The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-04-26
A VISITOR TO EVERY HOME.

thought that to write of
homes and leave out the ex-
neriences which Death brings into them
made a strange gap in their history
This common ground where grief clasps
hands with grief, not waiting to know
who it is that weeps, would surely
seem to be too well known to every
family to be ignored while we are
thinking of what influences the lives
OF fathers and mothers, of husbands
and wives.
Yet it is a sacred thing, this story
of the entrance and departure of him
who will not be denied admission to
the dwelling place of any man. 1t
has seemed that this everyday, pub
lie column was scarcely yelled enough
TO make it a seemly place in which to
talk of the thoughts that arise in the
minds of those who sit in silence be-
side desolated hearths. But if our pic
lures of home life are to be always
sllnlit and show no mark of storm and
struggle they are but partial and I'M
real depictions of what goes on under
every roof that shelters family
There is no fireside howsoer de-
Tended,
But has one vacant chalr.
To-day we hear of a father taken
from his children; tomorrow of
father weeping like David for Absa-
lom. The little white coffin vainly en-
deavoring to disguise the gloomy use
for which it is fashioned, appeals to
every mother as it passes fiower-laden
through the crowded street. She who
has yet no missing lamb in her bright
flock, tightens her grasp of the warm
clinging hands of her children, and she
who has in the night-watch stretched
out her hand in vain, where once
little crib stood beside her bed, scarce
ly can help reaching sisterly arms of
compassion toward her who goes weep
ing to lay her little one to rest.
We do not think enough of this beau
tiful influence of Death upon our
hearts. If anything can make us reach
our ideal of love, one for another, 1t
is this tenderest compassion born in
us by the power of cOmprehendlng
sympathy! The woman whose empty
arms yearn to feel again the precious
warmth of her babys living body, for
gets rank, riches, nationality, or alien
atoms of any sort, when another grew
ing mother passes by; she is her sis
ter though she were in rags and she
would comfort her at any cost.
True, the cold, invincible touch of
-
our lighter faculties, but it unlocks
hidden springs of unselfish feeling
gives life to pity and tender compass
sion, and the barriers of conventions
and distrust fall away as if by magic
before it. 1t is the most wonderful
discloser of the reality of things, this
awful influence; it is the most unerring
guide to the value of human posses
sions, the only infallble disCerner and
teacher of what is worth struggling
and toiling for.
One of the most frequent and most
sorrowfu sequences of Deaths appar-
entity pitiless removal of our idols is a
halt in all our activities. The thing
we desired is valueless, the hope we
cherished is no longer a pleasure, the
ambition which kept our powers at
high pressure of achievement has van
ished.
"How much of all the past is dumb
with her,
And of my future, too, for with her
went
Half of that world cared to please"
This, when we analyze it, is strange
outcome of true love. 1t would seem,
even if we disbelieved all of the mex
pressible consolation of Christian the
cries, a very irrational way of show
ing what our love was, and of TESTIFY
ing to the ennobling influences of our
dead. There is no monument we can
raise in their memory like the dedt-
cation and conservation of our lonely
lives to what they deemed worthy and
great; the bestowal of fortune to Gre
ate an imperishable remembrance OF
life, is as nothing in the balance
against the use of all our powers TO
some fine, spiritual end for their dear
sakeS.
A man can do more even than to die
for his beloved, if he, bereft of his own
joy and personal wage of happiness,
dedicates himself to some lofty bless
ed work in memory of the compan-
ion who had melted him to the best
efforts while she lived. To make or
her>name and beautiful nature a germ
of living good to those bending under
burdens of pain or ignorance, or to
stir and stimulate and keep alive puri-
flying and enlightening influences,
which shall thus, not only seem, but
really emanate from her spirit ana
power is to keep her better part yet
living upon earth, and at the same time
strengthen an unbroken BOND between
the living and the dead.
Death brings in his strong hands
gifts like these to some who compre-
bend that he has many appellatlons; IL
is as true of him that he is the angel
of release, the angel of reward, the an
gel OF DrOtecUOn from evil 10 COiilC, Ao
that he is the messenger of separation.
We lose much-more than we can ever
comprehend here-when we look upon
him as an unbearable terror incapable
of pity and undirected by Love. Since
every door must open to his knock, IL
is well that we should store in our
hearts all that we can learn of his ra-
ture and influences.
We have our lives to live-we must
keep on. The question is, are we going
to do we'll or ill? Are we going to
wiring out of this appalling experience
something which shall make us help
or a hindrance? Are we to burden
those about us by continual appeal
to their sympathies and demand for
relief, or are we to turn our faces
toward the surprising, and, like traV-
ellers overtaken by the night. keep
steadfast watch for every ray of light
To many a heart, LowelPs tragic de-
scription of the Dead House" is the
voice of their desire:
Were it mine 1 would close the shut
tiers,
Like lids when the life is fled,
And the funeral fire should wind IL,
This corpse of a house that IS DEAD.
But what of those to whom this DESERT
ed house iS hOmP2