The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1908-04-03
The TOastS.

The T0asts.
A. O. Eberhart acted as POSTMASTER
and in n pleasant manner intro
duced the various speakers.
Mayor J. w. Andrews spoke of tn,
beauty of MankatO, its hills, river
and natural surroundings, the historic
waters of the Blue Earth, and sal,
that nature has here carved out on,
of the most picturesque parks in Min
nesota. The Elks lodge of Mankatt
was not excelled by any under tn,
canopy of heaven. He referred to tn,
charitable work of the lodge at Christ
mas time each year in providing tn,
homes of the poor with the neces
saries and even Injuries of life. II,
encouraged the building of an Elk.
home and club house and assured tn,
visiting members that when the next
annual gathering was held that il
would be in home owned by tn.
lodge.
Address BY Mr.. Eldridge
Editor r. F. Eldridge, the fowery
orator of the Elks lodge said in part
81 have watched the wonderful prog
ress of this order from few scatter,
ing lodges, till it stands today in
athletic, full. vigored strength and
grace and beauty, 18th limbed and
sinewey, sun proved and fair, imperial
daughter of the gods.
"Her tresses are empearled with
Canadian SHOWS, and her buskins are
glinted by blushing southern suns
With one fair hand she parts the
azure curtains of the east, while
with the other she toys lovingly with
the unkept main of the wild Pacific
and thus | see her stand in this, the
mystic morning of a new century, IA
diant, self radiant and audacious, as
stood Boadicea on her native Britain
strand, beating into the wave the
naughty Gallic invaders.
"Elkdom stands for God, for country
and for right. 1t stands for law, for
order and for humanity; it stands for
home, for wife and for children. 1t
stands for all that is highest and noblest
and best in manhood, for all that is
purest and gentlest and ioveliest in
womanhOod. and for these, please God
it shall ever stand till the heavens
and the earth are no more.
'To such an order there cometh
neither repression nor retrogression,
neither decay nor death. 1t shall not
grow senile after many years, nor
hoary with the frosts of many win
tiers, for it is blessed by the waters
of some charmed Ederado and endow-
ed with eternal youth and beauty.
"And L say to you that it shall
yet make glad the waste places of
earth with fountains of living wa
ters; the stars upon its standard
shall deck with new beauty to the
skies of other chimes, and its affairs
shall blaze from the gates of the
morning to where the western sun
light spreads the cloth of gold upon
the couch OF evening.
It'll, after a while, in the realms of
a fairer future, the days, like laugh
ing children garlanded with flowers,
shall the highways troop of the
years, deep strewn with luscious
fruitaSe and are canopied by the in
terlocked wings of the angels of God
and the angels of love.
"Till the shadows fee away, and,
leaning from the window of the orient,
in vestments of light, with dewdrops
sparkling like jewels in her streaming
tresses there bushes the young aurora
or humanity's sabbatic day"
Elk and the Bar.
Toastmaster Eberhart introduced At
torney F.. F. Ellsworth of St James,
who responded to the toast, "The Elk
and the Bar" Mr.. Ellsworth is an
talker and is one of the
rising young attorneys of southern
Minnesota. He said he was proud to
be Il member of an organization that
was SO truly American, for he loved
the stars and the stripes, the emblem
of the order. He told many interest
ing stories of a pleasing nature.