The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1878-07-13
ToAsr.-Ad astra per Aspera.
Response by Judge Bell:


Your committee on toasts has seen At to assign
short, comprehensive toast, indicative Of the
response desired I'D esira per aspera,"-
Through difficulties to the Stars"
1t is truism that needs no master logcian n
elucidate, that ''No excellence is ever achieved
without great labor. >" The scepter of power Is
not attained and the zenith Of glory reached
8oa pssns
and his kite, as he draws the lightning from the
clouds, and Morse with his telegraph, who bids
the lightning tell his thoughts to his friends thou
sands of miles away; or between Watts with his
tea-kettle, and COrliss with his monster engine,
whose mighty power Is under the perfect control
Of the hand Of the gentle lady; or between Ham
across the Alps by heating and and pouring on
vinegar, and the bursting into fragments Of He'll
Gate at the touch of little child? Do you see
veyor, and Washington, the deliverer of his
country; or between Abraham Lincoln, the rail-
splitter and fat-boatman, and Abraham Lincoln,
whose name will ever be associated with the lib
Grafton of 90, OO) of slaves; or of Ulysses $.
Grant, the laborer, clad in dusty jeans, with OK
whip In hand driving into the city OF st. Louis
with u load of wood to barter for the necrssaries
of life, and Ulysses 3. Grant, the hero, the hon
ored and respected guest of every civilized nation
on the globe Do you comprehend the din''r-
ing savages, its dense forests and wild solitudes,
and the America of ISIS, with its teeming mil
lions of wide-awake. educated and Carstanized
people, Win ITS SCHOOLS, cOliegeS anu cnurciles,
with its agricultural and manufacturing inter-
ests, with its steamboats,, railroads and Iele-
graphs or Kansas Of 1856 and lS,iJ, with its
Border Rui1ians and drought, and the Kansas of
1873, with teeming thousands OF happy prosper
Gus citizens with their golden harvests?
The art Of telegraphy, and the power and use
fulness of steam, We're not perfected without
costly experiments and arduouS labor. Wash
ingtOn, Lincoln and Grant did not win their I'M
dying fame and enshrine themselves in the hearts
of the American people by lying upon hOwery
beds of ease The nation has attained her pres
ent greatness through bloodshed, trials and dam
gers-assaied by foes without and within. Par
ty factions and political vampires have tried To
destroy her and sap her life blood. but like the
great oaks in the storm, her bouShs may be sha-
ken and tossed, yet her roots strike deeper and
deeper into the earth, and she defies the tempests;
and the TRIALS AMI dangers which she has passed,
only caused her to become more robust and pow
erfu, Until to-day she stands forth among the
nations and shines with the glorious luster OF u
star of the first magnitude, the peer of all
Ad dsfrd per dsperd-the motto of our beloved
adopted State. 1t seems though this motto
was suggested through spirit of prophecy
Could anything have been more appropriate !?
She has indeed passed through difficulties and
dangers Born in blood and war, nurtured in
drought and fed with yraSshoppers, she has, new
ertheless. continued TO grow and advance onward
and upward, until to-day she stands and shines
forth as the bright morning star in our glorious
galaxy.
Land of the West! though passing brief
The record of thine age,
Thou hast q name that darkens all
On history 3 wide page.
Let all the blasts Of fame ring out
Thine shall be the loudest far;
Let others boast their satellites
Thou hast the morning star.