The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-03-29

<NAA<As D. |. Who Made Memorial Address to
 Bridgeport Eagles, Last Night. The speech is regarded as a tender and elevating piece of literature. MT. Cummings said:
 The most impressive and beautiful service which is conducted by the aFraternAl Order of Eagles, is the a1kk nual memorial service in honor of the dead. At this hour. in more than one thousand different places in our coun- try, the friends and members of the order are assembled together to re- new. in a fitting manner, their allegi- ance to the memory of those who have passed into the Great Beyond. A half million of our fellow citizens are unit ing with us in this ceremony. It is magnificent tribute to the power of sentiment and a noble recognition of the rightfm claims of our common humanity At such time as this the heart learns a new. tenderness. and old lessons. almost forgotten. come back to strengthen and inspire us.
 But we are told that this is pre- eminently a practical age. Men pride themselves most of all upon their ac- complishments in the world of events In that field success is the measure of achievement and failure is dreaded as men dread disease. Hundreds of thotssands of our countrymen live close to the hunger line, and millions engage in the daily struggle with the problem Ol S1l8GSnCe. InGy pear IhGir burdens of care and pain and have but scant time to give to thoughts beyond them selves or beyond the need of the hour. The commercial struggle for supremacy, the daily competitions of trade and the ever present necessity of earning a living. too often set in motion forces that breed distrust of life, discon- tent with social obligations and unbe- lief in intangible things.
 Men, and women too, thus learn to measure by the standards taught in strife. And these standards are not of love and hope; but of indifference or frank despair. In the words of James Russell Lowell:
 Yet for a moment I was snatched
 away,
 And had the evidence of things not For one rapt moment: then it all came
 back
 This age that hlots out life with uues-
 tion-nnarks;
 The nineteenth century, with it's knife
 and glass, That ake.sthought physical. and
 thrust far off
 The heaven, so neighborly with man
 of old, To voids sparse sown with alienated
 stars.'' Nor is it the mind alone that plays such tricks upon fraiI humanity. Even the heart of sympathy does not eaiHdyS foucHSdIe d E1ndI1er message. one little, outcaSt child, sobbing in a deserted hallway on a winters night. | can unSettle the peace of a. mans mind, and fill his soul wi-N r,rotasts against the requirements of destiny And from this source also there often comes a message of despair This is | no new problem. Centuries ago the old Persian poet questioned the Universe in vain
 Earth could not answer; nor the seas
 that mourn In flowing purple, of their Lord for
 lorn; Nor rolling Heaven, with all her signs l
 revealed And hidden by the sleeve of night |
 and morn"
 solace where they can. Some find it | in religion, others in philosophy, others m blind faith, others in pleasure and stlH others in hard work. But this we a<no own-Inaterial things alone will not long suffice.
 After the Master had lasted for for " oays i'll the wilderness the spirit or Ev1 came to him to tempt him say ang, IT thou be the Son of God, com l ! l. islaha that these stones be made prtda ana Christ replied 'Tt is writ ten, man shall not live by brea alone {" My friends, I am come here fo-dav 70 say something about the practica- pnIty or Impractical things: Something apnut the reality of idealism; some tning about the higher needs and the me 1.is attrieu5es of humanity; some thing about it's courage it's faith its ( nope It is not so much the theoloeian IS ft is the breave heart of the world : 1t has made the creeds of fear and !
 no longer credible. Man is