Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1902-03-19


GEORGE R. PECK. good fellows" His
theme was ''The Light of Other Days"
and he spoke as follows:
You remember-do you not?-how the
stories which beguiled the happiest
hours of childhood began with the pre-
liminary words: ''Once upon a time"
In some form or other, these words
creep into all the annals of human life
and of human affairs; not always ex-
pressed but always understood. Once
upon a time there was a man in the land
of Uz whose name was Job;'' and then
there is unfolded to our gaze one of the
noblest dramas of all literature The par
ableS of the New Testament, with which
the Great Master Illuminated His teach-
Ings, and which point uneeringly to the
lesson He wished to inculcate, illustrate
this rule of narration, for the mind I'M
consciously supplies the words. Once
upon a time "a certain man planted a
vineyard and set a hedge about it" Once
upon time there was a judge that
feared not Cod Once upon a time
there was a certain rich man which was
clothed in purple and fine linen and
Jared sumptuously every day" Once
upon time "a certain man had two
sons" and then we have the story so
true to human nature of the prodiga1
and his jealous elder brother, who re-
manned at home-not much to his adj
vantage, as we learn from the story.
You remember the rapturous sonnet of
Keats, which begins
''Then I felt like some watcher of the
skies
When new planet swims into his ken"
And yet, all his ecstacy arose from the
simple perusal of that great epoch in
which deep-browed Homer tells how
"once upon a time" Achilles and Aga
memnon led the embattled Greeks to the
plains of Troy, where they fought the
hosts of Priam to the tragic end.
We trace the currents of human life
by gathering up stories, traditions, leg
ends and sagas of the past and from them
extract history. Thuycidides, Tacitus,
FroiSsart, Clarendon and the rest have,
far beyond their own intent, given US
giimpses of things they did not fully see
themselves.
And now I come to my excuse for so
long a preface. You do not knoW-at
least, you do not all know-the pleasure
feel in being here tonight. Naturally,
one must be gratified when he is per-
mitted to mingle in the company of so
distinguished a portion of the American
bench and bar. But this is not all
though surely that were enough. "Once
upon time more than 80 years ago
Ehue! fugaces labuntur anni-I stood on
the brow of yonder bluff, looking out on
a land of promise, and wondering If it's
beckonings were honest ones, or only the
mirrored pictures of my too ardent imag-
| ination. Kansas City was then, now
| the gateway of the west. That day it
was a prophecy, now it is the fulfill
ment of a prophecy. Then it was
dream, now it is dream come true.
You have, believe, always admitted that
| your growth, your prestige and your
commercial Importance have come large
| ly-I had almost said principally-from
| Kansas, that great, noble, happy I'M
| happy state. 1 remember hearing her
| called Cinderella. How often have her
beautiful eyes been wet with tears, but
where are they now? Kissed away by
| the protecting genius that has cherished
! her in good and in evil days. Though I
am now alien in citizenship, can never
| be an alien in heart. When Kansas first
became my home her broad acres were
border land, and her horizon the rim
and margin of all my hopes. Those were
| the days of cheerful yesterdays and con-
! f1dent to-morrows; of loyal friends land
| their adoption tried" of poverty and
contentment, twin blessings that bring
| joy to every home in which they dwell
| My Kansas was clad in beauty every
| day, and on her brow was set the seal
| of courage and of faith. When hear
| of the newcomers who are now finding
homes within her boundaries wish them
| well, and congratulate them upon the
wisdom that has led them thither. I
! think how they will add to her wealth.
| her property and her honor, and then
! indulge a hope that they will not tram
| pie out the wild roses which used to
| scent the morning air, nor disturb the
| yellow sunf1owers that ''once upon a
| time made the prairies glisten like a
golden shield.
I pray you, do not blame me for this
| sentimental affection for your neighbor
I am mindful that this city is in Mis-
| souri,, and I know, too that Missouri
| is an imperial realm whose resources
cannot be measured, whose wealth is
! boundless, whose destiny is secure. And
yet you are Kansas City. I am sure
| you would not change that name; and if
you should mediate such a step, all
Kansas would rise in indignant protest
| at wanton a violation of her time
| honored rights.
There is a charm about a new country;
subtle sweet and indefinable. 1t is like
| the sea, with its breath of unsullied
| breeZes. And there too, the people, freed
| from the conventionalities of older COM
| munitieS, reVel in the privilege of being
natural. I count any man unfortunate
whose fate has not permitted him, at
some period of his life, to call Kansas his
| home. Perhaps he is not to blame, but
surely he is to be pitied. AS look back
upon those days, which had in them so
! much of laughter and so little of tears,
I think of the lines with which Wods-
worth opens his great ode, the ''Intima-
| lions of Immortality"
There was a time when meadow, grove
and stream,
| The earth and every common sight
To me did seem
| Appareled in celestial light,
| The glory and the freshness of dream. ''
Then everything-even the sunshine
seemed young. But, after all, so far as
we know, one part of the earth's sur
| face is as old any other. 1t is only
we who change, shifted hither and
| thither by that silent mechanism which
controls all the generations of men.
Doubtless the Kaw is as ancient as the
| Jordan; and the Missouri has flowed in
turbid majesty to the sea as many weary
centuries as has the Ganges or the Eu-
pirates. The footsteps of civilization are
| measured by the banks of rivers. In
| the days when I became a Kansan, a
mighty host had turned their faces west
ward, seeking new homes. new sites for
| their affairs and their shrines. Some
camped upon the Arkansas, that junior
| Nile in whose waters harvests flow in
soluble. but sure; some seized upon the
| Neosho, having the borders of fertile
fields and pastures; while others docked
to the Solomon and the RepubIican-two
names which mean wisdom and patriot
ism-and soon their valleys blossomed
as the rose. AS for me, settled upon
the Verdigris. that beautiful stream,
worthy a better name. When I saw it
first it was LIQUID emerald, under the