The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1902-01-18

and make our vegetation leap. Highway
by this plow are changed from DOGGY
sloughs into roads like the Roman Applan
way. Fields 20 through bloodless revolt
tions until there the farmhouse STANDS.
In summer honeysuckles Chamber over tns
trellises On one side there stands q gar
den, which is only farm condensed. On
the other side there is stretch OF meadow,
land with thick grass, and as the Wino
breathes over it it looks like the deep
green ocean waves There goes brook,
tarrving long in its windlngs, as II loath
to leave the spot where the reeds sing.
and the cattle stand at monday under the
shadow of the weeping willows. In WIN
ter the sled comes through the CRACKING.
snow with huge logs from the woods. and
the barn floor ouakes under the thumpngs
of the fail or the deafening buzz OF the
thrashing machine. Horses stand beneath
NOW poles bending under loads of hay
and whinny to the well filed oat bins.
Comfort laughs at the wind rafting the
s.shes and clicking the lcicles from the
caves.
Praise God for the great harvests that
have been reaped this last year. Some OF
them injured by drought or insects or
freshets were not as bountlful 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
L. ~ 10 ,11
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 piow.
l come next to speak of the conquests
of the American hammer. Its iron arm
has fought its way down from the begin
ming to the present. Under its swing the
city of Enoch rose, and the foundry OF
Tubal Cain resounded, and the ark foated
on the deiuge. At its ciang ancient tenn
PIES spread their magnificeIce 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 a 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-
deiphia 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. iyceums, hospitals
and asyiuEs have added additional glory
to the enterprise as well as the bene-
ticence of the American people.
Vast public works have been construct
ed. bridges have been built over river,
and tunnels dug under mountains and
churches OF matclLess beauty have gone
NJ for him VINO had not where to lay
that because Christ was born in a mangeT
we must always worship Him in barn.
Edward Eggleston and VIII Carleton
and Mark Twain and John kendricl:
Bangs and Marion Harland and Margaret
Sangster and Stockton and Churchill and
Hoplinson 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 HowelIs and score of 9th.
ers, some Of them fixed stars and some
meteors.
As the pen has advanced our colleges
and universities and observatores have
followed the waving of its plume. Cur 1t
erature is Of two kinds-that on foot and
that on the wing. BY the former | mean
the firm and substantial works which will
go down through the centuries. When, on
the other hand, l speak of literature on
the wing, I mean the newspapers Of the
land. They fly swiftly and vanish, but
leave permanent results upon the public
mind. They fall noselessiy 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 pen out of thunder.
bolt.
It needs great energy and decision and
perseverance for man to be ignorant in
this country to-day. It seems to me that
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 PEG:
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 qualifica.
tons are intrusted with the education Of
our youth instead of those teachers who
formerly with a 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 pin into you to see wneth
err You will jump and examination day
with four or five wise men looking oven
their spectacles to see if YOU can parse the
first page in Young's might Thoughts
! until verbs and conjunctions and particl
pies and propositions get into a grand riot
How things have maryeiousiy. changed!
We used to cry because we had to so to
school, Now children cry if they cannot
CO. Many of them can intelligentiy dis
cuss political topics long before they have
seen 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 genius at dizziness who knows
| nothing about them.
On one shelf OF poor mans library ii
| more practical knowledge than in. the 400,
| 0G0 volumes of ancient Alexandria. anc
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 sphtters and farmers anc
drovers or men who have been accustomed
| to toiling with the hand and the foot.
Lift up your eyes, 0 nation of Cod:
| right hand, at the glorious prospects
Build larger your barns for the harvests
dig deeper the watts for the spoil of The
vineyards; enlarge the warehouses for the
| merchandise; multiply galleries of art fol
| the pictures and statues. Advance, o ma
| ton of Gods right hand, but remember
that national wealth, if unsanctified, j!
, sumptuous waste, is moral ruin, is magnifi