IN MEMORIAM, ANNUAL MEETING, I906. 435 



woe and dread that has been woven into the web and woof of our 

 being? To the wounds of stricken mourners that separation, desola- 

 tion and loneHness have inflicted, we can bring no bahn ; but may we 

 not, in a measure, at least, assist time, the only effective physician, 

 to heal the wounds more speedily if we can rob death of some of the 

 horrid characteristics with which inherited conceptions have clothed 

 it. And will not this truer conception of death strengthen all of us 

 who are now on the down-grade of life — from the bottom of which 

 will be viewed our last earthly sunset — and endow us with the cour- 

 age to meet the inevitable, and 



"By an unfaltering trust approach the grave 

 Like one who gathers the drapery of his couch 

 About him and Hes down to pleasant dreams/' 



Now let us abandon generalities, and come nearer to those to 

 whose memories we have dedicated this hour, so that we may re- 

 alize what death has done towards revealing them to us as they 

 really were, which may be quite unlike what we thought they were 

 when they were of us, with us and too close by to be seen with true 

 appreciation. Looking at them now we can see their virtues more 

 clearly, estimate their courage more correctly, and discover a heroism 

 in them that was not comprehended until death created the atmos- 

 phere thru which we might see them as they were. 



It is natural and commendable to admire heroism, but man fails 

 to recognize it in so many instances that the failure becomes un- 

 complimentary to his intelligence or discrimination. The military 

 uniform so frec[uently suggests heroism that it has generated the 

 belief that true heroism most abounds on the battlefield, and that we 

 must look there for the best examples of that virtue. But this is a 

 mistaken conception and does a great injustice to the heroism of 

 which some, at least, of those to whom we are now paying loving 

 homage were worthy examples. Heroes we now know them to have 

 been, since in death's crucible there has been refined from them the 

 dross of earth life that concealed from our eyes their true nature, 

 their noblest characteristics. 



Those who essay the conquest of a country or a region with axe 

 and plow are actuated by a sublimer heroism than are the hosts, 

 panoplied for war, who seek conquest by sword and gun. The 

 soldier's deeds of valor are not the result of cool, calm, deliberate 

 thought.' Valorous they are, it is true, but it is the valor of 

 impulse, the fruit of an ecstacy of excitement, emulation and pride, 

 finally resulting in a mad desire to avenge fallen fellow soldiers 

 by triumphing over the enemy at any cost or hazard. The en- 

 ginery of war is there in all its pomp, splendor and demoniac 

 destruction : music to make one momentarily forget danger ; ban- 

 ners to arouse pride in country, state or regiment; intrepid lead- 

 ers that followers do not think of failing to emulate ; the roar of 

 guns, the clash of bayonets ; the fear of pain or death submerged 

 in the bountiful harvest of it on every side. Or, if perchance 



