The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1910-03-24
w. E. NAPLES
Tribute to His Memory by the Shreve-
port Bar-The Committees Report.


At the sitting of the District Court
yesterday, at the motion hour, the COM
mittee named to draft resolutions ap
propriate to the memory of w. E. Ma
pies reported as follows:
If Your 1Honors Please
In the busy rush of material affairs,
in the crowded forum of the battle of
life, we think but little and care much
less for the inevitable end of all. We
travel along with eager tread life's
stony way, we drink its nectar or its
gall, and laugh and dance, or weep and
cry upon the mighty precipice of obliy-
ion We meet and pass our fellow men,
we cheer or curse his course in life,
but little think that he, like we, is made
of clay, and after all that we must seek
common bed in the great bosom OF
Mother Earth.
Preacher and priest, publicist and poet
have sought to solve the insoluble mys-
terry of human life. Philosophy and
science have sought to raise the awful
veil of death and tell us why it is and
what country lies beyond the border line
of the tomb They do not know, they
can not tell. Whether this life is a
mere bubble cast upon the angry wave
to burst in the sunlight and leave only
ripple to mark where it went down,
OF whether it is but the prelude, the
preface to another and grander life be-
yond the silent river, philosophy and
science answer nothing.
Whatever the mystery be-. whatever
that country is, has been solved and is
now known to our departed brother. He
has paid the price, he has earned the res
ward, and he knows, if it shalt ever be
known, whether the exit hence means
| light or darkness to the human soul. He
knows, if it shall ever be known, wheth-
er this life is all that there is for us
and of It's. He knows, if it shall ever
be known, whether there is land, {
country, beyond this vale of tears. He
KNOWS, if it shall ever be known, wheth-
er Immortality is but bright and irri-
descent dream, whether faith is true anC
hope has its reward.
Whatever his life was, it is. He ha'
closed the account with his Master am
with his fellow man. He has made hi
/ appearance before that court from
whose decree there is no appeal, befor,
whose fiat all must bow.
TO his memory then let us dedicat
these thoughts: He was true to hi
friends, true to his country and in a
things brave and courageous man VIII
i hesitated not to meet the grim messen
ger on equal ground of combat H
loved his home, his wife and children
/ and no discord Jared his fealty /
] friend, wife or child. What he was, h
was. William E. Naples made no pre-
tense to virtues he did not possess. Fl
was no hypocrite or pretender, but
plain, blunt man, loving his friends an
kindred, and ready at all times to sa'
! rifce in their behalf his last dollar (
! crumb of bread Quick to resent bl
as ready TO forgive; erring himself, BIT
!; ready and willing to forgive others WI
! erred he lived life, not what it mig
, have been, but just as good and just
a pure as the ordinary mortal who h;
t within his breast the elements of rig
and wrong, good and bad
t In his death a true man has gone
g his reward. A devoted husband, a XII
father and loving friend has paid Il