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OF THE BENEVOLENT PROTEC TIVE ORDER OF ELKS. Impressive Ceremonies in the Acme Opera House, Sunday Afternoon.—An Eloquent Address by Hon. J. H. Shively, and a Touching Eulogy by Col. W. J. Fife that Held the Audience Spellbound.—Excellent Music. In whatever part of the world the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks has an organization, the first Sunday in December is observed by that order by Appropriate exercises in memory of their departed brothers. In conformity with this rule of the order, Grays Harbor Lodge No. 593 held public memorial services in the Acme opera house, Sun day afternoon. Grays Harbor Lodge attended in a body and occupied the center of the house, marching from the lodge room promptly at 2:30 o’clock. The opera house was filled by the public, whose attendance was amply repaid by the interesting and impressive ceremonies and eloquent addresses. The stage was beautifully decorated with the national colors, the royal purple color of the order and potted palms. The stage was occupied by Lon, J. H. shively, Col. W. J. Fife and Revs, Mc Dermoth and Crawford, and the follow ing officers of the lodge: H.C. Watkins, exalted ruler; R. H. Falconer, esteemed leading knight; L. M. Roser, esteemed loyal knight; H. A. Slayes, esteemed lecturing knight; Geo. A. Black, secre tary; W. R. McFarlane, treasurer ; Geo. J. Wolff, chaplain; P. M. Littler, esquire ; E. Pfund, ryler; W. EB. Crammatte, inner guard. After an overture by Castrino’s or chestra, the program as published by the HERALD last week was splendidly ren dered. The singing by Mesdames 8S. M. Anderson and Fred H. Green and Mr. E. Pfund and Dr. Scammell being particu larly well received. The address was delivered by Hon. J. H. Shively, one of the ablest speakers of the state, which’ reputation was fully sustained upon this occasion. He dwelt at length on the aims and objects of the order in a manner deeply interesting to the members of the order as well as to the large number of non-members pres ent, and paid a feeling tribute to the memory of the only member of Grays Harbor Lodge that had passed to the great beyond during the year, the late Adolph T. Olsen. Col. W. J. Fite, of Tacoma, delivered the eulogy with all the great dramatic force for which he is noted. Col. Fife said in part: ‘Sophocles, the most renowned of the Grecian poets, almost equally distin guished as a dramatist, statesman and philosopher, closed a career of eighty years, which the world has called bril liant, five centuries before the birth of our Savior. But unenlightened by Christ ianity there was not a happy paradise of God opening before him. And as he sank into the rayless grave, he left be hind him the following pathetic testi mony? **Man’s happiest lot is not to be. And when we tread life’s thorny steep. Most blest are they who earliest fall Deceasu to death's eternal sleep.” Alexander the Great, we are told, be ing upon his deathbed, commanded that when he was carried forth to the grave his hands should not be wrapped, as was usual, in the cere-clothes, but should be left outside the bier, so that all might see them, and might see that there was nothing in them, that they were empty; that he, born to one empire, and the conqueror of another, the possessor, while he lived, of two worlds, of the East and of the West, and of the treasures of both, yet now when he was dead could not retain the smallest portion of the wealth; that in this matter the poorest navar and he were at length upon equal terms, Plato represented his admirable Sacra , after an unjust condemnation to death in the prison at Athens, encom passed with a noble circle of philosophers, discoursing of the soul’s immortality, and that having finished his argument for it he drank the cup of poison with an undisturbed courage as one that did not lose, but exchanged this short and wretched life for a blessed and eternal. Por this he argued, that there are two ways of departing souls leading to two entrary states of felicity and of misery, socrates died like a philosopher, but Jesus Christ died like a you. An English nobleman was once expior we among the catacombs of Egypt. He ame to one mummy case which bore a date of 2,000 years before. On unwrap ping the many folds of linen from the shriveled form, he found in the blackened hand a dahlia bulb. for all these ages the hand of death had held it. Could tes there be life in it still? The gentleman took it home and placed it in a pot of warm, moist earth. He tended it care fully for a few weeks, and what were his surprise and delight to see the soil part and the tender shoots of a strong, vigor ous dahlia spring up. In due time it bore a beautiful blossom, which was looked upon with interest deeper and stronger than greeted such a flower be fore. It seemed almost beyond belief that life could exist so long, shut out from all that nourished life. Yet this is but a faint type of the immortality of that soul which once moved the lifeless hand that so long had grasped it. The grave is not the end of man, but the fuller unfolding to us of what eternal life really means. And in the solemnity of this hour, remembering the uncertain ty of time and the momentous reality of eternity, let us turn to the Lord who will have mercy on us; and to our God, who will abundantly pardon. Ancient Rome that sat on her seven hills and from her throne of beauty ruled the world, had her vestal virgins guard with religious care the sacred fires that burned with sweet and smelling incense and lit the tombs to commemorate the deeds of her emperors and generals of that classic and warlike age. We, as a nation, commemorate the deeds of our fallen heroes by the ob serving of Memorial day each year. The choicest and best flowers of the land are woven into chaplets and garlands to lau rel the graves of our dead. This is a day of memory, and of love, for those who died for the eternal principles that make death for one’s country a pleasure and not a pain. It seems thut a few weeks since I stood before you and yet a year has glided away into history. Last year when I came you had no name on your memor ial page, but I see that the mysterious hand of death has come into your midst and taken one of your youngest and best members. He has gone to a higher and a better life, and if he could speak to you today he would say to you, ‘Weep not for me, but for yourselves.’’ His life was gentle and the highest compli ment [ can pay him or the grandest eulogy that could be pronounced for the departed brother is to say, ‘Take him all in all, he was a man.” The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, throughout our broad land, have assembled to write the faults of our de parted members on the sands of the sea shore and their good deeds upon the tablets of love and memory. Toward your fellow men so act that in the after years, looking back o’er the past, regret shall bring no tears, “The stars shall fade away, the sun himself Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years; But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth Unhurt amid the war of elements, The wreck of matter and the crash of worlds,
Newspaper Details
Aberdeen Herald
Aberdeen, Washington, US
Thu, Dec 05, 1901
Page 1
Full Page
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Kellan R.
USA 29 Jul 2026
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Aberdeen Herald
