Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1901-11-30

churches OF matchless beauty hav
gone up for him who had not where t
lay his head. and the old theory is ex
ploded that because Christ was born II
manger we must always worship
him in barn.
Goodness of God.
Railroads Of fabulous length hav,
been completed, over which western
trains rush past the swift footed deer
making the frightened birds to dar
into the heavens at the cough of thu
smoke pipes and the savage yell Of thu
steam whistle. In hot haste our ma
tional industry advances, her breatl
the air of 10000 furnaces, her song The
voice of uncounted factories, her foot
step the fash of wheel buckets and thu
tread Of the shaft and the stamp oi
foundries. Talk about antediluyiaI
longevity! think the average of hu
man life Is more now than 1t ever was
Through mechanical facilities meI
work so much faster and accomplish
so much more In lifetime that man
can afford TO die now at forty years as
we'll as one Of old at 900. think the
average of human life in point Of ac-
complishment Is now equivalent to
about 800 years, as near as | can calcu'
late. In all our occupations and pro-
fessions we feel the effect Of crippled
or enlarged mechanical enterprise. We
all have stock I'm every house that is
bullded and in every public conveyance
that Is constructed and in every ship
that Is sailed. When we see the hard
working men Of the land living in COM
Portable abodes. with luxuries upon
their table that once even kings could
not afford. having the advantage Of
thorough education, Of accomplishment
and art. we are all ready at this sea-
son to unite with them in praise to God
for his goodness.
You shall yet see American labor ris-
ing up with stronger arm and a stout
or heart and swarthier frame. New
cities will be built. Commerce on the
lakes will take new wings. Where now
stand unbrokcn forests great capitals
of business and aliiuence will rise, and
streams that have idled away 5000
years will be harnessed to ponderous
machinery and compelled to toll and
sweat like the ChattahoOchee and the
Merrimac. At one of our great dry
docks we shall yet build the model
ocean stea mship. 1t will come together
under the chorus Of thousand Ameri-
can hammers. She shall start amid
great national hurrah and move far
out at sea as though an island had
been unanchored with its forests Of
masts or as II some one had said in
Scripture phrase unto mountain, BE
thou cast into the sea-" The volcano in
her heart will sprinkle on the sea n
baptism Of fire, and as she goes up the
channel Of st. George among the ship
yards OF the old world and among the
wheels of Liverpool and Manchester
shall be announced the skill and the
glory of the American hammer.
Conquests of the Pen.
Now l come to 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 are all brothers to
The pen, and therefore this may be used
IS a symbol of intellectual advance
nent. There are those disposed to de-
Try everything American. Having seen
Melrose and Glastonbury by moonlight,
hey never behold among us an impress
1--WE structure, or. having strolled
through the picture galleries Of the
louvre and the Luxembourg, they are
lisgusted with our academies Of art
t makes ME sick to Lear these people |
Who have been TO Europe come home |
alkng with a foreign accent and ap- |
nc foreign customs and talking of |
moonlight On castles by the sea. |
hink the biggest fool in the country Is |
he Travelled fool.
But. considering the youth Of our ma
ion and the fact that comparatively
ew persons devote themselves entirely |
o literature. think we have great
eason to thank God fer the progress Of
ur American literature. AS historians
ave we not had in the past such men
s Bancroft and Prescott, as essayists
rving and Emerson. as jurists Story
nd Marshall and Kent. as theologians
EDWARDS and Hodge. as poets Pierre
ont and Sprague and Longfellow and
,ryant. as sculptors Powers and Craw-
ord and Palmer, as painters such men
s West and Cole and Inman and Ken
EFT? And among the living Americans
That galaxies Of intellectual splendor
nd power. Edward Eggleston and
vii Carleton and Mark Twain and
ohm Kendrlck Bangs and Marion Har-
Ind and Margaret Sangster and Stock
IN and Churchill and Hopkinson Smith
nd Irving Bachelor and Julia Ward
lowe and Amelia Barr and Brander
Iatthews and Thomas Nelson Page
nd Elizabeth Stuart Phelps and Will
am Dean HowelIs and a score Of 9th
IS, some Of them fixed stars and some
leteOrs
AS the pen has advanced our colleges
I'D universities and observatories have
'llowed the waving Of its plume. Our
.erature is of two kinds-that on foot
Id that Oil the wing. By the former |
can the firm and substantial works
hich will go down through the CEN
ries. When, on the other hand, l
)eak of literature on the wing, l
can the newspapers Of the land. They
? swiftly and vanish, but leave per-
anent results upon the public mind.
hey fall noiselessly as snowflake,
1t with the strength Of an Alpine
acier. This unparalleled multiplied
ON Of intelligence will either make or
'eak us. Every morning and evening
If telegraph Offices, with huge wire
kes, gather up the news Of the nation
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