Weekly journal-miner., 1913-12-10

in actual practice it is freouently construed to, that the best things we can say of our brothers are to be postponed until they are dead? Ii seems to be one Of the pathetic phases of human nature that while a man must breast the staiging shafts of censure and obloQuy even unto the crumbling brink Of the grave, his hurts are all too seldom soothed by the word of praise or the smile of sympathy. And when his emancipated spirit is far beyond the reach of either praise or perse- cution, then come these high-sound- ing tributes, which. like the speech of Anthony over the corpse ot Caes- ar. fall on the unheeding ears of his insensate clay. Does not this truth in some measure come home to us here and now? Do we not valnly wish that our departed brothers, as they paused in the chilling mists for the last Of early sight and sound, might have been cheered, even in the cold clasp of death. by { the refrain of such well-merited praise as is heard today ringing out ! to them across the gloom, trans ! forming the menacing challenges at the outposts of eternity into the welcoming strains of immortal mu- [ sic? Truly, as John Bright once said: We cannot make the deaf to hear. the dumb to speak. It is not given to us
 From the thick film to purge the
 visual ray,
 i And on the sightless eyeballs pour the day.
 ! But we can at least alleviate those who suffer, and make life more en- durable
 "The lesson seems clear to us that { it is much easier and more consistent i for us to eulogize the dead if we have been just and generous to the 'ivir- None who reads history will | forget that during the heart-breaking trials of the Civil war. President Lincoln was constantly ridictled and reviled. both in cartoon and comment by Punch, an illustrated periodical published in London. The cruelty of these attacks was ex- ceeded nowhere. and doubtless the sensitive soul of the great president was often hurt by them to its utmost depths. Yet, after the asSassin's $ stroke had laid him low and while Lincoln's body lay awaiting burial, the publisher of this periodical came to realize the grandeur of Lincoln's character and the cruel injustice 1t had done him, so there was pub lished in its own columns this self scourging attempt at rcparation: You lay a wreath on murdered i Lincoln's brier?
 You. who with mocking pencil
 wont to trace
 Broad for the self-complaisant
 British sheer,
 His length of shambling limb;
 his furrowed face,
 His gaunt, gnarled hands, his un'
 kempt, bristling hair,
 His garb uncOuth, his bearing i'll His lack of all we prize as de-
 bonair,
 You, whose smart pen backed UT
 the pencils laugh,
 Judging each step as though the way were plain,
 Reckless, so 1t could point 1t: paragraph.
 Of chiefs perplexity or people: pain
 |, Beside this corpse that bears foi winding sheet
 The Stars and Stripes he lived tc
 rear anew.
 Between the mourners at his head and feet.
 Say, scurrile jester. is there room
 fdr you?
 Yes, he had lived to shame me iron
 my sheer,
 : To lame my pencil and confutt my pen,
 ! To make me own this hind oi
 princess peer.~ This rail-splitter truc-bOrn king of mem
 "We cannot too highly veneratC this beautiful custom of the Elks this annual assemblagc to recount the virtues of the absent ones. And all over the broad confne: [ of civilization this benevolent ana protective order, with its thousand: of loyal members, now sets itsel anew to the duty Oi liVlnR as wei ; as of proclaiming its high standard . If it shall ring true to the deer humanity of its principles, as it vii ii each brother shall faithfully prac tice them in daily life, then indeef . the order will have attained tht splendid purposes of this organiza 7 ton. Webster once said of England that she was: "A power which ha: dotted over the surface of the whole globe with her possessions and mil : itary posts; whose morning drum, 1 beat, following the sun and keep ing company with the hours. circle, the earth with one continuous ana unbrokcn strain of the martial air: , of England
 The outposts of this great ordci are, in the grace of God, destined , to light where men now strive il darkness. and its lodges. dotted over the surface of the whole globe. shal ' so illumine the hearts Of men tha malice shall find no. resting place { there.
 f And then we shall say, with Elm ersou: As when the summer SUI