The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-06-07

At recent meeting of the Marion
county agricultural and horticultural So
eiety Mr.. Wilson S. Doan read paper on
1.-The Farmer In Modern Civilization" 1t
was as follows
ITO measure the influence of any one
class as q factor in civilization with ex-
aciness is an impossibility. 1t takes the
mountain as we'll as the valley, the rush
ing torrent as well as the placid lake to
make up the whole beauty
Of the landscape Neither noun
ain, river nor plain can alone
Iay that this beauty is mine
But each owns all. vet no one composes
all. a kind of an estate in the entirety.
lust so with the factors of our civilization
school aud college, farm and factory, plow
and railroad, court and legislative cham
Der have all Joined in building the edifice
Of our modern civilization. And these
forces if You will permit me to confine
myself 10 our own land. have built a struc-
ture grand-but not perfect-indeed
structure with many flaws-a structure
that wants much yet before it is con plete.
Look at II one moment, the resources
OF the broadest and most fertile plain
upon the globe, and Of mountains bursting
forth With rich ore are Its firm foundation
stones. Ten thousand factories are its
walls: railroads and telegraph wires are
it's beams and refters. The public school.
adorned by the ornaments of college and
university, is its roof TO protect US from the
floods of ignorance and superstition and
q religion that knows no one creed forms
its windows to let IN the light OF heaven
from all sides. What class, what race,
what profession can Say that We have
hrnTl gFr 1ffFra M afrrae nd -
ours alone? 1t has been said OF Us. that
we bOast-perhaps some of Il is pardon
able. Whatever NAV be in the future one
thing is sure in the drama of history, our
civilization is the fifth and eliminating
act OF the great play.
The FIRST Scene.
"The Hebrew played the first scene, and
he gave the world a morality and religion.
The Greek played the second, and he
gave 10 tue world language and litera-
ture. Rome PLAYED the third, and she
gave 20 the world a civil law. England
played the fourth. and she gave the world
trade, commerce, together with colon
iZatiOn. But on the sunset side of the
world. IN virgin soil, God laid the scene
of the fifth act. which should combine ali
the former acts. We are accustomed TO
boast Of the pilgrim fathers on Plymouth
rock. They were indeed a handful of
wheat sifted from the chat of An old aud
weedy field and planted IN the clear;ngs Of
the primeval forests of new England
I'VE are proud OF the history OF the
Pennsylvania colony, we like TO boast of
the old Quaker colony that near one
hundred years prior TO tile Declaration of
Independence aid the foundation stones
of democratic government. We have
made the ground where the ShacamRXon
elm stood sacred. The most Teverenced
piece Of metal with Us Il not the diamond
of crown or gold OF sceDter but
the cracked. rough Old liberty bell
We cherish these things as the
buds-nay but tiie first promise OF the
flower OF our civilization But ali these
things speak OF nothing more than our
baby hood. We were not fairly COM
menced. The ground had not vet been
cleared for the structure of our modern
civilization. But | want to call your at
tention TO another class the foundation
stones OF an empire and state are not laid
In luxury; the frame work OF civilian
ton is not built by men who ride the pal
ace cars. Not worthy of less honor,
not worthy OF less fame than
tine pilgrim fathers is that great
army Of pioneers, each OF whom in the
early dawn of this century left the old
homestead in Pennsylvania IN New York.
In Virginia, IN North Carolina or south
Carolina. and, IN an old covered wagon
with his pillow and ak and mis- gun. eli J. bed
ghe eastern slope OF the Aleghenies TO
look over on what A fertile plain com
posed OF rich and DTOducnge farms aud
dotted with city, hamlet and village?
A Chicago y St LOUISE A Cincin-
natl? An Omaha? Schools? Colleges?
Universities and churches? HIGHWAYS and
railroads? No. not one. He looked into
the prImeval forest-a Wilderness dense
and deep-its only highway was the
Indians trail and the deers' path is city
was the Indian village or a frontier trad
ing post; the only home the Indians
wigwam. Yet fearless. having faith in the
AK and gun and his own right arm, he
pressed along the trail until he
buried himself In the midst of
the forest. He built his cabin
out of the trees that surrounded him. he
built Its chimney with sticks and daubed
it with mud. and his hearth he made of
boulders picked from the brook that ran
by his door. He covered it with great
clap boards split by his own hand from
the oak that grew before his door He
built the floor OF puncheons, he cut out a
log in the wall and then pasted piece of
creased paper over the opening to let in
the light by day and pile of hickory
bark blazing on the rude hearth
stone afforded him light by night
Nothing in TheOrie..
Men in professors chairs and college
halls NAV talk about the philo sophy of
history and the development OF our civiliz-
ation-they may have hundred theories
and thousand causes-but the fact re-
mains that the foundation stones Of the
commonwealth of Indiana and Ohio were
lain in ust such homes as these by your
grandfathers and grandmOthers and yOl
and have inherited it as our birthright
What is true of Indiana and Ohio is
true OF Iowa, Kansas and Ne
braska and all the North west.
Civilization carried her foundation
stones there not on vestibule overland
f1iers owned by a Gould or a Vanderbilt
and she laid them in a thousand homes
whose walls were sod and whose roofs
were sod and whose floors the bare
ground. Out of such homes as these
came some OF our leaders and statesmen.
Such were the boyhood homes of our Lin
coin and Garfield, of John Brown and
Lovejoy. But the old cabin has long
since decaved, the sod house is no longer
found except on the far frontier. Instead
OF the trail, a network OF rtiroads has
sprung into existence. This has come as
junior partner of the pillow instead of the
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