Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1901-12-06

| sIoughS into roads ike the Roman Appiai
way Fields go through bloodless revolu
tions until there the farmhouse stands
| In summer honeysuckles Chamber over thu
| trelhses. On one side there stands a gar
| den, which is only farm condensed. VI
! the other side there is a stretch of meadow
| land with thick grass, and as the wine
| breathes over it it looks like the deel
| green ocean waves. There goes a brook
| tarrying long in its windings, as if loatf
| to leave the spot where the reeds sing
| and the cattle stand at MONDAY under thu
| shadow of the weeping willows. In win
| ter the sled comes through the cracking
| snow with huge logs from the woods, ano
| the barn floor quakes under the thumpings
of the fail or the deafening buzz Of the
| thrashing machine. Horses stand beneath
NOV poles bending under loads of hay
and whinny to the well filed oat bins
Comfort laughs at the wind rafting the
sashes and clicking the icicles from the
caves.
Praise God for the great harvests that
have been reaped this last year! Some Of
them injured by drought or insects OF
freshets were not as bountiful as usual
others far in excess of what have ever be
fore been gathered, while higher prices
will help make up for any decreased sup
ply. Sure sign of agricultural prosperity
we have in the fact that cattle and horses
and sheep and swine and all farm animals
have during the last two years increased
in value. Twenty million swine slaught.
cred this last year, and yet SO many hogs
left.
If the ancients in their festivals present
ed their rejoicings before Ceres, the god
dess of corn and tillage, shall we neglect
TO rejoice in the presence of the great
God now? From Atlantic to Pacific let
the American nation celebrate the victories
of the plow.
7 oo,,a ,,avt 10 c,,oo1- &C Az oono,on+ .
of the American hammer. Its iron arm
has fought its way down from the begin
ming to the present. Under it's swing the
city of Enoch rose, and the foundry of
Tubal Cain resounded and the ark hoated
on the deluge. At its clang ancient TEN.
Piles spread their magnifcence and char
lots rushed out fit for the battle. Its iron
fist smote the marble of Paros, and it rose
in sculptured Minervas and struck the
Pentelican mines until from them Par
thenon was reared winter than a palace
of ice and pure as an angels dream.
Damascus and Jerusalem and Rome and
Venice and Paris and London and Phila-
delphia and New York and Washington
are but the long protracted echoes of the
hammer. Under the hammer everywhere
dwellings have gone up, ornate and luxu-
rious. Schoolhouses, lyceums, hospitals
and asylums have added additional glory
to the enterprise as well as the bene-
ficence of the American people.
Vast public works have been construct
ed, bridges have been built over rivers
and tunnels dug under 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 a manger
we must always worship Him in a barn.
Edward Eggleston and viii Carleton
and Mark Twain and John Kendrick
Bangs and Marion Harland and Margaret
Sangster and Stockton and Churchill and
Smith and Irving Bachelor and
Julia Ward Howe and Amelia Barr and
Brander Matthews and Thomas Nelson
Page and Elizabeth Stuart Phelps and
William Dean Howells 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
the waving of its plume. Our lit
erature is of two kinds-that on foot and
that on the wing. By the former I mean
the firm and substantial works which will
go down through the centuries. When, on
t he other hand, l speak of literature on
the wing, | mean the newspapers of the
land. They fly swiftly and vanish, but
leave permanent results upon the public
mind. They fall noiselessly as snow
fake, but with the strength of an Alpine
glacier.
This unparalleled multiplication of intel
ligence 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 a pen out of thunder
bolt.
1t needs great energy and decision and
perseverance, for a man to be ignorant in
Il .trrr 81 ox, L. Il 4
it requires more effort for him to keep out
knowledge. than to let it in. The mail
bags at the smallest postoffices disgorge
large packages Of intelligence for the peo-
pie. Academies with maps, globes and
philosophic apparatus have been taking
the places of those institutions where thir
ty or forty years ago you were put to the
torture. Men selected for their quali6ca.
tons are intrusted 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 childhood! What
with broken tops and torn kites and the
trial of losing the best marble and stump
ing. your foot against stone and some
body sticking d pin into you to see wheth.
er you will jump and examination day,
with four or five wise men looking over
their spectacles to see if you can parse the
first page. in Young's ''Night Thoughts
until verbs and conjunctions and partici-
pies and propositions get into a grand riot.
How things have marvelously changed!
We used to cry because we had to 60 to
school. Now children cry if they cannot
go. Many of them can intelligently dis
cuss political topics long before they have
seen a ballot box or, leased by some poetic
muse, can compose articles for the news
papers. Philosophy and astronomy and
chemistry have been SO improved that he
must be a genius at dullness who knows
nothing about them.
On one shelf of poor mans library il
more practical knowledge than in the 400,
600 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 moi
had it in rail splitters and farmers an6
drovers or men who have been accustomed
to toiling with the hand and the foot.
Lift up your eyes, 0 nation of God.
right hand, at the glorious prospects
Build larger your barns for the harvests
dig deeper the watts for the spoil of thu
vineyards; enlarge the warehouses for thu
| merchandise; multiply galleries of art fol
the pictures and statues. Advance, o ma
ton of Gods right hand, but remembel
that national wealth, if unsanctiied, il
sumptuous waste, is moral ruin, is magnifi
cent woe, is splendid rottenness, is gildet
death! Woe to us for the wine watts i
| drunkenness wallows in them! Woe to II