The age-herald., 1898-05-26
MADE A NATION LAUGH.
Gov, Bob Tayior's Tribute to the Memory or the Late Senator Vance of North Carolina.

| Governor Robert L. Taylor, of Tennessee, 1 delivered the chief address at the deolca- I tion of the monument to the late Senator | Zebulon B. Vance, of North Carolina, at l AshevIlle, on Tuesday May 10. In his cus- tomary somewhat forid style he said;
 "When Zebulon B. Vance was born the | angels smiled, his mother pressed him to
 her bosom and smiled, and when he began | to toddle from the door of his happy home, | pratting to the birds and chasing the but 1 terfiies from flower to flower, all who saw l him smiled. And soon smiles burst into laughter, and laughter followed in his foot l steps and cheered him all along the journey | of life, from the humble cottage among the l Carolina hills to the magnificent capitol Of l the republic, where he sat in the highest | council of the nation, crowned with honors l and blessed with the love and confidence of l the state which he so grandly and nobly | represented until death entered the senate chamber and laid his icy hand upon the throbbing heart of mirth and turned laugh 1 ter into tears.
 "When I was barefooted boy, romping | among the hills of Tennessee the news of | his fame and the tidings of his marvellous | campaigns used to come floating over the l mountains and rippling with laughter into the peaceful homes of our people. The boys heard his yarns and rolled on the floor
 with merriment. The old ladies sat at the freside and cackled at his anecdotes, and
 the sturdy old farmers listened to his sto-
 ries in the fields and stopped their blows to laugh. His name was the lips of all as the Apostle of Sunshine and the dis ciple of human happiness.
 Through all his long and brilliant career his love for humanity never waned and
 his devotion to his country never cooled,
 always ready with a charming story to tell, always quick at repartee, always brim
 full of fun, he was the great laugh-producer and side-splitter of the south; and yet his logic was as convincing as the sword of Stonewall Jackson at Manassas or as the guns of Dewey at Manila. He was as honest as Dayis humorous as Lincoln, eloquent as | Daniel, as true to the hopes that perished 1 at Appomattox as Gordon and Forrest, and | afterward as loyal to the union as Wheeler | and Lee, who now wear the blue. Wf1 1 Senator Vance a splendid thinker
 and a statesman of rare ability. but he al- ways looked on the bright side of things, l and no music was half so sweet to him as
 the songs and laughter of the merry | throngs of country folks who gathered l about him on every occasion with shouts | and hallelujahs to while away the happy | hours. And thus his busy life was spent l III duuluS IO tHe sum Ol HdpplHcSS "There is a prevailing opinion in the world that those who have the power to | make others laugh and who dare to light | the temples of thought with the visions | of fun are weak and shallow, and ought not to wield the scepter of a ruler or sit
 in the councils of a nation. But I have never been able to fathom the wisdom of l such a philosophy. I do not believe that | heart of ice Is always the badge of mighty l brain. I do not believe that a frowning | hrnxu ie o1xr,ax fho fnlra nf xxrtcd io
 true that some great men frown, but all | who frown are not great. It is equally | true that few great men laugh, but it | must be confessed that all who laugh are | not great But I would rather trust my | life and liberty in the hands of laughing | fool than in the hands of drowning ty- | rant.
 Nations do not suffer when their rulers | sincerely smile, and govern with love and mercy But God pity the land whose ruler | frowns and rules with an iron rod and God l pity the ruler himself, for the harvest of | his frowns is death
 "The frowns of Caesar made nations | quake. but the harvest of his frowns was 1 daggers concealed under the cloaks of shud- | dering Romans until the blood of Caesar
 drpped from the blade of treason in the l corridor of the Roman capitol.
 | "Napoleon drowned, and the world trem- | bled, but his frowns were only the prophe- | cies of Waterloo, which left the flower of | France lying dead in pools of blood while | the uncrowned and unthroned Napoleon
 wandered aimlessly on the battlefield, the | comnambulst of vast shattered dream. "The life of Washington eclipses the glory | of Caesar and the beautiful reign of Vic l toria outshines the romantic record of Ma | poleon'S rise and fall.
 Bismarck Is called the Iron Prince, but | it cost broken hearts and lbations of blood to build the throne and cement the empire
 of Germany. Glory encircles the brow of | Bismarck and yet the humbest German | peasant who scatters sunshine with his | songs and dries the tears of sorrow with his 1 smiles will sleep sweeter tonight in his
 humble cot than the Iron Prince in his cas- | tle I have come to believe that happiness | does not often dwell in palace, for the | babbling soul of laughter does not sit upon 1 the throne of king, and from the mirth- less heart of tyrant the milk of human | kindness never flows.
 "NNhere there is no laughter there Is no
 genuine love, and where there is no love | life is a desert of evil, where virtue trem-
 bles to tread where hope falters, where
 happiness is crucified, music is banished
 from it's joyless air, and all that lies be-
 yond is a voiceess shore and staress
 sky"