The Cairo bulletin. [volume] (Cairo, Ill.) 1872-1878, 1877-01-28
An Essay by MISS Monie Lavender.

| lne following essay was read by Miss
Mollie Lavender at the entertainment at
the Atheneum on Friday evening last.
AT the request of a number of the friends
OF Miss Lavender, we give 1t a place In
the BULLETIN
Columbus discovered new world.
Not America as 1t now stands, but sim.
ply new world. People in those DAYS
were very much like those of the present,
l suppose: always eager for the last
sensation. And when Columbus vent
back In triumph to Spain, suppose he
was treated very much as a great man of
the present: invited to dinners, pre-.
sented with complimentary tickets to the
theater and other places of amusement,
the shining light of social gatherings,
ETC., etc. And since he had discovered
this new world, people flocked to its
shores in vast numbers to see its beauties.
and, alas tor human nature, to enrich
themselves from ITS almost boundless
resources. Every one seemed to have lost
his insane terrors of the sea. The sacred
guardians of the tempestuous waters
seemed to have utterly vanished, tor ship
load after ship load courageously en-
barked, and in due time safely landed on
Americas fair soil. Far, indeed, but
very. very savage. Filled with savage
beasts. covered with jungles and prairics,
and ruled by copper-colored men, scarcely
less savage than the country which they
inhabited, it presented formidable
front to the wanderers from over the sea;
but so very strange is the Inconsistency
of mans nature, having conquered the
imaginary terrors of the sea, they meyer
faltered at the real, tangible perils of the
savage land. In an incredibly short time,
colonies began to spring up, and though
our ancestors occasionally lost scalp or
two by some playful freak OF humoi on
the part of their red brothers, they still
persevered. Now, we are told that all
who "try, try again." finally succeed. So
we may safely conclude our ancestors
did succeed. We know that they subdued
the eastern shore of America; that they
gave their posterity the means to subdus
the western part; that they sought tor
liberty and found it; that they consti.
tuted government and maintained it !;
that they turned their attention towards
the resources of their country and pros
pered; that they planned, built
and invented; and that, thanks
to their ingenuity and unceasing labors,
the present generation rushes from place
to place with lightning speed; that we
sit in our own homes and interchange
thoughts with friends thousand miles
distant; that we 60 putting and steaming
over the water in monster-floating
houses, whereas, our forefathers padded
around in leaky canoe that we may
hear of any event in the old world in the
same hour it happened, and pice versa.
But our ancestors gave us something
more. something greater and better
than all OF these. They have
transmitted to their posterity
an unceasing, untiring longing
and seeking after something higher and
more ennobling; something which will
benefit all; something which may save
precious minutes to the rising genera
ton. In this spirit was the railroad
laid from one side of the continent 20 the
other; the telegraph wires stretched
over thousands OF miles canals joining
the rivers from one side of the states to
the other, forming an intricate chain of
commerce; and within the last year,
jetties are being constructed in the great
est river the world can boast, the Missis-
sippi, and these are destined to place
Cairo on hill from which the
rest q the world will view her in sur
prise, envy and admiration. All these
things have been accomplished in one
hundred years. And now, at the close
OF our first century, we can look with
pride upon the past, and thank God we
are yet united people. True, our polit-
ical affairs are wearing a serious look,
but political whirlpools have always been
avoided in the past and will be avoided
in the future, and the grand old ship of
state that has so distinguished itself in
the short period it has mingled with the
worlds affairs will still sail gal
lantly down the stream of time with
the stars and stripes floating in
glorious constellation over its decks,
and for the future let us hope that the
different sections Of the country may
be drawn into closer bonds of unity
and love that. at our next Centennial,
the West and East, the North and the
South may be so firmly united that
neither party power. political discussion
amendments to the constitution, nor re-
turning boards shall be able to wreck the
Ship of State, or run it Oh sand bar.
Then will America indeed be the "land
of the free - then shall the
Union jack flutter in undisputed
sway over harbors; then poll
ticians and carpet baggers be among
the things of the past then will Cairo
be enrolled among the greatest OF Amer
lean cities; then shall the American
eagle, perched peacefully upon the dome
of the capitol at Washington, with a
knowing wink at foreigners. exclaim {;
"This is indeed the promised land of the
Cinnamon and the negro-the refuge