Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-06-16

Sometimes In my dreams am kneeling at hsrknee.
For my heart still tells me my mother prays for me-
Oh, would leave this life and turn me back
Worn now and wrecked upon Its wasteeSs track,
And once more be happy kneeling at her knee,
For my heart still tells me my mother prays for me.
~-0-~- --
Our Southern Land.
We publish by request the following in
terestlng essay, read by Miss Annie Goodwin,
daughter of our prominent fellow citizen, J.
r. Goodwin, at the commencement of the
State female college, at which the gifted
young lady has just graduated with high
honors.-EDs. APPEAL.
There is only one word that can describe
the feeling of the south to-day, and that word
is hope. We are now recovering from the
encouragement of ruined fortunes and
blIghted expectations. No longer oppressed
and Inundated by selfish and sectional gov
eminent, we possess a country that combines
in perfection the foundation of all true ma
tional prosperity-the power of supporting
human life, and providing for all its neceSsi-
ties within its own borders. No language
can be too highly colored that attempts 10 de-
scribe the wonderful fertility and productive
ness of this country; here the Creator has with
so rich patrlmony endowed his children
that we can with unwaverlng faith look
forward to certain and splendid success.
The light that breaks upon the future is
more grateful and brilliant, because of the
darkness and night from which we have
emerged. Glad and gracious days will be
ours If we are true to ourselves and the great
trust confded In US; this is the dreamland of
the continent; and the cold breath that comes
now and then from icy caverns beneath hy-
perborean SHOWS Imbues US with stronger af-
fections for homes we have beneath these
cloudless skies. Our people In this lovely
land are not idle; they are telling the forests,
navigating the rivers, making beautiful
homes, erecting fine churches and colleges,
and building long lines of railway, reaching
from Norfolk to the Rio Grande; the dream
of the hour is to control the fioodtide of the
great river, and build transcontlnental rail-
road, with Memphis as its eastern terminus.
Agriculture, the chief source of wealth, is le
warded with generous abundance. Cotton,
the ruling sovereign of tais land of sunshine
and flowers, enters into almost all the bust
ness and commerce of the country. This
heecy staple has grown In Importance and
value during the last century from mere
bagatelle to millions. 1t has whitened the
waters OF the world with the sails of hum
dred nations, and it may be in the near fu-
ture that this tiny fiber will be woven into
real air castles that will glide from place to
place without sail or steam, bearing precious
burdens at the will of man. Not elsewhere
In all this broad land, we repeat it, is there
a country more attractive in climatic facts, in
breezes that blow perennially from the sea, in
wales verdure-clad throughout the year, in
forests of oak and ash as rich in contribution
to practical industry as they are
beautiful in their native grandeur.
In western Virginia and eastern Tennessee,
the Switzerland of America, majestic noun
tains, lovely wales and ripping streams
abound from any hight within this enchant-
ing section. From Mount Lookout one looks
down the precipice many hundred feet into
the cleaning Tennessee river; the prospect
is boundless and eXquisitely beautiful. The
city of Chattanooga nestles in the PLAIN but
a few miles away, and further north, as seen
from the mountain s brow, there are smiling
valleys and green forests, and beyond the
river are the high hills, bathed in sunshine
The scene is SO beautiful that it rests heart
and brain to look upon it. In the distant
east one traces the outline of the Blue
Ridge, and catches glimpse of the lofty
AlleghenIes. But turning ito the far
west, whittier the star of empire takes
its flight, on tlptoe, and with eyes a-strain
towards Arkansas and Texas; we seem to al
most behold that boundless, pulseless ocean,
the prairies. William Cullen Bryant tells US
''these are the gardens of the desert; the I'M
shorn field, boundless and beautiful, for
which the speech of England has no name"
The poet SAID that "when he first beheld the
prairies, his delighted sight slowly compre-
hended the encircling vastness; they stretched
in airy fluctuations far away, as if the ocean
In its gentlest swell stood with all its rounded
pillows fixed and motIonless forever" But
they are not motionless. Clouds sweep over
them with their shadows, and to the eye the
boundless plain huctuates, and dark pillows
seem to glide along and chase the sunny
ridges. Breezes of the south that toyed
among the palms of Mexico, and moved the
swaying moss on forests of live-oak; that
have kissed the limpid brooks gliding into
the Pacific; these delicious winds that
tossed the fame-ike flowers on the plains,
have never found in their hayward wander
ings country more fascinating in all its as
poets than this. But we must bid adieu to
the towering mountains and prairies, out
spreading as ininity, to take look at our
own dear home beside the flowing river.
Memphis must become the abiding place of
poetry, the chosen seat of learning, art and
statecraft; the worthy metropolis of a match
less empire. At night, when brilliant stars
shining more resplendently here thin else
where in America-deck the heavens, and
when the moon rests above the deep green
foliage of the western valley, the city be-
comes lustrous against the shadows of the
night; the Mississippi, cleaning in its broad
banks like stream of liquid silver, grows
white in the shadows of the night, and breaks
forth with sea-like sounds against the vari-
GUS water crafts moored to its shore. The
Bluff City, about which the river bends like
the bow of promise, spread out on grace
full slopes and swelling ridges, is
dreaming of grander years to come. But it
is not during one cloudless night alone that
Memphis is invested with wondrous charms;
spring time is our delight here. The spring
time of the north is pale, we ara told, with
gentle, colorless sweetness of its world of
primroses; the spring-time of Memphis is
rainbow-hued like the profusion of anemones
that laugh with it in every hue of glory, be.
side every rill-fed, laughing streamlet.
Spring in the north is a child that wakes
from dreams of death; spring in the south is ,
a child that wakes from dreams of love; one
is rescued from the grave, the other comes
smiling on a sunbeam from heaven"
But, in conclusion, we must return
to these classic halls, under whose
shadows we have had so many hopes
and fears, lingering one moment to catch the
cadence OF winds signing forever
among its stately trees, and to hope and pre-
dict that at no distant day this goold old In
stitute will be to the south what Vassar is to
the north and east. To you, my classmates:
Is your pathway and mine through life to be
Swallowed by some great grief; Is the sorrow
and disappointment of a hollow, worldly
life to be ours, or will we, like Mary, of Beth
any, choose the good part, learn at the feet
of Him who taught as never man taught, !
look to that cross which alone can guide US |
safely through sin-smitten world? May |
your hearts and lives be as pure and spotless |
as the driven snow, your journey through life !
strewn with richest and brightest flowers, |
and your happy and joyous homes be amid |
glorious panorama of mountains and ripping |
streams, deep valleys, and shady parks, |
through which birds OF paradise We with the /
sunbeam in glorious beauty, and over all |
blue sky and opaine atmosphere so soft and |
bamy that it will be luxury to live.
ANNIE GOODWIN.
STATE FEMALE COLLEGE. Memphis, June IL, '7S. |
Albany, n. Y, June IA: The entire stock |
Of Sax, White & Co., wholesale dealers in |
Try goods and notions, was destroyed by fire |
his morning. Loss. fifty thousand dollars: