Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1872-02-02
Reported for vindicator.
Third Annual Celebration Of the
DemOsthenian Literary Society
Of Roanoke COllege.
SALEM Va, dan. 20th 1872. Z

of Roanoke College.
SALEM Va, Jan. 20th 1872. a
The writer takesthi opportunity to chron-
icle the proceedings Of The thnd annual
celebration the Demost henian Literary So
ciety Of the Roanoke College. He feels
assured that the Editor of the Viudica.
tor will insert with pleasure few lines in
his columns referring to this interesting &C.
casion, especially when one of Augustus
sons played we'll conspicuous part in it
The society has determined upongtbe 18th
Of Jan'y as an appropriate time to hold their
anniversary, Nit'being the birth day @of the
great, the, good and the noble ebieftain of
the South s,.a,,,o az M sqnse7ss
Friday night came, and notwithstanding
the disagreeable weather, the new Town
Hall was crowed to its utmost. capacity
Everybody in this immediate locality must
go to these celebrations little and big, old
and young, high and. low, rich and poor,
all must be there, to see and to be seen -
the gentlemen to, see the ladies', and the la
dies to be seen, of course, and the children
to make noise vs,t,,sa,4r galg 500
These are big occasions, and the people
of Salem show how much they appreciate
the efforts made by the young men Of Roa-
noke College at these public exhibitions
The Salem Cornet Band was in attendance
and added much to the enjoyment of the
evening by giving an abundance of good
music. At about y P NJ, the band be.
gan to play, which was the signal that the
l, A. bod
in and took the seats reserved for them,
by their representatives, who took seats
upon the stage, Rev. DR.. Bittle and Rev.
w. w. Huston also had seats on the stage.
The music was hushed and PRAYER offered by
Rev. Mr.. Huston. The band again favored
US with music, at the conclusion f which
the President. Mr.. G. G. Campbell, of Can
ton, Miss, addressed the audience He
handled his subject; {Untiring Activity in
such manner as to plainly show that be
was equal to the task. He urged upon all,
and more particularly upon his comrades,
the necessity Of adopting his subject as
motto; especially in these times when the
people Of the South are laboring under such
distressing political difficulties He main
tanned that there was one way to free our
selves from the political oppression we are
now. under, and that was to educate. that
mind might triumph over matter. He al
luded to Lee, in a few touching remarks, as
proper example to initiate Mr.. Campbell
is an entertaining speaker At the conclu-
sion of the Presidents address, "Felix
Quickstep' was performed by the Band
The President then introduced Mr. D. B
Floyd, of Indiana, as the orator Of the Ev-
ening. Hamlet's famous question, TO
be or not to be-, furnished the speaker with
subject. The least we could say Of Mr.
Floyd's production is that it did honor to him
and to his Society. One could easily see
that he had adopted the "to be" part of his
subject as his watchword. He took the
position that merely to breathe and to
move was not s'sto be-" but noble actions
and true manhood were the elements nc
cessary to make life a success, The band
entertained US with music at the oonclu-
sion Of Mr.. Floyd's speech, and tie house
was filed with the murmer of many voices.
What was said between speeches would be
hard to tell. Some poured forth compli
ments on the fine speaking, and some, We
expect, took the advantage Of the time to
whisper a few delicate words into the ear of
somebody's daughter, for every body was
out with his sweetheart, and those who had
no sweetheart Of their own took some
''otler fellow's" sweetheart. The music
again hushed and silence reigued, when
Crabtree Of Wythe Co. Va, presented as
the defender of the affirmative. the question
being ''Do facts contribute more to mental
enjoyment than Fiction Mr. Crabtree
opened bis remarks by saying that he was
sorry that good subject had such poor
advocate, but he showed in the sequel that
he was competent for the undertaking, for
he went to the very bottom Of his subject
and brought out his arguments, logically,
forcibly and neatly Mr.. G. is good de-
batter and sustained his reputation on this
occasion During his remarks be made
some severe th-usts at his opponent and was
several times interrupted by the enthusiastic
stamping Of bis hearers. ''Dream Land
Waltz was rehearsed by the band The
President then introduced Mr.. w. E.. Craig,
Of Augusta Co., Va, as the representative
of the negative. MIR. Craig commenced his
speech with few happy hits at his opponent,
which suited the occasion, and brought forth
repeated applause from the audience. He
entered, with life and energy, into the DIS
cussion and clothed his arguments, which
were excellent, in beautiful language. Mr..
Craig is fine writer, and, We must say of
him what we said of his opponent, he is
number-one debater, His frequent flashes of
witticism was of the first order, and frequent
ly during his speech, which lasted more than
half hour, his audience gave him evidence
Of his success by repeated laughter, Along
with witticism though he marshalled reason,
and Augusta may well feel proud of such
talented son. The close attention given by
the audience showed they were highly
pleased, and the many cards and flowers
sent up to all the speakers would seem to
indicate that they were fayorites among the
ladies; and perhaps some Of them have more
than friends in Salem The .benediction
was pronounced by Rev DR.. Bittle, Presi-
dent of the Institution, and the young men
hooked their sweethearts on their arms, (And
the married men let their wives get home
the best way they could,) and all moved
quietly off Thus ended the celebration.
We were constrained to say, "well done"
boys lwors s5 Respectfully,
5asa $50 ly:a,F 1a6iai TOM
+ cote - H.. ..-... - ~ 600 q
The Concentration Of Property in
England and Scotland.
In England one-half of all the land is now
owned by less than hundred and fifty per-