The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1890-12-04

IL ms 1tcDuitiIc IN W tl' IL VIM "
Internal disense and not from the sword OF
foreign foe.
Come the three corners Of the world IN
arms -,
And we shall shock them, nouaht shall
n America to itself do rest but true"
II instruction and revolution oc-
cur shall the life OF the nation and the
lives and property of its citizens depend
for defense upon q tumultuous, excited
and unframed sOldierv or shall the ban
ner OF Washington and the Constitution
OF the Union be surrounded and sustain
cd by disciplined army. That is the
question for every patriot to ponder ana
to answer.
THE THRONES OF ECROPE-CONDITION IN
AMERICA.
The thrones CT Europe are braced with
bayOnets. We have no such conditions
here.
We have a standing army OF $4,000
troops-periectly trained.
Each State has a guard, ranging in
number from 800 to 10000.
Should we need to organize q mighty
| army, every company in every county
would form u nucleus and the Regular
United States army, the great nucleus,
| to train volunteers for service and IN
| thirty or ninety days we could place III
| the field eight millions OF men.
| EUROPEAN TAUSTs PRIOR TO THE WAR.
Previous to the war the Military Chief
| tains of Europe tainted Americans with
the declaration that notwithstanding
| our vast population and resources our
| country was weak, that we had no mil
| ~
they stood still in wonder to see the
South place in the field GA 900 men and
the North $3.50, 900 and then witnessed
such deeds of valor as have never been
surpassed and seldom equalled by the
| best trained and prOudest of European
| chiyalry.
| Indeed a great English soldier said not
| long since, that, Sin the late war the
people OF America developed the greatest
| powers OF invention and military organ
| iZatiOn that the world has ever SEEN"
Using the words of another, | would
say, 1--WE know now, and the nations OF
earth know too, the mighty muscle and
nerve OF this Republic.
We evoke armies as il by mugic. At q
nod they disappear as ii the earth had
swallowed them up. But they are not
gone. They are engaged in all the vo-
cations of life around us. Let but the
trumpet sound, and they would spring
up crop of armed men, even as the
Scottish Highanders at the sound of
Rhoderic's buge horn
Yes, proudly do we say to the world
that il occasion call we have ten millions
of warriors like those who followed Wash
ingtOn, like those who bore theStars and
Stripes in triumph over the plains of
; Mexico, like those who rushed up the the
bloOd-stained slopes and over the fire
fringed battlements Of the Wilderness,
and Shiloh, Of Chickamauga, Malvern
Hill, Antietam and Gettysburg, and
fought amid the leaden hail that fell
about them as if it were but the soft
patter of summer rain
NECESSITY FOR AND INSTANCES OF DIS
CIPLINE.
But gentlemen, members of the Vance
Guards, in order to accomplish the
grandest results and prove yourselves
worthy OF your fathers and fOrefathers,
you must learn and practice the true
meaning of the word Discipline.
Would you have your hearts leap with
enthusiasm and thrill with admiration,
your purposes quickened and your mar
tial spirit aroused and inspired by some
OF the sublime instances ofdiscipline that
history records?
Look upon that charge of the 9TH
North Carolina, and oath Virginia Regi-
ments at Williamsburg, which was so
superb that the New York Herald de-
clared that the word Immortal" ought
to be written in letters of gold upon their
banners. See the magnificent discipline
and courage of the Northern troops at
| -. I L I
Turn your eyes upon that charge of
the Russian horse upon the 93rd High
land Regiment at the battle of the Alma,
drawn up two deep. Glow brightly the
sun shone-and how breathlessly we
waited in that dead silence only broken
by the clink and ring of the horses bits
and the unsheathing of sabres as the
Russians came up the valley, those splen-
did masses OF Icavalry moving en-echelon
up to the attack. Breathless every man
on the slopes and in the valley French
and English, soldier and amateur waited,
| while the grand line of the Moscovite
horse rode on the 93rd, who quietly
awaited them, motionless and impenetrabie
as a wdN Of granite, firm and invulnerable
as their own Highland sea wall-awaited
them, till their second volley, rolling out
on the clear morning air, they sent that
splendid body of horse flying, shivered
like sea foam breaking on rock"
Oh! how those few Regiments of Scotch
Hlghlanders literally hew their way
through the thousands and thousands
OF SepOy mutiners that rage around
them like an angry sea as they march
steadily onward to the relief of Lucknow
Watch the charge of the Light Brigade
at Balaklava, where only six hundred
men ''shook their bride reins loose, drew
their cleaning sabres and dashed off in
the morning sun with cheer. to attack
the whole Russian army in position,
flanked by thirty cannon. There was
the foe and there was the order, and,
Into the jaws of death, into the mouth of
Rode the six hundred"
Learn lesson in discipline from the
magnificent charge OF Macdonald upon
the Austrian center at Wagram, from
the charge OF the French cavalry and
the Old Guard, and the intrepidity and
isnmovability of the English Squares at
" aterloo.
Turn the pages OF history rapidly.
Observe three hundred Greeks stop an
army of one million and a half of Per-
SLAMS.
AHu lueu We come 10 iOOk at what
| consider the most sublime instances of
discipline that the records OF man con-
tains
1t was night at Pompeii. Just in the
distance Nesuvius was belching forth
great columns of flame. 4 thick black
smoke enveloped all things. And ever
and anon great rocks thrown up from the
depths of the volcano together with red
hot ashes and scalding scoria fell upon
the doomed City as it rocked in the EN-.
brace OF the earthquake, and now issuing
from the mouth of the crater is a stream
81 molten lava that by the lurid light
seems silver river. and that too is
rushing down upon Pompeii. The citi-
zens are seeking eseapein every direction,
some by way of thesea and some endeay-
or to reach the country beyond the city
gate, and the historian tells us that,
When they gained thegate-they passed
the Roman sentinel. There he stood.
L