The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1915-04-20
fine TRIBUTE TO
CHAS. f. VIEBAHN
President Sims of Stevens Point
Normal Speaks El0quently
of Late Educator.

Point Normal school at the funeral of
Hon. Charles F. Viebahn, March 29, 1915
is such masterpiece of diction that we
take the privilege of publishing it.
Friends: We are met to pay the last
tribute of respect and affection to your
friend and my friend Charles F. Vie
balm.
"His life was gentle, and the elements
So mixed in him, that nature might
stand up,
And say to all the world, This was a
man."
On such an occasion ones thoughts
naturally turn to the theme of religion.
When we consider the enduring things
of life in relation to the individual, we
instinctiyely inquire what was or is his
religion. A mans religion is the chief
thing about him; compared with this all
other factors sink into insignifcance.
What does he consider as his relation
ship to the eternal verities? What has
he formulated as his plan of life to full
fill the measure of his existence in the
abiding and enduring satisfactiOns of
life?
Our friend lies here pale and still; his
lips are cold; his heart is pulseless; the
blood current is congealed in his veins.
Many time and oft haveI listened to
his words of encouragement, to the gen.
tie tones which sounded the call to duty
and industry. On this solemn subject
of religion, L do not remember to have
had conversation with him unless it was
on subject Of close and vital relation
ship-educatiOn.
Could [ now be vouchsafed the privi-
lege of conference on this theme [ know
he would voice convictions in harmony
with the following sentiments, which
were instilled into our hearts by our
mothers in the paradise of childhood,
whence we have long been driven by the
passing years. Our angel mother taught
us as she folded us in her arms, or as
we sat upon her knee, that We were Gre
ated in the image of God. What did
this mean to us ill the tender years of
childhood? Into what concrete and ia
miliar pictures were these words trans
formed? Did you not often with the di-
vine faculty of imagination make effort
to form picture of weaving into
your creation such elements as his pat
rlarchai form, his flowing robes of white,
his erect carriage, his facial expression
of dignity, sympathy, and genuine good
ness, his personality of inexhaustible
power and love? How fruitless were
our best effOrtsl
When the years of maturity came, and
reflection was haoitual, we conceived
this Creator to be the embodiment of
mercy, power, wisdom, and love. God is
all-merciful, all-powerful, all-wise, and
all loving We endOw Him with those
benefcent attributes. Then into our
consciousness surged the comforting
and haliowed thought that we, even the
poorest, the humbIest, and the least
among us, possess in some degree, how
ever infnitesimal, those attributes which
He possessed in superlative degree: that
we have in our own personalities the
element of mercy, power, wisdom, and
love. To be made in his image, then,
signifies that, possessing these in small
degrees, We may. through the Unborn
principle of self activity, incorporate
these qualities into our own DersOnali-
ties in ever expanding degrees, until we
approach, as limit, the type of that
Man who wrought as never man wrought
who spake as never man spake, whose
achievements in the spiritual realm
have never been transcended-Jesu
| Christ.
| Measured by this supreme test, OuT
| friend, Charles f. Vitbahn, whose spirit
has winged its flight into eternity, was
a religious man. From bOyhood, through
youth to manhood, by reason of his
faith
Heavens rich instincts in him grew
AS effortless, as woodland hooks
+ Send viOlets up and paint them blue
1t is my fortune to count him fol
many years as a friend. Friendship
with him was sacred, and one of hi
striking characteristics was his lOyalt,
to his friends. Another beautiful trai
in his nature was his custom of finding
out something good in all whom he me
and of complimenting them upon thi
quality, whatever it might be. Nothing
gave him more enduring satisfa ctioI
than discovering boys AID girls, ambi
tious and worth while, and quietly urg
ing them to make the most of them
selves, always contributing, always un
ostentaitiOusly, from his own means t.
further their education. [ do not recall
that he ever spoke word in disparage
ment of any one, though proyocatioI
was often present.
In his chosen profession, that of teach
ing, he rose to eminence, many of hi
fellow craftsmen speaking of him as tn
Nestor of Wisconsin City Superintend
ents. Believing that all instruction mus
contribute to the mental and moral de
velopment of the child, and KNOWN,
that such development will follow onl
from activity of mind and conscience OF