The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-28
THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
Rev. MyrOn w. Reeds Tribute to Theil
Memory Forefathers' Day.

Col, by public meeting in Rev. Myron W.
Reeds church, and in opening the festivities
that gentleman responded as follows to the toast,
"The Day we Celebrate:
1 am instructed by the ladies that I am
to act as host tonight. The duty of a land
lord is well set forth in line in Tam OShan-
ter
The landlords laugh made hearty chorus"
If anything good il said l am to smile, and
if anything dull is said 1 am still to smile, and
am, l think, somewhat cosmopolitan. /
have lived in several States of this Union of
States, and been treated we'll in all of them, and
tonight like the apostle Paul, can say: 81 have
learned in whatsoever state l am Herewith to be
content"
Colorado is good enough for me. remember,
in war time, to have asked lady of Huntsville
how it was that she entertained John Morgan
when, on one of his raids, he stopped in her city.
said: "You know before the war he was
slave-trader and in that business are not
admitted to the society of the best families"
Yes" she said, Il know that, nuJ ne is
soldier, and fighting for our country"
SAID: 'Nladars what do you call our coun
tryY" and she answered: Northern Alabama"
The definition seems tri1e narrow, but, after
ALL there is something to respect in this intense
love of place. Eskimo Joe. brought from
near the arctic circle to live in New York, could
not be domesticated; was homesick for the land
of ice and night; never rallied until he was car
ried back and sat down tosa good old-fashioned
square meal of blubber and train oil. An old
man was telling me of his visit to the homestead
the old farm where he was Graded, and where
he learned to cradle. Had not seen it for thirty
years. He got off at the station and walked the
road that led to it, looking about for familiar
things Soon he saw Canadian thistle. Il
took off my hat and said How do YOU do, sirt"
They took Walter Scott, old and sick, a-traveI-
ing He cared to see nothing in Rome but the
tomb of the exiled Stuarts; and once on the back
OF the Apennnes he saw patches of snow and
clump of fir trees and looked at the misplaced
bit of Scotland and cried He makes great
of the passion for home in his novels When
Jennie Deans goes to see the Duke of Argyll in
London to secure his favor with the Queen for
the pardon of her sister condemned to death, she
wore her Highland dressing, and it helped her
case. The naughty Duke looked at the check Of
his clans plaid and said "MacCalamore's heart
will be cold as death can make it when it does
not warm to the 'tartanP7
The home passion is very old. Joseph dying
in Egypt gave commandment concerning his
bones-that they should be carried back and
buried by the graves of his father, and his
fathers father and his fathers grandfather
The Chinese live, and work, and die in America,
but they also give commandment concerning
their bones
We are met to remember f'Ferefathers' day."
1t is decent thing today. Art requires that
this Nation should have a long and mighty
future. for art insists on proportion-the fulfill
ment shall be as the preparation. The story OF
the finding and planting this Nation never loses
its wonder. There must be great wages for such
work. The men who found this eoutinent-Puri-
tans, Catholics, Hugenots children of the Church
of England-were evidently selected men, the
finest of the wheat They came not for them
selves alone. 1t was not worth while to brave
wild sea- wild beasts, wild men and the wilder
ness in winter for a merely personal reason
Those men and women who went to their graves
so fast in that most awful winter had well pom
dered the text, He saved others, Himself He
,.E
made themselves poor that we through their
poverty might be rich They gave themselves
to an experiment Is society possible without
kings-kings temporal, kings spirituaN They
crossed the sea to answer that question
The word of the Lord by night
To the watching pilgrims came
AS they sat by the seaside,
And filled their hearts with flame.
God said | am tired Of kings,
suffer them more;
Up TO nay the morning brings
The outrage of the poor.
Think We made this ball
A field of havoc and war,
Where tyrants great and uyrantS small
Might harry the weak and pool3
Ny angel dlis name is Freelom)
Choose him to be your king
He shall cut pathways east and west,
And feed you with his wing.
Loi uncover the land
Which hid of old time in the west,
As the sculptor uncovers the statue
When he has wrought his best.
1t is easy to find defects in the Puritan charac-
ter He had the faults of his qualities. He
took his pleasure very sadly. But he was not
destitute of humor. He believed he was elected
to be saved but having errand through the
woods he always took gun along He might
meet an Indian elected to be shot He was
Calvinst; he was almost a fatalist, and it is re-
marked that most of the world is done by fatal
lists such as Mahomet Cromwell, Napoleon,
Livingston, Lincoln, and to-day Chinese Cor
don. All rest in "a power not themselves
General Gordon says; Il am chsel, when
am dull God will sharpen me-"
Something is said in the Bible about building
the tombs of the prophets
A stranger in Paris hearing the sound of
saw and hammer, asked What are you build
ingW and was answered: "a scaffold" Twenty
years after, passing along the same street, he
saw men at work with blocks of stone and NOR
tar, and again he inquired: What are you
buildingN and was answered: "a monument to
the man we heheaded twenty years ago." 1t is
greatly to be desired that people should be more
rapid with monument building and crown braid
ing, and much slower with the headsman's AK
and prosecuting fire. A great and grand father
places a child under an immense obligation. 1t
is very necessary that the of McGregor
should not be coward When the last Gar
that has been killed up to this time was exc
cuted, some people were horror-struck that men
could DO such thing, These persons so hurt
and grieved at the death of tyranJ We're lineal
descendants of men in New England who hid the
regicides, some of them children of the regicides
themselves.
Blood will tell, but sometimes it does not
seem to tell the truth. The best evidence how
ever on the whole that one is descended from
the Pilgrims is, he must have room; that he will
have liberty; that any story of oppression makes
him hot; this and steady resolution to keep I'M
spoiled and transmit improved the estate bought
by the toll and blood of the fathers. These arc
evidences of Pilgrim blood Any faithful man
is a good enough son of Abraham.
The child of the Pilgrim resolves to-day not
only to have everything that is good himself
but never to rest until all men have everything
that is good. He says, l will not have anything
that another man may not have on the same
terms. Much needed is the old courage, the old