Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-09-15
New orleans Picayune.

New Orleans Picayune.
- 20 MORE striking example of the
irony of fate and of the vanity Of
mundane experiences can be
found than the sad and pathetic
closing of the life of an old and feeble
man. who. in his senile totterings to the
grave. is but the pale and sorrowful ghost
of his former noble and commanding per-
sonality. History furnishes many and
many such portraits which can be taken
at random from every station In life, from
every profession; from any rank in
science, llterture and art. Ancient, medic
val and modern annals are replete with
such doleful lessons, admonishing ephem-
eral humanity that the brief span of
earthly existence, though sometimes bath
cd in the sunshine of prosperity and bless
ed with honors, riches and every pleasure,
often is overshadowed in the twilight of
age by misery, want, suffering, and ours
ed with the worlds stony neglect
There died in this city last night a
man who was, in his prime, one of the
brightest intellects of this country. He
was the recognized master among many
shining lights in the domain of constitu-
tional law. Special envoy to the English
metropolis across the sea, for the purpose
of preparing the legal points In case of
most unusual celebrity; author of stand
ard work on constitutional law; a scholar
I in every sense of the word; mind deeply
versed in the beauties and niceties of the
dead languages, and acquainted with mod
ern idioms; a distinguished officer in the
Confederacy; a man who enjoyed the
friendship of the chieftains of the south
ern cause; a former wealthy planter, re-
lated to the best and most ancient families
of this state, passed away in obscurity
yesterday, in a house in which he had
been sheltered for long time through the
kindness of distant kin.
To the present generation the name OF
Bernard Janin Sage has no special Sig
nificance. His best and his most strenu-
Gus work was done forty or more years
ago, and it is only to such men whose
heads the frosts of many winters have
crowned with the white halo of age that
the mention of Mr.. Sage's name will
Recall One the Most Exciting Epochs
in the history of the south.
Alas! the once towering form had be-
come bent and spare with senility and
privations. Weighted with more than
fourscore years, Mr.. Sage wandered about
the streets of New Orleans in an aim
less, pathetic manner, and such was the
unfortunate predicament Of the old gentle
man that not long ago he was taken from
the streets by the police and incarcerated
as a supposedly homeless one. The mag
istrate before whom he was arraigned
! recognized Immediately that he was deal
ing with no common individual and the
forlorn prisoner was given his liberty. He
was then sheltered by people who knew
of his former high social and civic posi-
ton, and since then his tired feet have
been rapidly Fastening to that goal where
he was 10 join the innumerable caravan
journeying to that far, unknown country
whence no traveller ever returns.
Mr.. Sage's career was eventful, and I'm
his early manhood he earned merited
fame for his remarkable intellect as a
member of the legal profession. Law was
his only study, his ruling passion, and no
lover ever dotted on his mistress with
more fervor than Sage did on the sedate
Themis. His youth was spent in New
England. He was a native of New Haven,
CT, and in that city he received a good