The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1909-06-01
Address of Mrs. Eunice Miller Lock.
wood.

Following is the address delivered
by Mrs. Eunice Miller Lockwood:
Captain Fremont, Officers and Men
of the Battleship Mississippi-Proud
of the distinction and high privilege
which is mine today through the cour-
tesy and chivalry of Mississippians
who represent knighthood in its full
est flower, l come as the message
bearer of the state of Mississippi to
express the high and exalted appre-
citation of the people of the state for
the honor of having this mighty ma
chine of war as our namesake, and to
bid you welcome to our shores.
"Cherishing the example of our
fathers for hospitality, we have wished
to do something more than flinging
wide our gates. 1t was custom of
the ancients when heroes were well
coined, as an especial mark of distinc-
tion, to remove the walls which sur
rounded the city and let them pass in
on other ground than that trodden by
the ordinary citizen II his passage
through the gates. We can give you
no such distinction, as we have no
walls to remove, but feeling that we
wanted to do something out of the or
binary, we just took the bottom out of
the Mississippi river, and, if in our
zeal, We hardly left bottom enough for
you to anchor comfortably, attribute
it to our patriotic desire to give cor
dial welcome to our name sake of the
sea.
"All peoples have their hour when
the best that is in their civilization is
uppermost. The best that is upper
most in our civilization is uppeprmost
in this hour. When we behold this
great vessel, from whose masthead
floats the emblem of a nation that
keeps the worlds peace today, anu
when we see written across its iron
clad sides the name of Mississippi, a
name that signifies to us home and ac-
tivity, a name resplendent in the an
nails of war, a name linked with the
victories of peace, name that is but
another name for loyalty to convic-
tions and faithfulness unto death
when we remember these things, and
realize that this mighty craft is to
henceforth be part of us-that its
honor will be our honor, its failures
our failures, and its triumphs our tri-
umphs, is it any wonder that we have
gathered here in such numbers today,
to laden it with gifts, and bid it God
speed amid our prayers and blessings.
"The devotion which our people |
feel for this vessel is characteristic
of a people that have always been true
to every cause to which they owed
allegiance. Even now as we look upon |
this man-of-war, anchored here in
peaceful waters, beamed upon by the |
smiling faces of a happy, prosperous
people, d0OIHeT sup uedIlHS IHO |
proud name of Mississippi rises phan-
tom-like from the sea, with the hot |
breath of battle upon her and men,
everywhere, dying for their convic-
tions. That was glorious history and |
one that makes this day possible, for |
the same courage which men dis
play in the heat and fury Of battle
will they exhibit in the hour Of peace.
"But what a contrast was that red !
day to the peaceful scenes before us,
when all strife is ended and brothers
are united in the same lofty aims
and purposes of a common destiny,
with the same flag wavinf above the
Mississippi that floats from the mast
head Of the Massachusetts, and with
both southerners and New England
ers commingling in this gallant crew,
diffusing everywhere a spirit Of broad
patriotism that knows no bounds save
rid country OF
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