The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-05-01

Ieffeu with lnelF bones. lie is d
queer sort of man who. in the pres
ence of death, can feel resentment
against a foe who has passed into the
unseen world. No man has trod the
earth, worthy of a single line obitu-
airy, of whom something goou cannot
be said and as he is placed ''in his
narrow cell the best that is in man
loves to linger upon the good qualities
and to let the opposite qualities be
buried in forgetfulness.
The Roman maxim in this day has
been greatly misunderstood. Most peo-
pie seem to think it means that one
must say good of the dead, if, in or
der to do SO, the living must be guilty
of writing fiction. This tendency of
making a dead man perfect has no
warrant IN the Roman maxim nor
in the realm of devotion to truth.
Some preachers have lost their hold
upon candid men by fulsome and un-
truthful eulogies over the dead. a
funeral occasion offers no ground Tor
making black white or converting
vice into virtue An honest North
Carolina preacher, called to ofhclate
at a funeral of rich man whose lie
had been an evil influence in the com
nunity. used the dead mans sins as
warning to living sinners lie
preached the old sinner into hell-fre
was the comment of a gentleman who
heard The awful sermon. But 1t made
a profound impression, # It was OF
questionable propriety. That Preach
er did not lose the respect of that
community, but another preacher
who, in conducting the funeral of a
very rich sinner who had devoured
widows houses and oppressed the
| poor, giving him the credit for all the
virtues, never regained the full conf
aence of the people. He preached
the old scoundrel into heaven" said
| a plain-spoken man, when we know
he is burning if there is hell
The best sentiment of this age of
courtesy and politeness- (often. lap
sing into polite lies and the like)-
| is that no preacher ought to wound
| the living by making reference to the
| delinauencies of the dead. Their grief
| is poignant enough without minis
terial laying bare the sins which can
not be hid. Present day sentiment is
equally pronounced against fulsorne
and undeserved eulogy. SO strong IS
| the feeling against either extreme
| that a custom has grown mp of hold
| ing funeral services without uttering
a word about the life of the man
| whose career is ended. In the case of
one who has lived usefully and hon
orably, those who follow after him
would be helped by a brief and just
statement of wherein his life blessed
his fellows. Such a man should not
be buried without a tribute to his
worth. But it is ten thousand times
better to do this than to publicly pill
| lory his short comings or to credit
him with virtues he did not possess.
The Roman maxim was sensible as
it relates to a private individual and
as it applies to the private life of a
public character. But what ought to
be the rule with reference to the pub
lie acts and the public influence of a
man who lives and dies under the cal
cium light? There are two opinions.
The greatest editor who has lived
In America was Samuel BoWles, who
established the Springfield Republi-
can. We speak of editors who were
nothing else, not editors like Horace
Greeley or Thurlow Weed who looked
| for political honors or to political
management. Samuel Bowles was an
editor-nothing else, and he was a
prince among editors. He was hon
est and fearless, and was never bound
by rules or conventionalities, or ham
pered by traditions. When a public
| man died, Mr.. Bowles wrote the story
| of his life as plainly as if he were
writing of a living man. He depicted
| his good qualities and his bad quail
| ties, if he had any. He painted him
| just as he WaS-WartS and a!l-and
balanced the weak and strong points
| as a man keeps his ledger. His esti-
mates were SO just that his obituary
| editorials marked d new era when jul
dicial estimates of public men took the
place, at least in one New England
town, of gushing and stopping over.
The most noted example of Mr..
Bowles's writing frankly and honestly
of great lawyer after his death was
his estimate of the eloquent Rufus
Choate. In July 1859 to Charles AL
len, writing of the death of Choate,
Mr.. Bowles in private letter said:
II am aching to pitch into Choate,
| and shall do it yet, ungracious as Bos-
| ton will think it. / don't believe he
was a bright and shining light to the
profession in at least one very import
ant particular. And l hate the nil
de mortuis,'' &c. What do men die
| for, except that posterity may impair
| TALLY judge, and get the full benefit
| of their eXample?"
In the Republican, few days later,
| Mr. Bowles did write fully of Mr..
| Choate and the title of his editorial
was: "Mr. Choate's Glory and Shame
| as a LAWYER" The laudation of Choate