Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1898-12-03

would be saved, and, more than that,
what a COM rlele cessation Of human
slaughter! Z. lat an improvement OF
the morals II nations! What an adop-
ton of that higher and better manifesto
which was set to music and let down
from the midnight heavens of Bethle-
hem ages ago! The world has got to
come to this Why not make it the
peroration Of the nineteenth century?
Are we going to make present to the
+ twentieth century of reeking hospitals
and dying armies and hemisphere
eraveyards: Do you want the hoofs of
other cavalry horses Oh the breasts Of
. fallen men? Do you want other harvest
fields quilted with wheels of gun car
riages? Do you want the sky glazing
with conl.ugratiuu of other homesteads?
All, this nineteenth century has seen
enough OF war; Make the determination
that no other century shall be blasted
with it
During the first half of this century
we expended IS. COO 600 to educate the
Indians and a4G0, 900 600 ito kill them.
According 10 Il reliable statistician, dur
ing this century we have had the Cri-
mean war, which slew $50, Geo and cost
81, ZOO, 000 600, and our American civil
war, which slew 1000, 600 men, north
and south, and cost 50, 600, 900, 900, Dig
ging Il grave trench from Barnegat
Lighthouse, New Jersey, to Lone Noun
! tain cemetery at San Francisco. And
you must add to these the Zulu war, and
the Austro- Prussian war, and the Dam
ish war, and the Italian war, the
Franco-Prussian war, Chino-.Japanese
war, Napoleonic war, and the Amer
ico-Spanish war What record for this
boasted nineteenth century, 1t makes
all pandemonium chuckle 1t has called
out all the realms of diaholus in grand
parade, satan reviewing them from plat
form of fire, as the demons in companies
and regiments and bri2ades have passed
with banners Of fire and riding on horses
of fire, keeping step to the roll of the
grand march Of hell. In the name of
the God of nations, let the scroll Of
blood he rolled up and put upon the
shelf never to be taken down. And by
the middle of next century let the sword
and the carbine and the bombshell be-
come curiosities in museum, about
which your grandchildren shall ask
questions, wondering what those instru-
ments were ever used for, but let no one
dare tell them, but keep it from them
an everlasting secret, lest they too much
despise our nineteenth century and curse
the memory OF their ancestors
The Dying Century.
Will it not be grand if on the first
day of the twentieth century the last
will and testament of the nineteenth
century shall be opened and it shall be
found to read In the name of God.
amen. l, the dying century, do make
this my last will and testament give
and bequeath to my heir, the twentieth
century, peace of nations; swords,
which l direct to be beaten into plow-
shares, and spears, which must be turn-
ed into pruning hooks; armories, toSbe
changed into schoolhouses, and for
tresses, to be rebuilt into churches, and
I order that greater honors be put on
those who save life than upon those who
destroy it, and it, amid the universal
peace now attained, those two nations,
Spain and Turkey, do not stop their
cruelties let the other nations, banded
together, extern porize police force to
wipe those countries off the map of ma
tions as wet sponge wipes from a boys
slate at school a hard sum in arithmetic.
This last will sign and seal and deliver
on the 3lst day of December, in the
year of ouI Lord, 1900. all the civilized
nations Of earth and all the glorified ma
tons of heaven witnessing
But what ,se co rs individuals, as
churches, as natlous as continents, we
must do very soou if we want the transi
ton trcu century TO century to be
worthy l,ar:l;iln. for l hear the trum-
pets OF the approaching century and the
Gathering hoofs Of the host it leads on.
For historical "Reminiscences there is
no street iii all the world like yonder
Pennsylvania avenue. Champs Elysees
of Paris is mere brilliant; Princess
street, Edinburgh. more picturesque;
Inter den I.inden. Berlin, more richly
foliaged Plccadilly street, London.
more populous; Nevsky Prospekt of st.
Petersburg stands fer more years; the
Corso Of Rome is lined with more an
tiquities, but for an intelligent and
patriotic American yonder avenue has
no equal FOL sCgeestiveness. The other
night, while thinking Of this subject,
as to the way in which we ought to
meet the new century, so near at hand,
l fell into sort of dreamy state, IN
which the chronology of events seemed
obliterated, and saw on Pennsylvania
avenue two professions, which seemed
to meet each other as this century goes
out and another comes in. AS near as l
could tell in that dreamy state, it was
the last night of the century, and saw
the spirits of the mighties in American
history passing down the marble steps
of the capitol Oh yonder bill and NOV
ing through that memorable PennsyI-
vania avenue. There they come, the de-
parted members Of the supreme court OF
our nation, led on by Chief Justice
Marshall. There come the distinguished
men of our national legislature, in
which are Webster and Clay and Ben
ton and Calhoun and Preston and Cor
win and Edward Everett and John
Quincy Adams and Samuel l.. Southland
and Rufus Choate and others-some
great for craftsmanship, others great for
wit, others great for eloquence, others
great for courage. They pass on through
the avenue immortal for those who in
past times trod it Yonder l see the
funeral pageants of senators and three
presidents! Banners draped in gloom,
tossing black plumes following tossing
black plumes Catafalques, each drawn
bv eight white horses, while minute