifcation in the English Ian
guage. He says:
| Can stored urn or animated bust
Back to its mansion call the tieetinC
breath?
Can honor's voice provoke the silent
Or tlattery sooth She dull, cold ear OF
death?
Probably not. but the tiattering trib-
ute to man. partisansi4ip, which al
lows the silent dust Of departed states
manship to lift its voice from the hal
lowed precincts of the Base Range
graveyard and cast a vote in the party
deliberations at Reno. is al least some
thing for ones political friends to APP
preciate, even # the compliment is
wasted on the corpse.
The ''storicd urn" is una uestionably
an allusion to the balloting urns used
in ancient Rome as the receptacle
. where freemen deposited their ballots
when voting for the triunyers and the
''aniEattd bust was the celebrations
! following the count and naturally in
dulged in by the victors when they
knew the result. The ''storied urn
told the story Of the days struggle
when Roman voters batt]ed fer the
control of their respective wards.
Well might Mr.. Schatzlein. when he
cast the ballot OF the late Mr.. Fletcher
have exclaimed in the language of tn,
immortal Shakespeare:
The tomb N which We saw thee re
Gently Inferred. has oped its marbl,
jaws TO cast thee up again.
Storey and Eureka are not the onl,
localities in which the spirits of the de
parted have risen to play importan
parts in the deliberations of politica
bodies
Some years ago \. c. Cleveland, at
State Convention at Winnemucca. in
trOd uced as u White Pine candidate t
the National Convention, man VIII
had passed 70 the silent ma j0rity-u
We all must sooner or later-nearl
twenty years before.
II interfered with some cut and drie
arrangements in Storey and threatens
a fight between the Jones and Share
factions, and trade of 80 votes wa
, made as the terms upon which tn
White Pine candidate should De with
drawn.
Upon these conditions the gen" 'na
was allowed TO remain undistutuuu o.:
hi, grave, and live candidate for a
important Office which he was di.
qualified to fill, became, metaphorical
II speaking, "a dead one in less tina
ten minutes.
VIII any one deny that the dea
man, slumbering peacefully in tn
burial plot of Ely, was not paid grcu
o compliment and could he have realize
: that his memory was so potent il tb
u party councils mat it was traded fo
t. thirty votes. would he not have rise
> gracefully from his grave and bowe
, Acknowledgements?
u
death. the act OF their friends in utiliz
ing their proxies is equivalent to
wreath cast upon their graves to kee
their memory green, the strewing c
he ashes of friends who are gone bu
not forgotten