Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1901-11-29

| channel OF ST. George among the ship
| yards of Tie old world and among the
| wheels or Liverpool and Manchester
| shall he announced the skill and the
/ glory OF the American hammer
Conauexts OF she Pen
Now I come 10 speak OF the conquests
| of the pen. This is the symbol OF all
| intellectually. The painters pencil and
| the sculptor's chisel and the philoso-
| piers laboratory arc all brothers TO
| the pen, and therefore this may be used
as symbol OF intellectual advance
ment. There are those disposed 10 de-
cry everything American. Having seen
Melrose and Glastonbury by moonlight,
they never behold among us an impress
sive structure. or. having strolled
through the picture galleries of the
Louvre and the Luxembourg. they are
| Disguised with our academies OF art
IL makes me sick 10 hear these people
who have been to Europe come home
| talking with a foreign accent and ap-
| ing foreign customs and talking OF
moonlight on castles BY the sea. /
think the biggest fool In the country is
the travelled fool.
| But, considering the youth OF our ma
| ton and the fact that comparatively
/ few persons devote themselves entirely
| to literature. I think we have great
reason to thank God fer the progress of
our American literature. AS historians
have we not had In the past such men
1 as Bancroft and Prescott, as essayists
| Irving and Emerson, as jurists Story
and Marshall and Kent, as theologians
Edwards and Hodge, as poets Pierre
| pont and Sprague and Longfellow and
Bryant. as sculptors Powers and Craw-
| ford and Palmer, as painters such men
as West and Cole and Innau and Ken
sett7 And among the living Americans
what galaxies of intellectual splendor
and power! Edward Esgleston and
VIII Carleton and Mark Twain and
John kendrlck Bangs and Marion Hnr-
land aud Margaret Sangster and Stock.
ton aud Churchill and HopkiDson Smith
and Irving Bachelor and Julia Ward
| Howe and Amelia Barr and Brander
Matthews and Thomas Nelson Page
and Elizabeth Stuart Phelps and Will
liam Dean Howclls and score of 9TH
ers. some OF them fixed stars and some
meteors.
AS the pen has advanced our colleges
and universities and observatories have
followed the waving of Its plume. Our
literature Is of two kinds-that on foot
and that on the wing. BY the former
mean the frm and substantial works
which will go down through the CEN
turtles. When. on the other hand,
speak of literature on the wing,
mean the newspapers of the land. They
fly swiftly and vanish, but leave per-
manent results upon the public mind.
They fall noiselessly as a snowflake,
but with the strength OK an Alpine
| glacier. This unparalleled multiplied
ton OF intelligence will either make or
break us. Every morning and evening
our telegraph offices, with huge wire
rakes, gather up the news of the nation
and OF the whole world, and men write
TO some purpose when they make n pen
out of thunderbolt
Progress of Education.
III needs great energy and decision
and perseverance for a man TO be igno-
rant in this country today. 1t seems to
me that ii requires more effort for him
TO keep out knowledge than to let 1t In.
The mailbags at the smallest postof-
fees disgorge large packages of inteili-
gence for the people. Academies with
maps, globes and philosophic appara-
tus have been taking the places OF
those institutions where thirty or forty
years ago YOU were put to the torture.
Men selected for their qualifications
are Entrusted with the education OF our
youth instead OF those teachers who
formerly with drover's shout and
goad compelled the young generations
up the hill OF science. Happy child.
hoodi What with broken tops and torn
kites and the trial OF losing the best
marble and stumping your foot against
n stone and somebody sticking pin
into you to see whether you will jump
and examination day. with four or five
wise men looking over their spectacles
10 see IL you can parse the first page
In Young's Might Thoughts" until
verbs and conjunctions and partlclples
and propositions get into a grand riot
worthy of the Fourth ward on election
day.
Hew things have marveiously chang.
ed! We used TO cry because we had to
go to school. Now children cry II they
cannot go. Many OF them can intelli-
gently discuss political topics long be.
fore they have seen ballot box or.
teased by some poetic muse, can COM
pose articles for the newspapers. Phi
iosophy and astronomy and chemistry
have been so improved that he must be
n genius at dullness who knows moth
Ing about them. On one shelf OF poor
mans library is more practical knowl.
edge than in the 100000 volumes OF
ancient Alexandria, and education is
possible for the most INDECENT, and no
legislature or congress for the last fifty
years has assembled which has not
had In 1t rail splitters and farmers and
drovers or men who have been accus.
toned to toiling with the hand and the
foot.
The pen which Moses dipped In the
light OF the first morning, and Jere-
miah filed with tears, and Ezekiel
thrust in visions OF fire, and Matthew
touched with the blood of cross, and
ST, John dipped I'm the splendors of
beatific glory-that pen has wrought
marvels for all classes Of our people.
Today our libraries and colleges and
schools and publishing houses and
churches celebrate the ever growing
conquests OF the American pen, and
our prospects are all the time brighten
ing.
Fullness of the Harvest.
The grainhelds have passed their
harvests above the veto OF drought ana
deluge. The freight cars are not large
enough to bring down the grain to the
seaboard- The canalboats are crowded
with breadstuffs. Hark to the rushing
or the wheat through the great Chica-
go cora elevators: Hark to the rolling
or the hogsheads OF the Cincinnati
pork packers! Enough to eat, and at
low prices; enough to wear, and of
home manufacture. If some have and
some have not. then may God help
those who have to hand over to those
who have mott Clear the track for the
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