The Carson daily appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1865-1870, 1869-09-22
ADDRESS OF WELCOME.
At the meeting of the National Grand
Lodge of Odd Fellows, in San Fran
cisao Last week Grand Master John B


cisco, last week, Grand Master John B
Harmon spoke as follows:
Most Worthy Grand Sire, Officers and
Representatives Grand Lodge of the United
States-In rising, on behalf of the Grand
Lodge of California, and also on behalf OF
the entire Brotherhood here, to welcome
you to San Francisco, how many thoughts
| crowd upon nv mind. 1t Is wonderful that
you are here; wonderful that any of us are
here. A few years ago our mountains were
drear in the solitu lie, our valleys untitled.
our climate unemployed, this city unborn.
As one wanders around these hills, looks at
these paved streets, these dwellings,. these
public buildings, shese school houses with
their ten thousand children, these spires
he is almost constrained to ask, what ma
gicisn has been here : Am not in Rome,
or Paris, or London, or New York Can
his be theaier, with actors on the stage
and men and women in the dress circle !!
And was that music which heard: Were
you not all but Yesterday in your homes in
Maine, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Louisi-
ana, and Texas: And how came you here?
Look there, at those grand old Sierras, and
that vast Rocky Mountain chain /: They rise
up to the skies, nearly two miles higher
than the spot where We sit, and surely you
did not cross them.
Verify, Gods way are not as mans ways.
While, only two decades past, our eyes were
dim, and saw not the hidden treasure Of
CalIfornias hills while those submits,
crowned with eternal snow, stood grim SEN
tinels on each side the great basin to warn
of adventurers. His eye saw the iron path
way, along which you have just been whirled.
For ages Has finger has been pointing to the
track that should lead men and civilization
e shrE h. L.
of limited vision, have not. until now, seen
the hand nor the track. No magician, then,
bu, the great God of the Universe, hath
brought these things to pass. The revolu-
tions. the changes and the progress of the
last ~ years. TO mems unaided thought, are |
utterly bewiidering. They are comprehen- |
sible only whan remember that they are |
but links in that chain of events through |
which man and nations m we on to their
destiny. For, if there be a Supreme, Intel
igent Being, the Creator and Preserver of
the Universe, there must be a continuity of
thought and things. To break that CONT
nuity for an instant would be TO wreck the
heavens and the earth.
To-day, as part OF the grand march of
events, the people of the whole world are
centeTIng their eyes upon this western coast.
You. my brothers, have come these 1000
miles over mountain and plain, and desert,
not alone of your own volition, but forced by
\ higher Power into the line of the worlds
movement. Sixty days ago some were writ
ing that this trip was impossible. They
knew not that it was writ that some 300 900
Odd Fellows of America should, through
you, their representatives, this day assem-
BILE on the shores of the Pacific. And SO
you are here. You will legislate for the
sick, the distressed. the widow, the orphan,
for humanity. You and others will go back
and tell Of California, Its climate, its soil,
its capacity for happy homes, and noble
and from everywhere a
tide of population will be turned thitheI
are States large enough for one hundred
millions of people; and when they become
united, BY three uanseontineutal railroads,
with that other hundred millions of people
Who shall inhabir the Mississippi Valley. ,
America will give laws and institutions for
he world. There and here is to be planted !
! civilization, broader, more cosmopolitan, |
more humane than ever yet blessed the /
,srth. From there and here that civilization r
sill spread until 1t embraces every land. I
Here is to be one of the great stand-points
n the earth's progress. The historian will
mark this coast as a central point, where
he civilizations Of all nations converged;
md then, after being refined. elevated and :
made strong by .he bold thought, broad hu- :
hanity and firm religious faith of the time. c
adiated back upon the East and upon Eu- :,
Ope; forward. upon the islands and contln- .
nts of the Pacific; across it into Asia, until
net, midway, between China and Russia
erhaps upon the very spot where the fathers Z
( our race were born-by its own advance Y
Fave from this side. For the boy lives who II
5,M ride the iron horse from London to =
lindostan. :,
Welcome, then. to this glorious State! =
Welcome you, my brothers, and twice vel Z
ONE you, their wives, who would not stay A
way; welcome to our hands, our hearts, our u
ONES; welcome everywherel Talk with a
hese people from every land under the sun I,
reathe in this exhilarating air; go out with =
IS Tomorrow through the Golden Gate, and
rom the steamers deck behold the Pacific
hat vast. Mysterious, far-otf ocean Of your u
oy hood days-and catch, if you will, the IL
aspiration of the coming century. t,