History: Death of Hon. P. McCauley Cook, Representative from Fulton Co., PA

Contributed and OCRed by Judy Banja jbanja@msn.com

USGENWEB ARCHIVES (tm) NOTICE 
All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives remain the property of the 
contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US Copyright 
Laws and Regulations.
In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, 
these documents may be used by anyone for their personal research. They may 
be used by non-commercial entities so long as all notices and submitter information are included.
These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit.
Any other use, including copying files to other sites, requires permission 
from the contributors PRIOR to uploading to the other sites.
The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the 
file permanently for free access.
___________________________________________________________

                               PROCEEDINGS

                                 OF THE

                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                                ON THE

                          OCCASION OF THE DEATH

                                  OF

                          HON. P. McCAULEY COOK,

                     REPRESENTATIVE FROM FULTON COUNTY.

                            CLARENCE M. BUSCH,
                     STATE PRINTER OF PENNSYLVANIA,
                                   1897.

RESOLUTION.

In the House of Representatives,
    March 25, 1897.

  Resolved (if the Senate concur), That fifteen hundred copies, of the 
resolution and memorial services of Hon. P. McCauley Cook be printed and bound 
in cloth for the use of the House.

  Extract from the Journal of the House of Representatives.  
    JERE B. REX,  Chief Clerk..

The foregoing resolution concurred in.
    E. W. SMILEY, Chief Clerk of the Senate.

  Approved - The 31st day of March, 1897.

    DANIEL H. HASTINGS.

RESOLUTION.

  Mr. Long. Mr. Speaker, I offer the following resolution:
  Whereas, P. McCauley Cook, an honored member of the House of Representatives 
of Fulton county, has been suddenly taken from his fellow members by death; 
therefore,
  Resolved, That we express our sincere sorrow on account of his mysterious and 
sudden removal to that bourne from which no traveler returns.
  That we condole with his family in this their hour of trial and bereavement.
  That his desk be draped in mourning for the period of ten days.
  That a committee of ten members be appointed to attend his funeral and the 
Speaker of the House appoint a suitable time for memorial services in memory of 
our deceased member.
    The question being,
  Will the House agree to the resolution?
  It was agreed to.

MEMORIAL SERVICES.

    In the House of Representatives,
        Wednesday evening, March 24, 1897.

  The House wars called to order at eight thirty post meridian, Mr. Lennon in 
the chair.

PRAYER.

  The following prayer was offered by Reverend Milton H. Sangree, chaplain of 
the House:
  O God, thou art eternal; we are but of yesterday - the grass, the flowers that 
flourish in the morning and are cut down and wither by the evening are the 
emblems of our earthly existence.
  We thank thee, O our Father, that it is not all of life to live, and that 
death and the grave are not the goal of our being.
  We bless thee for the undying life in Jesus Christ, surmounting the "wreck of 
matter and the crush of worlds."
  Give us, our Heavenly Father, here, where the shadows are so deep, and where 
the earth is being continually upturned to receive the dust of a fellow mortal, 
the hope, the joy, the triumph of immortality in Christ Jesus.
  We meet, Our Heavenly Father, to do some little meed of honor to the memory of 
our friend and soldier Representative, who sleeps in thy Providence his last 
earthly sleep, awaiting thy call at the resurrection morning.
  O God - the face - the voice of our friend - the greetings of those few brief 
days the memorials of sorrow and honor that marked his vacant seat in the old 
House - the fresh grave near his childhood's home, thick strewn with flowers - 
are all engraved in imperishable characters, upon the, tablets of our memories.
  We thank thee, Our Father, that when he was little more than a boy, he offered 
his young life for the country he loved, and we bless thee, too, for the manly 
patriotic, ministering life of his riper years.
  May the consolations of thy grace, thy presence and the joy of thy salvation 
be the portion -of the widow and the children of our departed friend, in all 
their sorrow and loneliness; and O God, who gave us this fair Columbia, may 
there, never come a time when brave hearts may not be found willing and ready to 
lay down their lives if need be for our glorious flag, and for this land, the 
best of earth, twice bought for Liberty with patriotic blood.
  Our Heavenly Father, constrain by thy love every member of this House and all 
in its service to become, through thy dear Son, members of thy household of 
faith, that when we fail on earth we shall be at home with thee forever.
  Oh Jesus Christ, thou "Kindly Light" for man - Shepherd, Brother, Friend - 
lead us each one by the hand until "angel voices" shall greet us and earth's 
sorrows and shadows, fears and uncertainties, shall have passed away forever in 
the glorious vision of eternity. All, Our Father, we offer thee, and ask of thee 
in Jesus' name and for his sake.  Amen.

REPORT OF COMMITTEE.

  Mr. W. H. Long. Mr. Speaker, as chairman of the committee appointed to prepare 
a tribute in memory of our late colleague, Hon. P. McCauley Cook, I beg leave to 
submit the following:

To the Honorable, the Members of the House of Representatives:

  The undersigned, appointed a committee to prepare a suitable tribute of 
respect in memory of our late colleague, the Honorable P. McCauley Cook, as well 
as give expression to our high regard of his many excellent qualities, beg leave 
to respectfully submit the following and recommend its adoption:

W. H. LONG,
  Chairman, 
WILLIAM H. MILLER, 
CHARLES W. HERMANN, 
JAMES W. CARSON, 
R. R. KAYLER, 
WILLIAM C. SMITH, 
JAMES SCHOFIELD, 
CHARLES B. SPATZ.

  Whereas, The House of Representatives, of Pennsylvania wishes to make record 
by testimonial its high estimate of the character and life of the Honorable P. 
McCauley Cook, representative from the county of Fulton and also desires to 
express its sincere sorrow at his sudden and unexpected removal from us by 
death; therefore, be it
  Resolved, That this body hereby testify and place on record its high 
appreciation of his merits as a soldier, a citizen, a member of the House of 
Representatives and a true friend.
  P. McCauley Cook was of that type of manhood and possessed of those virtues 
that caused him to be held in the highest esteem by his fellowmen, and qualified 
him in an eminent degree to perform the duties devolving upon him in every 
relation of life, a man who, by honesty and sincerity of purpose, won for 
himself a good name and the confidence and respect of his fellows.
  As a volunteer soldier he participated in some of the most important battles 
of the late rebellion, manifesting his willingness to risk his life in order 
that the liberties of his native land might be perpetuated and the union of 
States more firmly united.
  As a legislator, although with us but a few days of the session, yet his 
intelligent conception of the solution of a question, the result of his 
scholarly attainments as well as his congenial disposition, leads us to conclude 
that he would have become one of the most useful and popular members of the 
House.
  As a citizen and true friend of the people among whom he passed nearly all his 
life, the favor in which he was held by his neighbors furnishes a living 
testimonial to his extraordinary worth. His profession being a physician, with 
tender hand and kind regard for the woes of others, he applied the healing balm 
upon the poor as well as the rich; through heat and cold he was ever willing to 
respond to the call, and upon his mission of mercy bent he proved a friend in 
need, never consulting his own comfort or convenience when his services were 
required.
  As a kind father and loving husband he merited and received in the domestic 
relations the confidence and warmest affections of his wife and children.
  Resolved, That we tender to the widow, the sons and daughter of our departed 
friend our heartfelt sympathy and condole with them on account of the great loss 
they have sustained, and point them to the Great Helper who will give strength 
to the despondent and those who are of a heavy heart, as well as courage to 
endure, the trials incidental to human life.
  That the Chief Clerk be directed to transmit to them a copy of the 
resolutions, with the action of the House thereon, and that as a further tribute 
of respect, at the conclusion of these services, this House do adjourn.
  Mr. Long. Mr. Speaker, in presenting this preamble and resolution, I wish to 
say that it is a fact worthy of mention, although but one member of the 
committee had met the person to whom the words contained therein are dedicated 
before he came to Harrisburg to take up his duties as a member of the House of 
Representatives, and many of the members who had become acquainted with him were 
for a time unable to recall the happy moments in which they held sweet converse 
with him. For it was simply an introduction and the usual exchange of 
compliments. But when able to again fix in mind the open countenance the genial 
smile and loving words of our new companion, the thought expressed by all who 
remembered him was that of sincere sorrow on account of the sudden and 
unexpected demise of our dear friend. For he was a man who was richly endowed 
with those qualifications that are so much to be desired if the brotherhood of 
mean is to develop on the line laid down by God, the Creator, when he fashioned 
man - the creature of his power - in his own image. 
  Sometimes when death comes and removes from earth one who is of distinguished 
character, as relates to his own community, we are inclined to overestimate his 
importance and usefulness and extol his good deeds, and with a charity that is 
becoming we bury beneath the clod that rests upon the bosom of the dead their 
imperfections, whilst we magnify any virtures [sic] they may have practiced 
amongst their fellow men. But in the person of P. McCauley Cook, we do not 
hesitate to proclaim, was embodied a type of manhood which, by his life, 
furnished an example worthy of imitation, as we strive for the attainment of 
that perfection which finally shall be consummated when the veil that separates 
the temporal from the eternal shall be lifted, and we are permitted to become 
active participants in the perfect life which is promised in the great beyond to 
all who are faithful here below.
  We believe he has gone to receive the reward of the just. May we profit by the 
example so richly embellished in the life of one whose time upon earth was 
devoted to good works in humanity's cause. Death is sad under any aspect, but 
when the grim reaper seeks for its victim a bright and shining light we are 
sometimes tempted to rebel against the power that thus severs all earthly ties 
and blights the buoyant hopes that serve as an anchor to meet the trials and 
adversities incident to this temporal existence. But the great God who holds our 
destinies in His hands knows best, hence, it becomes us as loyal subjects of the 
Great Sovereign of the Universe to submit to his decrees without a murmur. 
Therefore, let us look upon this dispensation of Providence and learn from the 
sudden visitation that "in the midst of life we are in death," and be prepared 
so that when the great summons comes to us we shall be ready to cross the dark 
river with that unwavering courage that will land us safely upon the shore of 
that eternal world where sorrow, sickness and death are unknown and where, in 
unending bliss, our spirits shall blend with those who have gone before. I have 
this message for the widow and sorrowing members of the family: God's ways are 
sometimes to us enveloped in mystery, but we have the promise that the time will 
come when the day will break and the shadows flee away. "For now we see through 
a glass darkly; then, face to face." Hence, when death separates here, our 
consolation is in looking forward to the time when, in the resurrection and the 
new life, we shall join company and forever dwell in an endless eternity with 
those who have already passed over on the other side. Longfellow has beautifully 
written of this separation in the following suggestive language:

  There is no flock, however watched and tended, 
    But one dead lamb is there;
  There is no fireside, howsoe'er defended, 
    But has one vacant chair.
  Let us be patient: These severe afflictions 
    Not from the ground arise;
  But oftentimes celestial benedictions 
    Assume this dark disguise.
  We see but dimly through the mists and vapors, 
    Amid these earthly damps,
  What seems to us but sad funeral tapers 
    May be heaven's distant lamps.
  There is no death: What seems so is transition - 
    This life of mortal breath
  Is but a suburb of the life Elysian, 
    whose portal we call death.

  Doctor P. McCauley Cook was born in the Little Cove, Warren township, Franklin 
county, Pennsylvania, on May thirtieth, one thousand eight hundred and forty-
three. At the age of seven he was left motherless, and who does not know what 
it is to be bereft of a mother's love? Before he attained the age of twenty-one 
he enlisted in company C, One Hundred and Twenty-sixth regiment Pennsylvania 
Volunteers, and served as corporal until his regiment was discharged, 
participating in the battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, 
as well as the numerous skirmishes in which his regiment took part. His chosen 
profession being that of a physician, in the attainment of knowledge while 
developing on this line, he attended the colleges at Mercersburg and Franklin 
and Marshall. He graduated at the Pennsylvania Medical University about one 
thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight and was eminently successful as a 
physician. He was appointed a pension examiner, which position he resigned when 
he became a member of the Legislature. He was married to Miss Sallie M. Saylor, 
who, with their sons, Claude and Charles, and daughter, Miss Katie, survive him. 
He died at his home in Fulton county, near Webster Mills, Ayr township, on 
Sunday night, January thirty-first, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven, 
after a short illness of pleuro-pneumonia, aged fifty-three years eight months 
and one day.

    "After life's fitful dream."

He sleeps beneath the sod, close by the place of his nativity, among the hills 
where he loved to roam and where his spirit often mingled with the storm and 
tempest, as he rode upon his midnight errand when ministering to the wants of 
the sick and afflicted, there to rest until that morning when the Son of Man 
shall come in all his glory to judge the quick and the dead.
  Mr. Carson. Mr. Speaker, I would pay a brief but sincere tribute of respect to 
my deceased friend, to honor whose memory we are now assembled.
  It was my privilege to know Dr. Cook - to know him intimately and for many 
years.
  Hence, when I bear testimony to his estimable character, to his worthiness in 
all the relations he sustained in life, that testimony is based not on 
tradition, but on knowledge gained by personal friendly intercourse during a 
long period of his life.
  Peter McCauley Cook, a native of Franklin county, Pennsylvania, was born 
nearly fifty-four years ago. At an early age, when a little boy, he was welcomed 
into the home at Mercersburg of his paternal uncle, whose name he bore. By that 
uncle and his most estimable wife, both of whom I knew well, he was tenderly 
cared for and educated. It was in Mercersburg that he pursued those studies 
which prepared him for entering Franklin and Marshall College.
  Before completing his collegiate course he returned to Mercersburg and 
commenced the study of medicine. That pursuit was interrupted by enlistment in 
the army. Upon the termination of his military service he resumed and continued 
the study of his profession until the University of Pennsylvania conferred on 
him the honorary degree of doctor of medicine.
  I knew Dr. Cook when a bright and spirited boy, when an earnest student, when 
a brave soldier, when a successful practicing physician, and can testify to his 
genial, generous temperament at all times and under all conditions; can testify 
that his life was true, that his aims were high, that his purposes were noble, 
that his character was without a stain.
  In the domain of his chosen profession Dr. Cook achieved honor and 
distinction. As an active and influential member of the Franklin County Medical 
Society he was highly esteemed by his associates of that society for his 
quickness, of perception, for his mental penetration, for his faculty of nice 
discrimination.
  If in the line of that profession his lot had been cast on a broader and more 
conspicuous plane of effort, his mental endowment, his industry, his intense 
interest in, his love of and devotion to, the science of medicine and surgery 
would have made him more widely known as worthy of place in the advanced rank of 
the devotees of that vocation.
  For more than a quarter of a century Dr. Cook served professionally the 
community in which he lived with skill and fidelity that won for him the ever 
increasing confidence, respect and love of those to whom he ministered; and in 
that service, yielding to the promptings of nature, he discriminated not between 
the rich and the poor, serving both with equal promptness and fidelity, the one 
class without thought or hope of pecuniary reward. And, perhaps, nowhere (save 
in his stricken home) will Dr. Cook be more sincerely lamented than in those 
cabins that dot the mountain sides of the beautiful Great Cove valley, for, with 
his gratuitous professional ministrations to the poor and needy dwellers in 
those cabins, he scattered among them with profusion the flowers of sympathy and 
kindness.
  Dr. Cook had but crossed the threshold of a public career when insidious, 
relentless disease asserted its power, baffled medical skill, laid low its 
victim, causing a pang of sorrow to run through many hearts. Had he remained 
with us we may be assured that these qualifications - natural and acquired, by 
the diligent use of which he commanded success in all the efforts of his life, 
would have made him a useful public servant and crowned his public career with 
honorable distinction. But the great Disposer of events has closed his way to 
that eminence, and we must yield to his sovereign will, comforted by the thought 
and belief that He has transplanted him in that bright and beautiful region 
where there is no drouth to wither, no frost to blight, no storm to bruise, 
there to enjoy forever that rest he so much craved.
  Mr. Dixon.  Mr. Speaker, we are assembled to-night to memorialize the name of 
our late comrade, brother, associate, friend, Dr. P. McCauley Cook. On this 
occasion we are to search the corridors of memory for recollections of him who 
once sat with us in the legislative halls of the State, and solemnly and 
devoutly pay a tribute of respect and place a wreath of laurel upon his brow.
  My acquaintance with him whom we specially revere to-night was that of a few 
weeks only, but in that brief time I came to know him quite well, indeed, and 
learned to love and admire him almost as a brother.
  Dr. Cook made acquaintances and friendships rapidly, and I doubt if there were 
many members of the House of Representatives who did not learn more or less of 
him during the few brief weeks of his sojourn among us.
  To me he seemed of pleasing and expressive countenance, gentle and sympathetic 
nature, cheerful and animated in all that he said or did. Such traits and 
attributes certainly could not fail to endear him to all and to win the 
approbation, confidence and esteem of his associates.
  When the announcement was made of his sudden death all of us, although we had 
known him but briefly, with one accord exclaimed: "We have lost a valued 
companion, a wise counsellor, an intimate and dear friend."
  His legislative career was very short, and I am safe in saying that his 
constituents as well as his fellow-members had an abiding faith in his ability 
and integrity. We all know that he represented his constituents in a 
straightforward, frank, able and conscientious manner, and that he would have 
continued to reflect credit and honor upon his constituents, upon this House of 
Representatives and upon himself, had the thread of his life been lengthened.
  Dr. Cook was a Pennsylvanian by birth. In this great Commonwealth he was born, 
here he lived to be fifty-three years of age and here on his native soil rest 
his ashes. He loved to talk of his native State, her great wealth, her mighty 
resources, her rocks and rills, her rugged mountain peaks, her smiling valleys, 
her ever-flowing rivers. Above all he loved to talk of Pennsylvania's great men, 
her eminent statesmen, her profound scholars, her professional men, especially 
those in the profession to which he belonged. He loved his native State and 
loved her welfare, and in his death Pennsylvania certainly mourns the loss of a 
generous, patriotic, noble son.
  Dr. Cook was a soldier. He was of just such material as soldiers are made of. 
At the age of twenty he heard the beat of the war drum and the call to arms, and 
he enlisted in Company C, One Hundred and Twenty-sixth regiment Pennsylvania 
Volunteers. He loved the Union as he loved his own State, and when men in mad, 
mistaken frenzy sought to disrupt this fair fabric of states, he, patriot that 
he was, shouldered his musket and marched to the very front, where the fight was 
thickest and death surest.
  At Chancellorsville and Fredericksburg he struck as brave men strike, long and 
well, for home and native land.
  All honor to P. McCauley Cook, the soldier and the patriot. All honor to all 
the brave men who inspired with patriotic impulses, went forth at their 
country's call from the hills and valleys of old Pennsylvania.
  Though years have elapsed since the close of that fearful struggle in the 
sixties, we shall never cease to revere their memory. One by one these "boys in 
blue" are answering to the last roll call, and one by one are they mustered out. 
Yet we who survive, and generations yet to come, will keep their memory green.

    "When the war-drums ceased their beating 
    And the battle flags were furled."

  Dr. Cook returned again to private life. He graduated from the University of 
Pennsylvania, and took up the practice of medicine. In this pursuit he took high 
rank, and became at once eminently useful, endearing himself to all. In the 
midst of his usefulness he was suddenly cut down by the ruthless hand of death. 
But what is death? This world is only the vestibule to the great life beyond.

    "Dust thou art, to dust returnest, 
    Was not spoken of the soul."

  The great army will still move on, though he by the wayside has fallen, weary 
of the march of life.
  We, his comrades, footsore and weary, will not have long to wait. The sun of 
our life is sinking toward the western sky, the shadows o'er, the earth are 
lengthening, and the night, the long, dark night, for us is coming on.
  Let us, by the death of our colleague; be admonished to

    "So live that when the summons comes 
    To join the innumerable caravan which leads 
    To that mysterious realm where each 
    Shall take his chamber in the silent halls of death, 
    Thou go not like the quarry slave, 
    At night, scourged to his dungeon, 
    But sustained and soothed by an 
    Unfaltering trust, approach thy 
    Grave like one who wraps the 
    Drapery of his couch about him 
    And lies down to pleasant dreams."

  Mr. W. H. Miller. Mr. Speaker, this is wholly an unexpected speech by me. I 
had not anticipated saying a word on this occasion, but, Mr. Speaker, it always 
gives me pleasure to speak well of my friends, dead or living, and never evil of 
my enemies.
  In eulogy of our deceased comrade and fellow member, P. McCauley Cook, of 
Fulton county, permit me to say that my personal acquaintance with the deceased 
was somewhat limited. I very well remember my first meeting with Comrade Cook, 
the first few days of this session, in the old State Capitol on the Hill. Why I 
was so drawn to him I often wondered, yet, when I come to study the 
characteristics of our deceased friend, I cease to wonder. Viewing his genial, 
manly disposition we see him and know him as one of God's true, noble men, moved 
by love and fidelity.
  It was these noble attributes of the farmer's son of Franklin county that 
prompted his every action in his early boyhood of industry, integrity and 
fidelity, in following every occupation and discharging every trust that brought 
with them for the young man a preeminence in his community among his associates, 
and early in life gained for him an enviable reputation. Follow him through the 
different departments of learning and education - again this same spirit of love 
for his neighbors and fellow men prompted him to thoroughly prepare himself for 
the medical profession - to enlist on his mission of love. But alas! there comes 
the crash of arms, the peal of thunder as it were, from far off Fort Sumter. His 
patriotic spirit, devoted as it was to his friends and neighbors, was no less 
devoted to his country's welfare. Doctor Cook dons the blue, shoulders the 
musket, marches to the front with the spirit of a young patriot, willing to 
endure all the privation incident to army life - in camp - on the bivouac - on 
the weary march - on the field of conflict and carnage - amid the din and roar 
of cannon, the bursting of shells, the zips of the minnie-ball, the shrieks and 
groans of the wounded and dying. The call to-close up the vacant ranks never 
daunted the courage of this noble, valiant young Pennsylvania soldier boy; the 
spirit of love for his colors - the emblem of his country - the stars and 
stripes, was his only thought. He followed the colors with that soldierly spirit 
until finally his ambition is gratified on the field of Appomatox. Proudly our 
comrade and late fellow member turns his weary, sore and blistered feet, scar-
worn face and with blood-stained garments, homeward, there to be welcomed by his 
friends and neighbors and gracefully receive the encomiums of a hero, and 
patriot.
  He takes up his profession with the same spirit of true devotion that actuated 
his motives during his former life. He now locates in Fulton, where he follows 
his profession for more than a quarter of a century. As an angel of mercy he 
applies the healing balm, and the name of Doctor Cook becomes a household word 
in his community.
  No wonder then, that, when his personal friends - rich and poor, high and low, 
and of all conditions - became aware of the serious sickness of their honored 
and esteemed friend there was general solicitude for his recovery and welfare. 
But suddenly there came a moment when all voluntary medical skill and all that 
kind friends and loving hands and hearts could do, was powerless. The grim 
Reaper, Death, had reaped the Goal, as it were, and Doctor P. McCauley Cook was 
dead. A cloud of sorrow encompassed, not only the home of our dear friend and 
fellow-member - as well rays the homes of his fellow-members - but throughout 
the whole length and breadth of his county, regardless of former party 
affiliations, a general sorrow prevails, and everybody feels as though he has 
lost a true friend.
  On the day of the final obsequies all business was laid aside and all the 
people were anxious to pay their last respects to the earthly remains of their 
former neighbor and comrade and most honored citizen, as well as to his 
sorrowing family.
  Slowly all that remained mortal of husband, father, kind neighbor, eminent 
physician, loyal statesman, brave soldier and comrade, was followed to its final 
resting place amid sorrow and grief.
  As the open grave received its new treasure we said: Is this the goal of Fate? 
Echo answers, No!

  The goal of Fate is not the tomb -
    Hope's pinions soar beyond;
  And with the Eternal chains of love 
    Shall soul to soul respond!

  Mr. Chidsey.  Mr. Speaker, the first of February, one thousand eight hundred. 
and ninety-seven, is remembered by all of us because that night witnessed the 
last, evening session of this Legislature on Capitol hill. It was a scene of 
earnest, intense, ambitious activity - a picture of life.  The next day the 
flames ate out the very vitals of that Legislative hall and night saw the ruins, 
a picture of death. Our late fellow-representative, P. McCauley Cook, came from 
Fulton county a picture of life. When I last met, him it seemed as if every 
fibre throbbed with health. A short time passes, foul disease burns out the life 
of a fellow-member, and, while fire was raging through our beautiful chamber, a 
funeral procession was going in the storm among the mountains, carrying the body 
of our colleague to his last resting place. A vivid picture of death. We live 
and die in a world of change. Mr. Speaker, I was in the hall of the House when 
the lights went out and parts of the ceiling fell on that fateful second of 
February. I joined the mad rush to the rear door. Passing Dr. Cook's desk I 
noticed the drapery of mourning and a beautiful floral emblem that the hand of 
affection had placed there. In the excitement I paused a moment thinking of my 
departed friend. and inhaling some of the fragrance of those sweet flowers. Sir, 
we are all rushing towards the rear door of life. It is well for us to pause 
awhile and bring flowers to the memory of our dead friend, to inhale in these 
solemn moments some of the perfume that comes from a full-rounded, well-spent 
life. You know, sir, that there are some men who are born, live, vegetate, die. 
They are

    "Like the snowflake on the river, 
    A moment seen, then gone forever."

  Not such a man was Dr. Cook. You remember Charles Kingsley in his "Farewell" 
said, "Do noble things, not dream them all day long and so make life dearth, and 
that vast forever one grand, sweet song." From my heart I believe our friend was 
one who did noble things not only all day long, but far into the night. I can 
see him as the faithful physician at all hours either going eastward by the 
bridle path over the spur of the Tuscaroras or climbing to the westward up into 
the fastnesses of the Alleghenies, tireless in devotion to duty. On the 
battlefield, at the primaries, at the polls, as a citizen, as a representative, 
as a man doing, not dreaming, noble things all day and often all night. I 
believe that he has made his life one grand, sweet song. Sir, his work was done. 
In love his Creator promoted him to a higher and better world.

  "And from Heaven of Heavens above,  
    God speaketh with bateless breath,
  My angel of perfect love.
    Is the Angel men call Death."
  His work is done, He is at rest.

  My friend referred to his craving for rest quite frequently during our last 
conversation. He mentioned his busy life at home and said he wanted the change 
of living up here. He wanted rest. His craving was satisfied by his Maker, and 
in love he was called to rest. In fancy I see his last earthly resting place. It 
is in a beautiful valley. There the mountain east and the mountain west stand 
like giant sentinels guarding my comrade's grave, and the scene southward is 
"Greenwalled by the hills of Maryland" and northward lies the picturesque valley 
where the trees, leafless now as they shake in the wind, seem to beckon to his 
spirit to come to the other side and rest in the sweet fields of Eden. It is a 
mournful pleasure for me - a sad duty to my late colleague here and comrade of 
the army to bring, from the shadow of the Blue Mountains, just where they 
gracefully bow to let the waters of the Delaware go, peacefully to the sea, my 
tribute of respect, affection and regard, and to lay it as I now do, upon the 
grave of my departed friend and fellow-legislator, Dr. P. McCauley Cook.
  Mr. Dixon in the chair.
  Mr. Lennon. Mr. Speaker, when the pulsations of life are stilled forever it 
becomes the duty of friendship and of love to commemorate the virtues of the 
lamented dead. In accordance with this beautiful custom, the House of 
Representatives is convened to-night under special order as a mark of respect to 
the memory of our deceased colleague, the late Honorable P. McCauley Cook, 
member from Fulton county.
  Sad dispensations come almost daily to remind us of the uncertainty of this 
life, and that the grave, that cold and silent tomb, is the final resting place 
of all.
  Assembled here to-night within this sacred edifice, dedicated to the King of 
Heaven, we are forcibly reminded that we know not what a day may bring forth, 
and that "in the midst of life we are in death."
  What member of this House at the opening of the session was apparently 
stronger, more healthy, more vigorous than our deceased brother? None, indeed, 
more likely to have reached the allotted three score years and ten. Yet in a few 
short weeks all is changed.
  It was not my pleasure to have been personally acquainted with Dr. Cook, until 
I met him in Harrisburg before the convening of the Legislature. His honest, 
quiet and unassuming manner impressed me, and we at once became friends.
  A week later, when, at the request of our distinguished Speaker, Hon. Henry K. 
Boyer, it was my privilege to submit for his consideration the name of one of 
our members for appointment upon the Soldiers' Orphan School Commission, I 
conferred with my associates and found the sentiment was unanimous in favor of 
Honorable P. McCauley Cook, and he was accordingly named for that position, an 
honor seldom accorded to a new member, but, nevertheless, a recognition that he 
deserved and appreciated highly, and had he lived would have been a worthy 
member of that distinguished body.
  Greater statesmen may have come upon the stage of life than our deceased 
associate, men whose names may live longer in history, but none more honest, 
none more conscientious, none more faithful in the discharge of duty and of 
labors assigned to him.
  When the black clouds of civil strife broke upon and deluged our country with 
a nation's blood; when the flag, which to-night waves from this building 
gracefully and unchallenged as the emblem of American liberty was in peril, his 
name was found upon the muster roll, and with his life in his hands, he went 
forth to battle for the Union of States and the preservation of our American 
nation.
  His work is done, his labors are ended, and he has entered upon that real life 
that has no end. Let us hope that when our time shall come it may be said of us, 
as can be truly said of him: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

    Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?
    Like a swift fleeting meteor, a fast flying cloud;
    A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave,
    Man passes from life to his rest in the grave.
    The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade, 
    Be scattered around and together be laid, 
    And the young and the old, and the low and the high
    Shall moulder to dust and together shall lie.

  Mr. Creasy. Mr. Speaker, I move that the resolutions as read be adopted by a 
rising vote.
  Mr. C. J. Rhode. Mr. Speaker, I second the motion.
    The question being,
  Will the House agree to the resolutions?
    They were unanimously agreed to.

ADJOURNMENT.

  Mr. Lennon in the chair.
  The Speaker. The business for which this special session has been called 
having been accomplished, this House now stands adjourned.

                                     ~~~*~~~