The Lansing state Republican. [volume] (Lansing, Mich.) 1855-1874, 1859-08-02

MoyrREUx Switzerland June %. lS5

eighth Congregational SocietM an
Picnic GSSemHe3
Yunc Men and Women. and Men and
Womer no longer young: Far of IN body
let me salute you ss face to face in spirit !;
so indeed We are, for | feel a. near you as
If my eye read your welcome and familiar
faces, and saw there what YOU have been
doing the last FIVE month \ year ago
when | told You of the great oak tree, near
by, about as large as John Z. Hale in cir
conference. who stood M before You as
the unit of measure, had a dim present
ment that | should not be with YOU bodily
at your next annual meeting-tor then
felt the approach of the evils which have
50 disturbed me since, aud was long in re-
covering from the night fatgues of that
festal day, But | did not then think that
when YOU should again look at Wellington
Hill, 400 or 500 feet high, the Pc du
MIDI. 10000 feet Ugh, shccted with snow,
would seem as near to me. How little do
We know what shall happen That tall
mountaln-lt passes for nothing in this Al
pine family Of gants-lOoks in at my win
cow All Gay ...l oil night i0n.r " ,ri;,,a,.
white in the surrounding darkness; then
bushes rosy red as morning comes up the
sky. The snow shifts aud varies on It's
top and sides from day to day; but never
wholly disappears. lis said | can throw
a walnut from my chamber into the Lake
of Geneva, whose blue-green waters are So
fair all day. Handsome vineyards are all
around me here; yet their crop is not SO
fair as our own Indian corn-the Pocahon-
tas of the cereal grasses. The chateau
Chulsn is within fifteen minutes walk
built on n rock in the lake a few yards from
the shore, where the water is 500 feet deep
they say. 1t is very old there was
| castle there, used as a prison in $50, aud
the present structure was put in It's present
shape in l2is.
A romantic little village, full of old hous-
es, with its grey stone church, is pcrched
on the side OF the mountain one or two hun
dred fe,t above my head. Most picturesque
are the pleasant places where the lines of
my present lot have fallen to me So good
comes out of evil
py, and look intelligent and vrtuous they
work less than We, sGrr more ami enj0y
more. The country Is rich, not by nature,
but by the toll of many generations. For
while in New England, our last cultivation
of the soil is not :,io years old. here you
count TIE triumph, OF industry by thou
sands of years think the vine was cul
tivatcd here before the time of julius Cc-
sar not To speak of corn aud other necdiul
things which human toil wcocd out Of this
sunny land perhaps 1000 or 1000 year>
age. The soil is poorer than wha, you
stand on, and more st"ney, too; the slope,
are sleeper than the most abrupt descent:
about you. But labor conquers all th,
steep mountain sides are uuuchcd into ter
races, whose sides are protected bv th'
stones which once cumbcred the ground
the shores are lined with stone Ia wiihStau,
; the plashings of the uneasy lake. The sol
is rich by art and bears enormous crops e
! costly grapes | love 10 see the Indial
corn scattered here and there among III,
vines. Nothing is lost ; no foot of soil, n,
ray of sunshine on a wall but an apricot
peach. or a grape is ripcning there. ;
, has not driven Beauty off; men are no
: content with the sublime of nature, the
must have the handsome artitcc of flower,
Pinks, hollyhocks, marigolis. giIly yilower
end the queenly rose bloom IN all the Iittl
gardens. LIN the homely windows of
stone cottage IN the narrow streets Of Mo:
9 trcuX, you will find finer show Of cact,
! scs than all tropic Santa Cruz now present
= TO its proud and lazy inhabitants, equal
c incapable and regardless of beauty. Her,
4 too, all is peace-lt Is the incidents Of peac
Q | have boon rpvahi"5 IL P-. culy :
: miles off. as the crow flies, are outpo-ts
G the Allies, two armies, numbering 300
/ 600 men, are drawing near to kill cac
:. other, and before these lines reach YOU
:, suppose they will have Redeemed the crour
l. with dreadful murder. No doubt the Au
TRANS are the Devil to Italy; their name
V Legion, aud they have possessed it many
r sad year damua,t 1'ciescLi, as ii
d Italians call them. Now, Napoleon ii
- the Prince Of that class of Devils, the Vel
e Beelzebub comes to east them out Ii
good to get rid Of the oid German d,U,
e even is new French one turns him of
% this rough fashion; it is of a kind th
\. goes not out, except by fire and sword.
a. rejoice, therefore in every French yicto
y it gives Italy some chance for freedol
E though | hope little for these effete nation
eer You and ! may be thankful that o
of land is not rodden by the hoof Of va
=, not yet | mean. but the days will cor
n. when We also must write our great chart
Of liberty in blood 70 man in Euro
has so difficult a problem 10 solve as Am.
ica none has 50 great contradiction
. :. the national consciousness. The spirit
:. despotsm has a lodgment in the Unit
!. States Of America; $50 900 slaveholdt
'' keep 100000 in degrading honda
which Europe only knows in her ancit
story not from present fact Besides tn,
= are 5000 Hunkers, entrenchcd behi
:, the colleges, courts, markets and churcl
= Of America, who are armed, in their W
g for the defence Of this despotism, and ;
deadly hostile to all the institutions Of ]
10 mocracy.
= \ great struggle goes on in Europe
"a "a day, in all Europe The actual war '
~ local. confined to small part Of Italy