The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1883-09-13

political life of nations. How often do we
hear prominent men expressing doubts as
to the perpetuity of the republican insti-
tutions you pioneers have labored so hard
to establish. With an imperfect knowledge
of the difference, they compare our Re-
public with older ones that have fallen.
The man whose dealings have always been
marked with honor and integrity, feels
stronger and better as he looks back over
his life. In the consciousness of a noble
career in the past, he will be less likely
to leave the standard of his integrity
and manhood. So with a nation, an il
lustriouS national history is an unfailing
source of national pride and self respect.
1t is an incentive to proper emulation,
and to public enterprise. 1t is the text
book of patriotism, it is the passport to
heroism. How eloquently did the patri-
Otic Roman beWall the stern virtues of
that olden time, ''when to be Roman
was nobler than to be King" And
well might he lament, for the people al
lowed themselves to forget the simpler
faith and the primitive virtues of apurer
age. They forgot the examples and ad-
monitions of the past. The republic fell
to pieces because the citizens proved un-
faithful to their trusts, and unworthy
their heritage. There are elements of
prosperity that do not depend upon the
fertility of the soil, nor upon the salubri-
of nature. You pioneers can trace your
success to other causes. Our institutions
contemplate the utmost freedom of
thought and pursuit. Under the Older
forms of government mental activity re-
ceived no encouragement except possibly
the fine arts. And these because they
repaid the obligations by praising no.
bility and power. The privileged classes
opposed the general education of the
people because it tended to destroy social
distinctions. They discouraged business
activity and private enterprise because
these bring to the front new and differ
ent class of persons. But it is not so
with us. These features are our distinct
i've glory. They are the foundation of
our greatness. Instead of the favored
few, the education of the masses is the
chief corner stone on which rests the
perpetuity of American institutions.
Most of the pioneers of Portage and
Summit counties were from the New
England states. Their early cabins were
the homes of thinking, energetic, Ia
borious and active people, who were well
fitted to endure the hardships of pioneers
and who well understood the duties of
the citizen. Those that come after us
will ever seek to honor these worthy
founders of our homes, and cherish in
grateful memories the names and servi-
ces of the men and women who with the
eye of faith could see in the gloom of our
dense primeval forests, the elements of
future Opulence and who established for
themselves and their families the beauti-
ful homes we now see on every side
around us. 1t is with just pride we look
to these noble, brave pioneers who never
failed of building school house in every
neighborhoOd, and never missed an op-
portunity of imparting to their children
as well by precept as example, the prin-
ciples of integrity and honor which
formed the basis of their own characters
10 nd of
country, in a little more than Il century,
have accomplished so much, what can we
say of those that will come after us?
"When other men our land will till,
And Others then our streets will fill,
And other birds will sing as gay,
And bright the sun shine as to-day,
Fifty years to come"
Only the pioneers and older people of to-
day can realize the changes that have
taken place in the past fifty years. You
older people well remember when it took
two weeks to send u letter and get an
answer from your Connecticut cousins,
the freight on the two letters being fifty
cents payable on delivery. Now the
lightnings are harnessed up at every way
station and made to do our errands all
over the world in few seconds. That
the young people who are descendants
of old Connecticut stock may better IIn-
derstand how their privileges and liber-
ties have increased we copy the follow
lIlS ldW Ill WHICH may D6
found in the records of New Haven to-
day, which reads as follows:
"WhosOever shall inveigle or draw the
affections of any maide, or maide SER
want, either to himself or Others, without
first gaining the consent of her parents,
shall pay the plantation for the first Of
fense 40s. thesecond4e; for the third shall
b imprisoned or rcorporeOusly punished"
Under this law at the May term of
court in 1869 Jacob Murine and Sarah
Tuttle were prosecuted for sitting down
on Il chest together, his arm around her
waiste and her arm upon his shoulder or
about his neck, and continuing in that
sinful posture about half an hour, in
which time he kyssed her, and she kyssed
him, or they kyssed one another us ye
witnesses testified. For this ofTense and
violation of law the defendants were
fined, each twenty shilling.
How would the young folks of to-day
relish that kind of statutory regulation?
Owing to the tightness of their breeches,
or some other uneXplainable cause, those
ly down on kissing. For many years
later it was very risky business for a
man to kiss his wife before sundown on
Sunday. Nearly every town in Northern
Ohio will shortly be in telephone COM
munication with all of New England and
we can talk with friends there, as if face
to face. To-day there may be in the
brain of some descendant of these old
restrictiOniSts the nebulse that will soon
develop an attachment by which our
Ohio boys can hug and kiss, by telephone,
all their maiden cousins In the Nutmeg"
State, at three cents a head. When that
time comes it will he well for the boys to
use sauerkrout and onions sparingly lest
those sharp scented fastidious feminines
smell out what they ate and drank for
dinner.
We congratulate our pioneers on hav-
ing their homes in a Republic where the
sovereign power is vested in the people.
Our government is free from the usllrp-
ations of kingly power and the incubus
of a favored aristocracy. 1t is one of the
most beneticent results of American in
stitutions, that we have ceased to speak of
poverty and hardship and..the necessity
for hard and humble toll as disadyant-
ages to a spirit endowed by nature with
the capacity for generous ambitions. In
society like ours, where labor is honor
able and where every place in social or
public life is open to merit early pow
erty is no more disadvantage than a
gymnasium to the athlete, or than drill
and discipline to a soldier. The men of
athletic minds in our country, who have
left their mark on the years in which
they have lived, have nearly all been
trained in rough school. Mindful of
what our noble pioneers have done in
building up our present proud position.
i'll the advance of civilization, of our re-
sponsibility to the future of nations, let
our public virtues prove us worthy of
enjoying what heroic ancestry has be-
queathed to us, and what our own Datri-
otism and devotion so recently redeemed.
May this proud heritage of freedom he
handed, with ever increasing glory and
strength, from one glad generation to
another, from century to century. till
time shall be no more. In our unparaI-
leled progress and prosperity let us heed
the admOnition of the great classic:
"If difficulties obstruct the way.
Thy magnanimty display,
And let your strength be seen:
But oh if fortune fills thy sail
With more than q propitious gaIe.
Take half thy canvas In"