Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1904-11-26

the marvellous wonders which have
been discovered or invented by means
Of which pain can he driven away at
the point of the surgeons knife or
cured by the physicians prescription!
Think of the merciful angel "anaesthe-
sia." who comes tn the side of the OPP
Grating table and lays the soothing
hand of benumbment upon the witch
ing nerves and the agoniZing brain,
Tell me. q sick man. that this is not Il
better time to live in than those times
in which our grandfathcrs lived.
No Dental Chairs Then.
Then think of the mercies which
have come To us through the dental
chair. In olden times when man had
a toothache he would go to the village
doctor or to the village blacksmith.
The forcepS would embrace the aching
tooth. There would he Il groan. Il yell.
n kicking of the sufferer. and out would
come the offending molar. What was
the result! Among our ancestors ii
was no exception to find Il young man
Or Il young woman of thrtyfive years
of age without Il tooth in the jaw.
Think of the dyspepsia and after din
ner pains which were then caused by
poorly masticated food. Some of us
complain because we have not all the
different kinds of food upon our tables
we would like to have But in olden
times they not only complained aholt
the few kinds of food they had To eat.
but they also complained about their
sore gums with which they had to- mas
ticate that poor food. Many lives of
our ancestors were shortened because
prematurely. as King Solomon express
ed il. the grinders ceased. because
they We're few
Then today make u big inventory of
the blessings of the modern public
school system of America. In olden
times it was the exception for the son
or n daughter of IL home to have what
is called liberal education Yale and
Harvard and Princeton. then dignified
by the names of college. We're in fact
nothing more or less than modern high
schools. These institutions and colleges
like them were very few and far be-
tween. Only here and there we find
that young man was able to go to
one of them. The great masses of peo-
pie n hundred years ago were entirely
uneducated. II you do not agree with
this conclusion. go and study the old
documents kept among the Revolution
airy records of Boston. You can see
them any time YOU go to Massachu-
sets. Almost without exception the
men who stood by Samuel Adams and
James Otis in the struggle for Ameri-
Gated men.
But though n hundred or even fifty
years ago the man who had liberal
education was the exception. the man
Of the generation which is to come
after us who is an uneducated man
will be the exception. So perfect has
our public school system become. so
multitudinous are the American col
leges of today. 80 prevalent are libra
rfes everywhere. that an Abraham Lin
coin getting an education by pine
knot will never again be known in
American political life. Now every
boy, every girl. can develop the brain
to the utmost. Now all our boys and
girls. by the magnificent system of
schools which we have. can fit them
selves for any line of work that they
will. oh. carping pessimist. do you
not see any blessing today in the fact
that you can educate your mind so that
you can daily be the associate of the
master minds of the centuries? Do
you not see Il blessing in the fact that
Shakespeare and Burns and Scott and
Irving and Motley and Prescott and
Gladstone and Webster and Edison and
Millet and Raphael and Angelo and
Beethoven and Wagner and ThOrvald-
sen can all be invited TO your study
desk any night you will. to paint. or
sing. or chisel, or preach. or teach for
you? Education is not a mere affecta
ton. Education is the wings of in
SEPARATION which lift man up so that
his horizon takes in all lands. all seas.
all worlds and all ages.
Is not the opportunity Of developing
the mind and heart and the life of
man by education great advance
ment over the educational opportuni-
ties which We're offered to the genera
lions that are past and gone?
Thus Mt this glorious Thanksgiving
time find the world is not only grow
ing better. but it is better than 1t has
ever been before. l find we have a
better government. better church.
better homes. better physical and men
tai men and women and better chill
dren to take our places after we are
gone. Let us thank God on this com
ing harvest festival for what he has
done for IS. May we pray to him to
give us strength to 20 on doing the
work he has given us to do. and may
the time come when our future work
may yield even far greater harvests.
mental physical and spiritual than the
work of the past and the present have
yielded. In thanking God for the bless
ings of the Thanksgiving day Of 1904
let us also thank him that as this
Thanksgiving is better than any
Thanksgiving in which our ancestors
lived. so we may employ all our tai
ents and energies to make this world