The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1897-08-21
COWHERD AT LONE JACK.
The Fifth District Congressman Makes
Good Speech to His Constituents.


Good Speech to His Constituents.
"Ladies and gentlemen: The Lone
Jack picnic has become the event of
eastern Jackson county. 1t IS here
the yellow-leg chicken and bright-eyed
girl abound, and the perennial candI-
date is certain of an audience and en-
3cO,rcagement. 1t is here the farmers of
the county meet to swap yarns about
the damage last months drouth did
their corn and prove TO their own salts
faction how much better they could
manage the weather if Providence and
the bureau at Washington would only
give them chance. It is here the
sturdy boys of the country pop the
question 10 the cherry-lipped girls, and
as they drive home in the moonlight
find full assurance that the Sugar trust
hasn't cornered all the sweets in the
market.
alt is here, too, that the lean and
hungry lnhabitant of the crowded city
comes every yearfor one square meal,
and goes back with a palate so tickled
with the good things he has eaten that
the memory of il will haunt him until
the next 10th rolls around, and goes
back, too, with crop of chiggers that
will keep him scratching as long rs that
memory lasts. And it is here, too
God bless them-ihat few dear ladies
with motherly faces which time may
mellow but cannot age, and a few old
men whose gray hairs are an inspiration
and u sermon gather about the speak
ers' stand and listen as earnestly and
attentively as though they really cared
to hear what we have to say.
al found my first public audience at
Lone Jack picnic. The kind encour-
agement they gave me has led me into
many repetitions of the offense, and l
am rather inclined to think the friends
who extended that first invitation are
subject TO indictment as accessories be-
fore the fact.
"But in the many pleasant memories
that surround this celebration, we
should not forget we meet in cemmem-
oration of day that carried suffering
and misery TO many jackson county
home. The marble shaft out yonder
on the plain covers the bones of men as
brave as any whose deeds have formed
the theme for poetry and song, The
fight at Lone Jack was no great battle.
History hardly mentions il. Ii settled
no question. Upon its issue hung the
fate of no armies. Yet up that narrow
lane charges were made as desperate
as that which Pickett made at Gettys-
burg, and around the single cannon that
was brought upon the field waged a
fight as fierce, and, for the numbers en-
gagged, as bloody as any ever witnessed
by tbs veterans of Grant and Lee.
IT REQUIRED GREATER COURAGE.
"After all, does it not require greater
courage 10 make the fight upon the
outskirts of the army, where few may
note and none applaud than to join in
the grand charge with the world for an
audience and Immortality as u reward (?
A poet has sung the ssong Of the van
pushed who fall in the battle of hfe.'
Were poet should seek no create
theme than the unknown heroes in blue
or gray who made illustrious every
field in the last war.
81 stood, not long ago, within the
great monument in New York the ma
ton lately dedicated TO its greatest
soldier, and could not help but think
for such reward any man might well
tempt death. But when one walks
down the paths at Arlington and sees
the long lines of little marble slabs
stretching away far as the eye can
reach, many marked only with cross,
one can not help but feel these men
gave the supremest test of heroism.
Snch, were the men who made memoir
able that sultry 18th of August, so
many years ago. 1t is fitting thing
that you should keep yonr memory green
with this, your annual celebration.
ssBut let US also cherish the fact that
stands without parallel in history.
that our desperate struggle only ce-
mented closer the union of the States.
and to-day the men who wore the gray
vie with those who wore the blue in
loyalty to the Stars and Stripes. But
is it not also fitting that we should
pause, to consider how we are preserv-
ing the government and institutions SO
many brave men died to saver
DROPS INTO POLITICS.
Tho discussion of noliticaI ouastinna