An incident, said to be without precedent in the history of journalism, was published relative to the deathbed of the British Statesman, Lord Curzon, who was British Foreign Secretary for 5 years following World War I.
"For days the statesman had been lying on his sick bed, fully conscious, his mental faculties made more alert by his suffering. Every morning he appealed for one of his favorite newspapers; but his physicians, fearing the effect on him of their own published bulletins recording the gravity of his illness, were forced to refuse his request.
"Yesterday it was seen he had entered upon the last phase of his struggle with death; his indomitable will alone keeping off the enemy.
"The doctors, seeking every possible means to buoy up the dying Marquis, appealed to the Daily Graphic. It is not usual for a great London Daily to agree to stop its presses, even for the highest in the land. But the editors replied that they would issue a special edition of ONE COPY announcing Lord Curzon's recovery.
"And so, in the early hours of this morning, while Lord Curzon's life was fast ebbing away, this special "bedside edition" was prepared.
It hailed the "great improvement" in the condition of the Marquis. It spoke of his cheerfulness, his bravery, and the almost certain convalescence upon which he would soon enter.
But, almost at the moment the huge presses turned out their message of encouragement, the end came. The one copy edition was never read by the man for whom it was published.
What a pitiable subterfuge! What mistaken kindness! Why hide from those departing that life is ebbing away? Deception cannot ward off the "King of Terrors" and no respecter of persons is he.
Reader, is Death to you a terror, or a servant to bring you to the Father's home of heavenly light and love? Happy the one who can say: "In peace let me resign my breath And Thy salvation see; My sins deserved eternal death But Jesus died for me."