The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1891-10-16
United States and the London
press plimentcd it in the highest

The year following Mr.. Grady de-
voted much of his time toward organic
ing and aiding the famous Piedmont ex-
position. This proved great success in
every way. President Cleveland and
his wife We're among the attendants. In
1888 he organized and conducted the
Piedmont ChautauQua at Salt Springs,
sixteen miles from Atlanta.
In October, 1888, Mr.. Grady delivered
a speech ut the Texas state fair, at Dallas,
and this 3eech was equal to any he
had ever made. He travelled in a
special car, and was from one end of
Texas to the other greeted with one con-
tinuous ovation.
In November of the same year he ad-
dressed thousands of cheering people at
the Augusta (Ga.) National exposition.
This speech was pronounced to be equal
to the Dallas and New England address
es, and his standing was acknowledged
as one of the great orators of the world.
Mr.. Grady had often been suggested
for the second place on the national
ticket before the Democratic convention
in 1898, but he refused to turn aside
from his chosen work among his own
people to seek after political hOnors.
He was also urged to become candi-
date for the United States senate, but
he declined the honor. He was jour
nalist by instinct, and kept his thoughts
in the newspaper work.
In the fall of 1899 he went to Boston,
and on Dec. Is he delivered an address
before the Merchants club of that city,
which proved to be- one of the greatest.
if not the greatest, effort of his life.
No apology is necessary for quoting
here few of the wonderful passages in
that speech. 1t sealed his fame as one
of the great orators of history, aud will
live together with the ablest efforts Of
the great men of the world. His de-
scription of the south which he loved so
we'll was full of poetry. He said:
Far to the south, Mr.. President, separated
from this section by line--Once defined in ir-
repressible difference once traced IN fratri-
cidal blood, and now, thank God, but vanish
ing Sandwiches the fairest and richest domain
of this earth. 1t is the home of a brave and
hOspitable people. There is conferred all that
can please or prosper human kind perfect
climate above fertile soil yields to the hus-
bandman every product of the temperate zone.
There by night the cotton whitens beneath the
stars and by day the wheat locks the sunshine
in its bearded sheaf. In the same field the
clover steals the fragrance of the wind, and
the tobacco catches the quick aroma OF the
rains. There are mountains stored with eX-
haustless treasures; forests, vast and primeval;
and rivers that, tumbling or lettering, run wan
ton to the sea.
OF the three essential items of all industries
cotton, iron and wOOd-that region has easy
control In cotton, fixed monopoly; in iron.
proven supremacy; in timber, the reserve sup
ply of the republic. From this assured and
permanent advantage, against which artificial
conditions cannot much longer prevail, has
grown an amazing system of industries. Not
maintained by human cOntrivance of tariff or
capital, aiar OF from the fullest and cheapest
source OF supply, but resting in Divine assur-
Rnce, within touch of field and mine &nd for
est-nOt set amid costly farms from which
competition has driven the farmer in despair,
but amid cheap and sunny lands, rich with
agriculture, to which neither season nor soil
has set a limit-this system of industries is
mounting to a spleudor that shall dazzle and
illumine the world. That, sir, is the picture
! and the promise of my home-a land better
! and fairer than | have told you, and yet but
| fit setting, in its material excellence, for the
| loyal and gentle quality of its citizenship.
Against that, sir, we have New England, re-
| cruitiug the republic from its sturdy IONS,
| shaking from its Overcrowded hives new
| swarmS Of workers, and touching this land all
| over with its energy and its courage And yet
| while in the FL Dorado of which have told
! you but ID per cent. of lands cultivated, its
mines scarcely touched, and its population so
scant that were it set equidistant the sound OF