William Judson

WILLIAM JUDSON.

Life is a mysterious entity. Now we have it and now we don't. In the midst of life we are in death. The passing of Hon. William Judson is an illustration in point. So far as the public knew at least he was man in the pink of health with many years still before him, but in an hour an almost without any warning at all he is summoned.

As a man, independent of politics, he had many admirable qualities. He was big-hearted, genial and kindly, always ready to do a good turn for a friend. He was happy in his home life, possessing those personal qualities of heart and mind which go far in the make-up of the contented and happy home circle. He was true to his friends and his enemies always know what to expect of him.

But it was in the domain  of politics that he appeared at his worst and it was over his doings in this field that his fiercest enemties were aroused. He knew machine politics, practical politics, and was willing to come out in the open in the practice of the game as few men are. He believed that if one would be successful in politics he must resort to the means so generally resorted to by the successful in the game. He did not bother himself with the results upon our political institutions. Under the kind of political methods he practiced there could be no evolution of political affairs upward, and consequently such methods are not destined to remain permanent and the best that can be said for them is that they will not be permanent.In the political methods in which his fort lay eh was resourceful, was quick to initiate movements and effect combination for the accomplishment of his purposes. He seemed to have an intuitive genius for landing with the winning faction and standing up beside the new political luminary with the air of the original discoverer. Through this ease with which he could off with the old and on with the new, eh was always able to keep himself in a public position and appear as one of the pillars of the new political power. In this way he was always able to aid the cause of men of larger ambitions than his own and thus place them under obligation to him. There were probably few, if any, men in the state who could handle the primaries under our present caucus and convention system as could William Judson. And this power was never more clearly shown than during the caucuses and conventions of last year, and possibly his greatest victory in this line was the passing of the resolution endings Gen. Alger thorugh the judicial convention at Grand Rapids. He will be missed in such contests.––Daily Argus.