The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1898-07-13
THE GLORlES OF GEORGIA
JEFF M'LENDON DELIVERS An Ell.
OQUENT ADDRESS.
Spoke Before the Milan School, in Telfair
County, On the Occasion of It's
Closing Exercises.

In response to an invitation Professor
j. D. McLendon, who is teaching at In
wood, delivered an address before the
Milan school, in Telfair county, on the
occasion of its closing exercises. Pro
fessor McLendon's subject was "Geor-
gla," and so ably and eloqucntly was it
handled that the speech was published
in the McRae Enterprise. Professor
McLendon is a brother to Rev. Il. R.
McLendou of Dawson, and has taught
several schools in Terrell county
Below is the address n full, THE
NEWS reproducing it by request:
1t is with due appreciation that l
have the privilege and honor of respond
ing to an invitation OF yonr teacher here
to make YOU an address lis preliminary
to the exercises of the evening, AS it
would be improper for me to usurp over
five minutes on this scheduled occasion
l shall present you with the subject of
Georgia" for it includes within its pur-
port all the facts necessary to assure you
of warm welcome to Milan and to the
exhibition
As foe me Georgia is the state of my
nativity, and love every foot of. her
soil from Rabun to Decatur, and from
where the Oconee lazily takes her rise
TO where she bequeaths her waters to be
slashed in fury upon the turbulent wa.
teTs or a restless sea. | love OLD Georgia
because she is great, grand and glorious:
/ love her because / can't help it. | love
to live in Georgia because it was upon
her gentle bosom that | was reared to
mans estate, and never yet have | at
her hands been treated ILL., The lips of
her mornings have ever kissed my walk
ing life, and the bosom of her night has
ever pillOwed my soul TO rest in sweet
repOse. The voice of her music, which
rings from every woodland, field and
dale has ever made for me a world of
joys, caTessed and kissed as if from
heaven. YOnder half-orbed moon that
pours silver from the east has ever
soothed the world of sorrows and de-
liVered my passports to Morpheus, where
tired minds and weary feet might be
waited recuperatively through the balmv
breezes of Sunderland. | know of n |
sTeeter state; long for no sweeter home. |
BY every Teposing fountain of her val |
leys, by every ripping brooklet of her
meadows, in every shady nook of her
glens, and on every solitary dale that |
lies within her boundry have | ever. |
from my infancy, found a warm and
tender greeting.
The cOntentment | receive as a result
of knowing | am a Georgian is like some
unseen ETHEREAL ocean, whose silver surf
breaks forever in song; forever breaks |
on valley, hill and craig in ten thousand
symphonies. To me there is melody |
IN every sunbeam, sunbeam in every |
melody; there is a flower in every song |
a love song in every flower There is a |
sonnet in every gurgling fountain, a |
hymn in every trimming river, and an
anthem in every tossing billow. l will
love to live in Georgia even after my
hair shall have been touched with the
frost of age and the deep burrows of time
shall have caressed my aged face.
| would rather live in Georgia, be-
meath her elms and oaks, in communion
with her humming bees and splashing
water, with health and ambition, and ia
grasping distance OF the resources which
she offers, than to be Vanderbilt in
habiting barren mountain, living and
dining in palace hail, and having the
sweetest slippere6-feet naidens wins.
pering songs of love. l repeat it, that
love to live in George. l love TO live
here where the sweetest maidens dwell.
| love TO listen to the rumblng breezes
that echo the gentleness of their hearts,
/ love TO catch glimpse of the beams OF
heaven that demonstrate their kindness
The symEathieS and friendships of
Georgia's people are as warm as the
southern sunshine. even love the |
woodlands and meadow and rests and
swampS of old Georgia, for there | can
stand where daffodils and pansies bend
auT smile to ripping waves. There |
c. gently recline myself in the shadowy
folds of some fleecy cloud or laughing
willow, and admire the blooms Of the |
DEMONSTRATING bowers. To me Geor- |
Ria's woodlands are paradise, her fur |
rowed fields an eden. When the god
dsss Of night, with her ebon-hued IMAM
tie hovers over our universe in these |
self-same forests you can hear the hunt |
er's horn and the deep-mouthed pack of |
fox hounds open loud add wild far in |
the ringing woods, and it is like the |
music of hundred Ginning bells On |
the furrowed fields you can at noon |
tide hear the WhOopee of the laborer |
and the mirthful babble of happy voices !
singing 10 the swelling tide of pleasure. |
No other state in christendom has a |
broader field upon which che noble SEN
timents of the soul are allowed to stroll. |
In no kingdom or principally have the |
sweet charities of the heart purer field
upon which to play. AS eternal as the |
skies are the principles upon which she
is founded, for they were created with |