Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1942-11-13

A Mandan chief dressed
rose rapidly to be a celebrity of world
wide fame. He was one of the greatest
plungers, probably, that the continent
has ever produced.
He died day before yesterday in
Rawhide. This is very brief state
ment. You have the birth and the pc
riod of the grave Who can fill in the
interim? Who can speak of his hopes
and fears? Who can solve the mystery
Of his quiet hours that only himself
knew? cannot .
He was born in the sunny south
land, where brooks and rivers run
musically through the luXuriant soil
where the magnolia grandiflora, like
white stars, grow in armament of
green: where crystal lakes dot the
greensward and the softest summer
breezes dimple the wave-lips into
kisses for the lilies on the shore:
where the air is resonant with the
warbled melody of a thousand sweet
voiced birds and redolent of the per-
fume of many flowers. This was the
beginning. He died in Rawhide, where
in the shoulders of the mountains are
wrapped in garments of ice and in the
summer the blistering rays of the sun
beat down upon the skeleton ribs Of
the desert.
when I see the ambitions of man
defeated when I see him struggling
| with mind and body in the only legiti-
mate prayer he can make to &C
complish some end; when I see his
aim and purpose frustrated by fortui-
| touS combination of circumstances
over which he has no control; when
see the ouStretched hand just about
to grasp the flag of victory, take in
stead the emblem of defeat, I ask,
| What is life? Dreams, awakening and
death; a pendulum 'twixt smile and
tear; momentary halt within the
waste, and then the nothing we set
out from; tale told by an idiot, full
of sound and fury, signifying nothing;
child-blown bubble that but reflects
the light and shadow of its environ
ment and Is gone; mockery, lie,
fools vision: its happiness but Dead
Sea apples; its pain the crunching of
tyrant's heel :. j..
A Dead Game" Sport
"He was a man whose exterior was
as placid and gentle as I have ever
known, and yet. when we look back
over his meteoric past, we can readily
understand . that he was absolutely
invincible in spirit. If you will allow
me will use phrase most of you are
acquainted with. He was dead
game sport" I say it not irreverently.
but fill the phrase as full of practical
| human philosophy as it will hold, and
/
dead game sport" you have reached
| the climax of human philosophy.
Il know there are those who will
condemn him. There are those who
believe today that he is reaping the
reward of a nisspent life. There are
those who are dominated by medieval
creeds. To those I have no words to
say in regard to him. They are ruled
| by the skeleton hand of the past, and
| fail to see the moral beauty of a
character lived outside their own
puritanical ideas. His goodness was not
of the type that reached its highest
manifestations in any ceremonial
piety. His goodness, I say, was not OF
that type. but of the type that finds
expression in word of cheer to a
discouraged brother; the type that
!
sweetest flower that grows along the
dusty highway of life; the type that
finds expression in manhood.
HE lived in world of sport. do
not mince my words. am telling what
I believe to be true. In the world OF
sport-hilarity sometimes, and maybe
worse-he left the impress of his
character on this world and through
the medium of his financial power he
was able with his money to brighten
the lives of its inhabitants. He wasted
it-so the world says!
But did it ever occur to you that
the most sinful men and women who
live in this world are still men and
women? A little happiness brought
into their lives means as much to
them as happiness brought into the
lives of the straight and good. If you
can take one ray of sunlight into their
night life and thereby bring them one
single hour of happiness, believe you
are benefactor.
Riley Grammar may have wasted"
some of his money in this way!
did you ever stop and think how
God does not put all His sunbeams
into corn, potatoes and flour2 Did you
ever notice the prodigality with which
He scatters these SIInbeams over the
universe? Contemplate: God filings the