Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1902-09-27
OF SENATOR GEO. w.
LECATO.
AT the Opening of Hotel wachapreauEe

teresting; not only to the people of
Wachapreague and vicinity, but of
this county and the whole Eastern
Shore. Thirty years ago the soil on
which We stand was unbroken save
by the burrows of the pillow, and
rustled peacefully with sore and
ripening corn. Ten years before that
time Confederate camp occupied
this very spot; a coast-guard was
mounted here. and overhead there
Tapped, In all its saucy pride, the
devoted banner of the Lost Cause"
Nearly a century back, a small band
of stern and stout.hearted patriots
from THIS very shore, exchanged the
fire balls of war" with the proud
navy of Old England. Just over
there, few feet away, there stood
till the last year, an old Scared &C.
dar, the top of which had been torn
away by the guns OF the enemy. But
going still further backward to the
border land of tradition, here was
the home, end about us the happy
hunting ground, of the Wachaprea-
que Red-man. The place was his for
he named it. The very soil teens
with evidences of q former, and re-
mote occupancy. Curious trinkets,
stone arrow-heads and battle axes
are dug up from the cottage gardens.
and mounds of broken shells attest
the fact that Wachapreague once be-
fore was a populous, il not thriving,
settlement. Here the forest was viz
gin and unbroken. Here, where these
neat COTTAGES stand, clustered the
wigWams of the savages, propped
up with poles and covered with
skins. Here the Wachapreague
braves SKINNED these self same
waters, courted his dusky squaw,a and
nursed his pappoose; fought and
hunted and loved and hated, through
the little span of his life time, and
then lay down to mingle his dust
with the dust beneath our feet.
Would had the magic to call up,
and pass in contrast before you,
scenes in these several epochs in the
history of Wachapreague. But the
nearer mile-stones of the past are al
ready moss-grown, and the remote
have long since been obliterated.
Time has swept its current over
them and leveled them beneath it as
it did the old cedar-tree OF the war
of 10; and the conquered banner OF a
later era.
To-day, above the flotsam and jet
sam of the past we gather to rear
new mound on these ancient foun-
dstions. And, To- this is the monu
ment we have builded. And what
ueed l say of it, 1t speaks for itself
Did ever building spring from the
brain of an architect, or the hands Of
a builder, more harmonious in It's
more captivating to the
ewes or pleasing to the senses? With
out roughness of angle or discord'
ance of detail, smiling, as it were, in
every architectural line of elevation,
s it not worthy to bear above its
portals, the legend the Greeks In
scribed on their temples, ITO Kalon"
The Beautiful. And what shall l
say of the man out of whose brain,
and from under whose hand, has
sprung, Medusa-like, this magnificent
tructure. We speak with admiras
.ion,-almost with awe-of the cap
ain who leads soldiers to battle; of
he statesman who makes wise laws;
If the orator who shapes language
nto words Of burning eloQuence.
But what shall we say of the genius
hat, out OF the heterogeneous piles
If rough wood lying here a few
weeks ago, has fashioned and reared
structure like this? All honor to q.
Nelly Coard and his corps of able as
istants whose hatchets and saws and
rowels have reared this monument
o his genius and skill. To me, con-
ess every step towards this achieve
nent has been a surprising wonder.
have sat here watching it's growth
rom day to day ever since it lay
Upon the ground void OF shape or
l could not trace the
kill that marked the lines, and
lrove the saws, and drove the nails.
The secret picture of this magnificent
tructure lay in the inner conscious
less of one mans brain. And yet,
when the moment came, with what
licety of detail, and precision of ad-
ustment, every part fitted and |
haped itself into one harmonious
whole, Again l say, all honor to q.
Velly Coard and his helpers. AS men |
Imong us, and citizens of our good |
Id county, let us be proud to do |
hem honor. And yet, my friends,
pack of all these, behind all these,
vas master mind and moving
,ower shaping all things to fxt d
nd purposed end; power made up
( the elements of keen business per-
option, business skill and business
ourage; so cool and serene and mas
erful of resource one almost stands
q awe before it. The pluck Of A. H.
|. Mears is that sort of pluck that
ares and does; that never falters or
cans upon another's shoulder. And
D he quietly projected, and quietly
rosecuted this work while his
eighbors looked on, as in the days
Noah, with wonder and concealed
istrust. Let us pause to do justice
nd honor to such courage, such self
Glance, such masterful intrepidity.
hese are the levers that move the
orld.
When the engineers stood at the
ocky base of Mont Gents, that huge
all eight miles thick and over 100
,et high, that divides France from
ally, the world laughed them to
,orn. This wall had stood a grim
arrier In the pathway of Pepin of
harlemague, of Frederick Barbarosa
nd all their vast armies. Even
apoleon's veteran legions could
nly pass it by crawling YEARLY over
s beetling crags. But grimly and
eadily the engineers stood at the
ase, gnawing day after day into
nat huge, dense rock until one
right morning the light of Gods
lue sky flashed through it, and the
orld stood back amazed. Such
nth, such courage, such intrepidity
ill conquer reward in spite of puer-
Q doubts, and ominous head-shakes
nd doleful predictions. Stonewall
first maxim in war was -
nothing risked, nothing gained"
lat he who would succeed must
success. And A. II. q.
Iears, in his sphere of action, has
lily measured up to that staiwart