The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1908-01-31

aside from his official work In the fol-
lowing July he went to Brow, sea
bathing Village on the Solaway in hopes
that the seabathng would prove bene-
| fetal to him but all in vain. On the
| eighteenth of July he returned from the
lseabathing to his home in a light spring
wagon and so weak was he now that he
tcould no longer stand and was put to
tbed. From now on, till his death, he
| was most of the time i'm a delirum from
| the fever. 1t is said that when mature
men draw near to deaths portals that IL
| is not uncommon for them to imagine
| they are again boys back again amid the
scenes of boyhood plays 1t would seem
as though this was Burns experience for
| he talked again of the old home and on
| the day before he died called out i'm
clear voice, Gilbert Gilbert" On the
morning of July twenty first it was very
| evident to those about his that life was
fast ebbing away. The four boys who
| had been sent out to a neighbours in care
of faithful Jessie I.ewars in order that
| the house might be kept more quiet, We're
now sent for. have read of many death
| bed scenes, and / have seen not q few
but this ,scene touches me as few have
| The father and husband of that home
Idying upon his couch. and leaving moth
! ing of material means for his famly's
support, the wife and mother i'm an adj
f! joining room but enabled to look i'm
through the open door upon her dying
husband but unable to come to him for
! four small boys stand about the dying
cauch weeping. The older boys under
standing somewhat that their father was
leaving them, while the wee ladies"
looking on in open-eyed wonder, could
not understand. And thus the poet at the
age of thirty eight and a half years
passed away. l am not surprised that
those who came to see him as he lay
| in his last sleep were much affected. AS
! he lay stretched upon his humble couch
This dark locks already streaked with I'M
natural gray, it did seem then that all
! that had been unworthy fell from him,
every stain of passion and debauch. every
unkind word. ever said or penned in
sarcasm or pride-all gone, and only pure
nobleneSs left. Farmer no longer ex-
ciseman no longer, subject no longer
! to unKlnd criticisms, to misrepresenta-
ton, to the insolence of mean natures
and evil tongues, he lay there the great
poet of his country, dead, dead too early
/ for himself and for Scotland. He had
passed from the unkind judgments of
Dumfries to make his appeal before
just Tribunal.
And what shalt say in conclusion? 1t
has been said that "Lowland Scotland
as distinct nationality came in with
two warriors and went out with two
bards. 1t came in with William Wallace
and Robert Bruce. and went out with
Robert Burns and Walter Scott. The
first two made the history. the last two
| hold the story and sung the song" And
/ WhIe we VIII not soon forget the story
! OF ScOtland's warriors, for there is q halo
about their deeds that can never pass
away. neither can we ever forget the life
aye the tragedy of Robert Burns That
hard, struggling erring. suffering, manly
life of whichNhis poetry is the imperish-
able record. Burns was what his birth.
his temperament his circumstances, and
/ his genius made him. He owed but lit
tie to books. and what hoods he did read
We're not English but written in his
mothers tongue No English author
taught or could teach him, he was not
English, but Scottish-Scottish in his ma :
ture and Scottish in his genius. Scottish
to his very hearts core-the singer of
the Scottish people. their greatest poet.
and the greatest poet of his time.