Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1896-10-03

never consent. Unless They got it by in
heritance you cannot mention 20 men
who have come to honorable fortune
that did not fight their way inch by
inch and against fearful odds that again
and again almost destroyed them. For
some good reason God has arranged 1t
for all the centuries that the only way
for most people to get livelihood for
themselves and their families Is with
both hands and all the allied forces Of
body, mind and soul to push back and
push open the red gate, the gate of car
buncle For the benefit Of all young
men, if l hnd the time, I would call
the lcll Of those who overcame obstacle.
How many of the mighty men who
went one way on Pennsylvania avenue
and reached the United States senate or
walked the other way on Pennsylvania
avenue and reached the White House
did not have to climb over political oblo-
uuy? Not one. How much scorn and
scott and brutal attack did Horace Mann
endure between the time when he first
began to fight for IA better common
school system in Massachusetts and the
day when statue in honor Of him was
placed ON the steps Of tho statehouse
overlooking the Commons?
Read tho biography Of Robert Hall,
the Baptist preacher, who, though he
had been pronounced Ounce at school,
lived to thrill tho world with his Chris
tian eloquence, and of George Peabody,
who never owned carriage and denied
himself all Injuries that he might
while living and after death, through
last will and testament. devote his UNI
counted millions to the education of tho
poor people i'll England and America,
and of Bishop James, who i'll boyhood
worked his passage from Ireland to
America and became the JOY of Metho.
dism and blessing to the race. Go to
the biographical alcove in city, state or
national library and find at least every
other book an illustration of overcome
obstacle and of cnrmine gate that had to
be forced open.
Living Gates.
What is truo of individuals is true Of
nations. Was it mild spring morning
when the pilgrim fathers landed on
Plymouth rock and did they come in q
gilded yacht, gay streamers flying? No.
1t was in cold December, and from o
ship in which one would not want to
cross the Hudson or the Potomac river.
Scalping knives all ready to receive
them, they landed, their only welcome
the Indian warwhoop. Red men on the
beach. Red men in the forest. Red men
on the mountains. Red men in the val.
lcys. Living gates Of red men. Gates OF
carbuncle.
Aboriginal hostility pushed back,
surely now our forefathers will have
nothing to do but to take easy posses
sion of the fairest continent under the
sun. The skies SC genial. the soil so fer
tile, the rivers so populous with fnny
life, the acreage go immense, there Will
be nothing to do but eat, drink and be
merry. No. The most powerful nation,
by army and navy, sounded its protest
across 3, 900 miles Of water. Then came
Lexington, and Bunker Hill. and Mon
mouth, ard Long Island battles. and
Valley Forge, and Yorktown, and star.
walton, and widowhood, and orphanage,
and the 10 colonies went through suffer.
irgs which the historian hos attempted
to put upon paper and the artist to put
upon canvas, but all in vain. Engraver's
knife, and reporters skill, aud tele-
graphic wire, and daily press, which
have made Us acquainted with the hor.
rors Of modern battlefield, had not yet
begun their vigilance, and the story OF
the American Revolution has never been
told and never will be told. 1t did not
take much ink to sign the Declaration
of Independence, but it took terrific
amount of blood to maintain it. 1t was
al awful gate Of opposition that the
men and womon-and the women as
much as the men-pushed back. 1t was
gate of self sacrifice. 1t was gate Of
blood. 1t was cato Of carbuncle.
Red Letter Days.
We arc not indebted to history for
our knowledge of the greatest of nation
al crises. Many of US remember 1t. and
fathers and mothers now living had bet
ter keep telling that story to their chill
dren, so that instead of their being de-
pendent upon cold type and obliged to
cay, ION such page of such book
you can read that, will they rather be
able to say: my father told me go, )"
my mother told me so' Men and
women who wildly remember 1851,
and 1862, and 1868, and 1864, DO your
selves the historians, telling it, not with
pen, but with living tongue and voice
and gesture. That is the great use OF
Memorial decoration day, for the Gala
lilies on the grave tops soon become
breathless Of perfume, and In O week
turn to dust like unto that which lies
beneath them. But the story Of courage
and self sacrifice and patriotism told on
platforms and in households and by the
roadside and in churches and in ceme-
teries by TINT annual recital will be
kept fresh in the memory of generations
as long as our American institutions
are worthy of preservation. Long after
you are dead your children will be able
to say, with the psalmist, 1--WE have
heard with our ears, O God, our fa-
theirs have told Us, what work thou
didst in their days in the times of old. "
But what time it was Four years OF
inconsistencies. Four years Of brotherly
and sisterly arrangement. -Four years
of martyrdom. -Four years of massacre
Put them in long line. the confagra.
ton of cities. and see them light up
whole continent Put them In long
rows, the hospitals, making q vast me-
tropolis of pain and paro1ysm. Gather
them in one vast assemblage, the MIL