him two years ago, could not help but realize what a few years can do for us all. My former acquaintance with him caused us to become very intimate the last session. We boarded at the same house, consequently met often. He was always genial, although suffering constantly he was never anything but pleasant and eheerful, never complained. He was fully aware that his end was near, and more than once expressed a doubt of ever returning to the Senate. I know nothing of his last hours on earth, but I am confident that he continued to the last the uncomplaining gentleman. I understand that his untiring zeal in pursuit of his business was rewarded with a fair share of this world's goods; that he was always willing to share freely with the needy. I cannot better close these short remarks than by saying that I loved him. Senator Boardman moved that the resolutions be adopted by a rising vote of the Senate, and the President expressed his great pleasure in being able to announce that the resolutions were unanimously adopted. In Memoriam .. of .. Don. R. S. Smith, Late Senator, 39th District, Who Died at Towa Falls, Towa, August 29th, 1893. The Resolutions Adopted, and the Speeches Made, By bis Colleagues, February 6th, 1894. The special order being resolutions relative to the death of Hon. R. S. Smith, Senator from the Thirty-ninth District in the Twentyfourth General Assembly, Senator Craig offered the following resolution: WHEREAS, On August 27, 1893, Hon. R. S. Smith, a member of the Twenty-fourth General Assembly, died at lowa Falls, lowa, while on his return home from the Democratic State Convention, and was buried at Cedar Falls, Iowa, August 29, 1893; therefore, Resolved, That in the death of Senator Smith we mourn the loss of an able and conscientious member of the Legislature, one devoted to the best interests of his constituents and the people of the State, whom he served with such signal ability on the floor of this Senate. We remember the kindly qualities of his generous heart, the noble attributes of his manhood, and shall ever cherish with fond and sincere recollection our departed friend and brother. Resolved, That these resolutions be entered on the journal of this Senate. Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate be instructed to send an engrossed copy of these resolutions to the family of the late Senator Smith. GEO. M. CRAIG, In moving the adoption of the resolution SENATOR GEORGE M. CRAIG. of the Thirty-ninth district, spoke as follows: MR. PRESIDENT-I shall not attempt to pronounce an elaborate eulogy on, or an extended biographical notice of the life of the late Senator Smith, nor shall I indulge in fulsome adulation, but I desire to simply make a truthful portraiture of a life largely devoted to the humbier pursuits. Senator Smith was born April 14, 1844, in Bradford. Penn., and with his parents came to Cedar Falls, Iowa, in 1856. He was educated at Corning, N. Y., and Beloit, Wis., and after leaving school taught school for a while in Butler county, Iowa. At the age of twenty-three he entered the mercantile business at Rock Grove, Iowa, where he met Miss Martha M. Heisz, to whom he was married December 18, 1869. These two moved directly to a farm near Parkersburg, Iowa, where the late Senator resided until his death. He was suddenly stricken down in the prime of life and the full vigor of manhood, and the announcement of his death came like a thunder-bolt from a cloudless sky, casting a pall of mourning over his friends and the constitutents he so ably represented on this floor. I had the pleasure of forming his acquaintance when we were young men, which ripened into a warm personal friendship which lasted until his death." In manners he was simple, modest and retiring, and it was only among his family and friends, where he was perfectly free and unre strained, that he displayed those noble and generous qualities of heart. which he possessed to such an eminent degree. Kind, charitable and humane, the poor and needy never appealed to him in vain. If he found any one in distress, he took immediate means to alleviate their suffering. He was the benefactor of the widow and orphan, and he never refused financial aid to a friend who had met with misfortune, and many an one who now owns nice and comfortable homes, owe it to the fact that he was a "friend in need." His life was replete with noble and generous deeds, and hardly one who followed him to the tomb, who had not at some time received many acts of kindness at his hands. Believing that political parties represented principles rather than schemes, he was an honest partisan and a zealous worker for the advancement and triumph of his party. In the heated political contests in my county, in which he and I were the chairmen of our respective county committees, I can proudly say of him, that he never permitted his zeal for his party to betray him into any act inconsistent with his exalted ideas of morals and honesty, and he severely condemned the low and disreputable methods so often resorted to by politicians. While the State has lost a most worthy citizen, let us also remember that his wife has lost a loving and devoted husband, and his children an indulgent and tender parent, that the family circle is broken, and may the eulogies delivered here to-day upon the death of our deceased brother shed a ray of light and hope in the home upon which the mantle of mourning has so recently fallen. SENATOR JOHN EVERALL, Of the Thirty-sixth district, in seconding the motion of Senator Craig, spoke as follows: MR. PRESIDENT-I had not the opportunity or pleasure of knowing the late Senator R. S. Smith so long or so intimately as the eloquent Senator who preceded me, but I am pleased to note that my estimate of his character formed upon a short acquaintance is corroborated by the knowledge gained from the lifelong friendship of the present Senator from Butler. My acquaintance with the late Senator extends to the convening of the Twenty-fourth General Assembly, when we like others met as strangers but parted firm friends. I think, that perhaps no two members associated more when not In this manner I learned to know and respect the man to whom the title "Senator" added nothing in my estima in session than we. tion. "The rank is but the guineas stamp The man's the gold for a' that." Like the Senator from Butler I noted his retiring disposition, that he did not care or wish to attract attention and disliked posing or theatrical display in others. He was honest in his opinions and walked in the path of duty as he saw it. A democrat because he believed that it was for the best interests of the State and Nation that democratic principles should prevail, but he always gave his political opponents credit for the same honesty of purpose. He did not believe that a person's honesty should be questioned because he was a republican, or patriotism for the reason that he was a democrat. He looked, Mr. President, in his social relations, as we all shouldbeyond these political differences to the man behind and saw true men and patriots in those who could not see from his standpoint. No narrow-minded mau can do this. His mind was broad and he only regarded party lines as the means to accomplish an end, and if he thought they trended in a wrong direction would not be bound by them. I last saw him a few days before his death, and we then planned. what we would do at this session, both fully confident of meeting the other here, forgetting for the time Shakespeare's words, "Thou knowest 'tis common, all that live must die, passing through nature to eternity." We value the treasure most when lost and custom makes us say those things of the dead that we perhaps should have said during their lives, but, sir, it is nature speaking; planted within our hearts by God himself is a longing after immortality. It is for this we toil, hoping to leave a footprint to be seen by those who follow. As we wish to be remembered so do we cherish the memory of the "loved and lost". We would not forget if we could, so that there is a satisfaction in calling to our aid the photography of memory, and conjuring up the picture of our lost friend in recalling the warm, firm clasp of his hand, the noble character of the man, the warm impulses of a heart whose throbs are stilled forever. An honest man who so far as this life is "no more". Longfellow says: No more; oh how majestically mournful are those words, They sound like the roar of the wind through a forest of pines." But we also remember the words of the same poet: "There is no death; what seems so is transition; This life of mortal breath Is but the suburb of the life elysian Whose portals we call death." SENATOR GEORGE L. FINN, Of the Sixth district, in speaking to the resolution, made eulogistic remarks relative to the high character and worth of the deceased senator. Senator Craig moved that the resolutions be adopted by a rising vote of the Senate, and the President expressed his great pleasure to announce that the resolutions were unanimously adopted. Senator Finn moved that after the correction of the journal the Senate adjourn until 10 o'clock tomorrow as a mark of respect to the late Senators Thomos C. McCall and R. S. Smith. Carried. Leave of absence was granted Senator Phelps. The journal of the 2d was read, corrected and approved. The Senate adjourned. |