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694
handiwork in the rugged and the rough experiences of daily life. If the poet was right in saying the chiefest study of man is man, then, where others became technical in colleges that teach the stress and strain of steel, to weigh with chemistry the material atoms, and to measure the heat of the sun and the distance of the stars, he became technical with rare exactment in his appraisement and estimates of men, for man was his study. He studied the elements and the character that go to make up a man, as measured by the yard stick of those who have achieved the most, thought the noblest, and governed themselves the most perfectly.
Thrown on his own resources, without means, at the early age of nineteen, he branched out for himself in the cattle business, living chiefly on the range, breathing the fresh air of the open and communing with nature at first hand, developed a self-reliance which with native endowments of mind, keen perceptions and decisive judgments of things, of affairs, of human nature and of men, made him the master of his fate, with the result that wealth with honor was easily acquired and accumulated to comfort those dependent upon him.
Could from the tomb the lips of him in whose honor this tribute is written make answer to this inquiry, what did you in this life most value, and by what chart did you steer your course of action over life's sea? I am of the unalterable conviction he would quickly answer : Loyalty. Loyalty in all its ramifications and in all that trust and confidence, loyalty to the highest conception of honor's code, loyalty to the principles of justice and right and fair play, loyalty to one's dignity, manhood and self-respect, loyalty as a son, as a father, as a husband, and brother, loyalty as a friend.
Fidelity has— been defined by one as the conformity of our actions to our engagements whether express or implied, if in such case love is added to fidelity it becomes loyalty.