The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-10-06

tanned in Topeka. A letter was read
from Edward Everett Hale.
This afternoon there was a civic and
military parade.
Mr.. Peck's Address.
Mr.. Peck's address was as follows:
Ladies and Gentlemen:-It is hardly
figure of speech to say that Memory
is the motor of civilization II you
would know the secret of human pro-
gress mark how tenderly, how proud
ly, how steadfastly the world clings to
the annals of heroic deeds. Men go
forward only by looking backward;
and the great races, which, like ours.
have a history, are not so much led, as
they are pushed. Magma Charta, the
Bill of Rights, and the Declaration OF
Independence,-hrIn set in the irrOvo-
cable past,-are more potent with all
who speak our tongue, than the beck
onings of any future that can come
into our vision. Before us, always ana
always, are the struggles we know
must come; but behind us are the
strong irnpulsions OF the immemorial
years In these autumnal days, tinged
with beauty seen no where else as
it is in Kansas, where earth and air
and sky are in perfect rhythm, IT is
most fitting that we should, II we may,
touch hearts and hands with those
brave yesterdays, in whose memory
you make this a holy week.
Some are here, silver-touched, who
remember them; who in the ardor OF
cause; and all, whether young or old
who Join in these observances, are
moved by the spell of those deep in
fiuences, which are, as Wordsworth
says, felt in the blood and felt along
the heart" Under these skies a drama
was enacted, whose epic greatness is
far more apparent now than 1t was
then, and which will grow more ana
more sublime as the years go by. 1t
is an imperial theme; and I know full
well, how little right I have to stand
in its august presence. But you bade
me come, because 1, too, have lived in
Kansas; have known the sweetness OF
a Kansas home, and have here breath
ed IAN ampler ether, a diviner air."
Kansas has little need of me; but all
my life / shall feel a certain diSttnc-
tion, in the fact that for a quarter Of
a century 1 was a citizen of this great
commonwealth. And so 1 thank you,
good people of Lawrence; old friends.
true friends; that as had kept you in
my heart, you had not forgotten me.
The building of states is not trade.
They are not constructed as houses
are. No one consciously lays their
foundations, or uprears their walls.
They grow; they rise out of hopes and
aspirations, out of longings and faiths.
and alas! out of selfishness and the
clashing of personal ambitions. We
shall not find perfection in this world,
until the dross is wrung out of human
hearts; and then, the pen of history
will have become dull and heavy, wait
ing for the everlasting rest
Kansas the Beautiful.
Kansas, the Beau ul, is like that
stately pleasuredom of which Cole
ridge dreamed-not auilded, but de-
creed. Here on the iiries she stands
in her loveliness, with smiles and tears
for the Jewels that make her roof to
shine, and to be seen from afar. But.
after all, state, and especially such
State as Kansas, cannot be truly inn
aged as structure. 1t is an organism:
vital, sentient, pulsing with currents
of life and teeming with thoughts
that, from day to day, take form and
CONTINUED on Page Three.)