WRITTEN IN THE 1930s. by another Cherokee "Well, this is the last night you're going to be pestered with me for a while. I'm off for five Sundays, but in six weeks from tonight, why--git ready to tune me out.
"I got a lot of countries I want to talk to you about later on this winter. I've been written a thousand letters about Russia and all these other places, and asked lots of questions that I haven't been able to answer, and I wanted to talk--I wanted to do a little bit on it tonight, but something has happened that made me kind of alter my whole program for tonight. "A friend passed away since I talked with you last Sunday night, and I wouldn't feel right if I-well, if I didn't change my program to say a few words about him. Well, I can't be eloquent and I can't be worthy of doing it, but I'm going to try and make up in sincerity and feeling what I lack in words. "When you've heard of somebody since childhood--well then, as you grew up and met him and come to know him and to like him, and see him become almost a tradition--then see him pass out right when it should have been the most useful years of his life. I don't know, it kind of gits me. He'd been ill, but he was feeling more hopeful. But last Tuesday morning about seven he started having acute pains, and as the day went on, they got worse. They called in what little medical help they had, but it was feared he was beyond human aid, and by nightfall--just as the sun was setting--he breathed his last, this gallant old figure who had been loved by many, feared by many, had gone to where there's no returning. All that was mortal of the Republican party had left this earth. "Don't applaud. Don't applaud, boys. They're dying. He passed away--he passed away because he wanted to live like a pioneer. He couldn't change with modern civilization. The word spread like wildfire. The news was flashed to the four corners of our land, from the nostrils of every static radio belched forth the news, 'The King is dead--the King is dead.' "It struck us like a thunderbolt. We knew that he was ill. We knew that he had really never recovered from that stroke which he had in October of 1929. A paralytic stroke brought on by a loss of marginal blood. That stroke laid him low, and it happened just when he was at the height of his career--just when things looked the brightest for him--just when he was bragging of being rugged --Oh, so rugged. Why, there was not a dark cloud that he could see on his horizon. He was made practically bedridden. It was the unexpected that struck him and his immediate family. He'd been warned, but not by any of his own doctors or close friends. But he'd been warned by outsiders that he was living a little too high, and it was liable to bring on a fluttering heart. "But he scoffed at 'em: 'What do they know about me and my health! They're just jealous of my ruddy condition. They can't match my power, and they're envious. I'll keep on living like this forever. I've solved the problem of power--mass energy. All, that's it--mass energy, and we've solved it.' And then came the dawn. "But just give the old boy credit. When the blow hit him, he was bright right up to the finish. He was bright. In October in '29 with no climatic warning, he lived up to all political--he lived right up to it--all political tradition. He said 'it wasn't my fault.' "And it wasn't his fault. It was everybody's fault. It was your fault--it was my fault--it was the Lord's fault. He just stepped in and said-wait a minute. How long has this thing been going on here--this living on dog-eat-dog principle? We'll stop this thing right here now, and give the folks a chance to reorganize and redeem yourselves. That's what the Lord told him. "Now here's where the mistake was made. The Republicans held a clinic at that very moment and decided: 'Boys, our patient is sick. He's got acute appendicitis. Now, of course, an operation is going to cost us all something, and we're all going to have to chip in. It will take part of what we have, but it may save us in the long run. There's a change coming in our lives, and we can't do the things we've always done. We can no mere ask for the same conditions to continue than we can ask for our youth to continue.' "Now had that been done, why this obituary notice that was posted on every crossroad last Tuesday night might not have been put there. But instead they decided to--at the clinic--that it really wasn't appendicitis at all--that it was just cramp colic. And that a strong, healthy man like he was--he could just throw it off, you know. He'd always been healthy and there was no reason he should be sick, and the only thing to do was just to let nature take its course, that they had always come out of these cramp colics without having to give up anything, and there was no reason why this one should be any different. "As I say, from October, 1929, to November the 4th, 1932--get that date--November the 4th, 1932-on that date nature took its course again. The patient had another stroke, and they still said they wouldn't have to operate. They rushed with the ice bags again but not with a knife. They still contended that they was right, and the disease was wrong. Well, in an argument with a disease, be it physical or economical, you'd better give--you'd better give 'era a hearing anyhow. "But in spite of all his pain--in spite of all his groans--the doctors and his whole family maintained he was fundamentally sound; that he had never been operated on in his life, and had lived this long, and that they could see no reason to think that this same life program and schedule should not go on as it always had. "So he had his third and last stroke last Tuesday. He went to his maker a physical wreck but fundamentally sound. And on his tombstone--and on his tombstone it says: 'Here lies a rugged individual, but he wasn't rugged enough to compete with the Democrats.' "Now we come to that grave question--that grave question of reincarnation. Does the soul return in another body? I believe it does. I don't know much about it, but I really believe that it returns, in another body. I don't know what animal he'll come back in. It won't be as big as an elephant, I know that. It will be--it will be something with much less humility. It will be a domestic animal--some very domestic animal. An animal more in the nature of a dog. It will have faith. Its whole soul will be consecrated to service. Will this animal be needed? It certainly will be, for the Democrats by that time will have passed out through too much power. The Democrats could never stand power as long as the Republicans could, because they never was used to it. They're getting cocky already, and they've only been in there overnight. "So the Republicans being the first to die, they'll be the first to come back. So let's say a good word for the deceased, and tell him to be ready to move over in his grave--the Democrats will be crawling in there with him pretty soon." Will Rogers
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