Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1903-02-05
GRAND OLD MISSOURI.
VIM. II. WaIIace's Eloquent
PanegyrIc in a Speech
Ten Years Ago.

William II. Wallace of Kansas City
in his apostrophe to Missouri in
his published campaign speech in
1892: "Grand, beautiful, naguifi-
cent Missouri. Where rolling prair-
les, fertile valleys, mighty forests.
placid lakes, majestic rivers en-
chant the eye and WOO the heart;
where of every hue cline freshen in
the evening dew till the green ivy
of the North and Qhe fragrant mag
nolla of the south meet each other
in a cmmon home, and rebuking
sectional hate entwine thier arms in
tenderst love; where birds of every
note and plumage weud their mer-
ry flight from fhe humming bird
that flutters in the honeysuckle to
the eagle that builds his eyrie in
the craggy cliff, while the nightin-
gale and the bobolink wake the for
est which ringing melodies sweet
as those that rose in paradise:
where the perch, the crappie and
the bass leap in the sunbeams and
the hunters horn rouseJ the fleet
footed fox and the bounding deer!
Fertile, bounteous, exhaustless
Missouri Where yellow harvests
are locked in the golden sunshine
rich as those that ripened in the
laud Of Nile; where corn and cot
ton flourish in a common soil, and
the apple and the peach grow in
luscious beauty side 10y side; where
exhaustless bads of coal, lead and
zinc lie sleep in the earth and
iilS s.n tains Of iron await the blaz-
ing forge,
"Enterprising, majestic.
imperial Missouri. Where than %
million souls have swelled our num-
bers during the past decaded;
where the lights of genuine
Christian civilization, like vestal
virgins. hold their vigils unerring
and undying as the silvery stars,
and where, nnder the soft and hal
lowed fame of Progress, like the
Hebrew giant bursting the withes
protection is ever tying about his
limbs, is leaping forward in the
great race for material wealth and
glory with bounding strides, un-
surpassed in all the sisterhood of
states.
Educated, intelligent, God
fearing Missouri! Where school
so thickly dot the hills and plains
that voice meets voice of merry
children romping on the lea till
one vast chorus mounts the skies;
where from every city, village aud
hamlet the graceful spire and the
churchgoing bell call the way
to Heaven; where thousands of
Christian homes cluster by the
rivels and on the hill tops with the
open fire and dancing flames, with
the old armchair and the we'll
worn Bible--cherished scenes,
where we first lisped the name of
father, mother, sister, brother.
Sacred, ,tender, hallowed old Mis-
souri, soil! Beloved land of min
gled JOY and grief Where all the
flowers of youth have bloomed
and grown and ehiIdhood's mer-
ry laughter in gleeful echoes lin
gers still to cheer aud thrill the
the dropping heart. Where many
hope has perished in an hour
and many falling tear has found
grave; where mothers first
taught us to kneel in prayer, and
where under the willows and By
the brooks the forms of loved ones
gone before await our coming TO
slumber BY them till the resurec-
tion morn, Beauteous. glorious /,
consecrated old Missouri sOill
Let Others defame thee as they
will-thank heaven, in life. in
death, You are good enough for
lme,