The Van Buren press., 1898-08-06
LIKE A CHESS GAME.
Arp Likens the Progress or Decline
Of a Nation.
All Pieces Are Represented-BtshO ops
on Board Snnd for the Church
knights Are Politicians,
and So On.

knights Are Politicians,
and So On.
A nations progress or its decline is
like game upon chessboard, and we
all play our parts. The king is kind of
divinity, to be idolized and protected,
but is helpless and always in peril.
Cleveland was a king, but got check
mated and had to retire to private life.
The bishops on the chessboard repre-
sent the church, which is a great power
in the land-a moral power that makes
but little noise and attacks iniquity in
high places and sweeps the board dag
onally from Maine to Mexico. The
knights are tie politicians and states
men whose movements are right OBJ
lique and left oblique, overlapping pre-
cedents and proprieties. They have no
straight lines nor right angles, but are
always dodging around and shifting
their course TO suit the changing situ
alton. They require great deal of
watching. The castles are these rich
old fellows WHO carry the money bags
and buy the nations bonds and heap
up their interest and fight the income
tax. But after all it is the little hum
BILE, unpretending pavns that master
the situation and control the game.
They move strlight forward and but a
step at time, but their phaanx is solid
and irresistible when marshalled by d
master hand. They are the common
people-the masses. The game of ma
tion has no fixed movement. 1t is never
played twice alike, and its results are
unknown and uncertain until they have
transpired. Harrison was once king,
but was checkmated, and now there are
none so poor as to do him reverence.
Fate, chance, circumstances and
providence all take hand in this game
What prophet or seer or statesman
could have foretold to us the present
unhappy condit tion Of our country? :?
How long will it last and what will be
the result? Is the war drifting into a
war of conquest? Will we have to take
Cuba for pay and perhaps the Philip
pines and will we anneX Hawaii and
viii the republican party father all this
imperialism and officer the new gov
ernments and perpetuate their power
with patronage? Or will Bryan and
Cleveland eoalesee and combine against
such dangerous policy and demand
the voice of the people upon it? l was
delighted with Mr.. Cleveland's utter
ances on this war business. 1t may be
political key note, but he is on Bryan's
line about acquiring territory and the
Monroe doctrine and he speaks boldly
and with no sign of ''innocuous de-
suetude." He deplores the ahurements
of war to our young men and declares
that even victories are demoralizing to
a nation and quotes from Gems. Grant
and Sherman to prove it. A leading
Richmond paper says that these utter
ances from Bryan and Cleveland will
make the next presidential issue and
that the silver question will be ignored
in the national platform and that the
democrats north and south and east
and west will have great love feast
and sweep the country, AS old man
Baugh would say we will all know by
waiting and that is all that we little
pawns can do.
| wish that something would hap
pen to stop this shedding of blood-this
rich mans war and poor mans fight,
for that is what it is. Mr.. Mckinley
says he is daily expecting a great and
very bloody battle. Oh, the pain, the
agony, the horror of a bloody battle
with these modern engines Of destruc-
tion. There have eight young men
gone from this town and hundreds
more from the state and thousands
from the south-gone like they were
going to frolic. Already many Of
them are demoralized and have lost all
regard for the laws and all respect for
womankind. The good people of Walk
er county are paralyzed with fear of the
soldiers-our soldiers whom we call our
patriots. And so it was at Griffin and
Tampa and other places.
There is enough trouble and grief
at home in times of peace. Old Father
Time keeps cutting our good people
down and strewing our homes with
tears. The other day he took from us
good wife and mother without any
warning and now the light of that
home has gone out. Nobody knows
the desolation of that hearthstone
save the bereaved husband and the
heartbroken sons and daughters. How
weary and longing are their days
how sad and lonesome are their nights.
This good Christian woman has for
wears sat near us in the church and
was one of its props. We were al
ways glad of her presence and her
smiles, and if we miss her accustomed
welcome what must be the loss to
those who shared her sunshine morn
ing, noon and night. But Mrs. Cal
houn had passed the meridian of life
and was more of a companion than
mother. She had reared her flock and
reared them well and was ready for
the call How much sadder is the death
of young, hopeful and happy moth
er. When was a lad | had bow and
a bunch of arrows, and was proud of
my skill in using them. One day l
was aiming at bird that was singing
on the garden fence, when my father
called out to me and said: Don't
shoot, don't shoot that bird, my son."
He came to me and in tender tones
told me how he had found that cat
birds nest in a tree at the corner of
4hara x-pnnU