The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-11-26

age was neglected. aad there came a great
famine. One day the wife of the king IN
v1ted him to q great banquet, and he came
IN and sat down. and there were pieces
or gold in the shape OF bread, and pieces
of gold in the shape Ok biscuits, and
pieces Of gold IL tie shape OF Joints or
meat. and the king was Disguised, and he
said, Il cannot eat this" Neither can
the. people" sad his wife most sucges-
lively, and then they went back TO the
:illage.
To get ala appreciation OF what the
American p!ow has accomplished / take
you into the western wilderness. Here in
the dense Forests / find 4 collection Of In
dian wig|ams. With belts Of wampum
the men lazily sit on the skins of deer.
smoking their feathercd calumets: or.
driven forth by hunger. / track their noc-
casins far away rs Ihey make the forest
echoes crazy with their wild halIoo or fish
in the waters OF the still lake. Now tribes
challenge and council fires blaze and
warwhoops ring and chiefs lift the toma-
hawks for battle. After awhile wagons
from the Atlantic coast come TO those for
ests. BIZ day trees are felled n by
night bonfres keep off the wolves. Log
cabins rise and the great trees begin to
throw their branches il the path OF the
conquering white man. Farms are clear
ed. Stumps, the monuments of slain for
ests, crumble and are burned. Villages
appear, with smiths at the bellows, ma
sons on the wall, carpenters on the house
top. Churches rise in honor Of the Great
Spirit whom the red men i%gnorantly wor-
ship. Steamers on the lake convey mer-
chandise to her wharf and carry east the
uncounted bushels that have come to the
market. Bring hither wreaths of wheat
and crowns of rye and let the mills and
the machinery Of barn and field unite
their voices to celebrate the triumph, for
the wilderness hath retreated and the
plow hath conquered.
Within our time the presidential cabi-
net has added a secretaryship Of agricul-
ture. Societies are constantly being es-
tablished for the education Of the pillow.
Journals devoted to this department are
circulated through all the country. Farm
ers, through such culture, have learned
the attributes of soils and found out that
almost every field has its peculiar prefer
ences. Lands nave their choice as to
which product they will bear. Marshy
lowlands touched by the plow rise and
wiring out their wet locks in the trenches.
Islands born down on the coast Of Peru
~N 49, ~ WI ACAAo
and make our vegetation leap. High
ways, by this pillow, are changed from
Doggy sloughs into roads like the Roman
Appian way. Fields go through bloodless
revolutions until there the farmhouse
stands. In summer honeysuckles Chamber
over the trellises. On one side there
stands a garden, which is only a farm
condensed. On the other side there is q
stretch Of meadow land with thick grass,
and, as the wind breathes over it, it looks
like the deep green ocean waves. There
goes a brook, tarrying long in its, wind
ings, as if loath to leave the spot where
the reeds sing, and the cattle stand at
MONDAY under the shadow Of the weeping
willows In winter the sled comes
through the cracking snow, with huge
logs from the woods, and the barn floor
quakes under the thumpings Of the fail
or the deafening buzz of the thrashing
machine. Horses stand beneath NOW
poles bending under loads of hay and
whinny to the we'll filed oat bins. Com
fort laughs at the wind rafting the
sashes and clicking the icicles from the
caves.
Parts of our country, under Industrious
tillage, lave become an Eden Of fruitful
ness, in which religion stands as the tree
VI I'LL III euuCdtlOudl advantages us tuG
tree Of knowledge of good and evil, not
one Of them forbidden. We are ourselves
surrounded by we'll cultured farms. They
were worked by your fathers, and per-
haps your mothers helped spread the hay
in the field. On their headstones are the
names you bear. AS, when you were boys,
in the sultry noon you sought for the
harvest field with refreshments for your
fathers and found them taking their noon
spell sound asleep under the trees, so
peacefully now they sleep in some coun-
try ~churchyard. No more fatigued, death
has plowed for them the deep furrow of
a grave.
Religion the Tree of Life.
Although most of us have nothing d.
rectly to do with the tillage Of the soil,
yet in all our occupations we feel the eff
feet OF successful or blighted industry.
We must, in all our occupations, rejoice
over the victories of the plow today. Thes
earth was once cursed for mans sake,
and occasionally the soil revenges itself
on us by refusing a bountiful harvest. l
suppos that but for sin the earth would
be producing wheat and corn and sweet
fruits as naturally as now it produces
mullen stalks and Canada thistles. There
is hardly a hillock between the forests of
Maine and the lagoons of Florida, be-
tween the peach orchards of New Jersey
and the pines Of Oregon that has not
| sometimes shown its natural and total de-
pravity. The thorn and thistle seem to
have usurped the soil, and nothing but
the rebellion Of the plow can uproot the
| evil supremacy. But God is good. Now,
if one OF our seasons partially proves a
failure, the earth seems to repent of it the
| next summer In more muniicent supply.
Praise God for the great harvests that
have been reaped this last year! Some Of
them, injured by drought or insects or
freshets, were not as bountiful as usual,
others far in excess of what have ever
before been gathered, while higher prices
will help make up for any decreased sup
ply. Sure sign of agricultural prosperity
we have in the fact that cattle and horses
and sheep and swine and all farm animals
nave during the last two years increased
in value. Twenty million swine slaugh-
tered this last year, and yet so many hogs
left. Enormous paying off Of farm mort