Page:History of Warren County.djvu/311

 Andrew J. Cheritree, the present county judge, was born in Greene county, N. Y., in 1830; came to Warren county in 1854; was supervisor of the town of Luzerne for several years; was appointed provost marshal at the close of the War of the Rebellion; served as school commissioner for about two years, and was subsequently appointed collector of internal revenue; was elected district attorney in 1 87 1 without opposition, and county judge in 1882 by a large majority. Judge Cheritree has justly earned a reputation for integrity and ability before the bar and on the bench which points to a wider field of usefulness in the not distant future.

Isaac Mott. —The levity and brevity of human life with its innumerable train of fleeting ambitions, are but as the faint reflection of a passing shadow, which may be tinged with prismatic beauty and leave its imprint for a brief space of time upon the collective susceptibility of human nature, speaking to the senses through the beautiful in poetry, music and art. Or, it may be the more bold and picturesque shadow of tyrannic power and decorated pomp marching in triumph o'er "the purple flood" of human hopes and universal slaughter. The pyramids which have endured the wreck of time and the shock of worlds, are but ghastly spectacles of the whirling sands and red simoon of the desert, which have consigned to oblivion the kingly names vain glory designed to perpetuate.

The imperial tyrant of Persia, with his myriads of desecrating vassals, live only in the hated recollection of Greece's proud, but melancholy history, which portrays Xerxes as the most tyrannic monster before whom an awed world ever bowed in abject submission. Earth, from pole to pole, resounded with the name and fame of Alexander who wept for other worlds in which ambition might revel in triumphal conquest. Caesar, Hannibal, Charlemagne, Napoleon, alternately saint and sinner, emblazoned their lurid pathways, and sailed in tempest down the stream of life amid the meteoric splendor of marvelous achievements.

Passing away is written upon the brow of man and the face of nature. Philosophical reflection and Christian resignation, views with smiling complacency the brevity of human ambition. Spring and summer, ere long give place to autumn, when we that are now must take our destined places in the silent cavalcade ever moving to that mystical realm where no wave of trouble breaks upon the silent shore; where no echo of joy or sadness disturbs eternal repose, or everlasting gladness. Calmed by the elysian reveries of hope, imagination wings its flight beyond the shining stars and finds there written in legends of eternal light, this golden motto, "'Tis only truly noble to be truly good."