The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1900-09-27

and like the barber in a barber shop,
old Father Time whispers "next. "
My dear old friend Jim Warren still
lives to greet me when come and 30
does Chess Howard and DR.. Alexander
and his brother and Evan Howell.
Then 1 recalled the grand and beauti-
full words of ingalls, spoken in his
eulogy on Senator Beck.
''The right to live is, in human
estimation, the most sacred, the
most inviolable, the most inalien-
able. The joy of living in such
splendid and luminous day as this
is inconceivable. To exist is exulta-
ton. To live forever is our sublimest
hope. To know, to love, to achieve,
to triumph, is rapture; and yet we are
all under sentence of death. Without a
trial or opportunity of defense, with
no knowledge of the accuser or the
nature and cause of the accusation;
without being confronted with the
witnesses against us, we have been
summoned to the bar of life and con-
demned to death. There is neither
exculpation nor appeal. The tender
mother cries passionately for mercy
for her first born, but there is
no clemency. The craven felon sui
lenly prays for moment in which to
be aneled, but there is no reprieve.
The soul helplessly beats its wings up
on the bars, shudders and disappears.
''But the death of a good man is
not an inconsolable lamentation. 1t
is strain of triumph and he may ex
claim with the Roman poet, Non
omnis Moriar,' and turning to the
silent and unknown future can rely
with just and reasonable confidence
upon that most impressive assurance
ever delivered to the human race, He
that believeth in me, though he were
dead, yet shall he live and whosoever
liveth and believeth in me shall never
die"
Mr.. Ingalls, might have added one
more shadow to his dark picture of
death by saying that he not only con-
| demned US without trial or witnesses
or an accuser, but the pitiless old rascal
would not even give the date of our
execution nor the manner of it. We
are to die, that is certain, but when
or how or where we know not. Think
of DR.. Goetchius, dressed at o'clock
with pleasant anticipations of rest at
Talluah, amid the sound of falling
waters that soothe the soul, but with
in an hour he was a helpless, lifeless
corpse.
Senator ingalls, was gifted man
not word painter, but a thought en-
graver. For years he was our enemy
and harbored prejudice against our
people, but after he had visited Texas
and studied the negro and his race
traits, he returned home and declared
that he was unfit and unworthy of
freedom or any political franchise.
But enough of this. Now let me
add that up to this date I have re-
ceived one hundred and seventeen
copies of the poem that 1 asked for,
and the number increases with every
mail. They have come from every
southern state. / began to write
pleasant words and thanks to those
! who have troubled themselves to please
me, but have had to stop, for my old
eyes are weak and my hand gets tired.
I can only thank them all at once and
say how grateful 1 am that so many
know what I did not know. 1t hum
bles my pride and takes away some OF
my vanity.
Some of my scattered friends give
the authorship to Miss Flora Hastings,
Queen Victoria's maid of honor, and
some to George d. Prentice, and one
to S. S. Prentis, but the large major,
ity are correct in naming Charles
Mackay. He was born in Perth,
Scotland, in 1912, and during our
civil war was the American CORE
spondent of The London Times. He
easily stood first among the modern
English poets, and was the author o.
many prose works.-BILL ARP in At
lanta Constitution.