his means had been dissipated by unfortunate speculations in
the stock market, which was then in a depressed condition, and that
margins upon which he had made purchases had been wiped out, hastening
his death by financial worry, and leaving his estate almost bankrupt.

At his funeral the Baptist church was crowded by a congregation which
represented the tribute of a whole village to a man who had been a
leader in its affairs for more than fifty years. The pastor of the
church, the Rev. Cyrus W. Negus, had not been long in the village, but
already was known for his earnestness and sincerity. To deliver a
funeral sermon over the body of so distinguished a member of his church
offered an opportunity to make an impression upon the entire community.
He began his sermon with the usual expressions of Christian faith in the
presence of death, and passed to a commendation of Samuel Shaw's many
good deeds in public service and private life during his long career.
Then he changed his tone, and, to the amazement of every hearer,
expressed his deep disapproval of the speculations in the stock market
which had brought the veteran editor in sorrow to the grave, and
declared that he was unable to indorse the qualities in the character of
a man so prominent in religious and civic life which permitted him to
resort to slippery methods of financial gain. In this respect Samuel
Shaw was to be held up not as an example, but as a warning to the youth
of the village.

Never was a congregation more astonished than when the speaker proceeded
to develop such a theme in the face of the mourning friends of the dead.
Probably the great majority of the congregation felt that the pastor's
view of the iniquity of such stock speculations was utterly mistaken.
Certainly all the friends of the dead editor were too indignant to
realize in that hour that they were witnesses of an unusual exhibition
of moral courage on the part of a preacher. It was some months later,
when the Rev. Cyrus W. Negus himself lay dead, and all the bells of the
village rang his requiem, that a friend and admirer of Samuel Shaw could
also fairly recognize the mettle of this preacher who had the pluck to
speak out what he believed to be his message, with every worldly reason
to be silent. He had dared to defy the conventions of indiscriminate
eulogy at funerals, to stand practically alone against public opinion,
and to turn an opportunity of winning popular applause into an occasi