Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1900-03-30
SAVANNAH TENNESSEE FRIDAY, MARCH 80


mighty and constant flow, with which
the stream of knowledge sweeps on,
bearing argosies filed with rich bless
ings on its bosom.
have spoken alone Of the common
school education. We can point with
satisfaction to our higher institutions
of learning, efficient today and pro-
gressive with the age.
Nashville has achieved, and holds
without rival, the proud distinction of
being called the Athens of the South.
No other city in America of equal size
has so many tlourishing educational in
situations. Many students from other
cities and States gather in her halls OF
learning. Does it bring rich harvest
of shekels to her marts? Perchance it
may; but who will stop to count the
sordid gains of riches that take wings
and fly away in contemplating the glad.
some light of strength and purity which
is poured into the lives of the youth Of
this land, light whose effulgence does
not become spent, but transmitted from
sire and mother to daughter and son,
goes forth in multiplied rays for the
upbuilding and strengthening of our
beloved South?
Patriotism.
With all their differences in ante.
cedents, purposes, and mental equip
ment, there was one spirit that ami
mated all our pioneer fathers: A pure
patriotism always burned, with steady
flame. A sentiment, or impulse, en-
tiers the hearts of a people, flames out
and with resistless force carries all be-
fore it, and becomes the genius of the
epoch. Such was the restless spirit
which il the fifteenth century impelled
hardy adventures to seek for unknown
worlds.
Such was the zeal which fired the
hearts of the crusader, to turn his face
from smiling fortune and yearn with
the hope of leaving his bones to bleach
upon the plains of Palestine. Such was
the devotion to a cult of liberty, which
they thought was to regenerate the
world, that gave the sublime sacrifices
of the men and women of the French
revolution.
Within a narrow sphere of action, far
from the center, yea, upon the very
periphery of civilization, with no in
spration of royal commission. or pom
tifical blessing, with no dazzling pa
geantry, pomp and circumstance of
glorious war to stir the imagination,
with no orator to incite, no painter to
immortalize, no poet to sing, these plain
men, looking beyond the horizon of
personal interest and temporary adj
vantage, showed devotion no less
heroic. IF we fail, said one. "it must
never be from cowardice." Bledsoe,
with prophetic eye that contemplated
his own sad end, said: ''If we perish
here, others will be sure to come
either to revenge our death or to ac-
complish what we have begun. If they
! find not our graves or our scattered
bones, they may revere our memories,
and publish to the ages to come that
we deserved better fate"
Robertson said These rich and
beautiful lands were not designed to
be given up to savages and wild beasts.
The God of Creation and Providence
has nobler purposes in view"
And so they and their companions
stood for more than self throughout
those years of blood. Bledsoe fell, but
his memory survives. Robertson, twice
wounded, saw his brother and two sons
go down in the strife, but he lived to
see a glorious frution.
The genius that filed their hearts
was love of country-that unselfish
passion which is the spark Of divinity
in man. The love OF parents, wife and
offspring is natural, and often burns
most intensely in those who are most
sordid. 1t is for those we know, and
should be reciprocal. Oftimes it brings
a rich return, and while it sows with
one hand, it rcaps a harvest with the
other.
To BE CONTINUED.