The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1900-09-09

dem of our united greatness, a
very empire within ourselves
leaving Oklahoma and the Indian
Territory yet to be added, and what
have we in the Indian Territory TO
offer to the world what advan-
tages, if any, has the land you
and | have selected in which we
expect to live and die, to commend
itself to the settler and home
seeker? Its climate, to begin with.
is one of the finest in the world
equal to that of lovely Greece and
the renowned Italy. Its winters
are never too cold nor its summers
too hot; the fragrant ozone of the
atmosphere and the steadying,
bracing breezes that ever blow
from the south and east add zest
ard pleasure to life that can be
found nowhere else; truly. would
not he surprised to learn some day
that Mount Olympus, the abode of
the gods, was somewhere IN the
Arbuckle range of mountains that
skirt US on the southwest, and /
am fully persuaded from looking
into the faces of the fair and
lovely women here present that
Venus, the goddess of love and
beauty, must have some time IN
the distant past made her home
here in the classic vale of the wind
ing Washita and bequeathed as a
heritage to her daughters that
beauty of face and form and that
loveliness of character which made
her the universal favorite Of the
gods.
| have read of the delta OF the
Nile, the fame of whose fertility
has come down to us from Biblical
days; | have read of the Congo
and the fertile valleys of the
Ganges, upon whose broad acres
the teeming millions of India have
subsisted since Buddha and Nashti
lived and taught their moral pre-
cepts; | have taken the wings of
the morning and crossed the undu
lating prairies of Kansas, Missouri
and Illinois: | have viewed the
Iich dark loan that borders the
banks of the great Mississippi for
two thousand miles; | have read
and learned in song ard story of
lands far away where rivers bright
wander over sands of gold, where
the ruby lights up the secret mine,
where frail man had but to stretch
forth his hand to garner the rich
est bounty nature could bestow,
but this lovely suulit vale, extend
ing from the Llano Estacado on
the west to the Red river on the
south. through which the Sinuous
Washita winds itself like a silver
thread, is by far the crown jewel
of all the lands of which | have
ever read and been blessed with
vision Of, may we not believe that
the poet had this valley il his
minds eye when he sang:
know We the land of the cedar and
the vine,
Where the flowers ever blossom,
the stars ever shine,
Where the light wings of zephyr
oppressed with perfume,
Wax faint o'er the gardens of Gul
in her bloom,
Where the citrou and olive are fair
est of fruit,
Where the voice of the nightingale
never is mute,
Where the tints of the ocean and
the hues Of the sky
In color, though varied in beauty,
may vie"
Ny friends, we have here a
foundation on which to rear a
great empire, a commonwealth
that will be the Teer of any in our
proud galaxy of states; civiliza-
ton is pressing US from all sides
and asks admittance to come IN
and transfer these grass-grown
prairies, these rich, wooded, allu.
vial lands into an agricultural
paradise, to make the wild waste
blossom like roses in the valley of