{
  "schema": "tga.work.v1",
  "identifier": "dresden:vol-12:tribute-to-benjamin-w-parker",
  "slug": "tribute-to-benjamin-w-parker",
  "title": "At the Grave of Benjamin W. Parker",
  "subtitle": "Grave-side tribute.",
  "excerpt": "Grave-side tribute to Benjamin W. Parker.",
  "year": 1895,
  "volume": 12,
  "category": "Tribute",
  "author": {
    "name": "Robert G. Ingersoll",
    "wikidata": "Q360326",
    "viaf": "44331023"
  },
  "isPartOf": {
    "title": "The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll",
    "edition": "Dresden Edition",
    "publisher": "C. P. Farrell",
    "year": 1900
  },
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/",
  "url": "https://thegreatagnostic.com/works/tribute-to-benjamin-w-parker/",
  "wordCount": 205,
  "body": "At the Grave of Benjamin W. Parker\n  • This was the first tribute ever delivered by Colonel\n    Ingersoll at a grave. Mr. Parker himself was an Agnostic,\n    was the father of Mrs. Ingersoll, and was always a devoted\n    friend and admirer of the Colonel even before the latter's\n    marriage with his daughter.\n\nPeoria, Ill., May 24, 1876.\n\nFRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS: To fulfill a promise made many years ago, I wish\nto say a word.\n\nHe whom we are about to lay in the earth, was gentle, kind and loving\nin his life. He was ambitious only to live with those he loved. He was\nhospitable, generous, and sincere. He loved his friends, and the friends\nof his friends. He returned good for good. He lived the life of a child,\nand died without leaving in the memory of his family the record of an\nunkind act. Without assurance, and without fear, we give him back to\nNature, the source and mother of us all.\n\nWith morn, with noon, with night; with changing clouds and changeless\nstars; with grass and trees and birds, with leaf and bud, with flower\nand blossoming vine,—with all the sweet influences of nature, we leave\nour dead.\n\nHusband, father, friend, farewell.\n"
}