The silver state. [volume] (Unionville, Nev.) 1870-1903, 1880-07-06
THE GLORIOUS FOE RITA.
The Day BecoMiRgiy Celebrated I'm
WtAMeslMcra.

VePSary OF GnS utsy ON WHICH, She P"
triots of rs declared the thirteen Amer
lean Colonies free and sovereign States,
and uttered the immortal sentiment
that all men are created equal, and
shat they are endowed with certain IN
alienable rights, among which are life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness, /"
was appropriately celebrated III Winnie
mucca. In consequence OF the oppres-
sive heat, the day being the hottest Of
the year, it was decided to have no
procession. Il large crowd assembled
at Centennial Hall, which was taste
fully decorated, where the
LrrxRARY EXERCISES
were conducted. Judge G. @. Berry,
President OF the Day, called the assem-
blage to order; Rev. Mr.. Warrington
invoked the Divine blessing and recited
brakes Apostrophe to the American
Flag; Mr. I. L. Ham read the Decia-
ration of Independence, and Judge w.
s. Bonnifeld delivered the following
GRAFTON:
Mr.. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND FELLOW
CITIZENS Permit me to embrace the
opportunity which this occasion affords
to thank you sincerely for the high and
valued compliment which you have paid
me, in selecting as your orator at this
time one of my humble pretensions and
abilities. Allow me to express my
deep and lasting gratitude for this
honor, and my sincere regret that my
lack of oratorical experience and talent,
together with other duties which have
imperatively demanded my tiue and
attention, prevent me from making that
able and brilliant response to yoar kind
and courteous invitation which that
deep gratitude so earnestly calls for,
and which this accession so Justly de-
mands. | must depend, ladies' and
gentlemen, in this effort, not upon my
own feeble oratoricai powers, but rather
upon that charity on Your part which
the excessive kindness, whereof | am
the favored recipient, permits me 10 rely
With confidence.
We are here to-day, Mr.. President,
20 celebrate an anrl'versary-the yearly
recurrence OF most glorious event.
To celebrate that event, We have as
sembled in this new couutry-kere on
the bank Of the humboldt, where the
vast plains OF the sagebrush and grease
wood are only terminated By the brown
hills and grand old mountains in the
distance, easily aiscerntble through the
dry, heath giving, raritiea atmosphere
Of our own silver Unbelievable; here,
where not many years ago, there was
not even the slightest evidence of CIV
ilization, and the mountains and plains
and valleys hereabouts We're tenanted
and habted solely by the powerful
tribes of savages, whose fast decreasing
and disappearing remnants yet llnser
among us; here, where not II generation
ago the greasewood and sage brush of
our plains and tae willows tha. fringe
the banks OF the Humboldt, were the
ambush for the weary, hodding emil
grant to the West; the coyeits where
that willy and treache.ous old Indian
chief, Wlnnemucea, from whom our
town has derived it's name, secreted his
savage warriors while they weged their
deadly and remorseless warfare on the
heiple emf grant to the Land Of Gold:
here, where the irresistible march OF
civilization still tramples under foot re-
naming evidences OF the berbarous
past; here, in this aew country, we
celebrate our anniversary Thousands
ot miles to the east OF where we now
are, and on the eastern shore Of cur
continent, in land then also coupara.
lively new country, one hundred and
five years ago, on the 9Th day Of March,
dense crowd assembled in and around
one Of the primitive churches of those
times, also to celebrate an anniversary.
Men, women aud children were gath
cred there. clad IL the various costumes
of colonial times; and, although the
breathess silence which pervaded the
assemblage, and the absorbing atten-
ton with which the audience listened
to the orator, betrayed the deep inter.
est with which the subject and the
occasion were regarded, yet it was mob
time of rejoicing. Gay flags did not
float at the mast-heads IN the harbor;
no boDfires were being prepared to IL