The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1874-06-20

for the Dutch. An English factory
was bniIt tbe goods landed and all the
steps taken TO build up English inter
ests. Alter having been here year or
more the ship was about to sail for Eng
land and now was presented to Adams
trial such as comes to few mortals.
Ivevas after Is years of persistent re-
f1saIs for him togo home, and as persis-
tentIv bsld honor and promotions before
himEafter having induced him to mar
nv and raise a family here-suddenly
and voluntarily sent him permission to
go home for some great service rem
derel.
How he must have been torn by his
conflicting desires and interests On
the one hand this land of the Orient,
which had been his home for 10 years,
its picturesque beauty, with It's soft ar,
and its tropical vegetation, must have
taken deep hold of his heart. The
people of Japan had received him.
| shipwrecked sailor, and made him
| lord in the land. He had been treated
/ and loved by them, with depth and
warmth unknown to the cold climate of
| his native England. One of their
dark-eyed daughters had given him her
| heart, and all the best years of her
young lite. Two children with hair as
| black as a ravens wing, called him
/ father. and climbed over his knees. All
/ the fortune accumulated in long years
was here. to be left behind him, and
with the best wears of his life and his
! youthful yigor gone he was to go out
! into the world empty handed. More
over, no word of tidings had reached
him of hisr&ily for seventeen years;
The shadd Athe dark-wingcd angel
| might hav red them all within that
| long, wesf be, or, worse still, he
might find Mis- wife, weary with
waitingaai. zszz ing for his return, at
- lpaalSkne, hope being
isperIng In
! : & = s Is Sls which had
:;'.!7Ls Ifict That his children,
his Bf1sE5y y fair-haired boy and
girl, had Il ed to call a stranger by
the fond nj >of father
On the % hand, what if his Eng
lish Mary srished the hope that he
would come again and what if she
kept every word and look of his en-
| shrined in her heart and If she with
! his children still krelt, morning and
evening, and lifted up their supplica-
tions to Him who holds the great waves
| and the fierce winds in the hollow of
| His hand, to protect their wanderer
| and bring him home to them again d?
These conflicting emotions must have
wrung a proud and sensitive spirit,
such as that of Adams. He who had
| looked danger and death in the eye in
| many a wild storm and wilder battle
strife without faltering m ght well have
broken down and wept like child I'M
der this trial
II I -. e e
doubts, of desires and of hopes, lie
buried with his ashes under this stone
column, now before us, and IN the OBJ
livion Of three silent unspeaking cen
turtles of japanese night. He decided.
to STAY with the certainties of the land
of his adoption rather than take the
chances of his native land. The ship
departed, and as her white sails receded
from Adams sight, he had put all that
was dear to him In his youthful and
better days behind him forever.
He went on with his wOrk-perfected
ship-building, drilled the tycoon's sol
diers. taught the arts and sciences and
educated his children, elevated and
bettered the condition of his retainers
and followers. He embraced the Budd-
hist faith, built this EMPOWERED temple
of To-ka-son, and twice n year he came
here to worship. And here, after a
third of a century of great usefulness
and influence, he was buried with i'm
perial pomp and ceremony, loved, hon
ored and mourned by the people of an
empire. Here his people have come,
generation after generation, to this day,
to offer up prayers for his soul at a lit
tie shrine, which has this inscription in
Japanese characters
THE brightest bliss is surely thine.
. thou VINO pravesL at this shrine.