Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1860-07-10
II is peculiarly fitting that YOU bravo Rag

II is peculiarly fitting that you. bravo Rag
Tags and Bob ais. Should thus assemble to-
gether and honor the birthday Of American
independence; you who 50 ii5ly represent and
typify our revolutionary ancestors. Your ele-
giant uniform Is fitting, Tor Is our country has
advanced with steps longer ihan those OF the
giraffe. 50 your costume Indicates Il correspon-
ding improvement over that Of your ReTolu-
tionary predecessors. Your happy and smil-
ing countenances, - familiar 10 me. are fitting
Tor tins occasion, tor they show that you take
pleasure IN enancing the cereluunifs OF
tie celebration, and that yea ENJOY the intel
lecIUai feast l have 50 bOuHteouslv spread be-
fore you. Il i 1t that yoO should engage In
these rejuIcngs the blessings of liberty
for that liberty 1t viii hereafter devolve upon
you to protect AS | see not only JOY but
courage IN your coautehances, / may conf
IDENTIFY predict that If you face the foe" with
such faces, you VIII be truly irresistible. for
none will dare 10 encounter you.
Venerable Rag Tags and Bob Tails, you
look a II you had come down 10 us from a for
fner generation Heaven has most bounteously
heightened out your c0untenauces that YOU
might gaze with fitting gravity upon the sol
emn scene. You are now y here you for others
ike you'll stood thousand year ago, at this
| very hour by the watch ]. with your brother
and other distant relatives, hip to hip in the
strIie OF your country. Behold how altered -
The same mines indeed Surround you. the
| same feeatonlca flows naes.icaily al YOU fee. /!
! but ali else how changed. iou hear now no
| rattle OF the dice box, you see now no mixed
| scenes OF the enthusiastic shindy. The sud
| den attack, the brandIshed shillalaa the loud
call to action, the bosom barred to bowst re,nen-
/ dous, ali these you have witnessed. lat YOU
! witness them no more All i changed Uncle
/ Dick still lives. but the whisky lie once knew
/ he now knoweth no more forever Go on be-
| loved Rag Tags and Bob Tails, in the noble
/ path you have marked outl proceed right on
} IN rSsrt q I I
mind year great responsibilities IS conseryators
| 81 The public veal! Let your motto be Excel
| slor, and when the trying hour presses upon
! YOU and your cOuut~y calls for aid forget not
| exhort you, IN The language Of the poet, for
/ get not 10 liam your game. Emulate the
example ut that g4l-orioUs mounting bird as
| he soars to the regions of the sun, and never
wInks.
l have endeavored-and I think successfully
to lliustrdte 70 you the fitness Of things. To
grandly cap the climax of nv illustrations, ]
VIII no w add that i Is peculiarly lit tba: |
/ should have been selected to address YOU on
TINS occasion. From my patriotism and benev-
olcuce, am willing, and from my trarscendent
genius am able, to instruct and delight You.
| Daily 60 l practice IN rolling the sweet NOR
Sc OF eloquence under my tongue, and in the
region Of thought delight to reyel But though
al all times pFe-eminently tit to address YOU, /
nave taken especial pains TO make myself sui
inter In preparation to TT myself for thIs
great occasion | have slept with the American
Eagle for forty days and forty nights For
which privilege, It Is true, he presented me his
BILL, which found was hard to meat; yet
can assure you, not boastfllly, but only with
becoming pride, he received me with eclct
i have thus DEM nstrated TO you The Fit
ness of Things. It's fl we should be here, It's
lit the cannon sho Id roar, the bells ring the
bonfres blaze aud the fire-crackers explode at
oar feet; It's tit that ice-c-eam should mell in
our mouths and the soda-fountaln send the
welcome fz to our ears; It's fit that the little
boys should explode their torpedoes against o.
backs; rs tit that the sun shopld rise and set:
rs N that mosquitoes should buzz around our
ears, TIA; fleas should practice their salutatory
exercises or our patriotic bodies, and that the
nightly proving bedbugs should creep leis-
nsely Over Tie limbs Of freenen- It's tit that
tie American Ea,ie should dip one wing in
the Atlantic and the other IL the Pacific tickle
The British Possessions with his tail-feathers
and champoo his bald old head in the Gulf Of
Mexico. And It is fit too. now that we are all
dry, after thi7, my demonstration of she fitness
OF things II Is fl tha: We should adjourn and
liquor.
oh. for lodge in some vast Ginshopi
some hound.ess coHtiguity Of rumi