Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-06-27

, here years ago, and who has since 70
! step BY step above those around him. =
! was hero In, war, and came hope criI
pied in body, but not in mind. This ms
vas ne who will address you tonight.
4 ga cog" TWELFTH TOAST. i'd -i'i1i
4 The Press g}s-d .1ik Iq
Tho mightiest Of the mighty means d
/ " which the arm Of Progress leans,
Mans noblest mission to advance, I'll VI
| HIS woes assauge, his veal enhance
| His rights enforce, his wrongs redress--
| Mlghtiest OF mighty iSTHE Pass.
4 j. 8. WARD-Mr. President and Gentle
men Of the Alumni: As the Representative
Of the Press / respond most heartily q
this toast, but feel that were TO search
the vast realms Of poesy, coald find moth.
ing 30 unique, so beautiful, 80 expressive
as the toast 10 which | speak.
| Napoleon once said il was a hard mat.
ter to find q man who had courage at 2
o'clock Ia the morning; we think it a
harder matter still to ind one who has
Wit at in the afternoon. The Press, CON-
Inning its mechanical and intellectual de-
partments, is recognized as the most poten-
tial agent which science has ever contribu-
ted to man. r -srlfs ss-a
When Greece was the home of the arts,
and her groves we're vocal with oratoFy,
her ambitious heroes and statesmen made
their pilgrimages TO the Delphic oracles,
70 beg the boon of immortality. The
ambitious man Of to-day who wishes
TO bind around his brow the green
coronal of Immortality, pays his dsvoirs
TO the press, and the next morning
he wakes up to find himself famous, with
his brow bound with amaranth ard his
name watchword among the millions
The press is the great camera which
transfers to the printed page the thoughts
that breathe in words that burn, Of the
richest intellects of the world.
As the sunlight falling through the
stained glass Of some ancient cathedral,
floods the altar and mercy seat with pur-
pie, amethyst and gold, more beautiful
than the original sunlight 50 many Of the
crude productions OF the stump and the
forum, when they have undergone the
manipulations of the press, come out With
color brighter than when they leaped
from the tongue of the orator.
This idea of The transforming effect
which types have on bad spelling and
worse rhetoric, is 30 prevalent In the world
that many believe, though they spell bad
ly as Chsucer or Artsmus Ward, that the
touch of type, BY some mysterious trans
mutation. will make their spelling "a cor.
rect as Worcester, and their dic.ion as
chaste and graceful as that Of Christopher
North.
The Press has ceen the vidette out in re |
of civilization. No gloom
so profound that its darkness does not
vanish before the illumination of the Press.
The wild antelope to-day, as he leaps |
from crag TO erag Of his snow.girdled |
home on the Rocky mountains, hear from |
The village below the voice of the enter.
pricing newsboy crying out "Here's your
New York Heraldp' a. ua - |
T The Press has more hands than Briarens,
and more voices than the great harmonic
son of Nature.
' There is not note in the grand orches-
sra Of Nature, from the trolling of the
birds to the scream Of the eagle, from the 4
zephyr which "dies like rose of aromatic
pain" to the voice Of the cyclone as il /
'weeps the bosom of the ocean, or the tenn
pest as 1t Joins in the sublime diapasou Of /
The mountain pines, from the sweet lisp of |
,hildhood to the soothing waits Of melody
rom woman's heart, from the celestial /
harmony of the spheres to the sad refrain
which comes upon the ear at eventide from
The lost and wandering Pieaid no, not one 4
note Of JOY or woe, not one chord in the /
of human life which does not |
ind its echo through the magical agency
Of the Press.
Every one admits the power Of the pres.
But this gives it a fearful responsibility.
It can elevate snd glorify man, or it can |
bear him on its resistless tide til he is sub /
merged beneath the asphaltic waves of the
Dead Sea, whose poisonous waters will al |
low no hower-memorials to bloom over his /
grave. a5 '.I... ltf'
The great demand of this age ID a press
'arctiiied by religion and cOnsecrated to /
he elevation and exsltatiHn of the moral /
md intellectual growth of man. Muzzle
he press and liberty dies. The common
observer is sometimes led to CRY "away 4
With the press, because some of its menu
1ers pour stresms Of moral poison over 90
,iety. Happily there are but few of
hese bitter Aarahs, while the world
parkles with pure riVulets. The whole,
'arth has but one Dead Sea, while the
tars nightly mirror themselves in the Boz
ON Of ten thousand pellucid lakes.
1t is the mission of the Press to photo I
,raph the current events of the day, to-
EDUCATE the masses, TO make virtue at
racliye, and sometimes TO spread pearls"
,efore the ladies. .i
Cumberland University has sent from
Ter halls men whose martyr-like tread
long the fiery edge Of battle has made
hem immOrtal-meu whose achieve
nents at the bar will inscribe their names
10 bright page Of the jurisprudenee of the
whose high culture have
made them famous as teachers-ministers
whose eloquence and spiritual power have
made conquests for the church; but howl
ew editors has che in the field? We do not
NOW of but four Of her sons who are sit
iRgon the tripod which rules the world.
Bat we have spoken enough. We,rsgreRI
hat this Intellectual feast, this cosfnnn-.
ng with the gods of Olympus, is not graced
" the presence of fair women; for while
We have often heard men decry against the
'ress, we have never yet in all our wander
ngs found single lady Who was opposed 10
we'll conducted pre-
THIRTEENTH TOAST.
The Ladies We say of them as Cicero
aid of letters, "Adolescentiam Aunt, SEN
ctutem oblectanf, secundas res ornapt
dversis solatium prsbent, delectant domi."