Warren Harding, The Second Son of God
By I am going through my old blog and finding some classics that deserve reprint. Yesterday’s Pierce post was one. Another is the obituary of Warren Harding in the Eatonville (WA) Dispatch. I found this while going through the paper looking for interesting stories about logging. This was way better than anything else in there. From August 10, 1923:
The death of President Harding is a personal loss. He loved people. That is why he was loved. Even with the reams of ‘copy’ that have been written on him, one realizes the barrenness of adjectives to describe this man.
A person will follow the even tenor of his way until confronted by an emergency. It is then that the test comes. Warren G. Harding’s elevation to the highest office in the gift of man brought out the where all could see the true character he possessed.
There was a beauty about his life which won every heart. In temperament, he was mild, conciliatory, and candid;* and yet remarkable for an uncompromising firmness.** His life was an open sesame to the hearts of others. *** He followed in the footsteps of his Master by letting the sunshine of human sympathy and happiness into the dark places of life.
It is impossible to think of him in death’s cold shroud of sororw [sic] **** and despair, but rather smiling on us from the sunset halo that marks God’s farewell to the day–smiling with all the well remembered grace of his manhood, love and devotion, and saying to us:
“The sunset speaks but feebly of the glories of another day. All is well.”
*Improper semicolon use was off the charts in the Eatonville Dispatch.
** I heard Harding’s many mistresses said similar things about his uncompromising firmness.
*** I hope someone says that my life was an open sesame to the hearts of others when I die. I have no idea what this means of course.
**** To say the least, editing was not the Dispatch’s strong suit.