The comet. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1877-1882, 1880-07-03

| people, and make IL truly Sublime. Tha
is, the development of individual energy
l would energize, give tone, determination
purpose, impulse to the life Of every MAJ
and woman in the land. What we lnostl,
need, as individuals, is motive power an,
thrift. "Thrift thrift! Horatio; that,
the word"
We must learn that work is honorable il
all-hard work-and that we can not live
without it; that the days for feeding peo
pie with mamma and quails from on high
have passed, and will never return again,
Then let us brayely smite the rock of des
tiny with faith that can not falter, and it,
waters will gush out. 1t will prove per.
petual fountain, not only to ourselves, but
to grateful and successive generations till
the latest time
Il n u u # ~
Young men of Mississippi!. the mighty
problem of our development lies before
you! God has called you to the work,
win you perform it? The older ones of
other days are fast passing away. 1t has
been cloquently said that no snow falls so
lightly as that Of old age, and none is 50
heavy, because it never melts? Now and
then some grand and ancient oak falls in
the forest, hewn down by the remorseless
and keen edged AK of time.
Last week stood on one of the thorough
fares in Jackson. 1 held in my hand Il
steel engraving of man, in his prime
upon whose ample brow, it did seem to me,
"eyery god had set his seal Whose face
of matches, manly beauty beamed with
intellect and will; the finely formed lips
seemed instinct with life us if they would
speak the commanding eyes kindled with
the fires of genius; man who once upheld
the honor of our -Atlas-like-a and
swayed the Senate Of the Union with the
divine magic of his cloquence! That
picture bore the autograph of "a. g..
Brown"
| walked across to the Capitol, my soul
filed with the splendid image. l entered
the rOtunda, beneath the towering dome
which was kissed by the bright beams of
the morning sun. A coffin lay there in
state, in the solemn hush, the awful repose
ofdeath. 1t contained the form ofhim whose
" counterfeit presentment" of twenty-five
years ago l had just seen. Aged, and
withered, and voiceless now He had sur
rendered life's ensign, covered with glitter
ing inscriptions--the victories of the long,
long ago. Over him, Deaths flag floated
at last. And now he lay so low, that one
could but weep to behold so sad sight,
and remember all. The grand old man
had grown weary of life's burdens; he had
drunk life's cups to its lees, and had lain
down to sleep; and he sleeps well! Peace
to his repose Let us never cease to do
homage to his virtues and talents that have
shed an imperishablc lustre on the annals
of our commonwealth.
1t was under his administration, as
Chief Magistrate of our State, that this
University was erected and endowed. He
fore, it is meet that I should lay flower
upon his cenotaph here to-day.
One word more, and L have done:
A gladiator was dying IN the arena.
Turning his eyes on his idolized emperor
ne said, with his expiring breath, go,
Cesar! l, who am about to die, salute
you!"
Young gentlemen, there arc venerable
'ires here to-day, and all over our State,
'ipe for Deaths sickle, verging on the
grave; they bend their aged eyes upon
you; their hearts filled with love and trust
or you as their country's future hope,
aging, "We who are about to die, salute
,ou!"