The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1876-02-09

but, perhaps, tender-hearted moralist
muse over my tomb in strains like the
following:
Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-treess
Where heaves the turf in manv u mould
ering heap,
Each in his narrow cell forever laid,
The rude forcfathers Of the hamlet sIeep,
Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield,
Their furrow oft the stubborn slebe has
broke,
How jocund did they drive their team afeld,
How bowed. the woods beneath their
sturdy stroke.
Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid
Some heart once pregnant with celestial
FIRE:
Hands that the rod Of empire might have
swayed.
Or walked to ecstacy the living Tyre.
But knowledge to their eyes her ample o age
Rich with the spoi;s Of time did ne'cr
unfold.
Chill penury repressed their noble rage.
And froze the genial current Of the soul.
But rather let them write:
Some village Hamden, that with dauntless
breas:.
The little tyrant Of his fields withstood !!
[Applause.]
By all means, stand by the Order. in
your own State. Your hands are on
the pillow, do not look back. Let nit
desperamdum, never despair, be written
upon your banners. Adhere to it for
the good we may acquire from it our in
dividual selves. Adhere to it in a
broad, missionary spirit, for the GOOD to
others. Adhere to it for our ancient
and primary honor, for I behold on this
platform the first Worthy Grand Mas
ter of this entire Union. He represents,
and represented, glorious North Star
Grange, named from the Etoile du Nord,
the motto of our noble State, the great
central star that never sets, and around
which so many glorious considerations
continually revolve. From our exam
pie, and the feeble beginnings here, the
Order took form, and shape, courage,
efficiency and hope, and southerly and
eastwardly spread, onward and WIDEN
ing, like the rushing, lurid fires of YOUR
prairies. Yes, from the northern affairs,
bound half the year in icy letters, the
torches were kindled, that have fired
the hearts of our agricultural brothers
of the sunny south, to the summer wa
tiers Of the southern Gulf, and reversed
the order of things, for eastward the
star of light and empire takes its way.
Perhaps It's no disparagement for me
to say that we builded wiser than
we knew. When the starving wo-
men of France went madly and Wild
ly through the streets Of Paris, crying,
"give us bread or blood, for we are star
ing they did not see the tracks of flu
ture revolutions; they did not see the
headless bodies Of the king AMI queen,
at the guillotine, feuda| aristocracy that
had been established for thousand
years, broken up, and its members fed
as refugees to all countries of" Europe;
the great landed estates of both Church
and Mobiles cut up into small tracts
and sold to yeoman and peasant. Nor
did they see Napoleon climbing the
Alps, nor fighting fire and frost at dis
tant Moscow Nor did the farmers of
Eng land at Marston Morn and Naseby
know that they were breaking feudal
letters, the benefits of which should re-
suit to brethren and descendants in dis
tant America, where our empire was
building, which should be for freedom
when denied them 1T home.
! Brother and sister patrons of Minneso-
ia, you have in great measure set the
avalanche in motion. Be proud of the
honor. Be more:-Be worthy of it.
Proud that your star shall never set.
Proud that around your example so
many noble consultations revolve.
Proud to continue to practice what you
have preached to others.
But if decay and death should be our
sad fate (Which Heaven forefend) let US
be proud Of posthumous fame;-let
our Order be great, like Athens, in the
magnifcence of it's ruins.
M HERSCHLER.