Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1876-07-12
ADDRESS

lth, 1876.
Mr.. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GEN
rLEMEN Il was invited by the Com
mittee to deliver, as understood, in |
with other gentlemen, a
talk of fifteen minutes. For this
purpose and not with a view to q
discourse having either the elabor-
ateness or finish of an Grafton, l will
endeayor to occupy your time for a
few minutes.
The delivery of Fourth of July
orations is something am not much
used to. / have been out of the bus
mess for many years, and l am sure
I should be very poor hand to let
the Eagle flywere | so disposed. He
should be borne OH loftier hands
than mine. !aggti,
Standing on the height left by the
lapse of century ! propose with
the greatest brevity to review some
of the great events that have transpir-
cd within that time.
In looking back to comparatively
recent period. TO within the last half
century, one of the things that strikes
our observation as remarkable is the
great revolution that has been made
in the modes of industry and labor.
A few prominent instances will
serve to illustrate this: For the spin
ming wheel and hand loom, the cot
ton gin and power loom have been
substituted. The forces Of art have
been allied to the forces of nature,
and where one ''drowsy' shuttle was
wont to be thrown with the tiresolne
hand a thousand are now impelled
by the inexhaustible powers of water
and steam.
The means of tilling the ground
and bringing from the lap of mother
earth her rich products have been
subjects of scarcely less Improvement,
and in the gathering process, the
acme Of perfection wonld seem to
have been reached. The simple hand
scythe of our fathers, and, indeed, of
some of ourselves, by the slow pro-
cess of which the grass fields of the
country were cut, has been laid aside
for the moving machine, which with
its armory of sharp cutting knives.
operated by animal power, is able to
level our broad fields of waving herb
age almost as if by the hand of magic.
The old sickle. too, that classic i'm
plement of husbandry, celebrated in
scripture and in song, with which
the Cereal Goddess is represented as
culling the golden harvcst,-it and
the grain cradle, with which the
fields of rye and wheat were garner
ed, have been abandoned for the
reaping machine, befarc which our
vast fields of lordly grain arc made
to bow and fall in the shortest order
Then there was the ancient fail
used from the days Of Abraham down
to within recent period, to apounf
the grain from the shcaf on the barn
floor, by the sheer force of muscle
An occupation which always furnish
ed work for the hired man on rain!
and inclement days, and the sullel
humping of which could, in the win
ter, be heard from more than on
barn in the New England neighbor
hood in which ! was reared.
, This venerable instrument too, hoar
with the use of ages, has been gathel
ed .'to the tomb of the Capulets." Til
sullen humping of the fail is II
longer heard in the land but, instead
the din and racket and clatter of til
! ponderous threshing machine, opel
;, ated by shafting, gearing and tnml
q ling rods, and impelled by ha
!. score of horses and men, thpeshing
single day almost the entire harye
: of a farmer.
But the most potential aid of MOI
It ern civilization, the power, whic
more than all others, has served /
II wrench the wilderness from the han
: of the savage, and people it with Il
= habitations of civilized man, is ii
4 improved means of transit furnisht
by the utilization Of steam in the raj
I, road car and steamboat. What lol
t. lapse of years it must have taken Ii
d der the old modes of transit and co
\ veyance, to people this country al
" fill it with all the evidences of civ
$ ization and refinement it bears to-da
N must remain matter for indeiini
speculation. Centuries must ha
10 elapsed. Look around us! A eul
waited country stretches before o
. view. Well titled farms, pleasa
III habitations, stately public edific
d. teeming communities, church
81 schools, civilization and refincmo
:. meet us on every hand. A bustli
of city of ten thousand souls lies AT o
s. very feet. And yet thirty years ha
OF scarcely elapsed since the red m
of held undisputed sway hcrc.4 I
=. remnant of his wigWam may~still
III. fonnd. His bones have not yet p
ur ishcd in their shallow burial plat
mt This very grove in which we aren
no assembled ;these very oaks that prot
us with the shade Of their sheHeri
III arms, have also sheltered him. ST
ed a mighty change almost passes co
X prehension. And when we real
+, that the traveller on the Atlantic s
board may enter a car provided "
all the comforts and, even luxnr
,r- of modern travel, and with aim
NC the speed of the very winds,
MP whirled westward over moupta
and rivers, across prairies and plai
&c through stupendous gorgcs, def
ar and canyons, and be set down i'm
or seven days on the shores of
at Pacific: and when we realize tina
= trip from New York to Liverpool
:" no longer made in sail vessel 4
er- may be made the sport of every tt
,et pest, but in a palatial ark, mo-
=. with such regular and superior pc,
" Of steam, that the trips vary little
al length, and are generally made in
n days. say when we realize tn
he stupendons accomplishments of
roc man genius and human skill, we
tempted to eXclaim sit is indeed
les that God made man but little 10y
m than the angels"
a But the most wonderful accor
nd lishment, the marvel of this ag,
90 marvels, is that which sets mere ,
lance at defiance, and enables, ain
with the speed of lightning, thou
IFS to be interchanged with thong
iii Winging its way, not only across
stretch of continents, but through
MS concealed wonders of the Eva
es- deep;' beneath the turbulent billie
i've of the ever tOiling sea through
ho dark, unfathomed caves Of ocean, .
through the messy beds where lie
i"' huge lcyiathans Of the deep, and 81
om of purest ray glitter among the 81
eel. tcIcu ucdu vi all ages WHO nave 1
.oo ished there. Through this stral
q e. and awe-inspiring medium, is CO.
~ nent, as it were, enabled to comm
nd with continent.
all TO my mind. so wonderful, so m
rts terious, SO sublimely grand in
mo conception and execution is this, I
~ / have been filled with mute won
pe in its contemplation; and stron
ry- than the voice Of sophism, stron
,ct. than the voice of speculative phi
lon ophy, it tells me that man is ind
~, an emanation of the divine spark L
~! man is indeed an immortal s,
re- filed with aspirations and conc
tons as grand, as varied and as ,
ere as the universe itself, and which n
~ have more perfect realization
oo yond the grave.
it'll In the advance of the arts |,
,all sciences we have not been behind
of. best nations of the earth. We h
M added new stars to the constellat
''o of sculptors and painters, and
ry- works Of Powers and Hosmer, Ais
urc and West will live with those