Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1906-03-16
A Tribute to my Friend, Charles
Edward Prentiss.

Edward Prentiss.
] knew him well-few knew him
better. We belonged to the same college
fraternity and were room mates. If
there is any better and surer way to get
a peep behind the scenes, and to know
the Utmost life of a friend, | can not
tell what it is. 1t was in the old days
of the Civil War; a whole generation
has grown up since, but of all the forms
that come trooping across the scenes
which my memory covers, not one is
more vivid than that of my friend
Prentiss AS l think of him l live in
the past, and the things of the past are
the things of today. When left him on
the night of the banquet Feb. 90, it was
to hurry to my home that l might pay
a tribute of love to the memory of
loyal friend, Col. E. w. Jewett, who
had died suddenly at the time of the G.
A. X. campfire at Burlington. Hardly
had | turned from that grave, before the
news came of this great loss. and startling
in its similarity to the first. Since
could not be present, and say in public
what was in my heart, l now give this
little tribute of love which has at least
this virtue,-the sweet perfume of
sincerity. He was a loyal friend. He
had no ear, no taste, for any idle gossip
which might be floating about and which
so often comes in to make trouble and
breed suspicion. Having chosen friend
nothing but the gravest reasons could
loose the bonds. 1t was generally It'll
death do us part"
His was joyous spirit. Bottled SUM-
shine with the cork out. l would fret
and fume, and Prentiss would laugh.
Such nature is worth mighty fortune
to the ON ner, and many fortunes to the
world. 1t gives us June days in Decem-
Der. 1t was with laugh that he bid me
goodbye the other night. 1t will ring
in my ears until l hear it again in the
sweet bye and bye. l will treasure its
ripping sound as his last will and tesla
ment bequeathing the best he had to me.
He had an essentially noble nature.
We were boys together, and full of fun,
but never knew him to say or suggest
a low or vulgar thing. He was ready
for college scrapcs if there was nothing
mean about them but if there was, then
count him out. No ties of fraternity or
class could enlist his aid in such things.
| lan
was such as we might have had in his
mothers home. | have gone back and
searched the very corners of that life,
and find it so. Do any call that scant
praise? Perhaps it ought to be, but truth
compels me to say it is a halo-an
aureola more easily painted by the
artists than found in real life.
he was most unselfish man. / can
not conceive of any conditions in which
he could have become a captain OF
finance" If he had stumbled ON to a
gold mine and money had poured into
every door of his home, he would not
have rested till all the windows were
opened SO the neighbors could share the
benefit. Dear me, but would not all OF
us had good times? Yet to the extent
of his ability this is just what he did all
his life. Kind deeds fell from him I'M
awares as pearls from Prince Esterhazy s
dress. He had solved one part of the
great secret "as poor yet making many
rich"
And now what shall l say more? Has
this wealth of love, honor, kindness of
heart-this something which made it an
honor to be numbered among his friends,
has it all gone out and quenched itself in
blackness? Does God, like child, blow
bubbles of human life, which however
beautiful must in the end burst suddenly
into nothingness? We can't believe il.
Some time and some where the story of
human life is ito be continued" Faith
outruns vision, and the tired heart COM
forts itself with the thought that it may