The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1906-04-27
GREATNESS OF OUR COUNTRY.
Ignorance Concerning 1.-THE Great
Speech of the Late Pat Nolan.

on earth. We know less about our own
country than any people on the globe.
The great sin of Americans is their
ignorance of each other and of their
majestic common country. If the sJutn
had known the north, and the north
had known the south better, we would
never had our fratricidal war. We re
all Americans, from Behring's Strtits
to Terra del Fuego. God and nature
have made us neighbors. and we
should dwell together as friends and
brethren. We would but for our ig ! -
rance of each other and own the peer
less half-world that is our common
heritage.
AT a dinner party given to me in
New Orleans during the great eXI:o-
sition a lady turned to me and SAID:
Col. DOMAIN. you live in Dakota: 7
suppose, of course. you know my
friend. Mr.. ; he lives out there.
looked at her for a moment 10 see
if she was guying me, but perceived
she was in dead earnest. so l replied
Madam, in what part of Dakota does
your friend live? She answered: Il
think in little place called Yankton
then said: Madam, are you aware
that from my home on Devils Lake,
Dakota. to where your friend live al
YanktOn, Dakota. by the shortest
travelled railroad route, only lacks rs
miles of being as far as from New
Orleans to Chicago? l was promptly
set down as the biggest Munchausen
that had struck New Orleans that
winter. But my statement was true.
How many of you wise and witty
Clover Clubites know where the CEN
ter Of the United States, east and west
is? Don't all speak at once. (Yells of:
Where Pat DOMAIN is! The Glover
Club etc) Yes, l admit, gentlemen.
that the four-leaved clover table OF
your clover club is the conviviaI cAn-
ter of the union and of the heni-
sphere, but / mean the geograp lical
center 1t is scarcely half a degree
east of San Francesca. How many IF
you knew that? You have always
thought of San Francisco as on the
very remotest western edge of the
United States, and yet. Alaska. ex-
tends within a trihing fraction of -
many degrees west of San Francisco
as San Francisco is west OF Portland.
Me. It extends within fo..y miles of
Asia.
How many Of YOU know-doas Col.
Ochiltree himself know-t@at f you
fasten thread at the nortLeinnost
point Of Texas, measure rne extreme
length Of the state and Ulan swing
il round over the map of the U,,'ted
States. il will take in with rs n,Ignif-
icent sweep Chicago and -. great
lakes, Wisconsin. Minnesota. Dakota
and the whole country t. Tie British
American line? Take the same lergtn
of thread with Chicago a. a center.
and il will include New York AMI New
England, the whole republic to the At
lantic ocean. in its majestic round
How many of you know this Mt one.
(Cries of Does a map so with thes..
statements etc.
How many of you know where the
grand center of the mineral wealth
of the United States lies" just Us
supposed; some of you say in Cali
fornia. Nevad;., CoIorado4 Not bit Of
it. The grand treasure of the union Of
the new world lies at the very doors
'of Philadelphia, Baltimore and Wash
inston. with Bristol, Tenn, a. "a cen
ter. describe circle with a radius Of
zoe miles. and it will include in Ken
tUc&y, Tennessee Virginia and the
CarOlinas mineral wealth which
Gwarfs into insignihcance a., the gold
and. silver of California. Nevada. col
orado and New Mexico. There are
mighty ranges Of mountains that. from
their cloud-kissed SUBMITS To the vol
.canic fires beneath. are solid masses
of the finest bessemer hematite iron
on one side ana the finest cooking Goa,
on the other. There are thousands IF
square miles Of red and brown hema-
title, magnetic iron 50 powerful in
magnetism that pieces of, the crude
ore will lift a knife by its blade: an
thracite bituminous and camel coal
50 rich in oil that you can light a ton
.of it with a match: maganese. zinc
copper. lead ana porundum. There are
precipices of slate a. fine as ever q
child drew its frst pictures upon Of
dogs that only need horns to convert
them into COWS; slate tnat can De got
ten out in slabs 4 hundred feet square
If it were needed. There are mountains
of solid marble Of every shade from
snowy white u Egyptian black. Dur
ing a recent trip through that region