The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1901-07-09
ELOQUENT nth OF JULY ADDRESS

its trackless path in the sky. and hold
ing in his hand like a wounded bird,
has harnessed it to the car of trade so
that today. by Americas genius, she
anc Europe n within speaking dis
lance.
Down in old oceans depth. W shin
ing sand, through the Shiny sea weed,
and across the whitened bones of the
human dead. millions of money pass to
and fro over the wire, and when the
ship casts her anchor. or the pilot
rings his bell, the clicking wire carries
the splash or the tinkle far across the
water over which sails the ship. In
the same American city you sit down
and talk with a modest American gen.
tleman who has placed the telephone
to your a and made you a listener to
a conversation three thousand miles
away. with the same ease of parlor
conversation. And farther south the
land sends tt the world It's sugar, cot
ton and tobacco from the fields over
which Gen. Greene, the blacksmith,
trod and fought and later over which
marched ''Sherman's Bummers'' to
the sea.
Have you no heard, ever though it
has travelled ocean wide, the story of
the"Greek slave. ''the"Fisher boys" as
they we're Clipped from the mind of
Powers, your c%ountryman! And woman
has charmingly seconded the motion
for America, by cutting ome of the
most beautiful statuary that adorns her
capitol at Washington, and thus has
amazed all Europe with e genius.
Remember twas YOUR country that
from the rough. crude life of a rail
splitter, brought intolight the greatest
and grandest of men. the matchless
Abraham Lincoln.
There are occasions, my fellow citi-
zens, when it seems as if the expert
ence of years is condensed into the i'm
pulse of an instant. One of those SUI
preme instants occurred in that con
vention# in Chicago, which led Mr.. Lin
coin to the White House aud I speak of
him as a typical American of which no
one can find fault. After excitement
of the most intense nature, suddenly
all differences of opinion subsidized. All
scattered hopes blended. The shouts
of popular enthusiasm which caught
fire on the prairies of Illinois and In
diana, now swept the golden fields of
the east, echoed from the mountains of
New Hampshire, from the woods of
Maine and the waters OF the Atlantic;
bounded and reverberated over the
Rocky Mountains and were triumph
antly re-echoed from the shores of the
sun-kissed Pacific. Maine and Massa-
=chusetts, Ohio and Connecticutt.
took the infection of the mo-
ment, and then the whole conven-
ton caught the impulse of the scene;
and rolling OF and on, and rolling on
rose wave upon wave, and wave upon
wave of wild tumultous applause. IT'S
difficult to say whether it was minutes
or an hour-it was the JOY of a LIFE
TIME crowded into a moment, and Alb
raham Lincoln, ''Honest Abe" the
"Rail Splitter was nominated for
president.
1t my native state. New Hampshire,
on a high mountain peak, is the COM
paratively perfect face of a man. 1t is
in the rocks, and there, without
human intervention but solely by Gods
own hand. From all over the
world, people come, and standing at
the base of the huge rock, look up to
that wonderful impression, and as if
fascinated by its marvellous strength
they gaze and gaze, and then turn
away in W The striking delinea-
tion brings out a face. STRONG IN ALL
THAT is GOOD, and BRAVE AND TRUE,
and years after, the tourist gathers his
children around him, and tells to them
that story from Gods own fingers of
1.-THE great stone face" So, too, in
human life, there are men who are not
content to stay in the valleys. but soar
to mountain tops, closer to mightier
and greater things, and to whom
the passers By as they journey through
the valleys delight to look up and
learn. Such a one was Abraham Lin
coin. From the Notwithstanding
he has gone to the mountain celestial.
His work here is at last ended. In
the future decades, when you and |
have gone beyond, his deeds will be
acted DER in the nations yet unborn
aud accents We; unknown His death
was like the tranquility OF the setting
sun. We had been standing, as one
stands on a summer evening, to witness
the golden glories of the sun, as it was
seen to rest in it's western bed of gold,
conscious that the life was to go out,
BUT CONSCIOUS, TOO, that it would be