Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1900-12-28


eral Meanwhile, Denmark. will You please
accept our offer of SO 1000 900 for the island
of st. Thomas" My hearers, there is nc
nation on earth with such healthy condi'
ton Of finances We wickedly waste an
awful amount of money in this country,
but some one has said it is easier to man.
age a surplus than deficit.
Besides all this, not disturbance from
st. Lawrence River to Key West or from
Highlands of New Jersey to Golden Horn
of the Pacific Sectional controversies
ended. The North and South brought
into complete accord by the Spanish war,
| which mt the Lees and the Grants on the
same side. Vermonters and Georgians in
the same brigade. And since our Civil
War we are all mixed up. Southern men
have married Northern wives. and North
ern men have married Southern wives.
and your children are half Mssissippian
and half New Euglander. and to make an
other division between the North and the
South possible YOU would have to do with
your child as Solomon proposed with ths
child brought before him for judgment
divide it with the sword. giving half to
| the North and half to the South No;
| there is nothing so hard to split as era
| die In other lands there is compulsory
marriage of roval families. some bright
princess compelled to marry some disa-
greeable foreign diCnitary in order to keep
the balance of political power in Europe,
the Unmatched pair fighting out on n
small scale that which would have been
an international contest, sometimes the
| husband having the balance of power and
sometimes the wife.
IF there is anything that stirs my adj
miraton it is a man without any educa-
ton himself sending his sons to college,
and without any opportunity for luxury
himself resolved that though he shall have
it hard all the DAYS of his life his children
shall have good start.
| And I tell you that though some of our
people may have great commercial strng-
giles there is going to be great opening
for tneir sons and daughters as they come
on to take their places in the world a
Continuing this international comparison
| have to say to you that we have bet
ter climate than is to be found in any
other nation We do not suffer from any
thing like the Scotch mists or the English
fogs or the Russian ice blasts or the ty-
phus of Southern Europe or the Asiatic
cholera Epidemics in America are ex.
ceptiona. very exceptional. Plenty OF
wood and coal to make a roaring fire mid
winter. Easy access to seaheach or mount
ain top when the ardors of summer come
down, Michigan wheat for the bread
Long Island corn for the meal, Carolina
rice for the quet ! of buildings, Louisiana
sugar to sweeten our beverages, Georgia
cotton to keep Us warm, in our hand all
products and all climates. Are your nerves
weak? Go north. Is your throat delicate?
Go south Do YOU feel crowded and want
more room? Go west
| declare it. this is the best country in
all the world to live in. How do I know
it? / have ESQ., 900 new reasons for saying
it; 650,000 people in one year came from
the other side of the Atlantic to live in
America, and they came because it is the
very best country to live in.
While making this international COM
parison let us look forward to the time
which will surely come when all nations
will have as great advantages as our own.
AS surely as the Bible is true the whole
earth is to be gardenized and set free.
Even the climates will change and the
heats be cooled and the frigidity warmed.
Many years ago in this city | gazed upon
a scene which for calamity and grandeur
one seldom sees equaled. / mean the
burning of the Smithsonian Institution.
1t was the pride of our country In it art
had gathered rarest specimens from all
lands and countries.
1t was one of those buildings which
seize you with enchantment as you enter
and all the rest of y,ur life holds you
with charm. l happened to see the first
glow of the fires which on that cold day
looked out from the windows of the costly
pile. ] saw the angry elements roar and
rave. The shout of affrighted workman
and the assault of fire engines only seemed
to madden the rage of the monsters that
rose up to devour all that came within
reach of their chain.
Up along the walls and through the
10 L., LII
down all they could reach and hurled it
into the abyss of flame beneath. The win
dows of the tower would light up for
minute with wild glare and then darken,
as though fiends with streaming locks of
fire had come out to gaze on in laughing
mockery of all human attempts and then
sunk again into their native darkness.
The roofs began here and there to bios
som in wreaths and vines of flame. Up
and down the pillars ran serpents of fire.
Out from the windows great arms and
fingers of flames were extended, as though
destroyed spirits were begging for deliver
ance. The tower put on coronet of flame
and staggered and fell, the sparks flying,
the fremen escaping, the terror accumuat-
ing.
Books, maps, rare correspondence, auto
graphs of kings, costly diagrams burned to
cnder or scattered Tor many rood upon
the wild wind to be picked up by the ex-
cited multitude. Oh, it seemed like some
great funeral pile in which the wealth and
glory OF our land had leaped to burn with
its consuming treasures. The heavens
were blackened with whirlwinds Of smoke,
through which shot the long red shafts of
calamity.
Destruction waved its fiery banner from
the remaining towers, and in the thunder
of falling beams and in the roaring surge
of bilowing fire heard the spirits of ruin
and desoation and woe eapping their
hands and shouting, "Aha! aha!"
l turned and looked upon the white
dome of yonder capitol, which rose
through the frosty air as imposing as
though all the white marble of the earth
had come to resurrection and stood be-
fore us, reminding one of the great white
throne of heaven. There it stood, I'M
moved by the terrors which that day had
been kinded before it. No tremor in its
majestic columns, no flush of excitement
in its veins of marble. Column and capital
and dome built to endure until the world
itself skaters in the commissions of the
| last earthquake. Oh, what contrast be-
tween the smoking ruin on the one hand
and that gorgeous white dream of archi-
lecture on the otherl Well, the day speeds
on when the grandest achievement of man
will be consumed and the world will blaze.