Norwich bulletin., 1910-03-19
FUNERAL OF MAJOR LEARNED
Eulosy by Dr. Samuel H. w. Howe who Conducted the Services at Park Consresatiohal Church-Lsrse At- tendance I4cludins Several Delegations.

Rev. Dr. samuel H. Howe, pastor or
 Park Congregational church, conducted
 a prayer service over the remains of Major Bela Peck Learned at his late Friday afternoon. Only the immediate | family was in attendance. As the fu- | neral procession started up Broadway
 to Park Congregational church the bell | of the church was tolled, continuing l until the casket was taken into the ] church and placed before the pulpit. | Following the service, the tolling was
 continued as the funeral party moved | in all a times. one for each year of Major Learneds life.y
 Serviees at Church.
 l The public services at Park church were held at 2.30 o'clock, at which i there was very large attendance, in No. l, G. A. R., in a body, seats hay | ing been reserved for them. a delega- |. tion from the Norwich Board of Un- derwrtters, and directors re the Nor also large number of the representa- ! tive professional and business men of | the city. Dr. Howe also conducted the public services and paid most fitting his eulogy, speaking as follows:
 In attempting to utter in few words what is in all our hearts today, re- mind myself that there was no one eulogy on occasions like this than was he of whom 1 am to speak. And yet to be wholly silent would be an in- Justice to life that has put us so something to man who has taken worthily his mans chance to live; who has accepted the challenge of opportunity and filled out a full mans part: who has so lived his life and done his work as to level up the life about him to a higher plane. Every community has enough and to spare of the other kind of life. that is aimless, purposeless, demoralizing. SO that we can afford to recognize and do justice to men whost lives are city assets and funded capital It is a great thing to have a mans full chance at life, a life
 drama and taking all those parts with
 unbroken pace to the end. His oppor-
 tunity was part made for him. He
 was started we'll. He was well born.
 He was mortgaged to noble life from
 the beginning. There were great tra-
 ditions of noble life back of him; he
 could not help inheriting, and his in-
 herftance laid him under bonds to bear
 himself chivalrously. He did not have
 the chance apparently so covetab1e in
 our time of climbing out of impover-
 ished environment into the heights: it
 was not for him to begin in mud and
 end in marble But this ought not to
 be put to his disadvantage. It is quite
 as commendable to start with some
 good family portraits and with some
 noble family traditions and carry them
 into new and worthier chapters. He
 started with this sort of capital. to
 which he added university training,
 by which an unusually alert and pene-
 trating mind found it's equipment for
 graphing with the problems of life.
 Then came soldiers career, fighting
 in many battles and staying by the
 struggle until the last smoke of battle
 cleared. Then followed the citizens
 1.v. @L-- .k~~e s<~t- tx@
 tegrity and chivalrous honor, stain less character and unimpeachable pro-
 pity to which he added the habits of a student, fine literary taste and culture, and the gifts and passion for music which were remarkable In other than the expert and professional. These were qualities open and we'll known to his fellow citizens, to whom his erect and weIl-groomed figure has been fa- miliar for this long stretch of years.
 But the story of his life is not told in this brief summary Much of this might be told of other men, though it is much to be said of any man. But beyond this. Major Learned was a re- ligious man. And in this statement he passes into a much smaller company. He inherited here again. It was not for nothing that his ancestors for gen. erations had served God. This strange Iy gets into the blood and that would be a bold hand that would stop the current and interrupt the strain. This he d1d not do; so ne put himSeif Tn midstream of the flow and went on with it and widened the stream. He had many interests and engagements, but the religious fife was the gulf stream to him. am not claiming for him or for any man that he was with out fault, but I do say that his religion was the deepest thing about him. It pervaded his life. It held him by able's grip to fixed anchorages. The religious certitudes were settled for him. He never W2yered. his faith never went down before the newest thought or the oldest heresy. He knew in whom he believed and that saves a man a lot Of trouble. Such men do