Show the old settler my dear san Jua ners on the big gravel hill overlooking I 1 bluff and also on a I 1 I 1 ridge near to blanding is a silent community of stones with names and dates engraved upon them they are the name of people who have been fixtures in my life some of them from early infancy iancy in when i became ted with the first of these people as moving speaking beings in my world or chila nood J took it for granted that since e I 1 could see and hear the them m and know of their existence that was proof in itself that they were continuously existent ahac they would ever cease to be was simply dri unthinkable thinkable I 1 had no loophole in my philosophy for such a notion to make entrance the very suggestion of such a thing was revolting to every sense of my feelings I 1 too had my existence the same kind as theirs and I 1 would always be of that I 1 had an instinctive yet tint altering as urance that was fantastic conclusion of a child it was and is basically the truth of things as they are and as they have to be my father was for years the most potent and most important being in my world of acquaintances we t two went through thrilling ventures and distressing hardships together I 1 was with him over the hard trails of deserts and mountains of san juan county in the susceptible able teen years of my life and then I 1 was with him in quite another sphere of activity beyond the atlantic when we returned to san juan he confided to me that he was soon to die his going moved me to the very depths yet it became a splendid demonstration of the phenomena of eternal existence on that unforgettable able day of his departure he assured me he would do more for me from that time forward than he had ever been able to do before I 1 saw his immortal soul looking at me through the eyes from which he was soon to go away and when he was gone I 1 knew at once he was not there any longer altho his eyes were still open the promise he made more than 50 years ago has been kept very letter 1 I have some living friends whom I 1 have never met with some of them I 1 have corresponded by letter conversed with over the telephone seen them on the screen or by television do dc I 1 know these people really y exist could I 1 be any more sure of their being if I 1 met thorn personally so by the same token what more positive evidence could I 1 possibly have of the multitude of my acquaintances whose names are now engraved on stones five of my sons have gone on my wife and my daughter in the bloom of her young womanhood they gave me positive evidence of their existence in the years they were here with me I 1 ha the smallest justifiable if reason to doubt they exist still it is imperative in the basis of all truth as I 1 cherish it in m my r reason that t these hese stalwart sons and these beautiful personalities of womanhood od five live on and on the immortal which acted for a while in the flesh washington and lincoln are operating no longer in these tangible elements but the part they took the personalities they displayed leaves no room to to the sordid superstition that question their existence to hold they have gone out of being is pitiably stupid on a hard sandstone slab from the ledges of san juan where my father and mother made their gallant fight of the rude frontier I 1 have carved their names and it marks the place of their remains on the gravel hill above bluff my love for them impello me to respect that place yet I 1 never linger there in re pinning they are arc not there I 1 get comfort colfo r t in ing them carrying on among the living host of the departed expressing there in word and deed the ideals and ambitions which made them loveable love able while they were here albert R lyman |