The Washington times., 1918-08-18
If You Should Die Today
What Last Word WouId You Wish To Sayf


hand with certain force it lands on spot rough or
smooth and spins You know that it will spin just so
long then wobble, fall, and stop.
80 That top is you. Thrown with certain force into the
wf of life landing smooth rough places each of us
spins for certain time then stops.
Occasionally it is worth while for human being,
thinking of deaths noble and ignoble in history of lives
useful and misspent to ask Wha shall be able to say
for myself before go through the dark door?"
-, How have others died? What have they said when
their time came? Rulers and statesmen die thinking Of
their country of their careers or the power that leaving
them.
81 Pitt the great Englishman, said, my country how
love thee" and said more.
This is told of Saladn, the great Egyptian ruler Of
an his last Illness instead of his usual stand
- ard, Saladin ordered his shroud to be uplfted in
A front of his tent and the herald who hung out this
u winding sheet flag commanded to exclam
d aloud behold! this is all which Saadn, the van
q quisher of the East, carries away of all his
Sar quests "
Brave men, dying, have left short words to inspire
Nathan Hale, the American spy executed by the Brit
h said 81 regret that have but life to give for my
$ And Major Andre, the brave Englishman acting as
spy for his country and captured by the Americans asked
the crowd about him they were about to hang him to
testify THAT die as brave man.
= Deep religious feeling especially has called forth mag
ncent proof of courage The Marquis Of Montrose faith
f to Stuars and Catholic fell into the hands of the
Presbyterans of Scotland-not gentle lot They read to
him his sentence: His head and his limbs ordered
be severed from his body and to be hanged the Tai
booth at Edinburgh and in other public towns OF the
kingdom"
This was his comment he looked coldy at the of
the executioner
al wish that I had flesh enough to be sent to
every city In Christendom a testimony to the
cause for which l suffer.
Thousands have died for their faith he died-Cath
ohcs Protestants, and Jews especially But it never
daWned upon the religious murderers that you cannot
change mans belief with butchery
=@ Sir Henry Vane defed Cromwell when he ruled for
Vane respected law he defed the Suars when they
BE was murdered by Judicial trial ordered to SEN
tmce him to death. A few words of apology would have
sazed him. These were his last words:
''Ten thousand deaths for me, viii stain
the purity OF my conscience
a Good women die bravely and nobly, all of those at
least that have lived free from superstition.
The noble French woman Madame Roland whose
head cut off by the Revolution for which she had
worked said her neck went under the knife Liberty
what crimes committed in thy name
Another type Of French woman was Madame de Pom
padour the lady who controlled King Louis the Fifteenth
although she was not married to him
She broke all the rules Of court etiquette by dying in
the Royal Palace at Versailles.
As she lay dying in her best Clothes with her cheeks
rouged courers crowded about her. fatterng asking IA
vors while she made the obedient king appoint her friends
to such offices she chose.
When the moment of death agony came she stopped
the cate about to leave her. and whispered her last
words 'Wat moment, will leave the house together
WInm less Lndn an nouI TWO servants were
her dead body handbaow back her house from
the palace The King, looking calmly her from window
said to courtier at his elbow The Marchioness will
have bad weather on her journey 1t raining Ladies'
PUT not your faith in princes any child of man.
The bravest deaths, however, not printed In any
history They the deaths of the world mothers,
known IN life and soon forgotten in death
Millions Of mothers, well knowing that they dying
have left the world thinking not of themselves caring
what might happen to them but looking at the children
gathered about the bed thinking only of them, their vel
fare, their future.
But what about all of little people, that and
go the earh surface like the ants in the garden path
different from the ants because know that death is
ing, and believe that there is justice beyond it?
What will each of Us say when the time comes?
~ Let each think over on this Sunday and the
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