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Show X,. . ; r 'funeral of Riley Granhdn at Time of Mining Boom 'in Nevada J. Sequent Words of an Unknown Preacher in Praise of the "Dead Game Sport," as A jorded by a Writer Who Was Present and Heard the Remarkable Sermon. i - s ' I The recent dcatli of H. W. Knick- f wker. the Methodist-agnostic par-"iner-trailblazer, down in Ala-j Ala-j : f recaUs to mind one of the most I S'mining camp scenes 1 ever wit-1 wit-1 cPd-the funeral of Riley Grannan. place ten years ago in Nevada, ; the summit of Rawhide's high !?2 fiills. Incidentally, it brings h.B';l (o memory one of the greatest wnneral discourses ever delivered over 1 hp remains of any man." Thus spake a bespectacled old-Jne old-Jne man at the Engineers' club yes-ffi yes-ffi who as a lad followed the early Sopah boom, later joined the rush to infield. Manhattan and Bullfrog, and Eed bis Nevada career in the ' impede to Rawhide. Shaking the Mie out of his meerschaum, he SnMed ihe pages of the last issue 5 the Mining Age and continued : "In April. 190S, Riley Grannan, in-(lm,telv in-(lm,telv known as a racetrack plunger, Jtod if pneumonia in Rawhide, where was conducting a gambling house He vras ill only a few days, and his i .! ffent out like the snuff of a can-je can-je When not even a post is left to I rafde the desert wayfarer to the spot I' there was witnessed one of the great-., great-., sarnpedes in western mining his-' his-' oV posterity will remember Raw- ; tide for the funeral oration that was i jounced over the bier of Grannan i ' ij Knickerbocker, i I Born in Louisiana, son of a noted fcrist and ordained a Methodist min- Ler at the age of 21, Knickerbocker beanie pastor of a fashionable con- 1 'ration in New Orleans. Then heH ' has called to the Trinity M. ID. church fa Los Angeles. Here he soon re- " fcimed, after a trial on heresy charges 'of which he was acquitted. Next he T2S heard of in Tonopah, where he labored la-bored underground in the mines for a tally wage- When the first news of kold discoveries In Goldfield was ibrougbt to Tonopah Knickerbocker Komed the rush into the new diggings. He located a number of claims. Not KiTing sufficient money to do the location loca-tion work required by law to hold them Jtc delivered a series of Shakespearian Shakespear-ian lectures in Goldfield and Tonopah Mich supplied him with the funds he required. Not long afterward in Gold-ffield Gold-ffield he 'cleaned up' to the extent of 4500.000. Not yet thirty years of age, of a melancholy and roving disposition, Vhewas soon lost to sight. A year later lat-er he returned to Goldfield, broke. Hgaln he was the first to join in a ftampede to a new camp, called Seven JjTroucbs, and the first to make a j'clean-up.' I "Half a jear later, when news of the early Rawhide discoveries was brought to Reno. Knickerbocker was found to be in the thick of it again. I "Whenever a minor paid the debt of nature in Rawhide Knickerbocker presided pre-sided at the obsequies. No one was inrprised, therefore, when it was announced an-nounced that he was to perform the rites of sepulture over the body of the departed race track plunger. I "The oration delivered by Knickerbocker Knicker-bocker on this occasion is probably as jemarkable an example of sustained eloquence as has been heard at the tier of any man since the late Robert losersoll's effort at the grave of his ceparted brother. Pouring out utterances utter-ances of exquisite thought and brilliant bril-liant language in utter disregard of the length of his sentences and with-JKI with-JKI using so much as a pencil memo-pidum, memo-pidum, Knickerbocker with a delicacy deli-cacy of expression pure as poetrv frged upon his auditors that the deceased de-ceased 'dead game sport had not lived his life in vain. Soon the crowd, who Julened in rapt attention, was in the pelting mood. An Knickerbocker processed pro-cessed with his discourse, his periods fe punctuated wtih convulsive bunts of sobs. ! One of the group of listeners interpolated: inter-polated: i was there, too. I remember re-member the occasion as if it was yes-.The yes-.The funeral was typical of a n-K mining camp. There was so much 5LCOLor thal had lhe 'movies' at-winea at-winea the same degree of popularity they have today, the entire expense of the funeral would have been recovered from the royalties. "For lack of a hearse, the remains! were taken from the undertaker's tent in an express wagon to an improvised memorial chapel, a variety theater at tho rear of a saloon. "There assembled a throng the like of which, could not be duplicated in any other community on the footstool. Silk touched elbows with corduroy and khaki. Women in Parisian gowns mingled with miners, whose clothes were begrimed with high-grade, with sun-tanned prospectors, with brokers, bankers, merchants, promoters, saloon-men, bartenders, gamblers and rounders. A mining camp Is the most perfect of all democracies; class was forgotten; all men were equal. "A solemn hush hovered over the strange assembly Stillness reigned in-the in-the little playhouse, where only the night before Jostling crowds drank and smoked while listening to the coarse jests and doubtful wit of tho men and women of the variety stage. Gathered about the bier was as solemn a throng of sincere mourners as ever assembled assem-bled at tho coffinside of a departed friend. Now, and during the remarkable remark-able funeral address that followed, Lears were frequent. Before the con- elusion of the obsequies there was not dry eye in the house. i "Vocal selections appropriate to the ! accasion were sung by Mrs. Harry ' Hedrick and by Jack Hines, a former ' miner of Alaska and a writer of i Maska fiction for Everybody's Maga- t , zine. a Airs, uan iiiawarqs piayeu tne . prelude and accompaniments. Puncu-; Puncu-; ating the services came resounding , blasts from a score of mines on the . hills about the camp. Barrooms were closed and the streets were wrapped in utter silence throughout the services. serv-ices. At the close, the casket containing con-taining the remains, accompanied by ten of the most prominent citizens, who acted as pall-bearers, was followed fol-lowed by a solemn cortege, comprising practically every man and woman in the camp, to the automobile which was to carry the body to Schurz, the railroad rail-road station thirty miles away, whore it was placed aboard the train to bo transported to Paris, Ky., where it found Interment near the spot where the eyes of Riley Grannan first opened on the light of day. "Powerfully dramatic, profoundly impressive was tho funeral eulogy pronounced pro-nounced by Knickerbocker. His appearance ap-pearance was entirely in keeping with J the scene, clad In the miner's rough garb and wearing high boots, he looked the part of a typical pioneer. He deeply felt his subject, for at limes his eyes dimmed with tears and his utterance was choked by omlion." "I have road various reports of that funeral oration," assented the man who had commenced the narration. "The first one appearod in the Nevada Mining News a few days after Grannan Gran-nan was buried. There were demanus from all over the globe for copies of it. Another was published two years ago in tho Adventure Magazine. Neither of the reports wore complete. - was I present and took down every word of the oration in shorthand, and I am confident that my version, never yet published, is the one upon which posterity pos-terity must rely. For the only accurate accu-rate report of what is undoubtedly an oratorical gem of the first water, let me read you the full text. Here is what Mr. Knockerbocker said, word for word, without emendation or omission: omis-sion: " 'I feel that It Is incumbent upon me to state that in standing here I occupy no ministerial or prolatlc position. posi-tion. I am simply a prospector. I make no claims whatever to moral merit or to religion, except the religion re-ligion of humanity, the brotherhood of man. I stand among you today simply sim-ply as a man among men, feeling that I can shake hands and say 'brother to the vilest man or woman that ever lived. If there should come to you anything of moral admonition tarough what I may say, it comes not from any sense of moral superiority, but from the depth of my experience. " 'Riley Grannan was born In Paris, Ky., about forty years ago. I suppose sup-pose he dreamed all the dreams of I boyhood. They blossomed into phenomenal phe-nomenal success along financial lines' at times during his life. I am told that from the position of a bell-boy in : a hotel he rose rapidly to he a cele- j brlty of world-wide fame. He was one of the greatest plungers, probably, I that the continent has ever produced. "'He died day before yesterday In i Rawhide. " 'This is a very brief statement. You i have the birth and tho period of the! grave. Who can fill the interim? Who can speak of his hopes and fears? Who can solve the mystery of his quiet ' hours that only he himself know? 1 1 can not. " 'He was born in the Sunny Southlandin South-landin Kenutcky. He died in Raw-) hide. '"There is the beginning and the! end. I wonder if wo can see in this a picture of what Ingersoll said at i the grave of his brother 'Whether it 1 bo near the shore in mid -ocean or1 among the breakers, at the last a! wreck must mark the end of one and 1 all.' " 'He was born in the Sunny Southland, South-land, where brooks and rivers run musically mu-sically through the luxuriant soil; tvhore the magnolia grandiflora, like white stars, glow in a firmament of; ;reen; where crystal lakes dot the1 greensward and tbe softest Summer , ureezes aimpie tue wave-lips into kisses for the lilies on the shore; where the air is resonant with the warbled melody of a thousand sweet-volccd sweet-volccd birds and redolent of the perfume per-fume of many flowers. This was the beginning. He died in Rawhide, where in winter the shoulders of the mountains are wrapped in garments of ice and in summer the blistering rays of the sun beat down upon the skeleton ribs of the desert. Is this a picture of universal human life? " 'Sometimes, when 1 look over the circumstances of human life, a curse rises to my lips, aDd, if you will allow me, 1 will say here that I speak from an individual point of view. I cannot express other than my own views. If I run counter to yours, at least give me credit for a daring to be honest. When I see his aim and purpose frustrated by a fortuitous combination combina-tion of circumstances over which he has not control; when 1 see the outstretched out-stretched hand, just about to grasp the flag of victory, take instead in-stead the emblem of defeat, I ask, What is life? What is life? Dreams, awakening, and death; 'a pendulum 'twixt a smile and a tear"; "a momentary mo-mentary halt within the waste, and 'then the nothing wo set out from"; "a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more"; "n tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing"; a child-blown child-blown bubble that but reflects tho light and shadow of Its environment and Is gone; a mockery, a sham, a He, a fool's vision; its happiness but Dead j Sea apples, it's pain the crunching of a tyrant's heel. I feel as Omar did when he wrote: " 'We are no other than a moving row Of Magic Shadow-shapes that come and go Round with the Sun-illumined Lantern Lan-tern held In Midnight by the Master of tho Snow. " 'But helpless Pieces of the Game Ho Plays .Upon this Checker-board of Nights and Days; Hither and thithor moves, and cheoks. and slays, And one by one back in tho Closet lays. " 'The Ball no question makes of Ayes and Noes, But Here or There as strikes the Player goes; And He that toss'd you down into tho Field, He knows about it all Ho knows HE KNOWS.' " 'But I don't. This is my mood. " 'Not so with Riley Grannan. If I have gaged his character correctly, ho accepted tho circumstances surround -ing him as the mystic officials to -whom tho universe had delegated its whole office concerning him. Ho seemed to accept both defeat and victory with equanimity. He was a man whoso exterior ex-terior war as placid and gentle ns I have ever seen, and yet when we look back ovor his meteoric past wo can readily understand, if this statement be true, that he was absolutely invincible invin-cible in spirit. If you will allow mo, 1 i will use a phrase most of you are acquainted ac-quainted with. He was a 'dead, game sport." I say it not irreverently, but fill I tho phrase as full of practical human j philosophy as "it will hold, and I be-i be-i lievo that when you can say one is a 'dead, game sport' you have reached the climax of human philosophy. " 'I bellevo .that Riley Grannan's lifo fully exemplified the philosophy of these verses: " 'It's easy enough to be -happy When life flows along like a song-, But the man worth while Is the man who -will smile When everything goes dead wrong. i i " 'For the test of the heart is trouble And It always cornea with the years. And the smile that Is worth The. homage of earth Is the smile that . shines through tears.' ' 'I know that there are those who will condemn him. Thore are those who believe today that he is reaping tho reward of a misspent lifo. There are those who are dominated by medieval med-ieval creeds-. To those I have no words to say In regard .to him. Thoy are ruled by tho skelolon hand of tho past and fail to see tho moral beauty of a character lived outside their puritanical puritani-cal Ideas. His goodness was not of the typo that reached Its highest manifestations manifes-tations In any ceremonial piety. His goodness, I say. was not of that type, but of the typo that finds oxpresslon In the handclasp; tho typo that finds oxpresslon in a word of cheer to a discouraged brother; tho typo that finds expression in quiet deeds of charity; the type that finds expression in friendship, tho sweetest flower that blooms along the dusty highway of life; the type that finds expression in manhood. " 'Ho lived in the world of sport. I do not mince my words. I am telling what I believe to be true. In the world of sport hilarity sometimes, and maybe worse. He loft tho impress im-press of his character on this world and through the medium of his financial finan-cial power he was able with his-money to brighten the lives of Its inhabitants. inhabit-ants. He wasted it, so tho world says. But did It ovor occur to you that tho most sinful men and -women who live in this world are still men nnd women? wom-en? Did it ever occur to you that the men and women who inhabit the night -world are still mon and women? A little happiness brought 'into their lives means as much to them as happiness hap-piness brought into tho lives of the straight and good. If you can take one ray of sunlight into their nightlife night-life and thereby bring them one single hour of happiness, I believe you are a benefactor. " 'Riley Grannan may have "wasted" "wast-ed" some of hls'innney this way. " 'Did you ever Plop and think how God does not put all his sunbeams into your potatoes and flour? Did you ever notice the prodigality with which he scatters those sunbeams over the universe? Contemplate: " 'God flings the. auroral beauties round the cold shoulders of tho north; hangs tho quivering picture of the .mirage above the palpitating heart of the desert; scatters the sunbeams like lamellated gold upon the bosoms of myriad lakes that gem the verdant robe of nature; spangles the canopy of night with star-jewels and silvers tho world with the reflected beams from Cynthia's mellow face; hangs the gorgeous crimson curtain of the Occident Occi-dent across tho sleeping-room of the sun; wakes the coy maid of dawn to step timidly from her boudoir of darkness dark-ness to climb tho qteps of the orient and fling wide-open the gates of the morning. Then, tripping o'er tho landscape, land-scape, kissing the llowors in her flight, she wakes the birds to herald with their music the coming of hor King, who floods the world with refulgent gold. Wasted sunbeams, these? I say to you that the man who by the use of his money or power is able to smooth one wrinkle from the brow of care. Is able to change one moan or sob into a song, is a"ble to wipe away one tear and In Its place put a jewel of joy this man is a public benefactor. I believe that some of Riley Grannan's" money was "wasted" in this way. " 'We stand at last In the presence of tho Great Mystery. I know nothing no-thing about It, nor do you. , We may have our hopes, but no knowledge. 1 do not know -whether there be a future life or not; I do not "say there is not. I sipiply say I do not know. I have watched the wicket-gate close behind many and many a pilgrim. No word has come back to me. The gato is closed. Across the chasm Is the gloomy cloud of death. I say I do not know. And, if you will allow this expression, I do not know .whether it is best that my dust or his at last should go to feed tho roots of the grasses, tho sagebrush or tho flowers, to bo blown In protean forms by the law of the persistence of force, or whether It Is best that I continue in personal identity beyond what wo call death. If this bo all, "after life's fitful fever, he sleeps well; Nothing can harm him further." God knows what is best. " 'This may be infidelity; but if it Is, I would liko to know what faith means. I came l,nto this universe without my volition came and found a loving mother's arms to receive me. I had nothing to do -with the preparation prepara-tion for my reception here. I have no power to change tho environment of the future, but the same power which prepared the loving arms of a mother to receive me here will make proper reception for mo there. God knows bettor than I what is good for me, and I leave It with God. " 'If I had tho power today by the simple turning of my hand to endow myself with personal Immortality, in my finite Ignorance I would refuse to turn my hand. God knows best. It may bo that thero is a future life. I know that sometimes 1 got vory tired of this lifo. Hedged and cribbed, caged cag-ed like a bird caught from tho wilds, that in Its mad desire for freedom beats its wings against tho bars only to fall back in defeat upon the floor I long for death, If It will but break tho I I II 1 1 Mil I 1I H I II ii ii ii i i i i ill I bars that hold me captive. " 'I was snowbound In the mountains moun-tains once for three days. On account ac-count of the snow we had to remain immediately alongside the train". After three days of this, when our food had been exhausted the whistle blew that meant the starting of the train out into the world again. It may be that death is but the signal whistle that marks the movement of the train out Into the broader and freer stretches of spiritual being. " 'As wo stand In the presence of death, we have no knowledge, but always, al-ways, no matter how dark tho gloomy cloudB hang before me, there gleams the star hope. Let us hope, then, that It may be the morning star of eternal day. It is dawning somewhere all tho time. Did you ever pause to think that this old world of ours is constantly swinging into the dawn? Down the grooves of tlmo, flung by tho hand of God, with every revolution revolu-tion it is dawning somewhere all the time. Let this be an Illustration of our hope. Let us believe, then, that in the development of the human soul, as It swings forward toward its destiny, des-tiny, it Is constantly swinging nearer and nearer to the sun. " 'And now the time has come to say goodbye. The word "farewell" is the saddest In our language. And yet there are sentiments sometimes that refuse to be confined in that word. I will say: "Goodby, old man. Wo will try to exemplify the spirit manifested in your life in bearing the grief at our parting. Words fail me here. Let theso flowers, Riley, with their petaled Hps and perfumed breath, speak in beauty and fragrance the sentiments that are too tender for words. Goodby.' Good-by.' " As the bespectacled old young man laid down his notebook, his eyes turned turn-ed towards his auditors. "I wonder who delivered the oration at the bier of Knickerbocker," he said. their depredations and repeated en-deavors en-deavors to catch them. "Headin' South," who Is a born dip-lomat, dip-lomat, succeeds in persuading "Span- jH ish" Joe to enroll him as a member of the band. That worthy soon begins to suspect the new recruit, but the hitter's ability as an outlaw overbal- lH ances Joe's suspicions. "Headln' South" -was written for Douglas Fairbanks by Chief Director 1 Allan Dwan, and presents a plot so I unique that after due consideration it ill has been decided not to disclose too much of the story in order not to de-tract de-tract from the pleasant surprise LVfl which the picture will give. |