Asheville daily citizen. [volume] (Asheville, N.C.) 1890-1900, 1892-06-01

CHArEL'HIIL, June 1.-The oratlons
by the representatives, Of the Dialetc and
Phianthropic Literary societies were de.
livcred in Memorial hall before large
audience last night. The speakers were
S. +. Austin, Clayton, N. c., ii Phi sub
iect-"Saxon Ideas in America" T. J..
Cooper, Murphy, n. c., Di, subject
Foot Prints of Individuals +. c.
Harding, Grecnville, N. c., Phi, sub
ect-"Thc Conflict of Forces" w. p.
Wooten, LaGrangc, N. c., Phi; sub
jcct-"Thc Future of Southern Europe"
Today large and insLiriting au-
dicncc listened to Col. A. NJ. Waddell's
oration on William Lawrence Saunders,
Of whom the speaker said:
81 begin to do justice by declaring it to
be my deliberate conviction that our
state has never produced a son who was
more intensely North Carolinan in every
fiber of his being, or one who rendered
more continuous, unsclfsh, devoted, and
valuable service to her than did William
Lawrence Saunders too, a large
part of which was performed by him du-
ring years of ceaseless physical pain and
suffering. Indeed his whole life from
boyhood to the day OF his death, through
evil and good report, in advcrsity and
prosperity, was devoted to the work Of
sustaining and defending her honor, and
the welfare of her people. IT, therefore.
any North Carolinan ever deserved to be
remembered with gratitude for his public
service it was he; and it the state had
not pcrsistcntly from the beginning of
her existence refused to recognize by
some permanent memorial any obliga-
tion for such services by any of her sons,
we might indulge the hope that she
would erect monument to his memory.
She stands alone among civilized govern
ments i'll this respect, for she has never
erected a single memorial stone to show
the world that she ever produced son
, worthy of remembrance.
. Col. Waddell closed as follows: Gre
Gently | stood, at night, on the narrow
peninsula where thirty.scvcn years AGO
fleet and fort proclaimed in thunder the
name of Fort Fisher. To the eastward
hcavcd the sea. on whose rolling billows
. the rising moon poured flood OF silvcry
light, while opposite, and hanging low
, above the shining river i'll the limitlcss
depths Of the western heavens, Elowcd
the serene orb Of the evening planet
whose plorics heightened rs it ncarct
the liSriz0i Between lay the long linz
of ragged mounds over which he tide o
battle cbbed and flowed when the eX
piring hopes of a brave people were for
ever entinguiShcd. Beneath wave ant
earth mound alike patriot bones wcr'
bleaching, mute witnesses OF the horror:
of civil strife and of the emptiness of hu
man ambition. Higher rose the GOODIES:
of the night, wider grew the sheen upol
. the waters, lower and more luminous
sank the star. A solemn stiffness, I'm
broken save by the voice oi the nigh
wind and the sea reigned supreme.
"a more beautiful or a mere imprcs
sivc spectacle never greeted thcga OF ont
who looks revcrently and wonderlngll
upon the splcndors of the physical uni
verse, and as | watched that evenln!
planet sinking to its rest a voice within
me whispered: so too to the patriot
eye there is no vision more grateful THAI
the career of him who, torgctiul of sci
and mindful only of the rights anC
liberties of his tellowmcn, gives his life t.
their service, and. with the lustrc of hi
virtues ever frightening to the end
passes from their view"