McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1885-04-02
NEBRASKA DAY ArNEw ORLEANS.
a Speech ora the Occasion bD Hon. john N.
1iturston, of Omaha.


day. The orator of the occasion was Hon
John NJ. Thurston of Omaha, whose remarks
are here given. He said:
"This magnificent exposition fills us with
patronism, wonder and Joy. Patriotism, to
feel what grand and glorious land is ours:
wonder. to find, gathered together here, the
choicest products of the agriculture, the art,
the science. the invention, the manufacture
and the commerce of the whole civilized
world; JOY, to know Of the great era of uni
yersal prosperity and peace. of which these
dumb witnesses SO eloquently speak.
Seeing the flags OF al the great powers
floating side by side in the air above us, we
feel assured that the great International mil
ilenium has nearly or quite come: when the
sword of the soldier shall no longer leap from
Its scabbard 10 settle disputes between civil
lzed nations, but shall be kept forever sheath
ed by the wisdom OF the statesman and the
arbitration of the just.
''Shali we " no have seen these things be held
as dreamers IL we prophesy that in the great
future our own beloved United States Is TO
become the Arcadia of the poets dream,
where universal knowledge, universal indus
try and universal love shall prevail! Where
Inc inmate of prison shall be thing
OF the past; where the man of the mob shall
become the man of the farm and the manu-
factory, and the man of the binds con and of
crime shall have disappeared forever before
the man of the temple and the man of law?
I'VE slso believe that this gathering together
mere VIII p owe an ine6timable blessing TO our
own people, that it will do much to forever
destroy all lingering traces of the Old time
sectional feeling. and that in this temple of
industry we may gather from all portions of
our common country and aroundits altar once
again partake of the sweet communion of our
remunerated love and faith.
For but little more than century the ex-
pertinent of peoples government has been
tried upon American foil. Born of the ire
hearts of the people, rocked in the cradle of
revolution. baptized in the blood of its heroic
martyrs, this heaven-inspired experiment has
become grand success. We look abroad
throughout the land and we see the cities,
towns and villages, growing and thriving
upon the hillside and in the valleys, ut the
foot OF the mountains, by the shores of the
Sea. We see the forests disappear before the
woodman's and the praires broken by the
plowman's skill. We see the steamboats,
blowing the lakes and the rivers, and the iron
bands of the railways spanning the land We
feel that ours is indeed the land of all others
Where the schoolhouse is upon the hillside
and the church spire in the air Where the
forge fire is aglow, and the smoke of the man.
ufactory leaps upward to the eager heavens.
Where the joyous ringing of the pick and the
musical hum of the spindle delights the ear of
weli-paid labor. Where the rivulet and the
river, the cataract and the waterfall have
been chained by the ingenuity of man to turn
the wheel that tolls for him. Where every
man. rich or poor, may own the land he tilis,
and liberty, equal rights and justice is the
heritage of all
zone hundred years ago the sovereignty of
the thirteen original colonies was as yet I'M
known upon the shores of the Gulf of Mexico,
and had scarcely penetrated into the I'M
broken wilderness beyond the Alleghanies
Now all changed. BY cession, conquest and
discovery we have advanced our boundaries
until from the lakes of the north to the gulf
of the south. from the rock-bound coast of
the Atlantic TO the golden gates of the Pacific
we have glorious country, where nearly |
sixty millions of free nnnnla n ms
porous paths of peace.
BY far the most important acquisition of |
territory was that of tae province of Louisi- |
ana. In 1905 the wise craftsmanship of |
Thomas Jefferson, operating wi l the warlike |
complications of Europe, induced the great |
Napolean to perform one of those grand acts |
of national sacrifice, more heroic than any of |
his innumerable conquests, and this vast ter |
Eitory, so necessary to the future develop |
ment and power of this great government,
was Ou s. OF this province, now subdiyided |
into seven states and four territories, Ne
braska was an almost unknown and uncon-
sidered past. For many years distant, wider
ness ana savage tribes separated her from the
Louisiana of to-day. By various acts of con-
yress she became part of other territories and
was known by other Names
I'm the later times the terrible tide of civil
war ebbed and flowed Tor four long years be-
tween US. We thank God that great conflict
8 long since over. The smoke has lifted from
IS scenes OF carnage, and the sun of promise
shines again. Rich harvests have been gath
red from the fields that were plowed by the
hot and by the shell. The fruit has ripened
IN the vines and trees whose roots were
yatered by the blood of the brave. The homes |
AVE been rebuilt, the plantations reinclosed,
md the angel of peace has folded her white
Wings and nestled in the land where stalked
he destroying angel of war. And now, in this
!. ad time of reconciliation, the baby girl, Ne
,raska, groan to the full stature of her wo-
comes home to her mother, Louisi-
ma, once again. Comes with her hands over
lowing with the products of her bounteous
larvests and her heart filled with reawakened
lliaI love. We come to-day and say to Louisi-
ma and to her queen city, New Orleans, let
.enefcfa, to both. The pavigable waters of
he Missouri, the mighty tributary of the still
nightier Mississippi, flows past our very
oors. Reach out your strong arms, extend
he great arteries of trade. Let your vast |
Iealth secure from us the surplus products
our fertile soil. Restore the great watery
lghway to lis former glory, and keep for US
he gate of commerce to the world of COM
lerce beyond.
And now come to speak of Nebraska her
esources and advantages This is something
assing for Nebraska man to even half de-
nribe her wonderful productiyeness and fer
nty. Strangers are apt to look at one with
yes asSsnt, and with q rare expression of I'M
elIef. Butt modestly yet firmly assert that ,
ne men of Nebraska never lie. Every one {
them wears next his heart miniature
dtion of the historical Ratchet. Nebraska, t
considered, lies between the !
Or; 10th and forty parallel of the north
II .tnia. and the ninety-fiith and l04th de- i
res If longitude west from Greenwich. 1t r
xtends from the Missouri river westward, :
18th gradual ascent, not noticeable to the 4
ye, toward the foot hills of the Rocky noun '
,ins. 1t has an extreme length OF Az and '
idth of 2uS miles. Its total area IS about s
200 square miles. or 50,000 600 acres of farm 4
nd grazing LANDS, unsurpassed in fertility, | q
and ease of tillage, by any $
act in America. In the whole state there is i
OF square mile of swamp land or a section s
lat cannot be successfully titled or grazed. /
he whole section consists of rolling prairies, | G
by numerous beautiful valleys, '
trough which the countless streams and riy- g
rs wind like silver ribbons in the sunshine. r
he soil is rich alluvial of an unknown '
epth and ineXhauStibe fertility. Its porous /
aaracter enables it to withstand excessive | @
Ain or drouih. shall speak no further of &
lstoric Nebraska, bot shall refer to the adj '
ancement of the last twenty years. q
up to within that period there were, prac- e
cally, no settlements except upon her ex- 7
eme eastern border along the Missouri 3
yer. For the most part her virgin prairies h
y unbroken, roamed over by vast herds of n
1ffalo and by the unmolested Indian. But q
lere were few in the land whose daring
inds had conceived the gigantic project or
great transcontinental railway, which
iould bridge the rivers, traverse the plains,
limb the mountains, anDihilate space and !.
ring the two extremes of our land into COM
ercial communication with each other. p
hese enterprisiDg giants brought to the &C {
IN plishment of this scheme great energy,
and daring. They poured into Z
rha accumulated riches of successful VEN | III