Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-10-07

lost hope. 1t did not become q brave
people TO thus yield up their courage
and passively await the finishing
stroke of adverse fate. In the misfors-
une and destitution which the war had
brought upon their innocent and help
less families they heard the stern COM
mand of u new and arduous duty; in
the destruction Of their homes and the
lesolation of their country they saw a
new field of noble strife. They said.
"The storm is past, aud we survive;
while life remains the star of hope will
not be quenched, though oftentimes
ohscured by the passing shadows. We
cannot give back life to those who fell:
we can only cherish their memory; we
cannot bring back the fallen fortunes
and departed glories of old South, but
we can build new South, and by the
blessing of almighty God we will do it,
We will build it on new foundation
in which shall be Incorporated the
great constitutional principles now
settled and established by the arbitra-
ment of the sword" They brushed
away the tears of their weeping wona-
en- and pledged them brighter day.
when the shadows should vanish and
the clouds roll by. They turned their
backs upon the dead past and bravely
faced the future. They were standing
on the outposts of new field of war
fare and their veteran eyes kindling
with the light Of reviving hope, saw
the welcome approach of other and l.o-
bier conflicts, not of carnage and death.
but the glorious battles of Peace.
Behold the transformation The
armi, of Lee and Jackson, Johnston
and Cheatham have grounded their
arms and forever iuried the torn and
tattered banners Of the Lost Cause.
Their serried columns no longer stand
like walls of fire on the battles fore
front, but disbanded and returned To-
their shattered homes, they have laid
aside their swords and muskets anil re-
paticns of peace. Farmers, mechanics,
engineers, artisans, manufacturers,
statesmen, lawyers, teachers, physi-
clans and divines they begin the grand
structure of the New South. The de-
bris and wreckage of wars destruction
are cleared away aud the foundations
are built upon the enduring principles
of free thought, free action, free labor,
free ballot, justice, law. order, tho
education of the ma sses, the autonomy
of the states, constitutional govern
ment, one flag and reunited republic.
These, my countrymen, are the princi-
plies of the progressive Democracy or
the new South. They inspire the en-
ergy, the push, the grip and snap
which are rapidly rearing the southern
half of the grandest structure of
advanced civilization the world ever
saw.
Only twenty years have passed since
the firing of the last gun, and we wit
ness to-day progress in the achieve
ments of brain AMI muscle In the
sciences, arts anil industries unprece-
dented and unheard of in the history
of nations. Under the improved meth
DDS of free and enlightened labor our
sunny Southland blooms like the rose.
From the banks Cf the Potomac to
the flower wreathed peninsula of the
Gulf, where orange blossoms breathe
and sweet magnolias. blow
Her fields are green or whiteas snow,
Or golden rs the sunset glow,
With bleaching cotton, emerald cane.
Or yellow seas of waving grain.
Called fDrth as by the touch of en-
chantment, her new and mag gnificent
cities have sprung from the ashes and
shot and shell and flames of civil war.
Atlanta, brightest gem in the coronet
of the new South; Birmingham, with
her glowing furnaces born of the brain
and Drawn of the Iron God; Chatta-
ncoga on the rolling Tennessee spark
ling as q diamond with the white
heat of her industries and set in the
midst of her green historic hills; Knox
vile, fairest city of our noun tain girt
| Switzerland enthroned on her ever
lasting hills and st allowing her splen-
dors on the beautiful stream that flows
at her feet; Nashville. proud mistress
of the volunteer State, looking down
on the broad Cumberland; Memphis,
fiourishing as once fOurished Memphis
of the dead centuries on the banks of a
emporium of Southern lands and
Southern seas-these are some of the
fresh cut jewels that blaze in the royal
tiara of the new South.
On mountain and hilltop, slope and
plain, by river and brook, In hamlet
and city, where hostile armies, like
busy shuttles, Wove the woOf of ruin
and death, her peaceful flocks anti
herds are feeding, her farmers sow and
reap, her miners delve, her factories
hum, her spindles and looms make
music, her machines shops rattle and
roar, and her furnaces and mills, like
giant spiders, spin their threads oi
steel to cobweb the continent with
telegraphs and railways.
| No more shall the musket rattle,
Nor crash the shot and shell,
No more the red tide of battle
O'er the South shall surge and swell.
The South, abandoning in good faitll
the batreds of war, has long since
thrown open her gates of welcome and
invited the men Of the North to enter
with their capital and enterprise and
!, lend helping hand to the work oi
) restoration. They cordially accepted
the invitation and were received with
open arms, and the men who wore tho
. blue and the men who wore the gray
reoonciled and reunited in the bonds
, of brotherhood, are to-day shoulder te
shoulder, working out the grand des
tiny of the new Sou th aud the whole
nation.