Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-07-26

AhNAA BAGtAN11 AtAln W NAE ACnAANhAg W
the greater number Of persons whs at
tended went out on the railroad at min
and eleven O'Clock, am. At twelv
O'Clock, m, 8 procession was formed
composed Of the grand children OF tn
old folks" (headed by Prof. Smith
brass band) who escorted Colonel ]. II
Mcmahon to the stand, upoI
which was seated many Of the ole
folks, 4" who annually meet to inter
change those greetings for which on
aged citizens are noted, occupied seats OF
the platform, among whom we noticed
F. M. Titus, J. M. Patrick, M. G. Cayce
T. c. Blakely, Judge Dunlap, ParsoI
Davidson, Edmond Harrison, Messrs
McManus, Sample, and others. Among
the rest Of the sold folks" we were
much gratifed to meet Mrs. Whittier,
the oldest lady in Shelby county, who
looks quite as young as she did last year,
May she live long an honor 10 her sex
and truly an ornament to society.
Col. Mclean, in a few brief but well
timed remarks, introduced the orator Of
the day, Col. Mcmahon, who spoke as
follows:
"Time rolls his c-easeless course. The race OF
WHO danced our infancy upon their knee.
And told our marvsiing boyhood's legends
STORE
or their strange ventures Mapped by land
and sea,
How they are faded from the things that bel
bow few, all weak and witheredr OF their
Wait on the verge OF dark eternity,
Like branded wrecks, the tide recurring hoarse
To sweep them from cur sight! Tine rolls his
Aye, and though his pathway be
thickly strewn with crushed and ruined
hopes, and his footprints be marked with
the blOod-stains of fond hearts from out
which have been trOdden, as in the VINE
press, the ruby juices OF life, there are
stages in his career when the work Of de-
vsstation would seem to be suspended,
when the walls Of sorrow would
seem to be suppressed, and the
voice of gladness substituted for the
sob Of grief-when chaplets of roses
encircle his brow, and the moments, as
they pass, sparkle as the dust Of dia-
monds in the sunlight of hope. Such a
stage in times remorseless career is the
occasion which has brought together the
"Old Folks at Homen Of the good cOun-
ty Of Shelby with their fair wives and
blooming daughters-their stalwart sons,
vigorous in the first flush and glory Of
manhood, and their sweet little grand
children, with their bright eyes peering
WDAAAAClluEAN AAlO NIAC AlAL NEEOuH lulhltEs
and seeing there only scenes like this, of
unalloyed happiness.
It is a gOOdly custom, and a salutary,
that which has teen instituted amongst
us, of meeting once a year, out in the
free ar, beneath the genial heavens, to
meet aad greet each other, to exchange
situations n good wishes, to cement
still closer the friendships which have
withstO0d the Jars and shOgIs OF twenty
years, and to mould as it were inUG one
family, those who are TO take Our places
when we, TOO, shall have crossed over the
river to repOse in the shade Of the Trees
which margin the shores Of the better life
in the great Hereafter. 1t is a custom
which hath such vitality in it, that it
survives the d~islOcatiOns Of a fear
ful civil war so tremendous in its
powers OF devastation as TO have
well nigh destroyed all else Of the beau
tifui 1dd henUy past Of our land. Its
fOundationS ate Quit upon the best and
nOblest cRaracterisbcsOI OaF nature for,
after all The imperfectiOns or maE-ais
passions and his prejUdices-his rivairies
and his iealOusies-there dwRlis deep
down in the human heart q aspiration
implanted there by the Good Father OF
alone Of those Eden traces be still in
QGIlLS. LtDuEh AAlE u al VI LL4C SCI DEuA ~
over them aIl-the aspiration for peace
an good fellowship, and the enjoyment
of t5e love and good will Of his fellow
men. 10 tue soOd and the true, wars,
strifes, contentious, are but fever stages
Of eZistence-racked win p-in wild
with fury, possessing no JOYS put L8e
u-Bsubstantial sGstacies Of deiirium.
What is called glory, triumph, conquest,
is often shOrn Of the qualification they
bring by the feeling Of reimbursement or
of s~eif-reprOach on account Of the mad
anger and injustice through which they
were won, when we come to contemplate
thea in the sweet calm of cOnvalescence
FROM THIS Helady Of the passions. Il is
then we feel Cad -calige how far better il
is to love than hate or fslt0W mpp-hOw
much more glorious il is to DeaF Wan,
forgive and cherish, than TO hOtiy resent, 1
aveguIe and destroy-hOw much more
truly glorious il is to conquer and restrain
OUT passions than harshly to subdue our
fellows IL our resentful and arbitrary
will.
When, therefore, these Sho have en-
dured together the trials oflife Tor UWgnty !
years or more, have experienced with
each other the frailty and imperfectiOn,
s. veil as the good that is, after all,
really in maD, came together some years
ago and found hOz -oOd and how
pleasant it is for brethren 10 dwell TO-
in unity an institution was kOrn
will not, must not be let die. It's
vitality was sOrely tried, almost at the
hour Of its birth. In the very infancy of
its organization, one Of those raging
of the mind from which a nation
is no more exempt than the individuals
wh2 compose ii, plunges our heaven
iaa1 into the horrors of a
war which history will record as
the fratricidal strife Of il fS1C e giants.
The prOprieties Of the occasion and per
sOnal inclination alike forbid any further
difference to this dreary and sad episode
OUE EQuntry's progress, than to say
hat when the nGTricane passed, out of
The wrecks and ruins everywhere visible,
irst tC emerge, in all its pristine Ame-
iness, without a scar or flemish, is the
ngtitul!0n of the cold Folks at Home; -
yea, verify, at H9Ge, out among these
old trees, and this other beautiful
lhings Of kindly nature, with the blue
leRvens above us inviting US TO lift
ourselves above the sOrdid and grow
ling anim0sities of earth, and the
rec, fresh, health giving winds
cooling the fevered brow, and in
yiting the Overburthened heart to
itself Of its cares and anxieties.
Il home, too, though ont in the woods of
he country, and away from our dwell
ngs in the dusty and sweltering city, as
he early settlers were before ~sO-called
civilization, with its attendant devasta-
ions, had hewn down and east into the
Tres Of an artificial, commercial exist
the stately temples nature provides
or her worshippers. There be amongst
,ou many who can remember we'll
when this beautiful country, upon which
he sun now glares down upon exhausted
ields whose fertility has been sacrificed
o tho demon greed Of quickly :
aimed gealth, was garnishea with
lately forests filled with wild game,
md carpeted with nutritious grasses, in Z
abundance for the sustenan0e OF
nan and beast. Here and there the ak
lad let in the light upon the dwelling Of
he emigrant, who, loving freedom and
lature and truth better than the gilded ,
,0mp and feverish cares and hollow sell !
Of that artificial existence in
which we fret away life in the hOt-bed
enters OF civilization, was content to
aise VI his children in the honest,
manly ways OF the primitive, indepen- I
.ent American citizen. They were q
ace and type OF men and women who
and loved God, and taught their
hildren TO speak the truth-to be '
rue men and good wives. Were
not that it would pain the mod S
sly which ever characterizes true excel 5
,nee, 1 could adduce abundant i~llustra-
.ons out OF this audience, of the efficacy {
f their precepts ana eXamPie-6bnhe6t- C
~ links, as they are, between the re- f
nements and cultivation and luxury of S
ne era in which we live, and the robust o
implicitly, energy and integrity of the b
who subdued the wilderness, o
nd builded up the growing city to which v
lany of us are condemned to return v
this happy day shall be spent and b
yer. Those were the "good old days. 4
hose memory can dry up in the hearts il
T those who saw even the latest of o
lem, only with tie drying up Of the u
of life itself.
Your historian of last year, in the adj 81
iirable and eloquent address which has 81
q most valuable part of your O
has perpetuated the names of a
lese grand old pioneer fathers of the 81
rendering justice to their char p
,ters, ana emhalming their memories b
words Of elo9u6nt Tribute to their Y
Orth. Upon me devolves the sadder a
of recording the names of those who @
ave gone from among us since our last Il
These are: e