Year: 1875

It is not always true that the good which men do is inferred with them and forgotten, while their faults are remembered. It Is to the credit of humanity that this is so. At any rate it is so With the memory of w. c. Rals- ton. Now that death has placed the imprenetable between him and those who knew him, this community cannot help remem- bering, each one for himself and all together, some good act of his, some generous and kindly deed, some charity, some donation for the eserving individual or insti- tuition. Such were his deeds on the score of humanity. In mat ters of business his mind grasped as by instinct the bearings of pro- positions. His decisions upon question connected with his busi- ness, were almost instantaneous. A glance at check or draft was sufficient, Honor it. or refuse, was at once the decision.

 No man had more attached friends. One reason was because he did not estimate men upon the single principle of their wealth. His own wealth, of which at times he was the posessor to the amount of millions, never ap- peared to put him in his own Opi- nion above those who were less fortunate. Yielding immense in- fiuence, and directing the distri- button and employment of great amounts of capital, his power and authority never transformed him into proud aristOcrat. The man he knew as honest and worthy, although without capital, was in his estimation his equal, as man to man-equally fit to be his per- sOnal friend as if he was a master of millions. He was one whom the possession of wealth and pow CT did not make an aristOcrat. No man ever more willingly and ge- nerously assisted the worthy and industrious struggling with for tune.

 When we think of the enter. prises to which he contributed the influence of his sharp business intellect, his name and his for tune; when we realize the fact that so many men and families have owed, directly or indirectly, to him much of the means that secured the comforts of life; when we think Of the labOTing men thrown cut Of employment by the misfortune and sad fate which has cost them and this community the fortune and the life of the most generous and philanthrOpic citizen, we feel scarce able tC re- cOncile oar ideas of iusuce with the fortune and L.te that hao Uah- en him so suddenly away. But the eye of infinite wisdom may see clearly what our humanity fails to see; and the hereafter, even in this world, may show us that it is all for the best. But it will be long before this city will find. his place supplied in the field he occupied and filled. 9th CT energetic, other rich, other philanthropic men we may have, and have already. But where is the man that so used his wealth, his influence, his intellect. in the encouragement of so many useful enterprises, the building up of so many industries? Where shall our citizens who had and who so highly prized his friendship and counsel, find another who can fill the place he has left vacant ill their social circle and in their hearts? "Man passeth as a shad- ow," but the memory of d good man, of a worthy citizen, of a true friend, of a benefactOr of his race, a friend to the poor, an encOurag- CT of the industrious and honest, ofa man abundant in charities and modest in all of them, cannot soon die but people will remember him and bless the memory of William c. RalSton.