The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1906-10-10
A TRIBUTE TO GRASS.
Poetic Eulogy That Was Pronounced
by Senator Ingalls.


by Senator Ingalls,.
The following tribute to grass, writ
ten by the late Senator ingalls, OF Kan
sas, should be preserved:
Majestic, fruitful, wondrous plant!
The corn triumphant, that with the AID
of man hath made victorious process
sion across the tufted plain and laid
foundation for the social excellence
that is and is to be. This glorious
plant. transmitted by the alchemy OF
God, sustains the warrior in battle, the
poet in song and strengthens every
where the thousand arms that work
the purposes of life.
"Next in importance to the divine
profusion Of water, light and air, those
three great physical facts which rem
der existence possible, may be reck-
oned the universal benefcence OF grass.
Exaggerated by tropical heats and va
pors to the gigantic cane congested
with it's saccharine secretion or dwarf
ed by polar rigors to the fibrous halr
Of northern solitudes, embracing be-
tween these extremes the maize, with
it's resolute pennons, the rice plant OF
southern swampS. the wheat, rye, bar
ley, oats and other cereals, no less
than the humber verdure of the hill
side, pasture and prairie in the tenn
perate zone, grass is the most widely
distributed of all vegetable beings and
is at once the type of our life and the
emblem of mortality. Lying in the
sunshine among the buttercups and
the dandelions of May, scarcely higher
in intelligence than the minute ten
ants of the mimic wilderness, our ear
Hest recollections are of grass, and
when the fitful fever is ended and the
forum is closed grass heals over the
scar which our descent into the bosom
of the earth has made, and the carpet
of the infant becomes the blanket of
the dead.
Grass is the forgiveness Of nature,
her constant benediction. Fields tram
pied with battle, saturated with blood,
torn with the ruts of cannon, grow
green again with grass, and carnage
is forgotten. Streets abandoned by
traffic become grass grown like rural
lanes and obliterated. Forests decay,
harvests perish, flowers vanish, but
grass is immortal. Beleaguered by the
sullen hosts of winter, it withdraws
into the impregnable fortress Of its
subterranean vitality and energies up
on the first solicitation of spring. SOwn
by the winds. by wandering birds,
propagated by the subtle horticulture
of the elements, which are it's ministers
and servants, it softens the rude out
line of the world. It's tenacious fibers
hold the earth in its place and prevent
Its soluble cOmpOnents from washing
into the wasting sea. It invadeS the
solitudeS of deserts, climbs the mac
cessible slopes and forbidding pima
cles of mountains. modifies climates
and determines the history, character
and destiny of the nations. Unobtru-
sive and patient, it has immortal vigOr
and aggression. Banished from the
thoroughfare and the field, it bides its
time to return, and when vigilance is
relaxed or the dynasty has persisted it
silently resumes the throne from which
it has been expelled, but which it new
er abrogates. 1t bears no blazonry Of
bloom to charm the senses with fra
GRANGE or splendor, but its homely hue
is more enchanting than the lily or the
rose. 1t yields no fruit in earth or air:
and yet should its harvest fail for a
Sin01o voor famine would donOnul0fA
the world"