Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1888-05-05


Babylon-with her two hundred and
fifty towers and her braZen gates and her
embattled walls, the splendor OF the earth
gathered within her palaces, he hanging
gardens built by Observation-Disclosures to
please his bride Amyittis, who had been
brought up in a mountainous country and
could not endure the fiat country round
Babylon, these hanging gardens built,
terrace above terrace, TILL at the height of
-four hundred feet there were woods wav-
ing and fountains playing, the verdure,
the foliage, the glory looking asif a noun
tain top were OF the wing. On the tip top
a king walking with his queen, among
statutes snowy white, looking up at birds
brought from distant lands, and drinking
out Of tankards OF solid gold, or
looking sf over rivers and lakes
upon nations subdued and tributary.
crying: lis not this great Babylon which
| have builtY' What battcring ram
smotc the walls? What ploughshare up
turned the gardens? What army shat
tered the brazen gates? What long,
fierce blast Of storm put out this light
which illumined the world? What crash
Of discord drove down the music that
poured from palace window and garden
grove and called the banquctters to their
rcvel and the dancers To their fecty |
walk pom the scene OF dCSOlatlOn 10 find
an answer and pick up pieces of bitumen
and brick and broken pottery. thercmains
Of Babylon, and as in the silence of the
night | hear the irging of that blllow OF
dcsOlation which rolls over the scene, |
hear the wild waves saying: Babylon
was proud. Babylon was impure. Bas
lion was "A star. bat 10y SIN she turned[to
NORWOOD and has fallen.
From the prosecutions of the Plgrim
Fathers and the IIuguenots in oti-er lands
Goo set upon these shores a na,ton. The
council fires of the aboriginss went out
in the greater light of "A free. government
The sound of the war wnoop was cx-
changed for thee thous0,il VIII els of en-
terprise and progress. The mild winters,
the fruitful summers. The healthful skies
charmed from ~othcs-ands a race of hardy
men who loved God and wanted - be
free. Before H. woodlands axe forests
fell and rose again in o ships masts and
churches PLIERS. Cities on the banks of
lakes begiD..'o rival cities by the sea. The
land quahsTs with the rush of the rail car
aud ~thcIxatcrs are churncd white with
tit an y "hNti' hDlAspA bb9ltlS
of w<srern wheat meet on the way fabu-
lous1Ons of eastern coal. Furs from the
n91th pass on The rivers fruits from the
'1uth. And trading in the same market
is Maine lumberman and South Carolina
rice merchant. and Ohio farmer and Alas
ka fur dealer. And churches and schools
and esylums scatter light and love, and
mercy and salvation upon sixty millions
of people.
! pray that our nation may not copy
the crimes of the nations that have per
ished. and our cup of blessing turn TO
wormwood and like them we go down.
| an by nature and by grace an optimlst,
and | expect that this country will o II
tinue to advance until the world shall put
on mil ennial era and that when Christ
comes again he will set his throne some
where between the Alleghanies and the
Sierra Nevadas. But be not deceived
Our only safety is in righteousness to-
ward God and justice toward man. If
VT forget the goodness Of the Lord to
this land and break his Sabbaths and i'm
prove not 10y the dire disasters that have
again and again come to Ms II people, and
we learn saving lesson neither from
civil wal nor raging epidemic,
nor drOuih nor mlldew nor sCouige of To-
Gust and graSshopper, if the political cor
rGplion which has poisoned the fountains
OF public virtue and brFlimcd the high
places of authority, making free govern
ment at times a kissing and u byword in
all the earth, if the drunkenness and Ii
ccntiOusness that staggcr and blasphl me
in The streets of our great cities as though
th were reaching after the fame of u
tofinth and a Sodom are not rcpentch of
we will yet see the smoke Of our nations
ruin; the pillars of our national and state
capitals VIII fall more disastrously than
when Sampson pulled down Dagon; and
future historians will record upou the page
believed with generous tears the story
that the free nation Of the west arose
in splendor which made the world stare.
Ii had magnificent possibilities. 1t forgot
God. 1t hated justice. 1t Rugged its
crime. II halted on its high march. 1t
reeled under the blow of calamity. 1t
fell. And as it was going down all the
despotisms of the earth from the top of
bloody thrones began TO shout: Aha,
SO would we have it," while struggling
and oppressed peoples looked out from
dungeoned bars with tears and groans
and cries of untold agong, the scorn of
those and the woe OF these uniting IN the
exclamation: Look yonderl There fell
a great star from heaven, burning as it
were a lamp. and it fell upon the third
part of the rivers and upon the fountains
of waters; and the name Of the star is
called Wormwoodl'