The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1909-02-20
LAST WORDS UTTERED
BY THE NOBLE AND
GREAT OF HISTORY


5 himself on MS pollteueSS, lay at the
J point Of death, he said, as the doc.
I tor entered the room Give Day
> ROLES q chart Napoleon died at ST
: Helena. dressed for battle, with the
words "tete d'armee" on his lips.
winning, no doubt, some last tremen.
dous conflict Of a greater Waterloo,
Sir Isaac Newton expired while in
the act Of winding up his watch. Hal.
Ter was heard to eNclaim, as he felt
his pulse; "The artery ceases to beat"
and died on the inStnat, Haydn fell
into stupor at his piano after sing
ing God save the Emperor" while
the French cannon were firing 4 few
yards from his house at Sehonu.
brunn; Mozart died while his daugh-
ter was singing to him his RE
QUEEN" The last words Of John
Crome, the great English landseap.
/ ist, were: "Hobbema, my dear Hob.
bema, how | have loved youw And
Byron closed his ftful, ievered life
with the words; "Now must sleep"
Among the pathetic deathbed ut
terances none is more poignant than
that OF Charlotte Bronte. Reading
the anxiety and sorrow on the faces
OF those about her, she said; "Oh!
! am not going to die, am II He
will not separate us; we have been
SO happy" Those who know the
moving story Of the novelist's life
will realize the intensity OF that cry
Of anguish. as the fear struck to her
heart that her brief year Of married
happiness was to be her last Equal.
ly touching, but in a very different
anl far happier way. was the death
he'd OF Mrs. Browning. the poetess.
Robert Browning, her husband, de-
scribed the scene in a letter written
just after her death. THE last word
was, when / asked How do you
feel9 Beautiful When Coventry
Patmore lay dying, he turned TO his
wife and said: Il love you, my dear,
but He is my Light and my Life"
| The gentle Canon Anger, speaking
in his last moments, Of the songs OF
I the birds which had entered bis
chamber window and delighted his
dying ears, said: "Those were very
agreeable voices that ! heard this
morning" Addison, the choicest spir-
/ it OF his age, said to his stepson, the
Earl of Warwick when near his end;
I"See in what peace a Christian can
die" But for intensity of pathos
and deep feeling nothing can excel
those simple, beautiful words OF the
Roman lady Paeta to her husband,
Paetus They had decided to die to-
gether to escape the malignity OF the
Ityraat on the throne. The wife stab
bed herself first, and drawing the
Sword from her breast, summoned up
all her strength to say, with a smile,
as she placed it in her husbands
hands: "Paetus, it does not hurt"
! When Vespasian, the soldier En-
Iperor, who had risen to the purple
from the obscurity of Spanish vii
lage, felt that he was dying he told
his attendants to help him to his feet.
I"An Emperor" said he, Should die
standInG:" and then he uttered one
OF the grimmcst jests that ever fell
from the lips Of a dying man, "Tru-
Ily," said he, 81 feel I am becoming a
god" It was the Roman custom to
Iarctheosize a dead emperor as soon
as the breath had left his body, and
| Vespasian's sarcasm showed how lit
tie the rough soldier of the camp be-
llieved in the servile adulation OF pal
aces. The death of Nero is one Of
the most tragic in all history. Sue
TOMS has described in vivid language
how the fugitive Emperor lay.in hid
ing in miserable hovel outside the
city, aware that the search parties
were close upon his trail, and trying
to nerve himself to die with dignity
by his own hand. He kept mutter-
ing: "Come, rouse yourself" "This
BELTS not Nero" "Tis shameful for
me to live" Then the consummate
actor in his nature came to the sur
face, and he exclaimed: what an
artist perishes in me" And when
the sound Of horses hoofs came near
aid nearer, he quoted line from a
Greek play: 40! the sound Of swift
footed horses strikes upon my ear"
Then, when at length he took the
sword and stabbed himself, his last
words contained the bitter cry:
"Such is loyalty" Yet he found loyal
ty even in death, for his old nurse
took up the body and buried it with
Iolng care. "Now I am master of
myself" said Cato at Utica, feeling