* This was the first tribute ever delivered by Colonel
Ingersoll at a grave. Mr. Parker himself was an Agnostic,
was the father of Mrs. Ingersoll, and was always a devoted
friend and admirer of the Colonel even before the latter's
marriage with his daughter.
Peoria, Ill., May 24, 1876.
FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS: To fulfill a promise made many years ago, I wish
to say a word.
He whom we are about to lay in the earth, was gentle, kind and loving
in his life. He was ambitious only to live with those he loved. He was
hospitable, generous, and sincere. He loved his friends, and the friends
of his friends. He returned good for good. He lived the life of a child,
and died without leaving in the memory of his family the record of an
unkind act. Without assurance, and without fear, we give him back to
Nature, the source and mother of us all.
With morn, with noon, with night; with changing clouds and changeless
stars; with grass and trees and birds, with leaf and bud, with flower
and blossoming vine,--with all the sweet influences of nature, we leave
our dead.
Husband, father, friend, farewell.