Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1901-01-12
SAID IN SHORT WORDS.
A Strong Talk In MonosylIabIes Made By on
Ohio Man.

A Strong Talk In MonosyIIables Made BY an
Ohio Man.
In these days of turgld eloquence,
which public speakers seem to vie
with one another to see how many tri-
pie jointed words they can lug into
speech and seem to scorn the strength
and beauty of short words. an address
delivered many years ago by A. P.
Edgerton, of Ohio. has peculiar weight
and is an eloquent argument In favor
Of short, direct methods Of speech. Mr.
Edgerton served in congress and was
civil service commissloner under Presi-
dent Cleveland. The address was de-
livered in 1882 at the commencement
of the Fort Wayne high school, In In
diana, and, while 1t was impromptu,
monosyllable diction, each Of the words
it contains is a monosyllable. Not only
that, but as an oratorical effort 1t
ranks high. The address Is as follows:
Fort Wayne free schools, and we now
part with you, the girls and boys we
are no more to teach.
IT say girls and boys, for when three
score and ten years have come to you
you will be glad to have your friends
say that health and peace Of mind
have kept your hearts warm; that you
wear no brow of gloom, are not borne
down with age; but still, in heart, are
girls and boys When three-score
years come, and hope they will come
to all, the tide Of time will roll back
and tell you of your schooltime days,
when the fair, the kind and the true
found love; but the false heart found
no friend, no tongue to praise. These
days bring rich gifts to age, and when
you shall cease to think Of them your
fire has burned low and your light has
gone out. You have been here taught
in the hope that the free schools Of
Fort Wayne would help to make you
of use to your friends and to the world,
would give you faith in all that Is
good and true and lead you to seek
work, for that you must seek and do If
you would have good name, wealth,
home, a charge to keep or trust to
serve. Go forth with bold, true heart
to seek the work for you to do.
Keep in your mind that the hours to
work run through each day and that
Gods great law of life is, In the sweat
of thy face shalt thou eat bread
"Now, for you, young man, this truth
is told.
go where you will through the
world and you will find on the front
door of shops and mills, Of stores and
banks, and on ships, on farms, on
roads, in deep mines where men toll
for wealth.; where laws are made that
make some men too rich and men Of
worth and work through all our land
too poor; where men by law are taught
to plot with sin, to spurn the right, that
charge and cost and spoil may make
old 'Quirks' law firms rich; where law
is so plead that the judge must guess to
find what's law; where quacks most
fight DER sick mems pain and dead
mems bones; where types are set and
none to mind the proofs; where priests
do preach and pray and where schools
are taught this sign, Brains Will Find
Work Here
Don't fear. Step up and ask for
work; brains will get it. Don't let I
dare not wait on I would'-like the cat
that loves fish; but dares not wet her
foot.
'If it be said, What can you do?
Will you learn a trader" say, I have
none; but I can learn one and put
brains in it, When you go to place
where brains should hunt for work and
be sure to find it, it may be said to you,
DO you see that plow? Can you hold
and drive it deep?' That plow, in its
wise use, gives all men food.
do you see that wheel and that
crank and those shafts and that press,
and do you hear the rush and the hiss
Of the steam which moves them? Can
you make and hold and run them? Can
you build and drive the works and
wheels which make the wealth of the
earth and cause it to roll and to float to
and fro from place to place, where 1t Is
the best man to use it?
Can you spin the threads and weave
it which makes robes for kings and
silks for the rich and vain, and dress
for the poor and all that skill and art
have wrought by loom and hand for
mans use?
"These things are all shot through
with threads of light-the light OF
mind and art and skill which shines
each day more bright and dims all the
old by some new found light as the
years go on.''-Chicago Chronicle.