The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1920-03-08

memorial services of Keokuk lodge
Iof Elks, yesterday afternoon at the
Grand. Senator James M. Wilson
said:
/ Death is an inseparable adjunct
Iof life. The seeds of death are i'm
planted with the germ Of life in every
organic being. Four words tell the
story: Birth, progress, decay. death.
From the inevitable cycle, nothing
escapes. The grim reaper leaves
nothing uncut
1.-The mind of man has overleaped
A, all barriers, banded the earth with
hoops of steel. harnessed the light
ming. transmitted the tones Of the
human voice over thousands of miles
of intervening space, given the wings
of the bird to daring aeronauts,
fathomed the secrets OF oceans
depths, communicated intelligence
through the air without wires or
other instruments of conveyance, but
before the portals of the TOMB, the
mind of man halts and hesitates, be-
wildered. laundering down through
the ages to the present moment OF
time. comes the query, unanswered,
except by holy writ, If man dle,
shall he live again.? The boundaries
fined. The same power that created
that marvellous mechanism, the
human mind, did not fix any lim1ta-
ton to it's activities. He is daring
individual, who, in the face of what
has been accomplished, will attempt
to prescribe the limits Of human
achievement. l do not intend to at
tempt to impress my own views upon
you, my friends, but | only Suggest
that it is not beyond the range OF
possibilities that the womb OF inc
future may bring forth some metnod
of communication with the realm be-
syond the grave. AS we sit here To-
day. paving another tribute of afec-
ton to departed brothers, there
comes to my mind the solemn
thought that somewhere and some
how, the spirits Of those. who once
moved among us. with Charmed
vision, are looking down upon these
ceremonies.
"Tbe hope of, and desire for i'm
/ mortality is universal Disguise 1t
as we may, there is within each OF
us the wish to be remembered. NO
normal man relishes the thought that
the ego, the real man, the soul itself
ever dies. Otherwise, why these
ceremonies Why this persistent
effort to perpetuate the memory or
those whom we have once loved, and
lost awhile The hope of future
life is the salvation Of civilized So
ciety. Destroy this hope and you
wipe out every inducement to an up
right life Do this, and the WORDS
sacrifice and unselfishness become
obsolete Do this, and not only mas
the blood Of martyrs been shed ID
vain, but the heroic souls, VINO from
love of country and of flag have gone
down into the jaws of death and INTO
the gates of hell, degenerate into
senseless fools and conSummate
idiots. All humanity cries out against
such fate.
a. There is no DEATH the stars go
down
To rise upon some fairer shore,
; And bright in heavens Je"eled
They shine forevermore.'
, The Happier Life.
"Reyond the world of pain and
grief there is a brighter, happier life,
where the wrongs of earth will be
;righted. where tears of sorrow will
; never flow, where broken hearts will
never bleed, where no grief shall
, gnaw the heart and never Shall
tender tie be broken.
mo mortal eye can see, no mortar
tongue can tell what lies beyond, and
vet we have satisfied abiding faith
that beyond it all there is future
life for man. And when the awful
summons come to us, it will be with
that faith, with that hope, with that
belief aye with that conviction that
with un'faltering step, and without n
shudder or a fear, we can enter the
mist, the darkened cloud that con-
: ceals from mortal eye the peace, the
ioy. the love, the blessings of eter-
nifty. -
"True it is that when you or | die
ia few tears will start, a few signs
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