Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-11-26

awful RESPONSIBILITIES. Italy has no skies
fairer. Switzerland has not scenery more
sublimely beautiful; its valleys are the
fairest of the fair; its rolling streams and
babbling brooks are instinct with
THE MUSIC OF THE WILD MOUNTAIN LIFE,
Where was their home; the granIest land
scape $50 varied in its scenery in all the
world is this great State OF ours; what Will
you make of it? Whatever you are, ye
jewellers in this State of ours, that will she
be, and be forever. You are inviting im-
migration to this shore. If you open the
door to them upon a land of churches, of
sch ools reared upon foundations of moral
ity and truth; if you show to the East
quick perception of moral faint, and dis
play a manly determination to eradicate
the evil, you will have immigration in ex-
cess of your demand. You will have it of
that type you need-home-loying law
abiding, wealth producing, taxpaying citi-
zens-capable of building into this State
material that shall stand all the storms of
coming years. But you may advertise and
laud and applaud your State to the end OF
time, and if home-loving, law-abiding, tax
paving home-seekers look in upon field
where moral perceptions are blunted, in
capable of quick response to the danger
signals of virtue and honor and integrity
where churches are utterly disregarded by
business men, stared out of countenance
by the bold indifference of merely plea
sure-seeking people; saloons imposing
poverty "a hours day and 365 days in the
year upon the inhabitants, and no man
saving hold to the outrageous tax imposed
by the consequent vice and crime; II, IN
word. you do not offer high inducement to
moral growth, you will have an immigra
ton, and an immigration only, of the
Indifferent and the goddess, and
there will be written upon your
towns and cities the epitaph that
you may see stamped indelibly upon so
many individual lives: " Unstable as wa
ter, thou shalt not excel Hollow a
cavity upon the sea shore and it will not
more surely fill with water to the level of
the tide than immigration of certain type
will respond to whatever invitation in kind
you hold out to it upon these shores. The |
quality of immigration that will answer to
your call will be assimilated to the element
into which it flows Multiply amusements
and agents of frivolity;
LOOK INADVERTENTLY UPON VICE
And treat crimefwith lenience; write that
history to-day, and generation or GEN. |
fury hence when that page shall have been
filled out be sure that line, the record of
to-day, will be found in harmony with the |
context. What history you are writing is |
all subsequent history can |
not blot it out. Nay, all subsequent history |
will be colored by the writing. Individual |
human lives are inconsistent, visionary |
and illogical ofttimes but the aggregate of
human lives is national destiny, and that |
is irresistible logic, immutable tendency |
and iron fate. beseech you look well to |
your individual lives, for in them are the
life germs of the future of your State. The i
rivulet upon the mountain side you may |
conduct into any valley of your desire; but |
YOU may not dam Niagara as it rushes to |
its seething plunge, nor say to the ocean,
thus far only shalt thou come, and there |
shalt thy proud waves be stayed. Come |
back with me on this joyous Thanksgiving |
day, you who smile at appeals for more of
the old New England sternnesS and integ- |
rity of life; come back with me across this |
vast continent to the home OF your boyish |
DAYS. and draw for one moment the veil |
from your careless heart and let Us look |
within. l know there is corner sacred to |
the clustering memories of the past. |
There is not one foot of the old |
farm house, where your eyes first opened |
on the light of day, that is not dear |
to you. But were you to set apart
one spot, as above all others hallowed, it |
would be that little chamber where you |
were wont to close your eyes on sleep in |
childish innocence. And were you to lay |
you down-after these many years of alb |
sence-within that little room, ] know |
that once again you would strain your ears |
to catch the creaking of door, the soft |
rustic of woman's garment, and
THE LIQUID MURMUR OF MOTHERS VOICE, |
As she kneels' beside your bed to ask Gods |
blessing on her child All, mothers of New |
England homesl You little know what |
destinies of budding states and springing |
empires you hold within your arms what /,
impress your evening and morning petl
tons are making on the lives of US, your
sons and daughters; how the rustling of
those robes and the murmur of those pray
ers will come back to US in after years, like
the rustling of angel pinions, to bear our
thoughts away to heaven! We pause a
moment in the whirl and hustle of
our California life to thank God
for our New England ancestry, |
and for the foundation of civil I
and religious life they laid so sure and free.
And this empire by the sea to which New |
England has given SO many of her fairest |
and her best-sent out with what prayers |
of anguish your hearts can never know
shall not the burden of your care be the
preservation of those things that pertain |
unto her peace.
Oh, State prayer-founded, never hung
Such choice upon peoples tongue
Such power to bless or ban,
As that which makes thy whisper, fate;
For which on thee the centuries wait,
And destinies of man.
Then let thy virtue match the crime,
Rise to a level with the time,
And if son of thine
Betray or tempt thee, Brutus like,
For fatherand and freedom strike
AS justice gives the sign.
And unto thee, in freedom hour
OF sorest need, God gives the power
To ruin or to save;