Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1893-11-23

and the furnaces inside raging to get
out Oblivion! The word itself will
roll into it as easily as " s~choolboy's
india rubber ball rolls down a hill,
and when our world goes 1t Is SO in
terlocked by the law Of gravitation
with other worlds that they will go,
too, and so far from having our mem
DRY p~erpetuated by a monument of Alb
erdeen granite In this world, there
is no world in sight or oIr strongest
telescope that will be a sure pediment
for any slab of commemoration of the
fact that we ever lived or died at all.
Our earth is struck with death. The
axlc-tree of the consultations will
break and let down the populations of
other worlds. Stellar, lunar. solar NOR
tality. Oblivion! 1t can swallow and
will swallow whole g~alaxies of worlds
as easily as a crocodile takes down a
frog.
Yet oblivion does not remove or
swallow anything that had better not
be removed or swallowed. The old
monster is welcome to his meal. This
world would long ago have been over
crofded III not for the merciful re-
moyal of nations and generations.
What il all the books had lived that
were ever written and printed II pub
iished. The libraries would by their
immensity have obstructed intelligence
and made all research impossible. The
fatal epidemic of books was Il merci-
full epidemic. Many Of the state and
national libraries of to-day are only
morgues in which dead books are wait
ing for some one to come and recog-
/ ,,;ya yIn,, NNlat 10 all tho pnnnln that
had been born were still alive? We
would have been elbowed by our an
cestors Of ten centuries ago, and peo-
pie who ought to have said their last
words 5000 years ago, would snarl at
us, saying: What are you doing
hcre?' There would have been no
room to turn around. Some of the
past generations of mankind were not
worth remembering. The first useful
thing that many people did was to die;
their cradle a misfortune, and their
grave a boon. This world was hardly
a comfortable place to live in before
the middle of the last century. So
many things have come into the world
that were not fit to stay in, we ought
to be glad they were put out. The
waters of Lethe, the fountain of for
getfulness are a healtbful draught.
The history we have of the world in
ages past Is always one-sided and can
not be depended on. History is fiction
Illustrated by a few struggling facts.
In all the Pantheon, the weakest god
dess Is Clio, the goddess of history,
and instead of being represented by
sculptors MS holding a scroll, might
better be represented as limplng on
crutches. Faithful history is the saw
ing of 4 few things out of more things
lost The Immortality that comes from
pomp of o~bsequies, or granite shaft,
OF building named after it's founder, or
page OF recognition in some encyclo-
pedia is an Immortality unworthy of
ones ambition, for 1t will cease and is
nc Immortality at all. Obliyioni a
hundred years. Bat while / recognize
this universal submergence of things
earthly, who wants to be forgotten?
Absent for a few weeks of months
frCm home, 1t cheers us to know that
we are remembered there. 1t is n
phrase we have all pronounced: II
hope you missed me-" Meeting some
friends from whom we have parted
many years, we inquire: did you
ever see me be~fore?" and they say
Yes" and call us by name, and we
feel a delightful sensation thrilling
through their hand into III hand, and
running up from elbow TO shoulder,
and then parting. the N current of
delight ascending to the brow and the
other descending to the foot. moving
round and round in concentric circles
until every nerve and muscle and ca
pacity of the body and mind and soul
is permeated with delight. A few days
ago, visiting the place of my boyhood,
| met one whom l had not seen since
we had played together at ten years of
age. and / had peculiar pleasure in
puzzllng him a little as to who l was,
and / can hardly describe the sensa-
ton, as, after awhile. he stumbled out:
Let me see. Yes. you are De Witt"
We all like 10 be remembered.
Now, l have to tell you that this OBJ
livion of which | have spoken has its
defects. and that there Is no more rea-
son why we should not be distinctly
and wildly and g%loriously remembered
five hundred million billion trillion
quadrillion quintjllion years from now.
than that we should be remembered
six weeks. l am going to tell you
how the thing can be done and will
be done.
- may bbltd III titStiile
membrance," as my text styles 1t. into
the supernal existence of those to
whom we do kindness in this world.
You must remember that this infirm
and t~reacherous faculty which we now
call memory Is in the future state to
be complete and perfect, Everlasting
remembrance" Nothing will slip the
stout grip of that celestial faculty. Did
you help a widow pay her rent? Did
YOU find for that man released from
prison a place to get honest work? Did
YOU pick up n child fallen on the curb
stone. and, by q stick OF candy put
in It's hand, stop the hurt on its scratch
cd knee? Did YOU assure a business
man, swamped by the ~strir.ency OF
the money market, that times would
after awhile be better? Did you lead
a Magdalen of the street into n mid
night mission where the Lord said 10
her: Neither do / condemn thee. Go.
and sin no more;' Did you tell a man,
clear discouraged in his waywardness.'
and hopeless and plotting suicide, that
for him was near by n LAYER In which
be might wash, and a coronet of eternal