egram to each of the
Deacon's five sons, two of whom lived in St. Louis, and three in
Chicago. He also sent a telegram to a minister in St. Louis to come to
preach the funeral, as, he said, he did not feel that he could officiate
at the funeral of such a worthy brother as the departed. This St. Louis
preacher had been a college chum of Preacher Bonds, and was full of the
Mount Olivet persuasion.

Those were in the days before undertakers and other such modern
conveniences had been introduced into that country. Jake Benton, good
soul, went to Dobbinsville after the coffin and hauled it back in the
same old lumber wagon he had hauled Evangelist Blank in five years
before.

The funeral was arranged for Wednesday afternoon at two o'clock. A
handful of ashes, together with the pocket-knife and other articles
found in the ash-heap, was taken and wrapped in a napkin and placed in
the big new coffin.

On Wednesday afternoon, when two o'clock arrived, the two front rooms of
the Gramps farmhouse were crammed full of people. The yard was full,
too. The St. Louis preacher began and spoke thus: "My friends and
brethren, we have met on this sad occasion to pay our last respects to
the honored dead. Within the narrow confines of this casket lie the
earthly remains of a man whose spirit yet lives. It was not my happy
privilege to know this excellent man, but I am informed by his pastor,
Preacher Bonds here, of his manifold excellencies. When a great man
dies, the people mourn. I am informed that our departed brother was a
great man. First, he was a great man in business. When I behold this
beautiful well-kept farm, I see its wide, extending fields, its running
brooks, its whitewashed fences, its excellent buildings, in the burning
of one of which our brother met his death--when I behold these things, I
say, I am made to exclaim that God hath blessed him in basket and store.
Yes, a great man in business.

"Secondly, he was a great man in his home, and by the way, there is
where the true greatness of a man is tested. In the death of our
esteemed brother the home is the loser. It loses a loving husband. It
loses a considerate father and an efficient bread-winner.

"Thirdly, our brother was a great man in the community. I am told that
he was a public-spirited man. He believed in schools, in good roads, and
in all other things that make for the welfare of a community. In his
death the community is a heavy loser.

"Fourthly, he was a