The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1902-10-14

nothing but silent suHerlng ana
pathetic waiting for the end it should
be made to die quickly.
Doctors have discussed the same
subject in their most secret thoughts
and in their most serious gatherings
frequently kept from the knowledge
of the general public. Often it is a
question with honest physicians when
q case is hopeless and the patient
longs TO be released from the agony
of living whether with a motion of
the fingers, one single swift touch of
the hand where nc man may know,
and the decision is between the man
responsible, the human being under
his care and the Creator of both, the
suffering shall be ended and death
brought with merciful swiftness to
end it all so far as present life and
the doctors skill and knowledge 60.
This is a question for the doctors.
They may know when a life can
mean nothing but a short period Of
agony or fear and they are RESPONSE
bic for what they do IN that most
solmemn and trying of all hours.
With them 1t is a matter of minutes.
With many other people who think
of euthsnasia it is a matter of meal
culable years. Nearly all of US
have thought of it at one time or
another. The long and silent and
dauntless sleep beneath the sod seems
very restful. The refuge from the
toll and the burdens and strife,
seems very easy. 1t is only the near
est drug store OF frearm or the blade
or the always convenient water, and
it is all over, so far as this life is
concerned.
Yet has any one of us the right to
say or to think that his or her life is
ended, that the opportunities for its
usefulness r gone? The rose be
meath it's fragrance and its beauty
has no SOUL and the poor little bird
has nothing but its song and plum
age to give. Are we not more than
they? Did not the Chicago club wo-
meo who commended the act of their
associate forget that the human mind
and heart and soul abide III the hu-
man frame and that while they live
they may be consecrated always to
the highest and sweetest and noblest
purposes and may bring forth the
grandest results?
They have but a narrow and dark
ened view of the purpose and the
meaning of human life. The rose
dies soon when separated from it's
parent stem or at the coming of the
canker or with the passing of the
summer day or the breath of the
chilling winds from the North, and
its fragrance plesses the senses a mo-
ment and is gone forever. The song
of the bird fingers in the a briefly
and is forgotten. The hand, the
tongue, the countenance, the eye of
the living man or woman may do
good as long as they are living and
make results here and for the life
unknown and beyond.
None of us having life or sense or
faculties are helpless for good. Many a
dying hour has exhaled fragrance ex.
pressed in a beautiful life, a triumph
ant death, years later, and in the
glories of resurrection and realization
of the dearest hopes of our race.
Many a blighted life has borne fruit
and blossomed never to be blighted
or faded.
Not one of US living may say that
our days of usefulness or of hope
are gone. Always there is work to
do for the poorest and feeblest and
weakest and most dlshesrtened of US.
The roses and the birds die with the
seasons and the times of their lives.
The lives of any of us may be made
to yield beauty and fragrance and