The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1898-08-30
OF WELCOME.
Delivered In Gainesville. Tex, August
3Oth. 1898. by Claude Weaver, of
Pauls Valley. Indian Territory.

have come, at the bidding of the
Joseph e. Johnston Camp of Con-
federate Veterans, to deliver it's mes
sage of welcome to this great Assem-
bly,. 1t is true that am no longer a
citizen of Texas, having cast my lot
with the destiny of the Indian Ter
ritory; that rich and virgin land of
promise, which has already drawn so
many Texans to it's bosom. Still it
10 perhaps not unmeet that / should
bear this high commission. Gaines
vile is the home of my early life,
linked to my heart by q thousand
ties. Here first heard the low soft
grooming love song of a mothers
lullaby; by this blue stream the rest
less feet of my boyhood wondered; !;
in the formative period of the Gaines
vile public schools / was the first
graduate. Here my children were
born, and yonder on the wind swept
prairie swell. returning to elemental
dust, rest the ashes of my dead. And
camp, my heart stirred with Ivan
hoes strange and hallowed emotions,
when, after long years in the lands
OF the Saracen the crusader stood
once more in the halls of his Saxon
father.
On behalf of the Joseph E. John
ston Camp of Confederate veterans it
is my grateful duty to welcome this
vast audience. First say welcome
the strangers in our midst. Among
the Arabs of the desert and every
where with the generous and the
brave, stranger is q sacred name.
We do not care whRt section of our
country has been your home. From
Plymouth Rock, or from the Golden
our northern border or the long coast
that hears the sobbing of our south
ern seas; from whatever section of
our common country you are well
come. If you are of foreign blood
we care not on what alien shores
your infancy was nurtured, you are
welcome here, if you are loyal to the
great republic. We do not care
whether you are rich or poor
whether you wear hoddin gray, or
purple fine linen; you are welcome
if you stand erect in the majesty OF
free and fearless manhood.
see to-day the beloved and fam
iliar faces of some of our old settlers.
Few are now remaining of that great
race, whose like this world shall
never see again. Welcome, thrice
welcome, Texas pioneers! Standing
in your presence am proud to re-
member that my father was a boy on
the frontier of Texas when the jewel
of a single star, that glitered on her
brow was the ensign of one of the
sovereign nations of this earth. With
me it is a cradle faith to venerate
the rugged race which has blazed the
pathway of civilization. Lavish OF
hospitality generous ms the rains OF
night, or the dews of heaven, faith.
| full in friendship, unforgiving in
hatred. "Eouls made of fire and chill
dren of the sun, with whom revenge
is virtue;" in love with peril anC
strife, stirred by the restless spirit o
Saxon adventure and brave as thu
heroic Greeks; who sailed with ia
son for the Golden Fleece-such art
the men who wrested Texas from
hostile indians and Mexican domina
ton, and reached high the banner
of freedom to wave above her greer
valleys, and broad breasted prairie
forever. When we contemplate tn,
privations these men suffered AM
the dangers they endured, thinl,
scattered over the pathless wilder
lness, where neither property, no
liberty, nor life, neither the purit.
of woman, nor the innocence o
childhood, nor the ireside hearth
had security or protection save Ii
the stro ~ arm, in the stubborn couE
age, in the stalwart manhood of tn
pioneer, our hearts are filed wit
gratitude and love. Yea, "Thi
place becomes religion; and the hear
runs DER with silent worship of tn
great of old; the dead, but sceptere
sovereigns who still rule our spirit
from their urns."
And now, on behalf of the Josep
". Johnston camp, / offer to all visit
ing Confederates the warm hearte
welcome of the men of the Old Sout
that Old South dead and gone, bu
> unforgotten and ever glorious, cor
secrated by prayer and cradle song
of Southern mothers, and baptise
with the blood of earth's bravest Il