The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1897-07-08

No alarm bell do 1 ring in the utter
ance of this text, for in the healthy
glow of your cOunten2nces | find ca use
only for cheerful prophecy; but | shall
apply the text as spoken in the ear f
Hezekiah, down with Il bad carbuncle,
in the nineteenth century, now closing.
1t will take only four more long
brealhs, each year a breath, and the
century will expire. My theme is The
Dying Century" | discuss it at an
hour when W. national legislature is
about to assemble, some of the mem
bers now here present, and other soon
to arrive from the North, South. East
and West. All the public ~conveyances
coming this way will bring important
additions of public men, so thai when,
on December Z, at high noon. the CAV
els of senate and house of representa-
tives shall lift and fall. the dcstinips of
this nation, and. through it, the desti-
lies of all nations struggling to he free,
will be put on solemn and tremendous
trial. Amid such intensifying circuni-
stances l stand by the venerable cent
ury and address it in the words Of my
text: ''Thus saith the Lord, set thine
house in order, for thou shalt die. and
not live"
Eternity is too big Il subject for us
to understand. Some n has said it is
Il great clock. that says Tick" in one
century and '"Tanck" in another. But
we can better understand Old Time,
who has many children. and they are
the centuries, and many grandchildren,
and they are the years.
With the dying nineteenth century
We shall this morning Lave Il plain
talk, telling him some of the good
things he has done, and then telling
him some of the things he ought to adj
just before he quits this sphere and
passes on to join the eternities. We
generally wait until people are dead
before we say much in praise of them.
Funeral eulogium is generally very pa
thetic and eloquent with years that
ought to have been said years before.
We put on cold tOmbstoneS what we
ought to have pat in the warm ears of
the living. We curse Charles Sumner
while he is living, and cudgel him into
spinal meningitis, and wait until, in
the rooms where l have been living the
last year. he puts his hand on his heart
and cries. oh and is gone. and then
we make long procession sin his honor.
DR.. Sunderland, chaplain of the Ameri-
can senate, accompanying; stopping
long enough to allow the dead senator
to lie in state in Independence Hall,
Philadelphia, and hating at Boston
State House, where, not long before,
damnatOry resolutions had been passed
in regard to him, and then o on,
amid the tolling bells and boom of
minute guns, until we bury him at
Mount Auburn and cover him with
flowers five feet deep. What a pity he
could not have been awake at his own
funeral, to hear the gratitude of the
nation! What a pity that II green
leaf could not have been taken from
each II of the mortuary garlands and
put upon his table while he was yet
alive at the Arlington. What a pity
that out of the great choirs who chant
ed at his O~bsequies one little girl clad
in white. might not have sung TO his
living ear a complimentary solo. The
post norton expression contradicts the
antc-mortem. The nation could not
have spoken the truth both times about
Charles Sumner. Was it before or
after his decease it lied?
No such injustice shall be inflicted
upon this venerable nineteenth cent
ury. Before he goes, we recite in his
hearing some of the good things he has
accomplished. What an addition to the
worlds intelligence he has made?
Look at the old sclioolhouse. with the
SNOW sitting through the roof. and the
filthy tin cup handing over the water
pail i'll the corner, and the little vie
Tins on the long benches without
backs, and the illiterate schoolmaster
with his hickory CAD, ard then look at
our modern palaces of free schools. I'M
der men and women cultured and re-
fined to the highest excellence. so that.
whereas, in Our childhood we had TO
be whipped to go to school, children
now cry when they cannot go. Thank
you, venerable century. while at the
same time we thank God.
What an addition to the worlds in
ventions! Within II century the cot
o gin. The agricultural machines
for planting, reapirS and threShin2.
The telegraph. The monograph, capa-
BILE of preserving Il human voice from
generation to generation; The type
writer, that reScueS the world from
worse and worse ~ncnmanShlp. And
s~tenography, Capturing from the lips
of the SwifteSt speaker more than 300
words per minute. Never was | so
amazed at the facilities of our time as
which. II few days ago, | t~elegraphed
from Washington. to New York, a long
and elaborate manuscript, md, Il few.
minutes after. TO show Its accuracy, 1t
: was read to me through the lOng-dis-
lance telephone, and it was exact down
to the last senlicclon and comma.
What. hath God wrought. oh, l am so
glad | was not born sooner. For the
talfowh candle, the electric light. For
the writings of the surgeons table.
God-given anaesthetics. and the Whole
physical organism explored by sharp
est Instruments. and giving not so
much pain as the taking of a splinter
the numbering stage coach. the limited
express train. And there is the ;spect-
roscope Of Frauphofer, by which our
modern scientist feels the pulse Of
other worlds throbbing with light.
Jenner's arrest by incubation of one
of the worlds greatest plaques. DR..
Keeley's emancipation from inchriety.
Intimation that the virus Of maddenetl
canine. and cancer and consumption
are yet to be baked by magnificent
medical treatment. The eyesight of
the doctor sharpened until he can look
through thick flesh and find the hiding
place of the bullet What advancement
in geology, or the cateChism of the
mountains; chemistry, or the citccl1isnl'
Of the elements; eiectrO1Cgy, ~ the cat
ecbism of the iiglHnings. WHAT Fad-,
vancement in. m,isir. AT the beginning
of this century. oItinipg ITSELF 81, far
as the great masses Of'the people we've
concerned, to a few airs dra WI oft Oh