Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-07-04

and some of those who look on see little or
nothing else. But the careful observer
notices that the pebble causes first a dis
turpance at the center, and then a series
OF rtpples, moving from that center until
At the furtheSt edge Of the pond those
ripples break in influence upon that point
1t mas been SO with our day. The set
ting forth Of the great truth lying in the
hearts OF those who made this day for
US came upon the world with as rude and
starting disturbance Of the even surface
of human society as the stone thrown into
the pond. The majority of the onlookers
regarded In startled surprise only the dis
turbance created at the moment, but the
thoughtful have watched its effects since
10 see that all mankind, like the edges of
the pond. have felt its influence and its
effects: To this very moment, in every
part OF our world; that influence and those
eftects are manifesting themselves At
this moment the whole civilized world
reads and hears the stirring words in
which that glorious truth was set forth
with an awe and reverence second only to
That accorded to divinity itself.
and with good reason. Revert with me
to the day on which this great event De-
Cured. For generations men had sub
mtted to being governed by one man.
claiming his prerogative as by divine
ristt. freedom as We know 1t and enjoy
IT'S blessings was so strange a thing as to
make its very mention seem q heresy
Day by day, and year by year, the SUBJ
serVience of society to this condition was
so uniform and universal as to make dull
NJ
| IL gs of the souls of men. At once, as by
divine command, those who made our
| DAY for US, breasted the high tide of this
conception, and what is more, they beat
| 1t back. In those ringing words and with
| the dauntless hearts behind those words
| they beat back this tide and forever de-
stroyed the old order, proclaimirg liberty
throughout our land and deriving for all
I nations and for all lands that every gov
eminent derives its just powers from the
consent OF the governed and that no gov
errnent is right or endurable that is not
| of the people, by the people and for the
people,
What just pride, then, is ours to claim
decent from the noble band. the immortal
few, who struck this great principle from
| the dull and seemingly dead rock of their
accepted conditions, and who pledged in its
| support their lives, their fortunes and their
sacred honor. Nay. who gave of what
ing that sacred honor only by making
| good the pledge of it for their cause and
ours and the worlds.
The Worlds Cause.
II say the wcrld's-and is 1t not so? In
what part of earth are the glorious words
which you have heard today not read and
cherished? Even an English historian has
justly said of them that they should be
written in gold on the nursery walls of
every prince And in the last place on
earth in which you would expect to hear
of them they have been heard. under condi-
| ticns at once pathetic and soul-stirring.
You all know the story of Russia and
its Siberian horrors 1t has been told you
| by fellow townsman of ours in language
destined long to burn in the hearts and
minds of all to whom it has become
known.
In Russian Prison.
I'm one of those dread Russian prisons
there were confined, each in solitary cell,
| a number of political prisoners, so-called-
| men who had dared to turn their faces up
ward toward their God, and claim that
freedom which He meant for them. and to
which their right was as good the cars
title to hi1 throne; nay, better, for no car
has title to throne, as no king has.
These innocent men were so crfbbed and
cabined that seemingly nothing from the
| outer world could get to any one of them.
Nor could they by any possibility which
Russian vigilance could see have access to
or communication with one another.
But no Shackle can bind free mans
heart, though the iron eat into his very
soul. No gag can still free mans tongue.
Those Russian guards thought that they
had their prisoners in durance so close
that, of truth, they might be said to be
dead to the world.
But into the heart of each of them had
been instilled d life principle. They had
| read the glorious words which you have
heard today, and they had felt their
| mighty influence. Slowly. painfully, in
| deepest secrecy, these undaunted men had
worked out a code of communication by
means of signals, and had perfected sys-
| tenn of transportation by means of the soil
pipes and drains of their hideous home
| BY degrees, in anticipation of the ami
versary of our day, they had scraped to-
gether tiny fragments of colored rags, and
had formulated salutation to be given in
their code.
THE day broke. In an instant that saIu-
tation broke upon the startled ears of the
astounded guards; in the same instant there
flashed before the eyes of those guards tiny
limitations of our glorious flag made from
those scraps of rag-and Russian authority
fairly trembled at the sound and sight.
Those poor wretches could not see one an
other-they could not see one another's
little f1ags-they could not exchange a
glance of the eye-they could not feel a
grasp of the hand. All that they could do
they did. Silently, bravely, even hopefully,
they INDUCED for the moment the intoXi-
cation of a breath as of free air. and with
grateful tears they awaited almost with
happiness the cruel punishment which they
krew was to follow upon their act.
considering the full meaning of the day
and its far reaching and immortal influence,
our fathers, who caused its great news to
be announced by the old liberty bell might
justly have chosen for that bell even a
greater worth than they did. Proclaim
liberty throughout the land they babe it.
Throughout all lands, they might truly
have said Could they have anticipated the
words of England's last laments, how aptly
might they have given their bidding to the
bell in those words:
INlllS out tHe Olu, ting III the new.
Ring out the false, ring in the true;
Ring in redress to all mankind"
Mr.. John Goodc Speaks.
When Mr.. Davis had concluded and the
applause had subsidized the band played the
Star Spangled Banner" after which Mr..
John Goode of Virginia was introduced by
Gen. Breckenridge to deliver an address
Mr.. Goode spoke of the fact that they
were all gathered there, and there were
gatherings all over the country, today, shar-
ing in the gratitude for the glorious history
of our own nation and in the joy of the
prospect of its increased greatness in the
future. We have many days in our calen-
dar, said the speaker, worthy of our re-
spect and emblematic of great things ac-
complished in the past, but not such an
other day as this. We have many statues
OF many people, but there are none so full
for us Of the memories of the revolution
as the statues of Washington and La
fayette. So it was eminently proper that
they should hold their meeting at the foot
of one of these statues and take up their
line of march afterward to the statue of
the other.
Mr.. Goode spoke eloquently of the mem
DRY of the young Lafayette, who was but
captain of dragons when he heard that
the Americans had adopted the declara-
ton of their independence, and he decided