The silver state news. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1907-1909, 1908-04-16
EULOCY ON RILEY
GRAMMAR


at the services over the remains of
Riley Grammar, the world famous plum
ger, who went to Rawhide to regain a
lost fortune and died there on April
3rd The address was delivered by
Herman WI. Knickerbocker, the for
mer Methodist minister who was dis
credited for becoming an agnostic;
but it would be hard to convince any
man or woman among the hundreds
who heard him that this man has not
true religion.
If the following is not a literary
gem we have wrong idea Of litera-
ture and if it does not strike a res
ponsive cord in most of those who
read it, then they are peculiar peo-
pie.
Herman Knickerbocker had no little
fame as it was, but he is now hero
with the people of the new bonanza
camp.
In the hall crowded with men and
women from the four winds, who
represented every walk of life, there
were no eyes that were fearless when
he had finished, and the remains of
Riley Grammar were carried to the
waiting motor that headed the pro-
cession towards the road to Schurz, on
the way to the old Kentucky home.
Half shielded under an oilcloth blan-
ket, lodged in a common express wa
gon, the casket of Riley Grammar was
carted down dusty Rawhide avenue
and along Nevada street from the
tented establishment of the local un-
dertaker to an improvised memorial
chapel, a variety theater in the rear
of a saloon.
There congregated a throng in silks
and corduroys, women in cosmopolitan
costumes, miners covered with high
grade CRIME, suntanned prospectors,
brokers, bankers, merchants, promoters
and owners of saloons. bartenders,
gamblers, FOUNDERS.
"A solemn hush had come down upon
the little playhouse, where the night
before jolly crowds had drank and
smoked while listening to the doubt
full wit of coarse testers, men and wo-
men on the variety forum. lowering
about the bier of Riley Granna, race
track plunger of national renown, was
gathered as solemn a group of mourn
ers as ever gathered to pay last trib-
ute.
Unique beyond experience, dramatic
beyond compare was the eulogy pro-
nounced by III. w.. Knickerbocker,
once clergyman. then mine opera
tor of Goldfield and later Rawhide
pioneer. Hardly orthodox, but wholly
in Keeping with the scene and the
mute desires of the dead, was the
orators appearance. The once pulpit
and now peoples exponent stood be-
side the lily-laded bier, his eyes bedim-
med with honest tears, his voice chok-
ed with fraternal emotion, shod in
the high boots and clothed in the
rough garb of the miner. A steno-
graphic report of the eulogy is as fol-
lows:
''I feel that it is incumbent upon
me now to state that in standing here
occupy no ministerial or prelatic
position. / am simply a prospector.
l make no claim whatever to moral
or religious superiority, except the re-
ligion of humanity, the brotherhood
of man. stand among you today
simly as a man among men, feeling
that can shake hands and say bro
ther, with the vilest man that
ever lived. If there should come
to you anything of moral admonition
through anything that l may say, it
comes not from any sense Of moral su-
periority, but from the depth of my
experience.
Riley Grammar was born in Paris,
kentucky about forty years ago. /
suppose he had all of the dreams of
childhood They blossomed into phe-
nomenal success along financial lines
at times during his life. am told
that from the position as bellboy
in hotel he rose rapidly to cebel-
rity of worldwide fame. He was one
of the greatest plungers, probably, the
continent has ever produced.
He died the day before yesterday
in Rawhide.
"This is a brief statement. You
have the birth and the period of
the grave. Who can fill the interimf
Who can speak of his hopes and fearsf
Who can solve the mystery of his
quiet hours that only he himself knew2
81 cannot.
''He was born in the sunny south
land, in Kentucky. He died in Raw
hide.
"There is the beginning and the
end. / wonder if we can see in this
a picture of what Ingersoll said at the
grave of his brother Whether it be
near the shore or in mid-ocean or
among the breakers, at the last a
wreck must mark the end of us ALL
''Born in the sunny southland,
where brooks and rivers run music
ally through the luxuriant soil; where
the magnolias glandifora like white
stars in firmament of green, where
myriads of lakes dot the greensward
and the softest summer breezes dimple
the wavelips into kisses for the lilies
and the shore; where the air is reso-
nant with the warbling of thousand
sweet-voiced birds ana the redolent
OF the perfume of many flowers. That
was the beginning. He died at Raw
hI.e, where in winter the shoulders
of the mountains are wrapped
In a,al nj i.a