more generous with their charity than my neighbor and
my friend whom we lay away to-day. No man within my
knowledge ever presented the world with a purer, a nobler,
a loftier home character than W. C. Brann. Oh! how he
loved his wife and his dear little children--not only the
children that were living, but the child that was dead.
How ardently he strove to support, maintain and bless
them. And what a friend they have lost. No man ever
approached W. C. Brann for a penny that he did not
respond, and from his beautiful home no beggar was ever
turned away. I am afraid many people who only knew
Mr. Brann as a genius, as a man of eloquence and power
with the pen, knew little of him as a man of heart and
affection. But, I, as his friend, as a friend of his wife
and his fatherless children, I thank the people of Waco
to-day that they have testified of their affection for this
man. We shall never see his like again here, perhaps.
He was a rising star. How soon that star has set! But,
my dear friends, he has left a memory. He has made
his impression upon the world and we will never forget
him. Let me then say, for I must be brief, I am reminded
by the stormy elements about us that I must not detain
you longer, let me say in conclusion that Brann is not
dead. His burning words still live, and his thoughts will
yet remain to affect the world, and we will never forget
him. And I say to his wife and children, though to-day
you feel crushed by this great sorrow, I know by
experience that our dead do not pass away from our minds.
They grow more beautiful the longer we live. We remember
them with greater pleasure, more tenderly, they will