The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-02-05

persuading the fearful. leading the
hopeful, encouraging the public spirit
and accomplishing a good that is still
begetting good
In the unprecedented flood of 1903 he
was one of the chief officers in rendering
aid to those who were stripped of home
and resource by the sweep and rush of
that awful and overwhelming torrent.
His strengths he nerved to the needs of
the CALL He sought and found and gave
and with each gift went his pity and his
prayer Long vigils were his-hard work,
embittered scenes and dire distress What
spectered field the flood what balefuI
fires that lit the midnight gloom what
downpour of rain. above all, what pity,
tenderness, succor and humanity.
The story of this mans life would be
an efficient text book of endeavor; filled
with the details Of all he did, it would
be heart and hope to those beSet by OBJ
struction, tethered by poverty or held In
leash by fear.
I can not recount his continuous la bors
I can only say that life to him was a
succession of busy years, of many ac-
complished things which shall benefit the
community for many and many a year
to come In his private life he was ap-
sOlutely human; his heart opened with
his purse; his benefactions were given
with an aVerted eye; magnetic and pleas
ing in department, and his worse foible
or fault only S1neWed his friends the
closer to him. The expression of the or
ders to which he belonged, the societies
with which he was connected, the friends
sive recipient of tokens trophies, en-
biemS, diamonds and gems, encrusted
ribbons and sparkling charms that must
now be heirlooms of the Anderson line.
When the great Memorial building had
become assured, the proudest and costliear
monument that has risen on the face Of
the globe dedicated to the man behind
the gun, he was at once deeply interest
ed in its progress. He watched them
grOut the foundations and build its walls,
the granite on granite, the marble on
ma as 10 building
edifice of his own life. 1t was not to be
for him to see this Incompatible struc-
ture, but when completed and decorated,
in sight of all men who have desire for
glorious things, from its walls shall
hang his pictured effigy and its book OF
honor all time may turn its pages to the
glory and honor of his career.
His Domestic Life.
While he was a man who gave himself
up to public affairs, he demanded some
thing for himself There was to him one
spot more sweet than all the world be-
side. There he found his rest, there he
took his comfort and there he found his
happiness and love. Between him and his
wife, no cloud mantled their sun; an alb
solute and complete love between them
down to the waters edge and the last
good by. He felt the love of wife and
caress of child and thought his home was
heaven. There he welcomed his friends,
there with tremor of speech and the
east wind in his eye, he listened to some
limping and aged veteran and whiled the
slumbering days and vanished youth;
there came his neighbors. There he was
beyond reach of the worlds petty
stresses, its riValries, its jealOuSieS, its
turmoil and noise, blest in his home life
With ambitious eyes on his boy, the third
major in the ancestral lineage, upon
whom his hopes centered. grown
daughter far away who comes a long
Journey to add her tears and show her
filial love, and then a young daughter
standing where the rivJlet sweeps nigh
the river, in that sweetened twilight that
hides the borders of girl and womanhood,
and who was to him all that is lovable
and sweet and tender and dear
To that household the multitude that
knew him turns its sympathy and makes
its grief its own. He died at an age
when there is no necessity for tears, nor
scars and does not heal. His life was
no broken column; the fullness of days
were his; he pluclxed in his time all the
flowers of a moderate and decent am
bitfon. His life is answer to all the cow
ard doubts that pose their spectral fronts
to fright existence. We may well speak
our thought as the heart dictates, on this
nigh sacrament to the dead. The far
larger and more important object of life
lies beyond the hills that redden its sun
set. Love is a monstros1ty if it shall
forever slumber among the icebergs of
rigor and chill; the heart of woman, nigh
the angels and near to God, is but a
curse If death shall set it's seal on her
soul. and the midnight mantle her love,
and the gift of children, tendrilling our
hearts with their reaching affections.
sunny haired and sweet, but vanity OF
vanities but mockery of mockery If
chaos. silence and night shall be the fu-
ries that engulf mankind.
The flowers bloom, the birds find spring
and a mate: the rivers smile as they seek
the sea; the blood is warm; the world is
cheer and creation good. and we may
leave him his ashes to ashes and dust TO
dust but his soul we commit to the keep
ing of a great. merciful and Almighty
God.
To him VINO lies 50 near and yet
Beyond our reach as farthest sky,
Our hearts but throb, our eyes are wet,
AS now we say to him good by
No sweeter word our speech may hold,
The dearest that the tongue may tell,
Is when the hands we dumbly fold
And close his eyes and say farewell
May all good angels here look down,
TTpon the man we lay to rest,
And welcome him with shoon and gown