The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1902-08-20

kissed his cheek to a tan for twenty
one years was giving him her last kiss;
the breeze that waved his raven hair
was blowing on it for the last time:
the hills Of Pulaski were standing
silent around him. Nearness to death
must have quickened his faculties
aud how he must have loved to live;
how that heroic young spirit must
have hated to die! Through his veins
was running blood like quicksilver,
singing to him the song of life. The
earth was very beautiful; the sky was
very blue. lie could almost hear the
dropping Of the tears of his mother;
he could hear her low moan and the
groan of agony that came from his
father. Perhaps there was another
somewhere in Tennessee who was on
her knees at that time-somebody
must have loved that glorious young
fellow. He could look over toward
the South, and there he could see the
hard-prcssed flag of his country, and
he could hear the shout of his COM
rades fighting for what they believed
was just D how he must have hated
to leave them to fight that battle alone
this gallant, glorious, aud devoted
young soldier
Ladies and gentlemen, if I were to
ask you tonight the question, What
IS the greatest passion of life?' you
would answer, The passion to live. ;
Men cast away a. sea, when starving,
eat 'heir comrades to live. Lcudon
swarms with its hundreds of thousands
who lead life Of Unreasonable mise
cry, but who do not want to die.
though the Thames flows by and kind
Iy invites them to jump in and end
their misery. Men live in dungeons,
away under the ground, in slime, and
yet when they hear the tread of the
turnkey in the corridor their souls
quake for fear he may be coming to
say, You must die But this young
man, who had everything to live for,
whose very soul was full of life-this
splendid young knight of the soul
said: If had thousand lives to
give, would give them all before l
would do what you ask me to do?'
Ladies' aud gentlemen, the story of
Sam Davis will never die, and will
never cease to be told. Listening
senates will hear the grand story; the
camp fires will repeat it in the armies
OF the government; the school teach
ers in Thousands of schools will recite
the beautiful and pathetic story to
the young bays and girls, who will
listen with tender and wondering eye.
Some Livy, like the Roman Livy, will
put it in imperishable history. Yea,
some Homer will yet be born in these
Southern States-when the south
again turns her attention to the
things that are really great-will
strike with fingers of genius the harp
to the great demand, and will produce
another Iliad, and in that grand epic
the brightest pages will be the story
of this young mans heroic death.
(Applause.)
"Yea, he will never die, for he will
be enshrined in sarth's grandeot pan
theon, the human heart, and on its
splendid wall his chaplet of laurel and
immortelles will be higher than all the
rest. Take all the heroes who bled
for the South il the civil war; let
them come from every field of battle;
cell up the spot!ess aad the nriacely
Lee, he that wes made in Gods own
image if ever man was (applause); call
up Sydney johnson from the bloody
field of Shiloh, who. like one of Ossi-
ans heroes, with his finger pointed to
victory, and with the fierce South
cheering on her sons, call him up;
call Stonewall jackson, the lightning
bolt of the battlefield, that man who
earnestly raised his hand to the God
of battles on the day Of battles; call
up Joseph E. Johnston, the darling OF
the Tennessee army (applause); call
up the tall ohieftain who sleeps by
the banks Of the Mississippi, Bedford
Forrest (applause), listening to the
song Of spirit kindred Of his own;
pass them in review; let the world
look, as the world never looked be.
fore, at this splendid psgeantry! Who
is it that will attract every eye? What
is it that will bring the tears and the
look of pity to every face? Who is
that riding by? Who is it. in his
gray, ragged jacket that is riding by,
with his whole neck and bosom wreath
ed with chain of gold instead Of q
hapgnan rope? It is Sam Davis,