The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1899-08-25

g nHON. D. F..
N Before the Illinois Associan
MsR9ksggfSNaesksksRgx1gsx
Ladies and Gentlemen:-
1t is always a pleasure to mingle with
old.time friends, sit by the family fire.
side, and participate IN social cheer.
and for the honor you confer on me on
this occasion I am justly proud and feel
truly thankful.
We meet today to bow in humble
alteration at the feet of our dear Lord,
the authorof our being and our last
end. of whom. is every true and perfect
gift, and to acknowledge his infinite
goodness and supreme authority over
us.
We meet to show our allegiance to
this great nation of ours, and pledge
her anew our lives, our fortunes and.
our sacred honor. We pride in her in
situations, delight in her history and
pray for her destiny,-God save .he
Republic.
We meet to testify our love and adj
miration for this great state of ours.
her institutions of law and learning,
her policy andIprinciples, the rugged,
robust manhood of her sons, the grace.
full. captivating quality Of her daugh-
tiers, her diversity of soil and mineral
wealth, a state in which nature and
handicraft combine and makes special
ty of the best of everything,-the peer
less commonwealth of Iowa.
We meet especially to live again a
portion of our present lives, to revive
friendship and renew acquaintance, to
keep green cherished memories of past
events, and to cultivate and replenish
the friendly fires of social good will.
But we meet, moreover, as typical.
sons of the state of Illinois, and while
proud Of our home state we shall ever
cherish fond recollections of the place
of our early homes on the eastern shore
of the Father Of Waters, the greatstate
Of illinois.
We meet to renew our pride in that
state and recount some of her claims to
greatness; to discuss the difficulties
overcome; the obstacles surmounted;
the victories won and the sacrifices and
self-denials made by her children.
Her place on the page of history is a
CONSPICUOUS and brilliant one; its bril-
liancy illumines C~hristendom, and its
magnitude covers the globe. Whether
tilling the soil or commanding armies,
in the Senate chamber or Executive
Mansion, as the proud mother of states
men, soldiers or philantrophists, she
occupies q place magnifcently her owl.
AS panorama the past is before me.
/ see the man Of family and of middle
age, whose reverse in life were too
many for him, together with the newly
married couple with implicit faith il
Gods providence; unbounded conf
dence in the future, full of grit, energy
and ambition, bid farewell to familiar
faces and familiar places and turn to
the setting sun and the glorious west.
and pitch their tents onthe wind swept
prairies of Iowa, and there amid the
heat OF summer and cold of winter, the
howl Of the wolf and the chilling fear
of the %treacherous Indian, make a
bower in the desert, a garden in the
wilderness, a home upon the storm
swept prairie of Iowa.
How beneath their touch the prime
val prairie took on a different hue; how
the wilds of the west blossomed as the
Garden of the Gods; how the golden
glisten of ripened grain and the silken
rustic of growing corn Wed in friendly
rivalry to glad the heart of the hus-
bandman and fill out the burrows time
has plowed in the kindly faces Of the
farmers wives.
How the throb and rumble of the
locomotive, the blaze of the forge, the
glow Of the stethy, the whir of the
wheels, the roar of the furnace and the
busy hum of the hive of industry paw
tribute to your toll and homage to your
genius, where but yesterday the bison
roamed at will and the savage was
monarch Of the land.
Yea, further, the church, the school,
the printing press, religion, education
and refinement have a permanent place
in your midst and indeed. aslf by magic
you have changed the wind-swept prai-
ries Of Iowa to thriving cities and
towns, centers of art and learning.
blooming gardens, teeming fields and
happy homes.
How even as in days slang synen
here where the savage warrior wooed
and won his dusky maid; young men
of today, whose hearts throb fearfully.
whisper sweet nothings in the eager
ears Of blushing maidens: "Eyes speak
love to eyes that speak again." and SO