The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-04-02
THE sEMIWEEKLY MESSENGER, FRIDAY. APRIL ?, 1891

For our glorious science OF medicine
and surgery-more sublime than astro-
nOmy, for we have more to do with
disease than with the stars; more beau
tiful than botany, for bloom of health
in the cheek of wife and child is worth
more to US than all the roses of the
garden-for this %grandest of all sciences
the science Of healing. every pillow Of
recovered invalid, every ward of Ameri-
can and European hospital, may we'll
cry out: Thank God for old DR.. Hip
pocrates. I, like Paul am indebted to
the Greeks"
Furthermore, all the world is obi
gated to Hellas more than it can ever
pay for it's heroics in the cause of liber-
ty and right. United Europe today had
not better think hat the Greeks will
not fight. There may be fallings back
and vacillations and temporary defeat,
but il Greece is right all Europe cannot
put her down. The other nations, be-
fore they open the portfolios of their
men-Of-war against that small king
dom, had better read of the battle of
Marathon, where 10000 Athenians, led
on by Miltiades, triumphed over 100, 900
Of their enemies. At hat time, in
Greek council Of war. five generals were
for beginning the battle and five were
against it. ~Callimachus presided at the
council of war, had the deciding vote,
and Miltiades addressed him, saying:
1T now rests with you, Callimachus,
either to enslave Athens, or, by insur-
ing her freedom, to win yourself an
Immortality of fame, for never since
the eni were a people were they
in such danger as .ney are in at this
moment. If they bow the knee up to
these Modes. they are to be given up to
Hippias, and yOu know what they will
hen ave to suffer, but il Athens comes
victorious out Of TINS contest she has
it in her power to become the first city
of Greece. Your vote is to decide
whether We are to join battle or not.
II we do not bring on a battle present.
ly, some factious intrigue will disunite
the Athenians, and the city will be be-
trayed to the Modes, but il we fight
before there is anything rotten in the
state of Athens 1 Believe that, provided
the gods will give fair field and no ia
vor, We are able to get the best OF it in
the engagement"
GREEK HEROES.
That won the vote of Callimachus,
and soon the battle opened, and in full
run the men of Miltiads fell upon the
Persian hosts, shouting: "On, sons of
Greece! Strike for the freedom OF your
country! Strike for the freedom of
your children and your wives, for the
shrines Of you fathers' gods and for
thesepulcher OF yuOr sires" Why only
1872 Greeks fell 6,400 Persians lay dead
upon the field, and many Of the Asiatic
hosts who took to the war vessels in
the harbOr were consumed in the ship
ping. Persian oppression was rebuked,
Grecian liberty was achieved. the
cause of civilization was advanced,
and the western world and all nations
have felt the heroics. Had there been
no Miltiades there might have been
no Washington.
Also at T~hermOpylae 300 Greeks,
along a road only wide enough for a
wheel track between a mountain and
a marsh, died rather than surrender.
Had there been no Thermopylae there
might have been no Bunker Hill. The
eel Of Athenian and Spartan heroics
was heard at the gates Of Lucknow.
and SevastopOl, and B~annOckburn, and
Lexington, and Gettysburg. English
Magma Charta, and Declaration of
American Independence, and the ong
of Robert Burns, entitled "A an'S
a Man For a. That" were only the
long continued reverberation of what
was sal and lone twenty centuries
before in that little kingdom that the
powers of Europe are now imposing
upon. Greece having again and again
shown that ten men in the right are
stronger than 100 in the wrong, the
herofcs of Leonidas and ArlstrueS and
ThemistOcles will not cease their mis-
sion until the last man on earth ia
as free as God made him. There is not
on either side of the Atlantic today q
republic that cannot t~ruthfully en-
ploy the words of the text and say 4
am debtor to the Greeks"
DEBT TO THE CREEKS.
But now comes the practical ques-
ton, How can We pay that debt or a
part of it? For we cannot pay more
han 10 per cent. of that debt in which
Paul acknowledged himself a bank
rupt. By praying Almighty God that
he will help Greece in it's present war
with MOhammedanism and the con-
certed empires of Europe. 1 now her
queen, a noble, Christian wOman her
the throne of all beneficence and
loneliness, her life an example of no.
bic wifehood and motherhood. God
help those palaces in these days Of
awful exigency! Our American senate
did we'll the other day, when, in that
capitol building which owes to Greece
its cOlumnar im-presSiveness, they
passed a hearty resolution of sympathy
for hat nation. Would that all who
nave potent words that can be heard in
Europe would utter them now, when
they are so much needed! Let us re-
to them in English what they cen