Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1855-11-21
fm tie fmmer.
GOLD AND CORN.

VI AStlCuAtulC 10 mum AHC SPSSS" H
Hon. Edward Everett, at The Nationa.
Agricultural Fair, Boston, October Goth
'"rhe grains of the California gold are
dead, Inorganic masses. How they goi
into the gravel between what mountain
millstones, whirled by elemental storm
winds on the bosom of oceanic torrents,
the auriferous lodges were ground 10 pow
der; by what Titanic hands the coveted
grains were sown broadcast in the pia-
GERS. human science can but family co.,
lecture. We only know that those grains
have within them no principle of growth
or reproduction, and that when that crop
was to be put in, Chaos must have broken
up the soil. How different the grains Of
cur Atlantic gold, sown by the prudent
hand of man, in the kindly alienation Of
seed-time and harvest each curiously,
~mysteriously organized hard, horny
seeming %lifeless on the outside, but wrap
ping up in the interior a seminal germ, a
living principle. Drop a grain of Cali
farnia gold into the ground. and there II
will lie unchanged to The end of time, the
clods on which it falls not more cold and
l~ifeless. Drop a grain ofour gold, of our
blessed gold, in the ground, and loi a
mystery. In a few days it s%oftens, it
swells, it shoots upwards, it is a living
thing. 1t is yellow itself, but it sends up
a delicate spire, which comes peeping,
emerald green, through the soil 1t ex-
pands TO a vigorous stalk, reyels in the
air and sunshine, it arrays itself more
g~loriousthan Solomon, in its broad, furter-
ing, leafy robes, whose sound, as tho west
wind whispers through them, falls as
pleasantly on the husbandmaa's ear as
the rustic of his s~weetheart's garment,
still lowers aloft, spins its verdant skeins
of vegetable gloss, displays IFS dancing
t~assels, sur-charged with fertilizing dust,
and at last ripen into two or three magni-
fcent bstons like this, ian ear of Indian
corn, each of which is studded with hun
dreds of grains of gold, every one posses
sing the same wonderful prophecies as
the parent grain, every one instinct with
the same marvellous reproductive powers.
There are seven hundred and twenty
grains on the ear which | hold in my hand.
And now Lsay, sir, of this transcendent
gold of ours, the yield this year will be
at least ten or fifteen times that of Cali
fornia.
But it will be urged, perhaps sir, in be-
half of the California gold by some miser-
ly old fogy, who thinks there is no music
in the world equal to the chink of his
guineas, that though onc crop only of
gold can be gathered it lasts to the end of
time while che will maintain our vege-
liable gold is produced only TO be consul
med, and when consumed, is gone forey-
er. But this, Mr.. President. would be q
most ~egregious error both ways. 1t is
true, the California gold will last forever
unchanged, if its owner chooses; but
while il so lasts it is of no use, no, not
so much as IFS value in pig iron, which
makes the best of ballast ; whereas gold
while ii is gold, is good for little OF moth
ing. You can neither eat it, nor drink it,
nor smoke it. You al neither wear it,
o burn it as fuel, nor build a house with
it it is really useless till you exchange
it for consumable, p~erishable goods; and
the more plentiful it is the less its exchan-
gable value.
Far different the case with our Atlan-
tic gold it does not perish when consul
med, but by a nobler alchymy than that
of Paracelsus is transmitted in consump=
ton to a higher lie. Perish in consumP-
tion,' did the old miser say Thou fool,
that which thou sowest is not quickened
except Il die. The burning pen Of inspi-
ration, ranging heaven and earth for a
similitude 10 convey to u poor minds
some not inadequate idea of the mighty
doctrine of the Resurrection, can find 10
symbol so expressive as bare grain. Ii
may chance of wheat or some other grain.
To-day a senseless plant, tomorrow it is
human-bone and musccl, vein and arte.
~, sinew and nerve /; beating pulse,
heaving lungs, toiling, ah! sometimes
over toiling brain. Last June it sucked
from The cold breast of earth the watery
nourishment of its distending sap vessels,
and now it clothes the manly form with
warm, cordial flesh, quivers and thrills
with the five-fold mystery of sense, pur-
veys, and ministers to the highest mystic
ry of thought. HeaPed up in your gran
aries this week, the next it will strikein the
stalwart arm, and glow in the blushing
cheek, and fash in the beaming eye )
till we learn al last TO realize that the
slender stalk which we have seen bending
in the cornield, under the yellow burden
of harvest, is indeed the staff of life,
which, since the world began, has sup.
ported the foiling and struggling myriads
of humanity on the mighty pilgrimage Of
being.
Yes, sir, to drop the allegory, and tc
speak without a figure, it is this noble
agriculture, for the promotion of which
this great company is assembled from SC
many paris of the Union, which feeds the
human race, and all the humber order:
OF animated nature dependent on man.
With the exception of what is yielded BY