The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-05-30

The band played .'Webster's Funeral
March" by Beethoven.
Hamilton hall was well filled to over
flowing to listen to the speeches of the
afternoon by Captain j. G. Waters and
Rev NJ. C.Loug.
Judge John Guthrie presided and the
music was furnished by the AOdOc
club. which sang Hail to the Flag,
we Decorate Their Graves Again To-
day and "A Thousand Years"
Captain Waters Speech.
The following is Captain Waters ora
tion
I'm am ages, the mystery of existence.
its night Of beginning, the shadows that
surround its close have been the theme
of the theOlOgian, philosopher, sage,
poet and orator.
1t has been the appalling inquiry that
first paled the cheek of childhood; that
ceaselessly haunts the solitude of the
hermit, that accompanies the lone way
farer on desert reaches, and sails in the
ship Of the voyaging traveller on oceans
traczless wastes And it is the last un-
answered enigma as in the pres
cnce Of the great Archangel. Love gives
up to Memory its hallowed tokens and
closes the opened book Of kindred and
friends
The boy wandering On the starlit
prarie beneath the radiant night. wit
innumerable host, watches the gibbous
moon, follows the track of the comets
cindered path, uplifts his eyes to clus-
ter ON cluster of worlds and stands
mute as he turns to systems banked on
systems in eternal and Intelligent dis
order. down the abysses OF space, and
up It's heights He may. in his reverent
and ignorant soul. speculate upon this
far away glimpse Of grandeur. and may
IDLY imagine that an this dignity and
majesty Of silence, all this grand move
ment Of creation i'm tuneless song. with
out sound, are but scenes that kind
ly nature sets and shifts to feast his
eyes and on which his senses may lfn>
ger jim wonder and astOnishment. The
beauties of the serene sky. its glory. the
hush of the shadowed land, he subor-
dinates AN these to serve the pleasure
of a Weakllng shrOuded in night and OBJ
scured in its gloom
The philosopher sweeps the sky he
touches the cloudy pennants of the
Milky Way, which assau the ordinary
vision as white banners waving over
some castellated battlement Of Para
disc He finds their fabric is woven of
uncompa bic stars, with uumeas~
ured CULTS between. He knows the law
that governs the apples fail. He has
thrace the orbit of each comet. He dis
covers the detection of Uranus from
its true ellipse. He calculates the pres
ence of a star in another part of the
heavens as the disturbing mass, ana
then turns his glass to the calculated
place and for the first time brings the
planet Neptune within the focus of the
human eye.
But, boy or philosopher, the journey
has been along the same rough and un-
ending road and the answer of the
philosopher, while no more conclusive
nf
world of sympathy and soul.
The same query remains to perplex
the generations of men, 1T is the
SphynX Of the human soul. It's impla-
cable eye rests on the Unapproaching
future Its ears heed not the tender
whisper or the angry roar of storms
Its cheek feels not the breath of warm
affection nor the sweep Of the widest
hurricane Its lips never move with
the tremor of sorrow nor syllable the
briefest response to the importunities
of love. The desert sands are heaDed
about its feet and the appeal of yes
terday's centuries is answered by the
unbroNen silence Of the morrow's cy>
cles-
The mighty volume that has been
written, or spoken, or sung. in whatever
language the same has been couched,
I'm whatever manner the subject has
been approached,is but the endless tier
alton of the same question to the same
lneXorable sphynx. Ask it when or
where and of whom we may: the sea-
sons in their flight stay not to answers
the brook babbles another song; the
birds are gone. the leaves crimson the
woods and ran; the man dies; the an
sWer comes not by daytime nor night
time nor when the eye is upturned to
the singing birds that cleave the air
nor when the lids close in on dreams
lt is answered by neither the fool in
his folly. nor the wisdom of all time;
nor by childhood nor age. 1t eludes
science; and as the stars are above
their reflection on the flowing rivers
breast, 50 it is above all human philos-
ophy. But the story is written every
where which we cannot see and fail to
read In the detritus of the valley; up-
on the granite cliff. on the nodding
flower, upon the bending grass; over
the gates of morn; Haunted upon the
brow of twilight; throned on the tides
and borne by the billow; it turks in
oceans neither depths and smokes in
the upheaVing volcano; it is carried by
the bee; 1T is heard i'm the winds; it
Furnishes the clouds; it roars in the
floods of Niagara and stills the pulses
when the tornado is unclaimed ana
the cyclone is unleashed; the day shines
with it; the night speaks it; it is every
where; and creation would answer with
one universal and concurring voice. but
our eyes are poor. our ears are muffied
and our weak senses have limits that
cannot be passed.
Deep down in the curtained chambers
of the soul there burns the Quenchless
lamp of hope. Viewless angels keep
it trimmed and guard its feeble flame
Tt may not dispel the doubt and ban
ish the mystery but it throws its little
light throughout the Carkened gloom.
There is no vessel afoat on the ocean
of time and tossed on its night enveIop-
ed wave that does not see at intervals