East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1916-09-23


ces over which he can evert no con-
troll, when l see his outstretched
hands about to grasp the flag of VIC
tory, and to seize instead the emblem
of defeat. l ask. What is life?
Dreams, awakening, death, Life is
pendulum betwixt a smile and d
fear. Life is but a momentary malt
within the waste and then the moth
ing we set out from. Life is a shad-
ow, a poor player that struts and
frets his hour upon the stage and then
is heard no more. Life is a tale told
by an idiot, full of sound, signifying
nothing. Life is a cnild-blown bub-
BILE that but reflects the shadow of
its environment and is gone, mock |
cry, sham, lie, FOOLS vision, its
happiness but Dead Sea apples, its
pain the crunching of tyrant's heel.
Dead Game SPORT Says speaker.
If l have gauged Riley Grannans
character correctly ne accepted the
| circumstances surrounding him a.
the mystic officials to whom the
universe had delegated its whole Of
flee concerning him. He took defeat
and victory with equal equanimity
He was a man of placid exterior. His
meteoric past shows him invincible in
/ spirit and it is not irreverently that
l proclaim him dead game sport
/ When l use that phrase do so I'LL
ing it as full of practical human phi
losophy as it will hold. Riley Gran
nan fully exemplified the philosophy
of those fugitive verses, It's easy
enough to be happy when life goes
along like song; but the man worth
; while is the man who will smile when
everything goes wrong; for the test
of the heart is trouble, and it always
! comes with the years; and the smile
is the smile that smiles throughout
tears
There are those who will con-
= denim him. They believe that today
he is reaping the reward of mis-
spent life. They are those who are
= dominated by medieval creeds Them
l am not addressing. They are ruled
by the skeleton hand of the past. They
fail to see the moral side of char
acter lived outside their puritanical
= ideas. Riley Grannans goodness
was not of type tnat reached its
highest manifestation in ceremonious
piety. 1t found its expression in the
handclasp of friendship, 1t found its
voice in the word of cheer to a dis
couraged brother. His were deeds OF
/, quiet charity. His were acts Of man
q hood.
d "Riley Grammar lived in the world
of sport. My words are not minced,
s because l am telling what 1 believe
8 to be true. 1t was the world of sport,
n sometimes of hilarity, sometimes
: worse.
n HE left the impress Of his char
- acter upon us all and through the
medium of his financial power he
was able with his money to brighten
II the lives of all who knew him. He
II wasted his money, so the world says;
II but did it ever occur TO you that the
II men and women of such class upon
II whom he wasted it are yet men and
N women? A little happiness brought
III into their lives means as much to
II them as happiness carried into the
III lives of the straight and good II
NJ you can take one ray Of sunshine into
\ the nightlife and thereby carry sim
Nj gle hour of happiness, you are ben
III efactor, Riley Grammar did this
III No Sunbeams Wasted.
III "God confined not his sunbeams to
III the nourishing of potatoes and corn.
III His scattering of sunshine was prod
MI igal Contemplate. He filings the au-
III roral beauties round the cold shoul-
NJ ders of the north. He hangs the
III quivering picture of the mirage above