The New York herald., 1921-05-19
FIX KLAM, GAMBLING
With DEATH, WROTE
1T IS A GREAT ACT
Remarkable Letter From
Former Cabinet Member
Who Died Yesterday.
BET ON HIGH CARD
Could Have Lived Longer if
He Did Not Take Chance
With the Knife.
II ACCEPT WAS HIS CREED
Lead Kindly Light Was All
the Gospel He Had at End;
Recalled Socrates.
I ACCEPT WAS HIS CREED
Special Despatch to THE NEW YORK HERALD.
New York Herald Bureau.
Washington, ID. c., May IL.

Special Despatch to THE New YORK HERALD.
| New York Herald Bureau.
| Washington, ID. c., May l8.
Franklin X. Lane, the former Secre-
tary of the Interior, who died to-day
in Rochester, Mimi, dictated a state
ment to his friends two or three days
after the operation which resulted in
his death. and portion OF 1t was
| made public here tonight. 1t Is re-
markable message, a discussion OF his
approaching death, showing that he
| went to the operating table with the
full knowledge that he might never
leave it alive. 1t tells In detail his SEN
sations before, during and after the
work of the surgeons. for he was fully
conscious. the condition Of his heart
| being such that he could not stand
general an8sthetic.
Mr.. Lane wrote to his friends that,
| knowing he was facing death and that
| the odds were against him, he had
tried to outline his creed and his philos-
ophy. and had reached the conclusion
/ -
the simple phrase. Il accept" He told,
! too. of his knowledge that he did not
have to undergo the operation. that
! ii was not a matter Of immediate life
and death because he could live some
| time without it.
"a Bet on the High Card"
But" he said, 1T was bet on the
high card with a chance to win, and
took It,
Tho statement in part as given out
by several friends of the former Sec
retary follows:
| TT Is Wednesday afternoon and !
am now sitting up in bed talking to
nv good friend Cotter Until yesterday
| T did not clearly visualize any one
thing in this room and did not know
that it had a window. except that there
was a place that noise came through.
but I did know that 1t had yellow
oak door that stared at me with Its
great big square eye all day and all
night. Last Friday, you see, about ~
| in the morning / took the step
| that / should have taken months, yes.
wears ago. To-day. most tentatively. /
crawIed onto q chair and ate my first
mouthful of solid food But four days
ago | managed TO shave mysen and
| am regarded as pretty spry.
Il have seen death come to men In
various ways, some rather novel anu
Western. l once saw man hanged.
! And I have seen several men shot, ana
came very near going out that way
r,,yself two or three times, but always
IA other fellow aimed poorly. L was
being shot at because l was news
paper man, and l should have been
shot at. There must be pubic concern
In what is printed. as well as us truth
to Justify it, That is something that
nevspa pers should get TO know IN TINS
country After the earthquake in san
U,rancisco | saw walls topple out upon
man And | have had more Intimate
c,irnses stnl of the picturesque and
| of the prosaic ways by Which men
come to their taking OF.
To KNOW tho Great Secret.
"But never before have been caileu
unon to deliberately walk into the va
| lev of the shadow and, say what you
viii. II is a great act. l nave sald our
10 The last months OF endless exaini-
a.,on that a man with little curiosity
IA 1ittle humor and little money who
80 al IN TOO great pain, could enjoy
! himself studying the ways OF doctors
and nurses as he journeyed the inValiu
nath IL was, indeed, made tlowery
natb for me, as much as any path could
Va IN which a man suffered more humii-
,a,ion and distress and thwarting and
s.,,atration on the whole, than he did
pain. 49,. .a -
u,htc,, + could not see. | was not COM
nelled To take il. My very latest doctor
advised me against taking IL. could
live some time without taking H. y
was q bet on the high card Win
chance TO win. and took IT,
"ror two days | had had knowledge
,bat the operation was to take place at
tbia time and my nerves had not been
inst as good as they should have been.
Those men who sleep twelve hours per-
fectly before being electrocuted have
evidently led more tranquil lives than
have. or have less concern as TO tina
future. All, now I was TO know the
great secret. For forty years had been
wondering. NOnusTlnEs CiAcIi hhh nni'
To myself that I should summon to my
mind when this moment came Soma
words that would be somewhat syn
thesis OF my philosophy. Socrates said
to those who stood by after he had
drunk the hemlock. No evil can befall
good man, whether he be alive ,r
dead don't know how far from that
we have gone in these 2,4o years.
my Crced-I Accept"
"'rhe apothegm. however, was not APP
poslte TO me. because II involved dec
laration that / was good man, and |
don't know any one who has the right
to so appreciate himself. And had
come to the conclusion that perhaps the
best statement OF my creed could be
fitted into the words I accept which to
me meant that IL in the law OF nature
Continued on Eleventh Page.
INCREASED SERVICE TO sEAsHoRE Ma
nd