Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1903-11-28

Tnat rings from the vaes and nils.
And We re hoping 10 hear the music
OF the wheels Of the grinding mills.
It's been hard times for the country
And never the fault OF the soil;
The seed stil followed the sunlight
And climbed to the scythe OF toll,
And the fields were piled with plenty,
But still by the wales and hills
There was never the song OF the turning,
The hum of the turning mills
Hard. hard times for the country,
But darkness has flown to the past
Is the song Of the seas and the mountains
The answer of God at last?
Yes. at last the day Is breaking,
And the lights on the hills and rills.
And the firm. fair world is shaking
With the throb of the moving mills.
A Nation OF Happy Homes.
Another cause for national rejoicing:
We are. as a nation. a great collection
of happy homes. AS people, we love
our own firesides. The name that Is
most honored in our ears Is not that OF
general or prince or king or cardinal,
but that OF father and mother, hus-
band. wife, brother, sister. son. daugh-
ter sskandchild. SO honored are the
4 r terminOlogies among US that
OF fhe greatest encomiums ever CIV
en- iur martyred president. William
Mck. ley. was that he was a tender,
loving husband. The best speech he
ever made. the one that touched most
deeply the hearts of his countrymen.
was not a political speech, but the gen.
tle words he uttered to his sick wife.
To her he was never impatient. never
unkind, always the tender and protect
ing lover and friend. Those little lover
like attentions TO his invalid spouse
thrilled American hearts because the
American nation Is essentially a col
lection Of loving. happy homes.
OF course in making such statement
as this we do not affirm that the Amer
lean people are entirely free from do
nestle scandal and divorce courts, but
e do affirm that, in comparison with
~ millions upon millions Of happy
American homes. unhappy homes are
the rare exception. And we do affirm
that the longer we live the dearer those
homes become to us day by day. |
know that this fact is true in reference
to myself and my many friends. When
was boy | was sent away to mill
tary boarding school. People said that
| would get homesick when | left my
mother and sisters. Well. that was
true. did get homesick. But as
small boy | never got so awfully home
sick in leaving my mother and sisters
as | do now when | have to leave my
wife and my children. Why. home Is
becoming so precious to me that people
say | am getting foolish and unreason-
able about it. |, myself. not only
never want to leave home. but never
want any of the members of my family
to leave it. If one of my children is
gone even for a night there is left a
great. big aching void Is not my his
tory that of almost every one OF US!
Are we not, one and all. members or
happy homes? Shall we not then thank
God for the love that gows around our
fresides. for our many blessings do
nestle?
Cause For National Gratitude.
Another cause for national gratitude
Our national soldlty and political per-
petuity. THIS was not always self evi-
dent. When the United States govern
ment was formed there were thousands
Of foreign statesmen who derisively
shook their heads. These wiseacres
said: THAT nation will never be run
successfully. No people were ever COM
petent to govern themselves" But
strange to say. just as the scientific
wiseacres argued against the practica-
bilty. Of Robert Stcphcnson's locomo-
tive. and it ran after all. so. after the
Revolutionary war. the United States
government ran smoothly and success
fully. It ran in spite of the evil proph-
ecies that kings and princes and Euro
/ pean statesmen uttered against it.
Then came tie dark clouds Of the
civil war Oh. how dark and how
threatening were those clouds The
cannonadings Of the most awful at
mospheric thunders were not louder
than the roarings of the guns at Nicks'
burg and Gettysburg and Atlanta and
Petersburg. The worst flashes Of at
mespheric lightning never blinded the
eyes rs badly as did the flames of burn
ing hNneS in the southland or the
sheets of fire Ieaping out of the can
mons mouths and the sharpshooters
rifles. "Ahaw again cried the political
wisea cres Of Europe. "The govern
ment for the people and by the people
has at last heard its funeral knellv
But the dark clouds rolled away. thu
sword was turned into the plowshart
and the spear into the pruning hook
and. thank God. the government "fol
the people and by the people" still
lived.
Under Gods Guardianship.
Now. my friends. there have been for
eign depreciators Of our form OF gov
ernment. and there have been domestic
depreciators also. There have been po
litical agitators. decade after decade
who have tried to convey the idea tha
this government Of ours was built up
on the quicksands, that the corner stone
of our national capitol would be top
pied over unless this or that man was
elected president Of the United States
These domestic political agitators nae
their heyday in the first half OF the
past century. When Henry Clay was
defeated for the presidency in 1874, my
grandfather cried like little child
My father said Of him that he, like
host of prince Harrys" followers
thought that the stability Of this coun
try was forever destroyed. Clear dowI
to the time Of the election Of a Gran
over a Greeley and a Garfield over
Hancock and a Cleveland over a Blaine
we have heard the old story that thu