Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1900-12-21


srn men have married Southern wives,
and veur children are half MississIppian
and hall New Englander. and to make an
other division between the North ana the
South possible you would have to 90 with
yonr child As Solomon proposed with the
sb;Id brought before him for Judgment
divide Il with the sword. giving halt 10
IN. North and half to the South. NO;
there j, nothing SO hard to split as a era
de In other lands there is compulsory
marriage of roval families, some bright
princess compelled to marry some dlsa-
sreeable foreign dignitary in order to keep
the balance of political power in Europe,
the ill-matched pair fighting out on
small scale that which would have peeh
an international contest, sometimes inc
husband having the balance OF power ana
sometimes the wife.
If there is anything that stirs my ad-
miration it is 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 strug-
giles there is going to he great opening
for their sons and daughters as they come
on to take their places in the world.
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 tv-
plus of Southern Europe or the Asiatic
cholera. Epidemics in America are ex.
ceptional. very exceptional. Plenty OF
wood and coal to make roaring fire mid
winter. Easy access to seabeach or mount
ain top when tie ardors OF summer come
down, Michigan wheat for the bread,
Long Island corn for the meal, Carolina
rice for the que, of buildings, Louisiana
sugar to sweeten our beverages, Georgia
cotton to keep rs 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 | know
it? ] have 650,000 new reasons for saving
it; 650000 neople in one year came from
the other side of the Atlantic to live in
America. and they came because 1T is the
very hest 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 equalled. / mean the
burning of the Smithsonian Institution.
1t was the pride of our country. In 1t art
had gathered rarest specimens from all
lands and countries.
It was one of those buildings which
seize YOU with enchantment as you enter
and all the rest of v UT life holds You
with a 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 ana
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
doors were pushed hands that snatched
down all they could reach and hurled it
into the abyss of fame beneath. The win
dows of the tower would light up for
minute with q wild glare and then darken.
as though fends 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
aud 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
cinder 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 billowing fire / heard the spirits of ruin
and desolation and woe clapping their
hands and shouting, "Aha aha"
] 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 kindled 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 coavulsions of the
last earthquake. Oh, what a contrast be-
tween the smoking ruin on the one hand
and that gorgeous white dream of archi-
lecture on the other! Well, the day speeds
on when the grandest achievement of man
will be consumed and the world will blaze.
Down will 60 galleries of art and thrones
of royalty and the hurricane of Gods.
power will scatter even the ashes of conA
sumed greatness and glory. Not one tower
left, not one city unconsumed, not one
scene of grandeur to relieve the desola-
ton. Forests dismasted, seas licked up,
continents sunk, hemispheres annihilated.
Oh, the roar and laundering crash OF that
last confagration! But from that ruin
of blazing earth we shall look up to see
the temple of liberty and justice rising
through the ages, white and pure and
grand, unsecured and mistaken. Founded
on the eternal rock and swelling int.
domes Of infnitude sS asSr Z troSy -nwfe6 the
hallelullahs Ssp1f6ieay heaven have their reverber-
zion. No fame OF human hate shall
>blacken its walls. No thunder of internal
wrath shall rock its foundations. By the
upheld torches of burning worlds we shall
read it on column and architrave and
throne of eternal dominion. Heaven and
earth shall pass away, but truth and lib
erty and justice shall never pass away"
LIS Dcsertion by His Secretary
. The severest blow Ii Hung Chang
has received for many years is the de.
sertion Of J. w. Pethick, an American