Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-29
Last Mans Club Is Applauded
AS Symbol of Fighting Hosts

Associations upon the battleflelds of
! history are symbolized in the public
mind by the simple ceremony of the
| final toast by the survivor of the Last
Mans Club, originally a small group of
"a volunteers who had fought in the
| Civil War. Charles Lockwood of Still
water, Mimi, SO years old, carried out
the pledge made Al years ago, and, with
draped chairs in memory of the de-
parted comrades, drank his toast with
a bottle of Burgundy, long since turned
sour. The country wishes that some OF
! the bitterness, both in the draught and
| in the spirit, might have been taken
from one whose courage had been tested
on the battlefie, /.
Empty honors are a burden" de-
clares the Columbus Ohio State Jour-
nal, land no honor is more empty than
| the one which cannot be shared with
some close friend. The old Civil War
veteran who outlived his comrades and
thus won the distinction of being the
last man in an organization of veterans
has felt the honor turn sour within him.
There was something bravely pathetic
about the ritual the old soldier went
through as a tribute to the friends who
had marched down the years with him
and dropped off one by one until he was
left marching alone. His loneliness is
the last man A sense of futillty must
strike him forcibly as he counts joys
and sorrows of the past, all dissolved in
death He has lived the longest he is
carrying out an agreement made in the
haZy years gone by when life was at the
flood; the burden of distinction has all
fallen upon his shoulders, but there
isn't an intimate friend with which to
share it,"
Its very TASTE" thinks the Chatta-
nooga News, must have been a bitter
reminder of what the last man has
lost in the death of his friends. Charles
Lamb wrote poignant poem, All, all
are gone, the old familiar faces 1t is
melancholy sound, the footsteps of
friends departing never to return. And
it was a melancholy purpose which
guided the founding of the Last Man
Club-a stressing year after year of the
sad thought that friend after friend
departs that there Is no union here of
hearts which hath not here an end
1t would have been better had these
comrades adopted as their slogan Never
let friendship end and If they had
agreed to remain forever with each
other in those caVerns of the memory
which are pure and deep"
LOChNUOd aAlQ JOdSb
the Little Rock Arkansas Democrat of
the fact that many who sre living to-
day will be alive TO read of the passing
of the last man of more than 2,000,0 900
who were called to arms III civil strife.
There are not many left--only a few
scattered thousands. Soon they, will be
gone and there will remain nothing
save a tradition. And as time passes
within a hundred years-another last
man will pause to pay tribute to his
fallen comrades, those who served in
the World War. Ere then war probably
will have come again and that third
crop of survivors will have a last man.
And so it will continue until real peace
comes to earth. There is something
grimly fataliStic about such thought
None of us likes to admit that all must
come to common end. But that real
ization should inspire all of us to re-
member that other lives than our own
are filled with sorrows and other folk
than ourselves need the encouragement
of a word of sympathy. This always
will be true even unto the hour that
the last man of all men pays tribute !
to his fallen fellow men,"
North and South" says the Wichita |
Beacon, they are going with tragic !