Show AT op A SAILOR OF AMERICAN NAVY veterans listened to attribute to the men who defend their country from fridays standard george jefferson the man who dropped dead in the st louis saloon on twenty nath street a week S saturday night was buried from larkin sons undertaking parlors this afternoon the funeral services ber vices being conducted by lieutenant J I 1 murphy they were attended by he spanish american war veterans and a delegation from the G A H and the ladles auxiliary he had been a sailor in the american navy his services for his country brought oui te following beautiful tribute from judge vl urphy again we are brought face to face with the great mystery about whose solution the human ever been and ever will be solicitous another heart lias ceased to beat another lamp ol 01 life has been extinguished in the very meridian 0 manhood a human being has paid the debt of nature and has learned tor himself alone the aisner 10 questions which has never been gneib to the intellect of a human being on this old earth of ours the m astery of life and the greater mystery of death are hidden from our present vision the keenest intellects of the human race have confessed their inability to answer and while warring claries of rival creeds have striven for six thousand years to settle the question et the mournful inquiry of the man of sorrows in the land ot U it a man die shall he live again is as potent today as when in the anguish of his soul he uttered it and as unanswerable no daring scout no hero in surer natural armor has ever ridden across abo borders of that unknown country and returned to tell he story of his adventures so we le aveto the theologian and philosopher speculation and contention as to what may constitute the future life we concern ourselves alone with the burial of one of the soldiers or sailors of this republic of the man whom we honor today we know nothing whether in some far oil clime a father and mother and sister or wife and children wait and hope and pray for his return we can only speculate we know nothing of the environments which held him enthralled we know nothing of the passions and appetites and the habits with which he had to contend we are incapable if we had the inclination of passing judgment in an earthly manner even upon his life and work so with the bicad mantle of charity thrown over alq faults we come today to give him honorable sepulture which the benign lais of our commonwealth mon wealth grant to any soldier or sailor who has honorably served his country the american navy has always been a source of pride and ot strength to the american people from the days of john paul jones 0 o the day of george dewey the heiges who have manned the ships of the republic have brought impel glory and renown to the american name it is irue tha recorded history mentions only the bright particular heroes who commanded in great battles but the sailors who at the command of john Pau lJones lashed the rotten bon homme richard to the and who with sword and cutlass and pistol made the deck slippery with blood were entitled to share equally the glory of that encounter with their illustrious commander so too lo 10 the men who under commodore peny on aake erie fought with such dauntless courage the historian must accord equal renown and glory to that gained by their great captaine captai nl we boast ot our great institutions we are proud of the fact that under the emblem of our country we aie permitted to worship god according to the dictates of our conscience or to refuse to worship god according to the dictates of our reason we boast of our busy thrifty prosperous inhabitants of a community teeming with industry filled with happy homes with institutions of learning lied together by networks of railroads and cables anil telegraphs and all modem appliances for bringing the people of bis great republic together and optimists who view the great advances which have been made in all departments of human learning and in the science of human government predict that the time hlll come when the prince of or a prince of peace shall reign when the war drum will be and when the battleship will lie helpless or sunk and yet this immunity which we enjoy this heritage of liberty this priceless right of happiness of reaping the result of our toil of being protected in our inestimable rights would be insecure were it not for the fact that our battleship arc ivady to emphasize the rights of citizenship in every quarter of the globe that millions of men are ready to muster in arms around ne ensign of athla republic and to do ami to die it need lie that these rights baay be preserved sacred and inviolate so it behooves us as good alti ens of a great republic to honor the soldiers and the sailors those who so norih when he tocsin of war is sounded to maintain tbt dign liy the the honor and the common glory of the great republic we do not upon this occasion as I 1 said before enter into a question of theology or of speculation even as to what may lie in store for us lu the great beyond when the vision of the world was fading from the glazing eyes ot eben holden he caught hla by the hand and said it 9 getting dark nill its getting daik but I 1 aint afraid no soldier or sailor who worthily wore the blue 0 this republic was ever afraid 10 die and so with the broader charity of catl of a great republic with patriotism swelling in our bosoms we express the hope that this man when the world faded from his had an equal faith and was strengthened by an equal courage we lay him away with military honor tile highest honor that can be paid to a citizen 01 this republic and we consecrate ourselves over the soil which holds his remains that all we hava and all that we are will be breely giblen and blent to maintain the glory and prestige and grandeur 0 ho unsullied flag of our great republic |