The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1901-12-26

such culture, have learned the at
tributes of soils and found out that
almost every field has it's peculiar
preferences. Lands have 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 Pern and Bo-
livia are transported to ouE iGalds and
make our vegetables leap. Rgt3Tyays,
by this plow, are changed from baggy
sloughs into roads like the Roman
Appian way. Fields go through
bloodless revolutions until there the
farmhouse stands. In summer honey
suckles Chamber over the trellises. On
one side there stands garden, which
Is only a farm condensed. On the
other side there is a stretch of mead
ow land with thick grass, and, as
the wind breathes over it, it looks
like the deep green ocean waves.
There goes brook, tarrying long in
it's windings, 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 well-flled oat bins.
Comfort laughs at the wind rafting
the sashes and clicking the icicles
from the caves.
Praise God for the great harvests
shat 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 ex-
cess of what have ever before been
gathered, while higher prices will
help make up for any decreased sup
ply. Sure signs of agricultural pros
perity we have in the fact that cat
tie and horses and sheep and swine
and all farm animals have during the
last two years increased in value.
Twenty million swine slaughtered
this last year, and yet SO many hogs
left. Enormous paying off of farm
mortgages have spoiled the old
speeches of the calamity howlers. If
the ancients in their festivals pre-
sented their rejoicings before Ceres,
the goddess of corn and tillage, shall
we neglect to rejoice in the pres
ence of the great God now? From
Atlantic to Pacific let the American
nation celebrate the victories of the
plow.
/ come next to speak of the con-
| quests Of the American hammer. It's
iron arm has fought it's way down
from the beginning to the present.
Under its swing the city Of Enoch
rose and the foundry of Tubal Cain
resounded and the ark fioated on the
| dellge. At its clang ancient tenn
pies spread their magnifcence and
chsriots rushed out fit for the bat
| tie It's iron fist smote the marble
of Paros, and it rose in sculptured
| Minervas and struck the Pentelican
mines until from them Parthenon
/
ice and pure as an angels dream.
Damascus and Jerusalem and Rome
and Venice and Paris and London
and Philadelphia and New York and
Washington are but the long pro-
| tracted echoes of the hammer. I'm
der the hammer everywhere dwell
| ings have gone up, ornate and lux
urious. Schoolhouses, lyceums, hos
pitals and asylums have added addi-
| tional glory to the enterprise as well
as the benefcence Of the American
people. Vast public works have been
constructed, bridges have been built
over rivers and tunnels dug under
our mountains, and churches OF
matchless beauty have gone up for
Him who had not where to lay His
head, and the old theory is exploded
that because Christ was born in q
manger we must always worship
Him in a barn.
Railroads of fabulous length have
been completed, over which western
trains rush past the swift-footed deer
making the frightened birds to dart
into the heavens at the cough of the
smoke pipes and the savage yell Of
the steam whistle In hot haste oul
national industry advances, hel
breath the air of 10000 furnaces, hel
song the voice of uncounted fac
tories, her footstep the fash O.
wheel buckets and the tread of tn.
shaft and the stamp of foundries
Talk about antideluvian longevity.
think the average of human life i
more now than it ever was. Through
mechanical facilities men work 81
much faster and accomplish SO mucl
more in a lifetime that a man ca,
afford to die at 40 as well as one o
old at 900. think the average of hu
man life in point of Accomplishment
is now equivalent to about 800 years
as near as / can calculate it. In al
our occupations and professions W
feel the effect of crippled or en-
larged mechanical enterprise. We al
have stock in every house that
bnilded and in every public convey
.nce that is constructed and IN ever
ship that is sailed. When we sc