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Show JOHN CAPLICE. To no name in Montana do we bend with greater great-er respect than to that of John Caplice. To none, save it be that of the great Father Marquette, who explored the wilds of the upper Missouri and planted plant-ed the cross along its banks. To none do we yield greater affection, because his like is not in Mon- ! tana, and Montana is the state above all others to boast of the chivalry of its pioneers. John Caplice is dead. It comes like the shock which shivers the pillars of the temple he helped to build so well for Montana. One day he would pass away as we all must pass away, yet we putj the thought of his passing from us. It seems so . natural to see John Caplice, even though his presence be but visionary and miles separated him from us. The erect figure, which nearly eighty years of an eventful life could not bend to age, belonged be-longed to Caplice; neither did trouble wrinkle the face that passed for that of a man yet in his prime. It was a heroic determination to make the best of things in adversity and accept God's will cheerfully which preserved the youth in the man of eighty: Of his career, more can be said in the future history of Montana than the all-too-brief mention men-tion made by the Montana press. A book might be written which could give the history of the state through John Caplicc's participation in that history. It would go back before Thomas Francis Meagher became its governor, after the Civil war. Thomas Francis Meagher was the bosom friend of John Caplice. It was Caplice who oftentimes raised the general out of the grave, financially and physically. It pained Caplice to hear repeated any story of the general's weaknesses. He would turn it off by describing some' excellent quality of the distinguished Irish patriot and American soldier. Just like John Caplice. It Avas just like John Caplice to speak thus of all men, or be silent. Not that he was afraid to voice opinion, but genuine Christian charity punctuated punc-tuated his conversation. There was no room for bigotry in the mind, no syllable of slander on the tongue of John Caplice. Jt is as Judge Dixon of "Butte expressed it: "John Caplice had no enemy." -Neither -could he have n-enemy, for his was a nature na-ture to be loved. He never did a person the slightest slight-est injury. iv-' May God have mercy on his soul. |