Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1904-04-04
ind cooling in the silent retreats of on,

the other day. when lady and gentle
man from the east, with their little
daughter. called upon me. The child
had beautiful face. She was as love
ly a young girl as / ever saw. WINE
we were talking she would watch us
closely and alphabetically smile when
we smiled. But though she smiled she
never laughed At last | turned and
addressed q sentence directly to her
With that a shadow fitted across the
mothers countenance as she said: My
little daughter cannot answer you. She
is dumb. Her tongue has been palsied
since she was three years old. We have
taken her to the best of doctors, but
they all say her case is hopeless"
"Merciful heaven | calculated. What
an affiiction to fall on so beautiful a
childw And as | looked sympathetic
ally at fAe bright little creature, SO
sadly shut out of one of the joys OF
life, | said to myself, How thankful
ought | to be for the power to sing
Gods praises and to proclaim the Cos
pei of Christ to my fellow men, Have
you ever thanked God in the spring
time for the power of the human
voice?
Csd Bids Us Sing.
Like the song birds. God bids us sing
because he has given to us an open
heaven in which to sing. 1t is one
thing to have a voice with which to
sing. but it is just as essential to have
a suitable place in which you can sing.
1t is one thing to have a musical
throat like the song thrush, in which
all the siren spirits of the hills and val
legs can find melodious expression. but
it is another thing to have the beaui-
full voice of the yellow tipped canary
hushed into perpetual silence by being
domiciled in a dark room or in a
dungeon. If a singing bird were COM
PEELED to live in a ground mOle's tun-
mel, or to work like the moths with
their mouths wrapped up with wooden
garments, he would be as dumb as
they.
Thank God, then, for your musical
throat and for your opportunities for
using it. David Glasgow Farragut,
one of the most respondent characters
in naval history, was born July 5, 1901.
With the exception of an engagement
in which he participated as mere boy
Of thirteen, Farragut never smelled
gunpowder in actual battle until he
was sixty-one years of age. For near
ly fifty long years he walked the ships
deck in times of peace. Had he been
retired at sixty years of age from the
service American history would have
had one of it's brightest lights snuffed
out before it had had any opportunity
to shine. John Milton, in some re-
spects. is the greatest name in English
literature. Yet old, blind and neglect
ed by his people, he had to write for
posterity because the men of his own
times and generation would not listen
to his poetic song. Edmund Burke,
one of the greatest of the English
statesmen of his time, most of his life
| was practically statesman without
an office, Or, if in office. one who held
very subordinate place. So little was
he honored by his parliamentary col
| leagues that it was once said, mo man
could empty the house of commons so
| quickly as when Edmund Burke arose
to speak" Jonathan Edwards, the
greatest of New England theologians,
was driven out of his Northampton
pulpit in 1850 and for eight long years
the ablest of American NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
| lived in the little village of Stock
bridge because no first class church
wanted to hear him preach. Henry
David Thoreau, after publishing his
pastoral masterpiece, "a Week on the
Concord and the Merrimac Rivers,
could find so few buyers that the pub
fishers threw back seven-tenths of the
first edition upon his hands. 1t was at
this time that Thoreau bitterly wrote
Il have now a library of 900 volumes
700 of which l wrote myself" Oh
yes! We have seen many and many
NJ human birds with musical threats who
could sing if any one wanted to heal
them sing. But the trouble is tina
thousands of men can sing who have
no opportunity to sing. Thank God
my brother. if You have not only tai
ents, but present opportunities for us
ing those talents, in your Master
: service.
, Our Opportunities.
In all probability there are few o
us here who have not our opportuni
ties. When the American fleet wa
: about to enter Manila harbor some on
proposed to the American commodor
. that the coal barges be sent ahead.
there were any hidden mines in tn
harbor it was better to have pieces o
coal blown skyward than human
: bodies. To that advice Commodor
Dewey said: mo; the Olympia shall
: go in first. For two reasons do l max
!. this decision First, we.need the Goa
If defeated and the coal ships are de
stroyed we are lost. Second reason,
= have waited thirty years for this or
5 portunity, and no man shall take
2 away from me-" Commodore Dewe
D may have had to wait thirty years fo
: his opportunity, but we do not have
l. wait one month, one week or one da