Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1879-01-19
SUNDAY READING.

before the Midland Institute, Birmingham,
England, on some aspects of American life
the Dean said: "When, in the public place
at Richmond we see the statue of George
Washington surrounded by a groupe of the
famous Virginians Of his time, the eloquence
of Patrick Henry, the judicious sagaclty OF
Marshall, the eccentric energy of Jefferson
when to these we add the stern vigor of John
Adams, and Samuel his namesake, from
Boston, and last, not least, the homely and
penetrating genius of Ben amin Franklin, from
Philadelphia, and the brilliant, philosophic
friend and equal of Talleyrand, the gifted and
unfortunate Alexander Hamilton, we feel that.
we are in the presence of one of those intellec
tual consultations which mark only those
great epochs in the history of nations, such as
may indeed appear in their later history, but
usually belong to those moments when the
nation itself is struggling into existance- In
all the events of that struggle there Is
dramatic movement which belongs to those
critical times when mankind is going through
Ole of it's decisive trials. Old Martin Ruth,
OF Oxford, who had lived through the French
Revolution and the kapoleonic wars, when
asked in his extreme old age what event of
his time had produced in England the deep
est impression, answered, The separation of
the American States; and when, in his one
hundredth year, he wandered in his dying
moments to the recoliections of former years,
his last words murmured something of the
war with America. Many of the scenes
which impress on the mind the momentous
aspect of that time Let me select two. One
shall be that in which the first British blood
was shed, on the 10Th Of April, 1773 1t Is
IN the green meadows close to the village of
Concord. A gentle river divides the swelling
bills on either side; rustic bridge crosses the
stream. On either side is a simple pillar
watch marks the graves where the first Eng
lish soldiers that were slain still lie buried
ON the other side is monument, erected IN
later times, representing one of the simple
American peasants with his musket by Ills
side and underneath are written the memor
able words of one of the greatest living poets,
himself native of Concord and the grand
son Of the pastor OF the village, who was
present at the time of the conflict
BY the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to Aprils breeze unfurled
Here the enlBsttlsd ia mers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world
The other scene is at Mt Vernon the I'M
adorned yet spacious wooden mansion where
Washington spent his latest years with his de-
voted wife, with his retinuo of slaves, with
the gracious hospitality of an almost regal
majesty; looking out from the oaks which
now overhang his grave over the broad waters
ii the Potomac, on whose banks to rise
the noble but still unfinished capital which |
bears his canomzed name. No Englishman |
need grudge II e hour that he gives to the |
II gaphy which Washington Irving has given
TO our great countryman (for such he still |
was), the father of the American common-
wealth.
" What have said of the history, so to
speak, of America at once illustrates and is
Illustrated by some Of the chief characteris-
tics of the present condition of the United
States, and also of our expectations of its flu
ture. Look, for example, at the extraordi-
nary munihcence shown in multiplication Of
institutions emanating, in large degree,
from the piety and liberality of individual
founders and benefactors. The very phrase
which | use recalls the medieval benifcence
ont of which sprang some of the chief educa-
tIOnal institutions of our own country. | do
not say that muntCence has died out of the
nineteenth century at home or i'll the older
l. IL E | ,
braries for general use, which is the chief
glory of the modern institutions of the United
States, as its almost total abstinence is the
chief reproach to the metropolis of London
in these public libraries | understand that at
least i'll Birmingham near approach has
been made to the generosity, whether of cor
porations OF of individuals, in the United
States Still the freedom, almost the reck-
lessness, with which these benefacti0ns are
lavished beyond the Atlantic bears upon its
face the characteristic of an older age reap
pearing amidst our modern civilization as the
granite boulder of some earlier formation
For the likeness in our English history to
John Harvard, to the ten worthy fathers of
Yale. to john Hopkins, and Aston and
George Peabody, and Peter Cooper, we uust
look to our Wykehams, our Waynfetes, onr
Wuiseys at Oxford and those whose names