Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-04-02
ELOQUENT LECTURE
Hon. Charles B. Lands, Indiana
Congressman Speaks at Grand.
CLOSE OF THE Y. M. c. a. COURSE
"An Optimistic Messase"-Entertain.
ing Lecture-Speaker Declares That
the Opportunities for Young Men
Are Greater Than Ever Before.

the Opportunities for Young Men
Are Greater Than Ever Before.
| lFrom Tuesdays Daily.]
Last night in the Grand Opera house
before a large and select audience, the
Hon. Charles B. Lands, congressman
from the ninth district of
Indiana, delivered a highly enter
tanning lecture entitled, IAN Optimis-
tic Message" The lecture was the
closing one of the seven given under
the past winter 1t was originally in
tended to be given on November 10,
but i'll health at the time and later
the duties connected with the short
session of congress prevented the full
| fillment of the date until last evening
| The congressman is most pleasing
and effective speaker. His appearance
and manner upon the platform are
easy and graceful and he speaks with
an ease and fluency that can only
come with years of experience He is
a ready story teller and he holds his
audience continually in close touch
with his subject. He won the audience
4
of applause were frequent. The lee
ture as advertised was to be upon the
topic THE Future of the Anglo-Saxon"
but at the request of the speaker it
was changed to AN Optimistic Mes
sage"
Landis' Address.
The address was in part as fol-
lows:
l like Iowa because there are no
great cities. 1t is composed of large
farms and small cities. Such states
are the great strength of the anchor of
the republic. Such is the case with In
diana, Illinois, Michigan and Wiscon-
sin. Almost all the darkest and most
troublesome questions which arise for
us to solve are questions dealing with
life in the great cities. In the coun-
try and small cities is where brotherly
love thrives. 1t is there that we have
neighbors and neighbors touch the
lheart and fill the people with a COM
munity of interest.
The world is getting better. 1t has
more charity, more wealth in more
more homes, more carpets on more
| floors, more pianos in more parlors,
more young men and young women go
! ing away to college than ever before.
| am glad that | am alive today If
you hear that have gone hence within
the next twelve months you may
know that it is not with my consent.
Some Happy When Miserable.
There are people in the world who
are only happy when they are miser-
able. They are those who ii given the
choice Of two evils will choose both of
them and be sorry that there are not
a half dozen of them. | like the man
who is happy, the man who whistles
about his work and about his home,
who grects his wife with a kiss and
who plays and romps with his children
He is the man who will do good in
the world and be an ornament in So
ciety and his home. His children, his
wife and his friends will love him.
Pessimlsts are professional trouble
hunters, they are snarlers, mischief
makers. back-biters. | often wonder
what kind of meat they feed upon. We
have no place for the carper, the criti-
ciser, the fault finder
They tell us there is no chance for
the young man in the world today. Our
fathers told us the same thing, and
they in turn heard it from their faith
ers. 1t is not true now, never was, and
never will be. Today is the most glor-
lous day in the world to be alive. l
am glad that | am alive. Such ire
mendous opportunities never existed in
the world before. In our magnificent
union we have forty-four states, each
one capable of becoming a mighty en-
pire in itself, and the whole fabric has
been less than century and a half
in building. When we began there
We're less than three million people
scattered along the coast, today we
people the mightiest empire the world
has ever known.
We who live in the temperate zone,
beside and about the Great Lakes,
have the best of it. Let us go about
our homes and our work triumphant
and happy. This is a good old world
GO out in it and conquer. 1t is your
fault il you don't.
Great Men Were Poor Boys.
The men who today guide the great
industries of the United States and to
: large extent the destinies of the
nation itself were poor boys living
and working on the farm and at men
ial work twenty-five years ago.
know scores of men who were poor
Iowa boys, who today are managing
great enterprises with world wide in
!, f1uences. The country boy learns to
labor, with him labor becomes habit
md with such habit formed give
him a few years course in college
md you have g man capable of the
j greatest achievements in the world
! Religiously and politically the world
! is far in advance of anything ever
! known in the past. Religion is today
J practical, rational. In the days of
Il Charlemagne people were given the
privilege of being beheaded or hap
tized. Even few years ago people
; fought over the question OF infant bap-
/ tism. Today dogma and discussions
! upon creed have given place to deeds
!; and acts. Catholics and Protestants
!: are working together for the uplifting
! md uphuilding of man. The Chris