THE ILLUSTRIOUS DEFUNCT.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3068, 27 April 1881, Page 3

THE ILLUSTRIOUS DEFUNCT.

' Men die an' are known no moar,' began the president, as stillness reigned throughout the hall. 'It am my painful dooty to inform dis club dat de Hon. Cumback Stathers, an honorary member residing at South fiend r has passed ober de.dark ribber. He has of ten visited dis club an' worked on de twenty-ninth degree wid us, an* he was kalkerlatin' to remove to this city nex' month, an' enter upon a vigorous career of white-washin'. Cumback Stathers. wasn't a great man. He wasn't a man who would eber save the kentry, or ruin it. He neber sot in de Legislature, and he was no orator. He had no horn to toot an' no ax to grind. He was simply a plain man—One -of de millions of common peoples on de shore ; of Time's great ocean waitin' to be gathered. Outside of the little circle of frien's no one will miss him. , Some oder man will walk in de paths hollowed out by his footsteps. Some odar people will be washed upon del shore to take de vacant place, an' de big • world will roll on jist de same as if sich a [ nian had neber moved among us. As a club we do not believe in eulogies. Men am what dey am, an' dyin' doan't put wings : on de Bhoulders of sinners. • Let me simply say of our dead and gone brudder dat he used men jist as men used him, which is a principle dat knocks the golden rule sky-high any day in de week. I found 1 him honest, truthful, and charitable ; an'; he was a man who fully realised de fack,; when formin' an opinyun of oder men, dat while a ten tousin'B dollah diamon' kin be carried in de west pocket, it takes a big vehicle to tote along a score of empty barrels worth twenty cents apiece.