The Washington bee., 1907-09-21
FULTON'S DORMITORY
nv pFrORDER H. P. CHEATHAM
SPEAKS AT THE HENDERSON
NORMAL INSTITUTE.
Littleton, n. c., Sept, 'o7.

Ex-ReCOrdeT II. 7. Cheatham OF Lit
t4-9a \. c., one of the most level
headed men in the country, delivered a
most timely address at the Henderson
Normal Institute, Henderson, N. C., this
week to thousands of farmers and stu
dent. The occasion was the dedication
Of the Fulton Dormitory for girls, a
large and handsome structure. Prof. J.
A. Cotton Is the president of the school
The address was so we'll delivered and
rs seutimnets so fine, The Bee cores
00udent thought that the readers of this
paper and the country ought to read it.
So here it is in full:
Mr.. President, Ladies and Gentlemen
]. ask you to consider my appearance
upon this occasion as an expression of
rly real interest in this grand institution
Of learning and in this beautiful city and
community, whose citizenship is among
the best people in our great State. Here
] imbibed my first impressions of man
hood and life, and can say to you, the
teachers and promoters of this glorious
and brilliant beacon light, how lucky
and how happy you are to have your lot
cast with these good people of both
races; a people who will not shrink
from duty but will help those who will
honestly strive to help themselves, a
pepole who love education, manhood and
liberty.
And to the patrons of this school,
yeu can count yourselves fortunate that
you are favored with such a college of
learning and with such a God-fearing
and competent corps of teachers to
mould and shape and train your children
to walk in the proper paths of life. Now,
with the hope that this and similar in
stltutiOns of the land will vouchsafe to
our waiting and anxious people a sue
ces5ful voyage from their unhappy and
unfortunate condition to the high and
undisputed planes of citizenship, we
greet this occasion with smiling faces
and cheerful hearts, congratulating our
selves that we are a part and parcel of
the wonderful expanding tide of oppor-
tunitles and progress which is so beau
iitully flowing with silvery hue and
providential air in every nook and cor
Hsr of the land; and amid the flow of
this welcomed and blessed tide. there
seems to be an unseen hand of unusual
accuracy, carefully placing and replac-
ing, planting and replanting, nurturing
and inspiring in all of the departments
Of the affairs of man instead of leaving
Inn and his fields of operations to over
How and ruin or to waste and rot
Yea, the condition OF the human fam
lly nearly everywhere, is indeed op-
timistic.
The favorable omen of the different
seasons of the year, the prophetic signs
as transmitted to US through the days
and nights as they come and go and act
as the timekeepers of man and the uni
verse, the crowded avenues of trade and
business in all quarters of the land, the
jammed and congested conditions of the
railroads which handle the commerce
Of hustling yeomanry the Crowding
and Overrfowing of the colleges every
where with men and women who are
honestly and earnestly seeking a higher
citizenship all indicate and convince us
that this IS an age which tends toward
a happy and marvellous expansion in the
affairs Of life.
Retrospective G1ance.-Whcn we dive
down and unfurl the dusty annals of
the past, and there count, step by step,
the slow pace, unbending and unyield-
ing stupidity of the nations Of the earth
al that time and compare their inca
pacitated and clumsy disposition toward
q Broadening tendency aloong the lines
or human achievements with the devel-
o9mens of this era, especially in the
essentials Of real life and the accom-
qIshments of the objects for which the
world and man were created, we at once
TO a firm and unshaken conclusion that
The tendency of this age moves ire
sstably and irrevocably on to those glo-
nous heights of that intuitive and perma-
nent expansion of human affairs for
which the world has eagerly waited and
expected, and of which kings, proph-
els, statesmen and potentates have long
since predicted. The introduction Of
'aat glorious period of redemption was
accompanied with stubborn and serious
opposition; by generations of rufians |
and vipers, who in their ignorant and
savage career spurned the purposes of
wonderful creation and feared no God, |
out biindly striving, as it were, with |
olndgeon and gun and stone to piunder
and oppress and kill; it seemed that even
N the very acme of the mind Of that
ane it could not be lifted and expand
ed out OF those narrov erooves of Il