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Show As I Remember Them Richard Mackintosh By C. C. Goodwin THE tears dim my eyes as I look back and remember Richard Mackintosh as he was wont to come out of his house in the morn- ing and with a voice cheery as a lark, as cordial " as the robin, hail the day. He lived here many years. Those who knew him well loved him exceedingly. He was born in Dublin, Ireland. His father was a distinguished officer in the British army, one of the Mackintosh Mackin-tosh clan, who, on that day of days at "Waterloo, followed the pibrochs through all the long hours until Blucher came and the exhausted English army fell on the ground to sleep. After the war every year, so long as Wellington Welling-ton lived, on leave of absence that father left his command and went up to London to a banquet given to his grace, the Iron Duke, and the titles M he won, the decorations he wore, are a glory to the Mackintosh family in any land where they dwell. After Waterloo the father of our Mackintosh was stationed In Dublin with his regiment. There he fell in love with a bonny Irish girl and married her, and there Richard Mackintosh ' born, only a few steps from Phoenix park. so in his nature he liad much of the canny o-o of his father, much of the splendor and joyousness of his Irish, mother. And as such we knew him here in Salt Lake. ' He was originally intended to succeed his father in the army, but for a slight physical de- j feet he was not accepted, and we do not believe !it is any harm to state what that defect was. One side of Mr. Mackintosh was a little smaller than the other. His arm was smaller, his foot was a little smaller, and the laws of England in their crude way assumed that this was a defect, whon in truth one side was just as strong as the other, and he was built like the one-horse shay "every part as strong as the rest." What I write about Mr. Mackintosh is simply from my own memory, and If other people who knew him do not agree with all I say, I will hold the belief to my soul that they did not know him as well as I did. I knew him only as a frank, splendid, high-souled, thorough man, and thorough thor-ough American, and a friend that was more sacred than all the jewels of Arabia, all the professions of professed friends in all the world. He was my good friend and whenever I wanted a joyous word, a note of defiance at fate, a lark's song to awaken me from the cares that were upon me, I always turned instinctively to Dick Mackintosh. So he plodded along here. When he lost money he made no plaint; when he made money his voice was all the higher, his cheer all the greater, his disposition to do somebody a favor all the more increased. In the Queen's diamond jubilee year he went to England and attended the fete. When, he returned he was telling about what he saw in his joyous, boisterous way, and especially about the fleet that was anchored off Spithead, when miles and miles of guns roared out their welcome to the Queen. And I asked him how the Brooklyn looked in that outfit, because our government had sent the Brooklyn over there in honor of the Queen to represent the American navy. With almost a shout he said, "She was splendid. She lifted her crest up among those blasted English ships and the flag above her as much as to say, Look here, Mr. Englishman, we are here in state. We like your old Queen, but we would fight just as quickly as any one of your black devils down the line." H To the end of' his days he was a true Britisher, M but after he had been a little while in America he would have fought any Englishman on earth H if he had made a face at the American flag. H He was one of the Comstock boys. He got to H the Comstock when he was but little more than H a boy. He made the long trip around the Horn H and he had several fights on board ship. The H last one was in behalf of a little girl that he de- B clared was the prettiest girl in the world, at the H time, adding, "That was before I was married." H He got to the Comstock when it was a great H school for all Britishers. He learned how to deal H in stocks and that became a habit with him. He H clung' to it all his life. He came here. He was H prominent In mining for many and many a year. H He made good, but he was more prominent as H a citizen, as a neighbor and a friend through all H those years, and he wound his heart strings H around the heart strings of others here until H when it came time that they should be torn H apart, it made a new wound which never has H been healed in those who remain. H He was called before his time. Called just H in the pride of his manhood. His own home had H been desolated by the death of his wife, and H after that he drooped and drooped and what of H the old jollity came back at intervals was but a H forced attempt not to make his sorrows a sorrow H to others. He drooped here for a year and then H died, and when he passed away it was a solemn H joy to say about him that he was the truest friend, the kind-hearted, strongest man, the bravest champion of what he thought was right, the best neighbor, that anyone knew here, H and that thought still remains. All that M was splendid in manhood was his and if he lacked aught in the manifestation of his real nature, that was a misfortune, because the nearer H H I one got to Richard Mackintosh the more they es- H 1 teemed and loved him. He was a brave man, of H l that stock of men who held it was nothing to die H for one's country or for one's honor; that germ H was always working In his own soul; and if he B made any mistakes it was because for the mo- H ment he was deceived, for down deep in his soul HI he was the finest examplo of absolute loyalty HI and high courage of all the men here in the old HI days who helped to make of Utah a glorified Hu j American state. |