The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1919-10-23
RAWH|DE GAMBLER 'PARSOE EULOG|zED
RILEY GRAMMAR IN WORDS WHICH LIVE
TEXT OF ONE OF THE MOST REMARKABLE FUNERAL CREATIONS
EVER DELIVERED; IN 1T ARE BLENDED PHILOSOPHY, POETRY,

) before. Having been shaken into
!, consciousness, the former minister
declared his willingness to act. With
out changing his clothes, and without
LA moments preparation, be went to
the dance hall and delivered the fol-
lowing address, which has never be
fore appeared in print. 1t was
taken" in shorthand by n of "thc
girls" who had at one time been a
court reporter in the East:
The Rawhide EulOgy
Il feel it incumbent upon me 20
state that l now occupy 10 minis
terial or prelatic position. | am a
prospector. l make no claim to moral
merit whatever or to religious au-
thority, except it be the religion of
the brotherhood of man. | wish to
be only a nan among men. feeling
that | may shake hands vita and
style as my brother the most humble
of you all. If there be from me a.
word of moral admonition. it springs
not from a sense of moral superiority
but only from the depths Of nv ex
p%erience.
Riley Grammar was born at Paris,
Kentucky, about forty years ago.
He cherished all the dreams of child
hood. Those dreams found their fru-
ition in phenomenal success finance
ally. l am told that from a position
as a bellboy in a hotel he rose to the
celebrity of worldwide fame.
Riley Grammar was one of the
greatest plungers the continent has
ever produced. He died day before
yesterday at Rawhide. That IS a
brief statement. We have his birth
and the hour of his demis2. Who
can fill the interim? Not I. Riley
Grammar was born in the southland
of Kentucky. He died in Pawllde,
| Nevada. That is the beginning; that
is the end. Is there in this q picture
of what Ingersoll said az the grave
of his Observation-Disclosures it be near
the shore or in m~id-ocean, or among
the breakers at the lasr, a wreck
must mark the end of n and ALL
Born where the brooks and rivers
run unsteady through prolific soil
where magnolia goldihora-Iike white
starS-glow in a armament of green;
where lakes and greensward and the
softest summer breeZes dimple the
wavelets where the air is redolent
of the perfume of blooming flowers
and resonant with the melody of a
thousand sweet-voiced birds = that
was the beginning. Riley Grammar
died in Rawhide, where in winter
the tops of the mountains are clothed
with garments of ice, and where in
summer the blistering rays of the
sun beat down upon the skeletons OF
the desert.
rs there in this a picture of uni
versal life? Sometimes, when l look
upon the circumstances of life, there
comes to my lips a curse. / relate
to you only my views. If they run
counter to yours, believe that what
| say is sincere. When / see the
ambitions OF a man defeated; his ain
and purpose frustrated only by a
combination of circumstances oyel
which he can exert not control; anc
when l see his outstretched hands
, about to grasp the flag of victory
and see him seize only the emblem
of defeat-then l ask: What is life
What is life! Dreams. . Awak
ening. Death.
Life is but a pendulum betwix
/ a smile and a tear. Life if but
: momentary halt within the waste
and then the nothing we set out from
Y Life is a shadow; a poor playe
struts and frets his hour upon tn
: stage, and then is heard no more
g Life is a child-blown bubble that re
fleets the shadow of its environment