Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1901-10-12

the coronation or George IL. all closed
All closed. Oblivioni A hundred
years from now there will not be a
| being on this earth that knew we ever
| lived.
In some old family record a descend
ant studying up the ancestral line may
spell out our name and from the fad
| ed ink with great effort find that some
person by our name was born some
where in the nineteenth century, but
they will know no more about us than
we know about the color of a child's
| eyes born last night in a village in
Patagonia. Tell me something about
your great-grandfather. What were
| his features? What did he do? What
year was he born? What year did he
die? And your G. -eat-grandmother
Will you describe the style of the hat
she wore, and how did she and your
great-grandfather get on in each
others companionship? Was it March
weather or. June? Oblivion, That
mountain surge rolls over everything.
Even the pyramids are dying Not a
day passes but there is chiseled off
chip of that granite The sea is tri-
umphing over the land and what is
going on at our Atlantic coast is going
tinents are crumbling into the waves.
and while this is transpiring on the
, outside of the world, the hot chisel
of the internal fire is digging under
the foundations of the earth and cut
ting its way out toward the surface
1t surprises me to hear the people say
they do not think the world will
finally be burned up when all the sci
wi fol hot =
ages been on fire.
Why, there is only a crust between
us and the furnaces inside raging to
get out. Oblivion, The world itself
will roll into it as easily as a school
boys india rubber ball rolls down a
hill, and when our world goes it is SO
interlocked by the law of gravitation
with other worlds that they will go
too, and so far from having our mem
ory perpetuated by a monument of
Aberdeen granite in this world there
is no world in sight of our strongest
telescope that will be a sure pediment
for any slab of commemoration of the
fact that we ever lived or died at ALL
Our earth is struck with death. The
axletree of the consultations will
break and let down the populations of
other worlds. Stellar, lunar, solar,
mortality Oblivion, 1t can swallow
and will swallow whole galaxies of
worlds as easily as a crocodile takes
down a frog
Yet oblivion does not remove or
swallow everything that had better
not be removed or swallowed The
old monster is welcome to his meal.
This world would long ago have been
overcrowded if not for the merciful
removal of nations and generations.
What if all the books had lived that
were ever written and printed and
published? The libraries would by
their immensity have obstructed intel
hgence and made all research impos-'
sible. The fatal epidemic of books
was merciful epidemic. Many of the
state and national libraries today are
only morgues, in which dead books are
waiting for some one to come and rec
ogn1ze them What if all the people
that had been born were still alive?
We would have been elbowed by our
ancestors Of ten centuries ago, and
people who ought to have said their
last word 5000 years ago would snarl
at us, saying, What are you doing
here?" There would have been no
room to turn around. Some of the
past generations of mankind were not
worth remembering. The first useful
thing that many people did was to die,
their cradle a misfortune and their
grave boon. This world was hard
ly comfortable place to live in be-
fore the middle of the eighteenth CEN
tury. So many things have come into
the world that were not fit to stay in
we ought to be glad they were pu. out
The waters of Lethe, the fountain of
forgetfulness, are a healthful draft
The history we have of the world in
ages past is always one sided and can
not be depended on. History is fiction
illustrated by few struggling
Why We Should BE Remembered.
Now, l have told you that this obli-
WON of which 1 have spoken has its
defeats and that there is no more rea-
son why we should not be distinctly
and vividly and gloriously remembered
five hundred million billion triIlion
quadrillion quintillion years from now
than that we should be remembered six
weeks 1 am going to tell you how
the thing can be done and will be
done
We may build this Everlasting re-
membrance,' as my text styles it, into
the supernal existence of those to
whom we do kindness in this world.
You must remember that this infirm
and treacherous faculty which we now