The Cecil Whig., 1885-12-05

| To MY BROTHER l'HrHIANS:
The spirit and perretuation of such Il
society as the Pythan Journalists Clut
depend npon the harmony and fellowship
of its movements. The old saying "united
we stand, divided we fall holds more
noby true in every circumstance of private
and public life than any other proverb ever
uttered. 1t is my desire as long as | re-
main at the head of this organization, to see
! it live life of harmony, and the currents
of its life % flow as muScally and sweetly
as the waters Of some cherished Arcadian
| stream. We are members of Il profession
much addicted to quarreling and disagree
mentS but it is my earnest wish as your
| president, that every particle of bitter and
! unfrieully feeling be rooted from your ma
lures when you attend our monthly meet
| ingS. 1t is my cherished hope that every
| grievance or complaint any OF you may har-
| Dor be laid before us all and that we will
mutually endeavor to heal the wound and
administer kindness and generosity as best
| we can iii our opinions and judgm antS upon
th"queStion. particularly desire that there
DDS harhored in your hosoms, but whatever
they be let them be frankly uttered here
| and i'll the whole earneStness of my nature
shall strive to right your wrongs and
grievances. know already that there are
several plans which at first proposed to
use in the conduct of our club which will
| have to be greatly modified and abandoned.
OF them, however, | shall speak later in the
| evening when we are better prepared for
business conversation. | wish to refer now
| simply to the general harmony and fellow
| ship that hope will ever prevail among
us We are none of us silly enough TO i'm
| agine ourselves great men, nor possessed of
the genius and intellect with which the
members of the past and present literary
| clubs of England were and are endowed.
We are the children of time and events,
however, and it may be so ordered that each
one of us shall advance to high places in the
world. shall always be glad, and hope
the rest of you will generously feel the
same, to trace the fouudlti of much of
my ambition and life-wOrk to the influence
of these meetings. When Addison, Steele
DR. johnson, and that remarkable school
of English essayists, and in later years
when Browning, Tennyson, buchanan, Ar
mold, Swiuhurne, and their fellow poets
gathered at the bauQuets of their Greek
societies. they came to seek food for their
souls as well as to partaka of the dainty
viands spread before them. The feature of
b.i, nj Il,i'nSoI,by- ba nnt
try, and for dessert they INDUCED i'll spark
ling draugLts OF lampoonry, wit and ro-
nance Let it be a personal euGeavor upon
the part of each one of us brother Pythians
20 initiate their lofty example so far as our
lesser iutellects will permit. Each IN IN
has a soul to feed as we'll as a body. The
mole refined and elevated the diet to which
he treats it the more spiritual and inner
tai it will grow, and eventually reach that
stage when the temporal vestment of our
beings is cast aside as an uncleanly robe
from the divine body of woman. We will
be in company tonight with the words ad
'reSsed lovingly to US by two of AMERICAS
great poets one the greatest, | believe, the
country has ever produced. One whose past
ten years OF life have been spent
in loneliness aud almost poverty at his
modest Camden home; one to whom my
heart has been bound for the past two years
rs tendcrly as mems hearts are bound to
mother; one who, though dwelling Coutiuu-
ally in ga higher sphere Of thought, into
which 9th er men rise with labor and diff
Guilty. is still the warm and genial citizen,
the loving and faithful friend, ard the en-
bedimeut of ali that is pure and noble IN
manhood Walt Whitman-of whom it may
be said, as some one has said of Emerson,
Gle was not for one age, but for all time.
We mus not forget that other great bard
whose words are with us tonight, too He
is another who has been my kind friend and
adviser for several years, and to whom
wish at all times and at every place to eX
tend this tribute, the best my Dieagre e!o-
quence can create; being selfmade, he is
great; being great, he is to be beloved and
honored. lay my tribute at the feet of one
who has risen from the wilderness of the
West to the civilized avenues of the East,
wearing the crown of palm and pine teu-
dered by his native land, and the olive en-
bem of q foreign people whose love and ad-
miration he has Won by the noble dignity
Of his art and the irresistible sweetness Of
his nature. One whose cabin is to him
palace as the mind of Dyer was to
him a kingdom; one whose brothered to the
human race has ever been prominently pic
tured forth, and one whose eloquent war
| fare for the right against the wrong has
been constantly and ferveutly waged since
the days when the first echoes Of the poet
voice within him tioated upward toward
| the level valleys of the East from the tang
led forests and snowy submits of the West
joaquin Miller. y man whose nature is as
broad and generous and noble as the waters
of the great stream from which he took his
name, and man deserving the attention
and admiration of all. 1t is with the beau-
tiful spirits of these two bards that we are
permitted to mingle tonight. 1t is my WISH
| Brother Pythians,t at the influence of their
| spirits may rem ain with US throughout our
| daily life. These are inmGtablc examples,
| let us be their immutabe followers. They
| are men AOSt luuuc5t songs anu deepest
| hymns have ascended unto the Divine
throne pleading with its King to unite the
race in fellowship and communion. One of
them has said
| | hear it was charged against me that sought To
| destroy institutions
| But really am neither ior against inStitu-
tions.
| Only vii establish in uI1. + nj in
every city of these states inland and scabuard
| And in the fields ana woods, and above every
keel little or large that dents the waters,
| Without ediices or rulers or trustees or any
| agreement,
| The institutions Ot the dear love OF comrades
| And the other has sung:
''All honor to him who shall win the prize
The world has cried for a thousand years:
| But to him who tries, ana who fails and dies.
give great honor and glory and tears.
| Oh. great is the hero who wins Il name.
But greater many and many time
Some palc-iac"l fellow who dies in shame
| And lets God finish the thought sublime.
And great is the man with sword undrawn,
And good is the man who rcirains from wine:
But the man who fails and yet still fights on,
I.o, he is the time born brother OF mine.
AS these men have written we may neve.
hope 10 write, bat as they have thought we
may think and be guided in oar labor by
the sublimity of their creed. In our own
divine natures, in the infinite possibilities
of our tasks let Us advance to higher planes
of elevation:
| I..rr, rj.,, II.