The leader., 1900-06-13
"DEATH LOVES \ SHINING MARK"

DEATH LOVES \ SHINING MARX"
It is with feelings of keenest sorrow
and regret that the LEADER i called
upon 10 chronicle the death of DIR.
Rufus J. Applewhite, which occurred
at the home of his father, DR.. II. r.
Applewhite, in this city last Thursday
evening. June eth. Prior to last De
cember DIR. Applewhite, for a year and
a half, had been practicing his pro-
fession in Sharkey County. Miss. Here
he became the victim of the deadly
malaria so common among the resi-
dents of that section, and returned to
his old home last winter, broken down
in constitution, only to fall prey to
that still more insidious and incurable
disease, consumption, to which he at
last yielded his young life.
All that tender love and care could
do, all that the best medical skill aud
attention could suggest to check the
fatal malady, was tried in vain: and
after a brave and patient struggle of a
few months the sad end came which
sooner or later must come to all
DR.. Rufus j. Applewhite was born
in Lincoln County, July 22, 1871, and
was therefore nearly % years of age.
He received the best early educational
advantages in a private school at his
fathers home, near Caseyville, which
we're followed by course under DR..
c. w. Grafton in the Union Church
Academy. He next attended the State
University at Oxford, graduating from
that institution in June, 1895, with the
degree of Il. A. Having decided upon
medicine as his profession, he subse-
quently attended the Memphis Medical
College, his bright mind and previous
educational training enabling him to
complete the usual three years course
in two, and from which institution he
graduated with honors, receiving the
prize offered for the highest work in
surgery
Not only was our lam ented young
friend a student and scholar, but in
loftiness and purity of character, he
was a beautiful model, after which all
young men might we'll copy. In pri-
vate life he was absolutely free from
the vices which so often mar the
lives of young men, and as chaste in
! thought and conversation as the
gentlest woman. His very presence
and demeanor were silent rebuke to
the coarseness too often common
among men. With a richly stored
he was free from all ostentation and
unseemly pride, and those who knew
! him best loved and appreciated him
most, and knew that beneath his digni-
fled and self-possessed bearing there
was an ever warm and sincere heart
and worth more priceless than
diamonds. Well might he be, as he
was, his honored fathers chief friend
hope and pride.
1t is scarcely necessary to add that
such young man embraced the
Christians faith while living and died
in the Christians hope He bore all
of his sufferings with true Christian
resignation, and to the last seemed
more concerned for those he loved
than for himself.
On Friday his remains were laid to
rest in the old family burying ground
near Caseyville, a goodly number of
friends from Brookhaven as well as
those who had known him from boy
hood, witnessing the last sad rites
That noble young life like his, SO
full of hope and promise, should be
thus cut off in the morning of its
usefulness is mystery indeed which
only Divine Providence can rightly
interpret and for whose loss God only
can send comfort to the bereaved.