ately requested to preach at the funeral of a
prominent member of his congregation. Unacquainted as he was with
the life of the deceased, he made inquiry as to his last utterances.

"He recalled the last words of Webster, 'I am content'; of John
Quincy Adams, 'This is the last of earth'; and even the cheerless
exclamation of Mirabeau, 'Let my ears be filled with martial music,
crown me with flowers, and thus shall I enter on my eternal sleep.'
Charged with these reflections, and hoping to find the nucleus of a
funeral sermon, the minister made inquiry of the son of the deceased
parishioner, 'What were the last words of your father?' The unexpected
reply was 'Pap he didn't have _no last words;_ mother she just stayed
by him till he died.'

"And now, my friends, as the curtain falls, my last words to you:

'Say not Good-night,
But in some brighter clime
Bid me Good-morning!'"

XXIX
THE LOST ART OF ORATORY

DANIEL WEBSTER'S SPEECHES--HIS PATRIOTIC SERVICE IN FORMULATING
THE ASHBURTON TREATY--PRENTISS'S DEFENCE OF THE RIGHT OF MISSISSIPPI
TO REPRESENTATION--THE EFFECT OF HIS ELOQUENCE ON A MURDERER--HIS
PLEA FOR MERCY TO A CLIENT--WEBSTER WINS AN APPARENTLY HOPELESS
CASE--INGERSOLL'S REVIEW OF THE CAREER OF NAPOLEON--HON. ISAAC
N. PHILLIPS'S EULOGY UPON ABRAHAM LINCOLN--SENATOR INGALLS'S TRIBUTE
TO A COLLEAGUE--A SINGLE ELOQUENT SENTENCE FROM EDWARD EVERETT--
SPEECH OF NOMINATION FOR WILLIAM J. BRYAN--MR. BRYAN'S ELOQUENCE
--CLOSING SENTENCES OF HIS "PRINCE OF PEACE."

One of the must cultured and entertaining gentlemen I have ever
known was the late Gardner Hubbard. His last years were spent
quietly in Washington, but earlier in life he was an active member
of the Massachusetts bar.

In my conversations with him he related many interesting incidents
of Daniel Webster, with whom he was well acquainted. In the early
professional life of Hubbard, Mr. Webster was still at the bar;
his speech for the prosecution in the memorable Knapp murder trial
has been read with profound interest by three generations of lawyers.
As a powerful and eloquent discussion of circumstantial evidence, in
all its phases, it scarcely has a parallel; quotations from it have
found their way into all languages. How startling his description
of the stealthy tread of the assassin upon his victim! We seem to
stand in the very presence of murder itself:

"Deep sleep had fallen on the destined victim and on all beneath
his roof.