Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1898-06-01
SEES GOOD In WAR.
Henry Watterson Makes Talk to Ken
lucky Soldiers.

Henry watterson Makes Talk to Ken
lucky Soldiers.
Lexington, Ky, Dispatch 9th.
Ten thousand people visited Lexing-
ton today to witness civic and militia
ry pageant, which followed review by
Governor Bradley of the companies Of
troops now here, and to hear all adj
dress to the troops by Henry Waiter
son. When the parade and review
were ended, 300 school children sang
"America." Colonel w. G. P. Breck-
inridge then introduced Mr.. Waiter
son, who was given an ovation. He
spoke in part as follows:
"Even in soldiership there is right
way and wrong way. The famous
Confederate General Forrest said of
war that lit means fighting and fight
ing means killing He also said of
success in battle that it is getting
there first with the most men, Some
of us are old enough to remember the
delusion that once had certain vogue
among the unthinking that one South
erner could whip six Yankees. We
got bravely over that, and now that
we are all Yankees, let it not be imag-
ined that one Yankee can whip six
Spaniards. 1t is always better to over
rate than to underrate the enemy.
"For the first time since the Cru
sades, war has been levied for no
cause of a purely material kind, and
with no selfish purpose. / scarcely
like the shibboleth Remember the
Mainen 1t seems to me too revenge
full to be quite worthy. do not for
get the circumstance to which it owes
its origin. The scene of that awful
tragedy under the shadow of MORO
Castle is yet before the eyes. can
see, as I close them, the very faces of
our murdered sailors, with the ghast-
illness of death upon them. But l also
see the myriads of starving men, wo-
men and children, ruthlessly sacrificed
to feed the lust and to fill the pockets
of professional plunderers masquerade
ing in Cuba as Spanish officers and
gentlemen. Behind them 1 see three
centuries of wanton pillage, of fright
full corruption, of cruelty unsurpassed
in human annals.
"The time was long ago come for
some great power to stretch forth its
hand, to interpose its authority, and
to say to the world, This barbarism
shall proceed no further What pow
er except that of the United States
would do this? Cuba is our next.door
neighbor. Time out of mind these
atrocities have been perpetrated before
our eyes. Whilst Spain has required
us to spend millions of money policing
our coast against the fillibusters, she
has shown herself unable, or unwilling,
in our protection, to police one of her
own harbors. Was this to 60 on for
ever?
"In these warlike spectacles, every
where manifest, this conflict has al
ready united us as nothing else could
have united us-emancipating both
sections of the Union from the mis-
taken impression that we ever were,
or ever could be, anything else than
one people. In the brilliant achieve
ment of that typical Green Mountain
boy on the other side of the globe, it
has already exploited us as naval
power, and, as you yourselves shall
show, it will presently demonstrate US
no less military power, before whose
legions the enemies Of liberty and
humanity will do we'll to look before
they leap. Surely, these were con-
summations devoutly to be wished.
They are worth all the war has cost
us, or will cost US.
"I know what war means. l have
seen it in all it's horrors and terrors.
But there is something even worse
than war. To become a nation, not
only of shop.keepers, but of dishonest
shop-keepers; to wear away our lives
beating one another, out of few de-
grading dollars the more or less; to
find in the boasted acts of peace moth
ing nobler than the piling up of riches,
and the qualification of propensities
growing more and more ignoble with
increasing luxury and wealth; these
things seem to me even worse than
war. We have had 33 years of peace,
and we seemed to be approaching per-
ilously near the domestic conditions
appalling to contemplate. We are in
the midst of war, and war is a great
educator. 1t is at one and the same
time a university course and career,
and he who comes out of the fiery
oIdeal with honor, though he comes
upon crutches, brings with him de-
gree no college can confer. 1t is for
you not alone to meet the require
ments of the service, but to learn, as
your lives pass through the crucible of
honorable war, how to retrieve the
mistakes of your generation, so that
when you return victors to your homes
and becomes citizens again, you may
turn back the tide of the evil counsels
and wicked passions which was begin
ming TO run to the centre of the stream,
making men to love money more than
honor, to put their pockets above their
conscience and their party above their
country.
81 do not doubt the result of this
war. But l should whisper into your
ear the Establishments of most mis-
leading optimism if l should promise
you that it will be all play and no
work, all parade and no danger. He
who thinks so should remain at home.