River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1914-02-12
cOM7ADE SAVAGE

1t is sad to note the rapid passing
of the veterans. Of the tens of thou
sands that have answered to their
| last rollcall in the past three or fOu-'
OILS Post has furnished more than its
| proportional quota. So many of the
| dear old comrades are gone that we
| feel a loneliness and depression as
| we see them no more, and number
| them with the dead. Our associations
in the intimacy of Post meetings had
endeared them all to us. They were
good men and true. After they are
gone we are led to consider thelA
merits and are swift to render this
tribute, a tribute sincere and unstint-
ed, generous as it is deserved. Among
those beloved comrades that have re-
sponded TO their last call in the past
three years none has touched me with
such a feeling of personal loss, with
a deeper grief than that of Comrada
savage. FIe was among the young
est of the comrades and should have
outlived the most of us.
l became much attached to Com
rade Savage. Since his untimely de-
mise | have been asking myself for
the special reasons of this exceptional
endearment, as to why cherished him
with such peculiar friendship. We
cannot always readily interpret the
subtle influences that move us while
we are conscious of the effects of this
influence l think the cause of my
regard has been the fact that the
worthiness of the man, the exhibition
of those qualities that we admire ia
men, impressed me as manifested by
agreeable. That is to say there was
that in his conduct toward you that
did not on any occasion contradict
your own sentiments. An agreeable
person is one who agrees with you,
does not manifest conduct that irri
tates, that arouses antagonism, hos
tility. He was possessed of one OF
those gentle, yielding natures that
command respect while they work up
| on your sympathies and excite an al
fectionate regard. To associate with
him in any capacity was a pleasur
| His kindly disposition and native
courtesy, never a disturbing sensa
ton. Another consideration: / think
esteemed the man with an appre-
citation of his worthiness more and
| more as l became the more intimately
acquainted with him, as / knew him
better | have learned in my ex
| perience that the better / know a
man the more can | esteem him fol
| find most men better than | had
! expected to find them. Most men
are better than they seem to us upon
casual acquaintance. We are inf1u-
enced more frequently, more acutel!
and more permanently by those littl
disagreeable features of mems conduct
toward us than by the exhibition o,
| their wealth of virtues. The poets
| tell us that Kind words can never
de- but this is only poetry. 1t is
not the kind things that remain III
the foreground of memory but the
| unkind. And why is this? Is it not
that our sense of justice rebels agains!
the manifestation of unkindness? We
expect from others that kindness, jus
tice. consideration, that we feel lika
giving thom. l say that we feel like
giving them, and yet sometimes we
| do not seem to give it. When we do
net receive the consideration that
we think we have a right to expect
we are aggrieved. An unkind word,
an unjust act arouses our antagonism
"a feeling of hostility, for we are
conscious of injustice. Yet these ex-
hibitions of temper on the part of
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