The San Francisco call., 1899-02-26

Glance first toward the nations which
have won the priceless pearl OF the
freedom to be men and not mere serfs,
or pawns for the chessboard OF kings.
Search their story down to the deeps
and you will always find the flint ana
the parasite in the advent of the pearl
1t is the story of my motherlano
through a thousand years. The reason
for the great charter lies there, and FOR
the great rebellion, when the MANHOOD
of England set it's foot on the neck OF
her king The finest ichor of that man
hood is the secret of the pearl; and the
splendor of the jewel marks the burden
of the pain through which the man
hood must pass to its purpose.
1t is the story of that long, stern
strife in the mountains of Switzerland,
when one humble hero was only an in
stance of the grand manhood which
won the treasure, the hero who gath
cred all the spears he could clutch to
his breast that so he might clear the
way to freedom and create the pearl. 1t
is the story of the mighty passion of
the Hollander to be free from the bitter
and base yoke of Spain-always base
and always bitter, be it within the
sea walls of Holland or yonder until
so recently on the fair island to the
south-when he broke down those great
sea walls he had built as barriers about
the green lands and loved homes, well
coming the water floods and counting
all things else but loss for the excellent
glory of the pearl.
And in the ever glowing passion of
your fathers-from the coming of the
Pilgrims, whose story has touched the
heart of every home-born2 man and
gone all around the world, from their
landing to the advent Of the republic
and the revolution; in the great strife
for the integrity of the republic, and
Just now in the strangling of oppression
at the threshold of our 1and-through
all the years, you find the ichor of your
finest life poured out to bring forth the
jewel.
Do we turn from the nations to the
treasures which have made our life so
rich in these last times, and lifted so
many sore burdens of labor and pain?
/ cannot find one of the finest worth
over which men have not poured the
ichor of their life for the pearl when
the pang has struck them.
Turn to what we call the finer arts,
and we think Of men like the creator
OF THE Angelus" and THE Sower'-
men of whom the world was not worthy,
doing their noblest work panied by the
flint, pouring their life into the trea
sure, while many a time it was their
fortune to die that the pearl might be
perfected in splendor and noblest
worth; while with some we also re-
member that what we call the for
tune" came to those who open the shell
and clutch the pearl. Or of another
fine soul who. as he lay on his death
bed, said to his friend, Lift me up;
the picture was his pearl, he would
touch 1t with one more gleam OF ra-
dance, and this done he fell on sleep to
awake in the city whose gates, to the
seer's vision, were Of pearl, and every
several gate one pearl
Or, turning to the treasure that has
come to us in great and noble books
and lives, it is once more to be aware
of the mystery, the supremacy, Of the
kingdom of heaven. Milton, old, blind,
poor and outcast, flashing forth In the
dark encrusting shell the peerless
splendors of the Paradise Lost for
a sum the meanest 1aboring man in
England would despise for days wages
when you count the days. And Bun
yam, in his den, trying to earn crust
Of bread for the weans and wife. while