Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-13
OF HOMECOMING REUNION
A wHIRLWIHD OF EL0oUENCE
Pouring Rain Marked Beginning Of
the Opening Days Ceremonies
Former Gov. Francis Address.

rain marked the beginning of the first om-
ciai day of homecoming week" Fortu-
nately the greater part OF the exercises were
scheduled to be held inside the armory on
Walnut street. The weather. however.
made it doubtful whether or not the great
floral parade which was to be the feature
of the afternoon, would be held.
The formal opening exercises In the
arnory were set for IL o'clock. Long be-
fore that hour the great armory was flied
completely. and A. Y. Ford. chairman of the
reception committee, called the meeting 10
order He introduced the Rev. I. M.
Halves of Louisville, who delivered the IN
vocation. Mayor Paul C. Barth welcomed
the visitors to Louisville.
Gov. J. c. w. Beckham delivered an ad-
dress Of welcome on behalf Of the state
of Kentucky, and at the conclusion OF MS
address assumed the gavel as the presiding
officer of the reunion.
= Gov Beckham introduced Henry Waiter
son, who delivered the formal address OF
welcome. which was as follows:
Mr.. Watterson's Address
Mr.. Watterson spoke in part. as follows:
Once Kentuckian. always a kentuckian.
From the cradle to the grave, the arms OF
the mother-land stretched forth In mother
love-the bosom of the mother-land. I'm
mortal as the ages, yet mortal in maternal
affection, warmed by the rich, red blood OF
Virginia-the voice of the motner-iana'
reaching the farthest corners of the eartn
In tones of heavenly music-summon the
Grant to the roof-tree's shade and bid the
wanderer home. What wanderer yet was
ever loath to come? Whether upon the
heights Of fortune and fame; or, down amid
and despair. the true Kentuckian, seeing
the shining eyes and hearing the mother
call. sends back the answering refrain:
Where 'er roam whatever realms see,
My heart, untraveled, fondly turns to thee"
Behold, in thfs great, exultant multitude,
th,, proof!
Kentucky Old kentucky The very name
has had a charm. has wrought spell. has
made music. all its own; has woven on
Its sylvan loom glory quite apart from
the glory of Virginia. kentuckys mother,
and the glory of Tennessee. Kentucky's
sister. 1t has bloomed In all hearts where
manhood and womanhood hold the right of
way. The drama of the ages, told In pulse
beats, finds here an interlude which fiction
vainly emulates and history may not Ger
leap. Not as the Greek. seeking Prone
thean fire and oracles of Delphos, nor as the
Roman filled with the JOY of living and
the lust Of conquest; not as the Viking.
springing to the call of wind and wave. nor
as the Latin, dazzled by the glitter Of gold,
mad with the thirst for glory; neither as
the Briton and the Teuton, eager for mas
tership on land and sea. the Kentuckian.
whom we. in fiifal homage salute progeni-'
tor. He was as none of these Big in bone
and strong of yoice-the full-grown man
prefigured by the psalmist-never the ocean
mirrored his fancies. nor snow-clad peaks
that reach the skies inspired; but the mys-
terry of strange lands, the savagery of ma
ture and the song of the greenwood tree.
The Kentuckians Star.
The star that shone above him and led
III 81 he oP
his dreams, the light of the Preside. He
cut a clearing in the wildwood and called It
Home. He read not romance. he made it:
nor poetry, he lived it, his the forest epic.
the Had of the canebrake. the Odyssey of
the frontier, the unconscious prose-poem OF
the rife and the camp. the blockhouse and
the pillow. the holy Bible and the old field
school!
Happy the man who has sat in childhood
upon a well-loved grandsire's knee, awed
by the telling of the wondrOus tale; how
even as the Dardanae followed Aeneas, the
Virginians followed Boone; the route from
Troy to Tiber nor wearier, nor fanked by
greater hazard than that betwixt the shores
of the Chesapeake and the falls of the Ohio;
the mountains standing. Gorgon-iike, across
the painless way, as il, defending each de-
file, to hold inviolate some dread, forbidden
secret; the weird wastes of wilderness be-
yond; the fordless stream: the yawning
chasm; the CLEAN of the tomahawk and
the hiss of the serpent; yet ever onward
spite of the haunting voice OF the elements,
stripped for the death struggle with man.
spite of the silence and the solitude of re-
luctant nature, like some fawn-eyed maid
en-, resisting his rude intrusion; ever on
ward; before him the promised land of the
hunters vision; in his soul the grace of
God, the fear of hell and the love of Vir-
ginial
A State Wide Welcome.
/ am here to welcome you In the name
of all the people of this lovely city. In
the name of all the people of this re-
nowned commonwealth, to welcome you
as kith and kin; but you will not expect
me, / am sure. to add thereto more than
the merest outline of the history of Ken
lucky as 1t Is known to each and every
one of you, from the time when the path
finders under the lead of Harrod and Hen
derson, of Boone and Kenton, blazed their
way through the forest. and the heroes, led
by Logan and Shelby. by Scott and Clark.
rescued the land from the savage, to the
hour which smiles upon us here this day; a
history resplendent with illustrious names
and deeds; separating itself into three great
epcchs and many episodes and adventures
in woodcraft and warcraft and statecraft:
the period OF the Clays. the Breckinridges
and the Crittepdens. with its sublime strug-
gle to preserve the union of the states as
It had come down to them from the revolu-
ton, with always the Marshalls and the
Wicklffes, the Boyles and the Rowans the
Jchnsons and the Browns, the Adairs. the
Deshas and the McDowells, somewhere at
tina fore-"Old Ben Hardin" having a niche
all to hlmself-none of them greater than
he; the period of the war of sections, when
even the Gays the Crittendens and the
Breckinridges were divided, when for a
season the skies were hung in sable and all
was dark as night, the very sacrifices that
had gone before seeming to have been made
In vain, the dark and bloody ground of
barbaric fancy, come Into actual being
through the passions and mistakes of Chris
tan men: and, finally. the period after the
war OF sections. when the precept .'once a
kentuckian. always a Kentuckian." was
met by the answering voice, blood Is
thicker than water" and the Goodies, the
Billiards. and the Speeds. the Harlans. the
Frys and the Murrays clasped their hands
across the breach and made short shrift of
the work of reconstruction with the BuclN
ners, the Prestons and the Dukes. Thus
Is 1t that here at least the perplexed
grandchild cannot distinguish between the
grizzled grandfather who wore the blue
and the grixzled grandfather who wore the
gray.
Tribute to Home.
Home! There may be words az sweet.
words as tender. words more resonant and
high, but. within our language. round