The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-05-16


 lions of rights, its minute men, and
 finally, It's declaration of independence one writer has said that as Gonzales
 was its Lexington. so San Jacinto was
 It's Yorktown. The parallel may just
 " be carried further since its com.
 mander-in-chief. born on Virginia soil
 became its first President.
 As the Children of the American
 Revolution annually visit the tomb of
 Washington with offerings of eonstan,
 reverence and devotion, so the students
 or the school named in his honor troop
 To the grave of the great Texan presi-
 dent. each anniversary of their Inde-
 pendence Day. to lay upon his las, resting place their fragrant tokens of
 grateful and loyal remembrance!
 Of character not so symmetrical or
 balanced as Washington's, of destiny
 not so. harmonious. or4 blessed. of a
 fortune not so happy or enviable, it
 may yet be said of Houston that his personality was more varied and pie= turesque; his endowment, 1t may be, more fitted for the vicissitudes he was | called upon to endure. But he, like his great sproto- type is enshrined in the pages of history and the hearts of his people, as the father of his country, so that he may be called, not inaptly, the Washington of Texas. The contest which he conducted to a successful termination, the War of Texan Independence, is the most in- teresting period in the history of this now rich and prosperous common wealth. In fact, taken in itself. with out any connection of personal or an- ] cestral associations, Texas furnishes | the most thrilling story of any state in our union. inasmuch as 1t Is the | only state which alone faced the world as an independent government, hav- ing its ministers and agents in foreign capitals, receiving recognition from foreign governments, and its indepen- dence won. forming the cause of bit- ter neighboring republics.
 The Flag of the Lone Star then is 1 unique in the history of the American nations. The wonder with me Is that It's defenders could ever have been willing, though led thereto by fndis- putable judgment and wisdom. to place above It any flag. even the flag that has never known defeat, our own Old Glory. whose might and majesty. like the wings ofA.the morning. are known to the uttermost parts of the sea! Had l been a Texan, that Lone Star won by the blood shed at the Alamo and at Goliad had outweighed the worldi As 1t floated over the prairies and streams of Texas 1t was eloquent of drama whose tragedy profane his- tory cannot equal! A tragedy beside which even the glories of Thermopylae have confessedly grown pale!
 Leonidas stood for home and coun- try among the hills sacred to him from the traditions of generations, nerved to immovable defiance by the thought of his native land. the memory of his childhood, the legacy of his ancestors. Travis stood in a strange land. in fortress-temple built by foreign race, dedicated to a creed whose ceremonies were celebrated In a foreign tongue. conscious of advancing immolation, supported in his iron resolution, not by tender memories and ties. not by venerable and romantic associations. but by the aunconquerable spirit of freedom. and freedom alone!
 As with his shining blade he drew on the pavement of the Alamo, the line over which stepped those who chose death with him for freedom rather than life enslaved by oppres- sion, must he not have heard in his | imagination the wailing strains of David Crockett's violin in its plaintive, oft-repeated cry at eventide. "ohs car- ry me back. carry me back to Ten nesseer My Flag" he wrote in the most heroic letter eyer preserved in | the archives of history. My flag still | floats above me!' And while that flag still floated he met his fate! Of I,eonidas. the model of antiquity. 1t could be said, Here, in the soil con- secrated by his blood. he sleeps, hero on the shield he would not quit : But for Travis. the bright and stain less image of American manhood, the very epitome of American yalor, the wide earth found no resting place! IrIs Q asbes were scattered to the winds of heaven!
 : His requiem chanted only by the
 mighty tenpests sweeping and surging aver the Texas plains! Oh, noble. glo- rIous life. dedicated to his ldol free- dom! Oh. noble. glorious deatn. or fered as a sacrifice on the altar oI mat idol! Would you not say that Slag. bought by such a life, purchased hv such d death was beyond the wealth | of the nations, above the price or | ruhiest That Lion Heart. that Lone Star. are bound toget9er for time ana eternity. that Solitary Star the emblem of that hearts deep devotion. Freedom. and freedom alone
 At our meeting in March we learned from Miss Russell's line paper, pre- pared with thorough research and &C., curacy of statement, and presented with the eloquence of rare spirit, recognizing and lauding the work Of A differing faith, that Texas was, in the early times, the animated scene or the Iabors of the Franciscan Friars. To Mexico Texas belonged by right Of settlement {, and for a long time 1t dweit in content as part of New Spain, after the beginning of the nine- teenth century admitting many rowing American adventurers and many true American workers to Its citizenship and property. But the United States who has never been behind hand in claiming territory insisted that Texas was hers by right of the Louisiana Purchase. Mexico rightly and justly resisted this claim, which was finally abandoned. outwardly at least, in 1919. when by the treaty of indemnity to Spain for Jackson's seizure of Florida, the United States yielded her asserted right to Texas, at the same time that Spain relInquished, In favor of the Uni ted States. her claim to Oregon.
 The Spirit of Freedom ever young and ever beautiful ever receiving the idolatrous worship of noble men in all nations and In all ages, made her home in the latter part of the eigh- teenth century on the Atlantic coast. Having liberated the thirteen English colonies she remembered her duty to her children of a different race in warmer cline, and winged her flight in the early part of the nineteenth century to the shores of the Tezcucan Lake with its memories of Montezuma and Cortez. From the heights of Cha pultepec she looked upon the land and finding it so flair she sang 'the song that no one knows save she alone!" The Mexicans were not the men to re- main deaf to her song of enchantment