The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-04-24

With tOmahaWks and scalDinE knives
That made folks head look queer:
. the ship from England used TO bring
4 hundred wigs a year.
% The crows came eawing through the
air
To pluck the pilgrims corn:
me bears came snufiiug round the door
Whene or a babe was born;
y ne rattlesnakes were bigger round
Than the butt OF the old rams horn
Ihe deacon blew at meeting time
On every Sabbath morn
But soon they knocked the wigwams
And pine tree trunk and limb
Began to sprout among the leaves
In shape Of steeples slim;
And out the little wharves were stretch
Along the oceans rim.
And up the little school house shot
To keep the boys in trim
The story of how this school came into
existence has often been told here. and
yet there is one incident that is related in
the history Of Savannah that do not know
has ever been noticed.
"OSlethorpe, in order to preserve order
IN his little town on the banks of the
Savannah, in 1875 appointed cOnstables
10 arrest evil-doers. For a long time
everything went along so smoothly that
there was no one 10 arrest. But at last
they caught somebody, and who do you
suppose it was? 1t was little boy,
and what do you suppose he was ar
rested for2 He had been detected steal
ing turnips. 1t always happens just like
that on the stage, which is supposed to
hold the mirror up to nature. In the
pantomime of Humpty Dumpty, for in
stance, a lot Of stealing and mischief is
going on; men are lighting and pun
melting each other over the face and heads
with enormous brickbats and stuffed
clubs, when in marches Mr. Policeman;
he does not, or will not see the men
little boy and marches him of the stage
under arrest. Now the great, big, wise
historian Of Savannah put that story
about the boy down in his book as an
evidence Of how good everything was in
Savannah. But 1 take 1t as an evidence
that policemen were pretty much the
same then as they are now. They wink
at heap that is going. on and pretend
they don't see 1t. But let little boy,
cold and ragged, come along. Let him
fiatten his nose against the bakers shop
window, or look up longingly at a pair
of shoes or red suspenders hanging at
the door, or crawl under somebody stoop
to rest his tired little body and sleep
where the night dews will not mingle
with the tear stains on his dirty cheek,
and as certain as the law of gravitauon,
the sentimental policeman Will come along
and hurry him off the stage.
History does not tell us what Cgle-
thorpe did with that young turnip-eater
I have no doubt he had eaten raw turnips
himself when he was young, and knew
how good they taste to boy when ne is
hungry and growing fast But judging
from all we know of his character, he
didn't even stop to scold him; he just
folded his arms around him and took him
to his heart; and then and there, / ven
ture to believe, was born the idea when
the St. Georges Society, later the Union
Society, carried out, and which shows its
fruit to-day in this institution, in these
buildings, these teachers, in these boys
and the grand work that is being carried
on for their benefit.
For Oglethorpe did not believe much
in jails. As chairman of a committee of
the British parliament he had visited In
172S the jails of London and helped to
free over 200 people. And we do know
when, in December, 1913, he parcelled out
Savannah into lots, among the first peo-
pie who received lots were thirteen or
phans. If each one OF you boys had one
of those Savannah lots now you would
be starting out in life pretty well pro-
vided for. Oglethorpe was truly a great
man.
"In all the history of this country there
is but one figure that can compare with
him in benevolence, earnestness, dignity,
broad-minded craftsmanship, manliness,
and symmetry of character, and that one
is Washington. They are like twin stars
of the first magnitude. Washington has
the greater renown because his career
was in larger field and affected the des-
tiny of a great people, of which Ogle-
thorpe's province was but a minor part.
yet Oglethorpe was not his inferior as
an organizer, tactician or a Soldier. And
within the limits of his field of action he
rose equally high to the exigencies of every
of men, of lofty courage and extraordinary
resources. His craftsmanship was practi-
CAL high-minded and philanthropic. He
opposed the Introduction of slavery into
the colonv.
His convictions ON that subject in 1892
were what the convictions of Georgians
are to-day. He was a sincere lover of
liberty.
But it is in the purity of his motives
and the disinterestedness of his charac-
ter, that his admirers can with most as
Surance challenge a comparison.
In England he was rich. cultivated,
high in the favor of his king, possessing
most distinguished coterie of friends in
Europe: His life there had in it every
thing that was admirable and desira ble
Few men could have turned away from
such allurementS to seek. as he did, his
highest joy in a work full of care, hard
ship and trial. Sweetest the music when
in the song the singer has been lost
Oglethorpe lost sight of himself in doing
good to others. He was absolutely I'M
selfish. 1t is a remarkable fact that al
though as the founder and governor of
this colony, he could have had anything
he demanded, he never owned foot of
ground In Georgia; and although the rest
of the colonists lived in houses, he pre-
ferred to live in simple tent under four
pine trees.
Hannah Moore regarded him as perhaps
the most remarkable man of his time. He
was then over ninety years old. She said
his knowledge of literature was extensive,
that ne had the finest figure you ever saw;
that he was quite a preux chevalier, he
roic, romantic and full of the old gallan-
try. BY Edmund Burke he was regarded
as more extraordinary than any person of
whom he had read, for Oglethorpe had call
ed a colony into existence and lived to see
1t become an Independent state.
Now Savannah people are great peo-
pie and worthy descendants of the colony
which Oglethorpe founded-as a rule they
are proud of their beginnings-and have
number of societies, patriotic and histor-
ic, that are organized to keep alive the re-
collections of matters worthy in their his
tory.
but in the matter of Oglethorpe they
have been criminally derelict. There exist
no public memorials of him in Savannah,
except ward and a square which bear
his name. For such ingratitude a French
man said, the people of Savannah deserved
to be thrown back into the debtors prison
from which Oglethorpe took them. Now,
while we deny that all of our pioneers en-
igrated from the sponging houses of Lon
GET WELL & STAY WELL