Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1903-11-26

It's been hard times for the country
| And never the fault of the soil;
! The seed still followed the sunlight
| And climbed to the scythe OF toll
And the fields were piled with plenty,
| But stll by the wales and hills
| There was never the song of the turning
| The hum of the turning mills
IIasd, 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 iast2
| 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
Nation OF Happy Homes.
Another cause for national rejoicing
We are, as a nation, a great collection
OF happy homes. AS n 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 carolina l.
but that of father and mother, hus
band, wife, brother, sister, son, daugb-
ter, grandchild. SO honored are the
domestic terminologies among US that
one or the greatest cncomums ever Civ
en- to our martyred president, william
Mckinley, 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 political speech. but the gen
tie 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 col
lection of loving, happy homes.
OF course in making such q statement
as this we do not affirm that the Amer
lean people are entirely free from do
nestle scandal and divorce courts, but
we do affirm that, in comparison with
the 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 lis 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 a
small hoy l 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 unreasoD-
able about it. |. myself. not only
never want 10 leave home. but | never
want any Of The members OF my family
to leave II If one of my children is
gone even for night there is left
great big aching void. Is not my his
tory that of almost every one of us
Are we not, one and all, members O
happy homes? Shall we not then thank
God for the love that CLOVIS around OF
fresldes, for our many blessings do.
nestle:
Cause For National Gratitude.
Another cause for national gratitude:
Our national solidity and political per.
petuity. This was not always self evil
dent. When the United States govern
ment was formed there were thousands
of foreign statesmen who derisively
shook their heads. These wseaCres
said: THAT nation will never be run
successfully. No people were ever COM
pctent TO govern themselves But.
strange to say, Just as the scientific
wiseacres argued against the practica
bility of Robert Stephenson's locomo-
tive, and II ran after all so. after the
! Revolutionary war, the United States
government ran smoothly and success.
| fully. 1t ran in spite of the evil proph-
ecics that kings and princes and Euro
pcan statesmen uttered against IT,
Then came the dark clouds of the
civil war. oh, how dark and how
I threatening were those clouds The
cannonAdings of the most awful a.
mOspheriC thunders We're not louder
than the rOGriugs of the guns at Vicks-
burg and Gettysburg and Atlanta and
Petersburg The worst flashes Of at
mospheric lightning never blinded the
Eyes rs badly as did the flames Of burn
ing homes in the southland or the
sheets of fire loaping out OF the can
mons mouths md the sharpshOoters'
lilies Aha again cried the political
wiSeacres of Europe. The govern
mcnt for the people and by the people
has Mt last heard It's funeral knellw
But the dark clouds rolled away, the
sword was turned into the plowshare
md the spear into the pruning hook.
and. thank God. the government FOR
the people and by the people" still
lived
| Under Gods Guard ianship.
Now. my friends. there have been for
fign depreciators OF our form Of gov
frnment. and there have been domestic
repreciatDrs also. There have been po-
| itical agitators, decade after decade,
who have tried 10 convey the idea that
! 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 had
their heyday ip the first half of the
past century When Henry Clay was
defeated for the presidency in 1914. my
grandfather cried like little child
My father said Of him that he, like Il
host of Prince Harry" followers
| thought that the stability OF this coun
try was forever destroyed Clear down
10 the time Of the election OF a Grant
over Greeley and Garfield over a
| Hancock and Cleveland over Blaine
we have hea I'd the old story that the