The age-herald., 1899-11-13

Judge Norman c. Kittrell of Houston at Dallas last Monday:
 The manifold attractions of the fair realm comprised within what are now the limits of our mother state drew thither as early as three centuries ago both savage and civilized adventurers and explorers. There is a legend of poetic beauty which has been handed down from generation to generation, that in the distant and misty past an Indian warrior who had long striven with his hereditary foes, when the tide of battle turned against him, fled with the remnant of his tribe toward the beau- tiful land which lay far toward the setting sun.
 In the course of his journey he came upon a realm where quiet wales lay in peaceful beauty between towering noun tains, and wandered mid forests where grateful shades brought peace to troubled minds and rest to wearied limbs; heard the gentle murmur of rills which rippled to the rivers and watched the majestic flow of rivers to the sea, caught the roar of the mountain torrent and listened with de- light to the songs of numerous birds whose rich notes made resonant with music the eehoing woods, gazed with de- light upon the rich quarries of game which promised food, and in the soughing and signing of the winds through the boughs of the monarchs of the forest, and in the resounding notes of the storm as it roared and echoed amid the mountains, he seemed ito hear the voice of the Great Spirit bid ding him stay his steps and plant his tepee on the soil of the land of wondrous beauty Into which he had been led; and the chief, ohedient to that voice, threw himself upon the rich carpet of vivid green which na- ture had spread over that fertile and virgin land and exclaimed: "Alabama, Alabama" here we rest, here we rest.
 The untutored savage who saw God in tempests, heard him in the wind." per chance fondly dreamed that long would be the duration of his dominion, and that he would rule that fair realm in undis- puted sway, and that neither to him nor Ito his people would ever come the necessity of resuming his journey toward the rolling plains beyond the father of waters.
 But soon there pressed upon him the bold and adventurous Spaniard. Across the mountain and through the forest and over the fertile valleys the cross-bowmen and arquebusiers of De Soto marched in bold array as their dauntless leader pressed on lured on by the ignis fatuus of an Fl Dorado, which he sought in vain until his worn and wearied body found repose and final sepulture beneath the turbid waters of the Mississippi.
 The plumes of created cavaliers danced and nodded in the gentle southern breezes, their resplendent arn1or flashed in the light of the southern sun: the soft, sweet songs of Spain quivered in rich but gentle ca dence amid the aisfeS of the mighty forest and gleamng swords lighted the way over which with restless ardor the bold wan derers pressed upon their fruftless search for that which they were doomed never to discover.
 Others of their race followed in their footsteps and soon the ardent and grasping Frenehman invaded too that goodly lond, and between Spaniard and Gaul sovereign ty and possession shifted, while the rel man yielded the land wherein he had thought to rest and took up again his in- eTtable journey toward the western hor1- Zon.
 But such a land as Alabama was not in the economy of that providence which di- rects the current of human destiny intend- ed to be possessed or controlled by Span iard, Gaul or red man, but these three who had there contended for supremacy went on and down before the restless advance of that avant courier of civilization and enlightenment in every age, the all con- querng and liberty loving Saxon
 That apostle of freedom and the rights of man with the instinct inherited from an ancestry which had compelled concessions of vast importance at the hands of mon archial power and blazed out the way for the advance of constitutional government, signalized his coming into his new ana fair possession by the establishment Tn 1877 of a territory, which eventuated in
 
 as beauteous a star as ever yet has gem med the jeweled brow of fair Columbia
 The men who established and organized that state, like those who laid the foun- dations of this glorious state of our adop- tion were men of no ordinary mold. They were men of intellect, courage and con structive and executive capacity, because the man of timidity, indecision, and who is deficient in intellectual, physical ana moral courage is rarely found among those ,,rlr tha xpaU human ress. create states~and establish govern ments.
 It is only those heroic spirits who love liberty. whose souls are affame With deVo- ton to the principles of free government and who have the intelligence to perceive and the skill and courage to carry out those plans and policies necessary to found and establish a government of liberty and of law, who are found among the pioneers of civilization.
 When Alabama became a state of the Union African slavery was already planted there as a domestic institution and hxed system of labor. Long established Tn her sister southern states, from which the nopulation of Alabama had migrated, slaves had been brought with them in com- mon with other chattles. The climate was peculiarly congenial to the negro, and the character of labor at which he was eln- ployed was exactly adapted to the measure
  indigenous to the soil. He had been trans planted from New England. Experience had demonstrated that he was not pronl- able as a laborer in that frigid cline ana those who had bought him with rum sold him for gold, and when he had changed masters, and the later master had by req son of his purchase waxed rich, and the land wherein he dwelt lowered and blos- somed like the rose, the seller was stricken with regret and narrowed by deep remorse, because he had not bargained for better price. To sell slave into continual slavery was deemed by him ''eute'' finan- ,,iaI transaction, but the keeping as slave, the slave so sold became at once Tn his eye grievous and unpardonable of- fense.
 New England and the negro did not harmonize. The thermometer at zero and a darkey in comfort were irreconcilable and impossible conditions. He instnc- lively yearned for a land where the sum- mer's sun crimsoned the persimmo on, where the toothsome "possum" ripened in the frosty autumn and where the succulent potato and luscious watermelon grew in tropical profusion So the negro came