The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-06-13
Col. Henry W atterson's Eloquent
Tribute 80 Kentucky.
Exiles to Land Of
Their Nativity
STORY OF THE PIONEER
lis Was the Had of the Cane
brake.
Love of Liberty Ever Led Him
On and On.

LOUISVILLE. Ky, June 15--ClOuQy
skies and pouring rain greeted the
first official day of home coming
week" this morning. Fortunately the
greater part of the exercises were
scheduled to be held inside in the
Armory on Walnut avenue and moth
ing could interfere with them. 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 were
set for II o'clock at the armory and
long before that hour the great armory
was filed
A. Y. Ford. chairman Of the recep-
ton committee, called the meeting to
order. He introduced Rev. T. NJ. Hayes
of Louisville, who delivered the in
vocation and then a short speech
brought forward Mayor Paul c. Barth,
of Louisville, who welcomed the vis-
itors in behalf of the city.
Mr. Ford then introduced Governor
Beckham. who performed a similar
office in behalf of the state of Ken
lucky and at the conclusion Of his ad-
ing officer of the reunion.
Henry WattersOn's Address.
Governor Beckham introduced
Henry Watterson, who delivered the
formal address of welcome, which was
as follows:
'Once a Kentuckian. always Ken
tuckian. From the cradle to the
grave. the arms of the Wonderland,
stretched forth in mOther-lOve-the
bosom of the mother-land. immortal
as the ages, yet mortal in maternal af-
lection warmed by the rich, red blood
A7F0lnia-fha NOicR of the mother
land, reaching the faTthest corners of
the earth in tones of heavenly music
summon the errant to the roof-treei 5
shade and bid the wanderer home.
what wanderer yet was ever loath to
Gomez Whether upon the heights of
fortune and fame, or down amid the
shadows of the valley of death and
despair, the true Kentuckian, seeing
the shining eyes and hearing the
mother-call. sends back the answering
refrain
g 'Where'er roam; whatever realms
My heart. untraveled, fondly turns to
thee.
Behold, in this great, exultant multi
tude. the proof
Kentucky! Old Kentucky! The
very name has had charm, has
wrought a spell, has made a music, all
its own: has woven on its sylvan loom
glory quite apart from the glory of
Virginia, Kentueky's 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 in
terlude which Fiction vainly emulates
and History may not o'erleap. Not as
the Greek. seeking Promethean fire
and oracles of Delphos, nor as the
Roman filed with the JOY of living and
the lust of conquest; not as the Viking,
springing to the call of the 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 masterShip on
land and sea. the kentuckian, whom
we in filial homage, salute progenitor.
He was as none of these. Big in bone
and strong of VOice-the full-RrOWn
man prefigured by the psaInist-
never the ocean mirrored his fancies
nor snoW-clad peaks that reached the
skies inspired but the mystery in
strange lands. the savagery of nature
and the song of the greenwood tree.
The star that shone above him and
led him on was love Of liberty, the bea-
con of his dreams, the light of the fire.
side He cut clearing in the Wild
wood and called it Home He read not
Romance, he made it, nor Poetry. he
lived it. his the Forest Epic the Iliad
of the Canebrake, the Odyssey Of the
frontier. the unconscious prose- poem OF
the rifle and the camp, the blOckhouSe
and the plow, the Holy Bible, and the
Ola Field school!
Happy the man who has sat in
childhood upon a well loved grandsire' S
knee. awed by the telling of the won-
drous tale how even as the Dardanae
/ followed Aeneas. the Virginians follow
/ ed Boone. The route from Troy to Tt
! Der not wealier, nor f1anked by great
er hazard. than that betWixt the shores
of the Chesapeake and the falls of the
like. across the painless way as if. de-
/ Tending each defile, to hold inViolate
some dread. forbidden secret; the weird
wastes of wilderness beyond: the ford
/ less 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 soil
tude of reluctant nature. like some
fawn-eyed maiden resisting his rude.
intrusion; ever onward; before him the
promised land of the hunters vision: in
his soul the Grace of God. the fear OF
He'll and the love of Virginia.
Tribute to Virginia.
God bless Virginia. Heaven smile
4 upon her as she prepares to celebrate
with fitting rite three centuries of ma
! jestic achievements. the star crown up
/ on her brow, the distaff in her hand
nor spot nor blur to dim the radiance
4 of her shield
They came. the Virginians. in their
i home-spun in quest of homes: their
warrant their rifles; their payment the
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