The Waco evening news. [volume] (Waco, Tex.) 1891-1894, 1893-06-30
Great Speech OF Dudley c.
Wooten-... Corporations
Inliydnalism the Fundamental Law Of
Our Political and Social Fabric.

Gentlemen of the University, Ladies and Gem
tlenen
There have been a few scenes in
the history Of our race whose out
lines aid coloring can be efaced by
no lapse of time, nor dimmed by
ally effect of distance. In them
have been concentrated the indeli
BILE qualities Of human nobility;
around them cluster the deathless
attributes of earthly grandeur.
Their simple but startling Inca
ments are focused by the camera of
the centuries, and have been trans.
mitted to mankind as the faithful
miniatures of mans best achieve.
ments in thought and deed. To
their cold familiar faces" we may
always turn with reverence and af-
fection, for in them the world be-
holds the features Of its earliest and
purest periods of existence and
reads the lessons of its dauntless
and interrupted youth. Let one of
these suggest the theme for this
hour, dedicated, as it is, to the radi-
ant noble aspirations of these youth.
full careers OF labor and loyalty just
begun.
1t was the year $50 B. c. The
scene, the point where the wild
coasts of southern Thessaly touch
the boundaries Of the little Hellenic
province of Locris. The pellucid
charm and universal silence of a
summer morning in Greece envel-
oped with an atmosphere of won
drous purity and softened light the
narrow strip Of land between the
Seetling CT ifs of Callidromus and
the crystal waters of the Malian
gulf, while the first blush of APP
preaching sunrise drew its faint
and shadowy veil of purple and
pink over the wooded heights of
leach old poetic mountain" and
touched with vivid coloring ''green
beauties If each Attic plain" For
seven eventful days mere handful
of warriors, gathered from the scat
tered tribes Of the Grecian PENN
sular, confronted and held at bay the
unnumbered hordes of the arrogant
and angry Persian, and now the
dawn of the last scene in the i'm
mortal struggle beheld the mighty
army of Nexes preparing to CON
tinue and TO close the une equal con-
tiict against the few heroic men
who lay exhausted but undaunted
within the little pass whose stones
were already crimsoned by the blood
of defeated foes and dead comrades.
Treachery had discovered an
other approach for the enemy, and
.ven now the stiffness of the morn.
ing air was broken by the tread OF
the invading host in its passage
over the mountain, proclaiming that
the defense SO long maintain ed in
front was to be rendered futile by
an overwhelming attack from be-
hind. The weak, the timid and
the treacherous had been permitted
to depart In time, and only the de.
voted band of Spartans under their
intrepid leader remained to con.
test the final struggle.
Mountains ABOVE, FAITHS, Oceans plain
below.
Death in front, destruction in the rear;
such was the scene"
Nor did il take long to com.
plete the story. Leonidas had
three hundred warriors fell as
they had fought, resisting unto
death theMvaslon of their country
and the destruction of their liberties.
"Bleak Thermopyle's sepulchral
strait" witnessed their struggle and
housed their bones, but the realm
of glory aud the kingdom of hui.
man heroism it has been their royal
right to rule throughout every
succeeding age of this worlds
history. Their grateful country.
men erected upon the spot on which
they pour, d out their lives for
Greece, a monument, and Grecian,
with the wisdom of a sage and the
heart of Il Samaritan, inscribed
thereon their epltaph for the ages:
Stranger, tell the Lacedemonians
that we lie here in obedience to
their laxsN