The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1900-06-08
"Sad Thoughts rs They Occur" or Mem
cries of by Gone Days.

june, the month ul singing blius an
blooming flowers, is here again, and
many respects it is not unlike IL
June of 80. The sun shines just 4,
bright, the birds sing as sweetly, an
even old Appomattox flows on just d
il did one yc0r ago, but alas man
homes ia our town are changed an
many hearts are broken. Death ha
been bify in our midst, and has snatch
ed from ns our cherished idols ant
laid them broken and bleeding az on
feet, and rs we sit i'm silence and car
only see the "yacant chair" how car
me enjoy the birds, the flowers, or the
silent flow Of the river as we once did
No . 10 rs who have suffered this INN
is not the same
Memory takes me back tonight IL
the grand old Virginia mountains, and
| see seated beneath the shade of the
trees three familiar faces, Henry G..
Paulett, John w. Beach and Walter
y. Walker. The same impulse, the
desire to regain their health, had
prompted them TO seek this spot, one
that seemed especially designed by our
Heavenly Father as an asylum for the
weary tired invalid, and it was amid
these remote and pleasant hooks Of
Nature that God permitted them to
spend their last summer on earth, and
as the days glided swiftly by how they
delighted to meet and talk Of home
their home around which clustered so
many fond associations and to which
they hoped to return strengthened for
the life work before them; but alas it
had been ordered otherwise.
1t is charitable that no one should
speak i'll Of the dead; their faults
should be covered with the mantle of
oblivion, but it does not follow that
their virtues, their enduring qualities
and noble deeds should pass unnoticed.
1t is the duty Of the living to perpetuate
their memory so that the light that
once shone around their pathway
should not return to darkness, and we
should often pause IN our daily tasks
and while we place fresh flowers on
their graves give fitting expression to
the sad thoughts that well up in the
heart.
What Mr. Paulett might have been
as a business man can easily be deter
mined by what he was when worn to
shadow by disease preying upon him.
He still occupied his place and seemed
determined to resist its advance. He
demonstrated that he had learned
" Life's hardest lesson without groan-to
suffer and endure Social life other
than the circle that graced his home
had no attraction for him. It was
there surrounded by loved ones he
found his greatest happiness. June
came and It's depressing heat so over
came him that he was forced to abandon
his post aud seek refuge IN the noun
tains Of Virginia, but after spending
without gaining the benefit he |
had hoped he yearned to reach his |
home again, but strength failed and on
the evening Of July 18th, just as the
sun passed behind the mountains, his
spirit peacefully departed. The pearl
dropped from its wasted shell, the cur
rent of domestic bliss that had flowed |
On so calmly was stopped IN a moment,
and the voice of husband and father
was heard no more in that home.
1t was not my fortune to know Mr..
Beach personally until the last sum-
mer of his life, when the shadow of
The dark valley was already upon him,
consequently | was not favored with
such a degree Of intimacy as was en-
Dyed by many others, but such oppor-
unity as had greatly interested me.
Those of his friends who had admission
nto the deep recesses Of his heart bear
witness that he was warm hearted,
Kind and afiectionate, and his attach
nents were tenacious and enduring.
The fresh breezes Of the mountains
allied to arrest the decay Of nature,
md he realized that death would con-
Iuer, but he fought for every inch Of
ime, and gathering up all his energy
)ade farewell to old Virginia and
fought a milder cline. But he was
lot alone, for all over the land we find
hrOngs Of restless spirits going from
home in search of health only to find
obscure graves in distant lands, but
lot so with John Beach; when he found
his hour was come, with the fortitude
# christian he met his inevitable
ate and kind hands bore him gently
Jack and he sweetly rests in our quiet
Walters life had a sweet ending, and
he twenty-one years that God permit
ed him to remain on earth had been
IS sunny a. love and tenderness could
make them. He carried in his every
lay life the same kind, afiectionate,
owing spirit. 50 uaselish. So patienL
hese virtues had enshrined him the
dol of the circle in which he moved