The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1905-02-24
BOWMAN AWARDED
THIRD PLACE
tcontinued from Page One,

we speak OF I0e HlSSlOu VI ueT peOpies
We would have you look upon Ohio
as an immaculate mirror in which the
fair form, the blooming beauty, the
very virtue of Columbia is clearly re-
| flected. We would have you regard the
nation as a fruitful flower of which
Ohio is the pistil. Around that pistil
the stamens of states TEEN with the
pollen of wealth. TO it's stigma the
wings of commerce watt the golden
dust; a needed portion is retained the
rest floats on to reach the fragrant
| petals, or is borne to other flowers be-
| yond the seas. Beneath the sun of
toll and enterprise the carpets burst
with mature seeds of prosperity and
| progress, which are disseminated to
every land, there to spring up luxur-
iantly and yield those blessings which
civilization alone can afford.
Then what mission has Ohio to per-
form? Toward what great destiny
does she move? Must she not,-the
golden key that gives commercial en-
trance to the west, the portal wide for
commerce coming East, the keystone
of the great arch of national traffic
share the nations purpose? The
beauty of her brow is famed by the
cooling zephyrs of the northern lakes,
across the blue waves of which proud
vessels come with cargoes of great
wealth,-the products of the soil, the
forest, the factory and the mine. Her
feet are laved by that Beautiful
Stream" which flowing gently on
ward, loses it's self in the Great Faith
er of Waters" Commercially great
| both by water and by land, her peace
| full valleys smiling with fertility
where Ceres abundantly rewards the
honesty of toll, with her hills of
health,-the dwelling places of Liber-
ty, her cities veiled in clouds of indus
try, Ohio performs a mission peculiar
| ly her own.
When from behind the cloud of the
savage northwest wilderness, the sew
enteenth star of a splendid galaxy
appeared in the national welkin, it
shed its brilliant beams of promise,
eastward, far beyond the stately sum-
mits of the Alleghenies. Bright with
hope and radiant with prospect, that
star became the cynosure of Magi from
the East. From New England, from
the Middle States, from the "Old
Dominion" they were guided to
state, newborn, wrapped in primeyal
| forest and lying in the arms of saw
age cruelty. They brought as gifts not
| gold, frankincense, nor myrrh; but
rather economy, fortitude, and untir,
| ing toll. They had found land which
the Ordinance of 1787' declared
should be forever free, land wherein,
schools and the means of education"
were to be forever encouraged. They
came to a wild wilderness; they made
of it an "Imperium in Imperio." We
may desert and destroy the rude cab
ins in which they found shivering shell
ter from the winter storm, but If Ohio
means to remain true to her mission,
she must retain the same purity, the
same piety, which were the Penates
of those early homes.
Are we then claiming too much for
Ohio, when we say that she is the
cradle of character? Is she not worthy
of mission so sublime? A state
whose foundation stones are religion,
morality and knowledge, whose high
est hope is the education of her
youth, whose ideal Of happiness is the
Christian home. II it has been given
to you to hear the chime of school
bells fill the rural, morning air and
make the verdant hills and valleys
glad, you have then heard Ohio's mis-
sion proclaimed; the sunburnt faces
and the shoeless feet are not the foes
of character. You have heard the
same mission proclaimed from the
steeples of the schools. You have heard
it echo through the busy streets. You
have learned to recognize it in those
"Stars and Stripes" which the sons of
Ohio have helped to make so glorious.
You can read 1t in that devotion to
duty, which dominated the life of
Senator Hanna; in that appreciation
of opportunity of which the scholar,
James A. Garfield, was so completely
possessed. You have beheld it in that
love for humanity which glowed in the
friendly features Of the martyred Nc
| klnley.
The reposing Past may dream of
Egyptian dynasties, of Grecian splen-
doris, Of Rome, that ruled the world"
the living Present calls for men,
men whose characters are clean, men
to whom the Future bright, unbars
her massive doors. They seem to
climb by unseen paths to higher plains
and eat Of bread, that ravens may
have brought Thus Ohio is giving
men of character to the nation, and
not only to the nation, but to all hu-
manity and the civilization of the en-
tire world is preparing herself, help
ing to prepare the nation of which she
is SO essentially a part, helping to
prepare the world, If you please, for
that,
| sDpa for off 1iuiya ouanf