Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-02-16
DR.. +. w, JEFFREY CREDITS
GREATNESS TO EMANclPA-
TORS FORCE OF INTELLECT
From SATURDAYS Daily

was the object of the meeting, as
man born in poverty and obscurity
who arose to occupy the highest posi-
ton in the gift of man by sheer force
of intellect alone, Dr.. 7. w. Jeffrey at
the First Methodist Episcopal church
last night PAID one of the most glow
Ing tributes to Abraham Lincoln that
was ever uttered in the city.
Drawing the Icy walks and low
mercury. several hundred people at
tended the meeting and were more
than repaid for their efforts. All mem
bers or the G. A. R. and other old sol
diers were particularly invited to tho
service. and responded in numbers.
The Ottunwa quartet supplied the.
musical numbers of the evening, ia
voring the gathering with several
numbers approximate to the occasion.
Dr. Jeffrey's address of the evening
follows:
Abraham Lincoln.
Mr. Chairman, Comrades, Ladies and
Genteren:
It was y saying of those old poets, |
whose names and verse we will not let
die because of snrnassing' excellence, |
that they received their inspiration by
sleeping on Mount Pernassus. They
may or they may not have believed
what they claimed There is some
thing. however. very Inspiring about
a. mountain whom it climbs No from
tie low levels to battle its head in the
rosy Pushes Of tho coming day. Any
man IS made better and bigger by try
ing to GRASP it's awful girth or touch
it's pinnacle of snow But history
teaches Us that 1t is not the man Oh
the lnonntt.:n but the mountain on the
man that furnishes the greatest IL
sniration Mans endeavor to throw
the mountain from bin is the NORA
struggle that has lifted him from
common level and crowned him with
glory and splendor.
We have learned, after cons derable
II loss. that winds and storms have far
more. skin in. hero-nlakins than all thu
fragrant breezos and all the days Of
| tranquil sunshine. The great tropics,
with climate as conganial as June
morning in our latitude have never
Graded great race, bui!ded a great
city, or given to literature an imper
ishable name. Where harvests laugh
from the earth at the touch Of croo6-
| ed stick, brain ard virtue seldom de-
velop. The dominant races have
come from the biting winds and snow
wales of the ice hung north. So called
ungenial conditions have always
Graded strength, courage, endurance
/ and heroism When the Almighty
would throw up stage for the evolu-
/ tion of human liberty He hung 1t with
wilderness curtains. rooted it with
lstorm-clouds and carpeted it with
isnow-whlrls flung down from a wintry
sky.
" The race to which we belong has a
right TO turn to its early home in AS.
syria and watch its own advance along
the shores of the Mediterranean sea,
leaving in its wake the great empires
OF Carthage and Rome, founding TIL :
nations of western Europe, and send
ing out it's bold mariners across tho
unknown seas to plant in the inhos.
pitable wilds of America the most
splendid civilization known to the
world. Our race has right to turn
with pride to Agincourt and Trafalgar
: and Waterloo and Gettysburg. 1t has
bound the ends of the earth together
in civilization 1t has made the dead
land of the Pharaohs to bloom. il
has throttled the plaques of the world
: and wrested the sword Of death from
the hand of famine. 1t has won con
: tinents from savage rule. 1t has made
the desert blossom as the rose /
has maintained it's supremacy because
: it has faced the difficulties of land ant
8 sea and heroically conquered ther,
q Wherever it has set itself to maste
/ it's environment it has triumphed, bu
/ when it has permitted itself to be over
n come by it's environment it has failed
4 Struggling against difficulties create
v in man the thews that throw tn
!. world.
Come to Their own Through Difficu
The worlds great reformers an
a benefactors have come to their owi
J. through difficulties They have from,
r ed obstacles that lowered above ther
7 like mountains. They have met trial
g that baffled human SKILL If we tarr
to read the long list of names whic
humanity holds sacred, we shall fin
:, that every name stands for prodig
u GUS work against tremendous odds. w
!: love them and count them chief anon
u life's resources because they have lif
ed burdens too heavy ior other men
carry, anu IOuSHL Ddtties loo sever
for other men to fight. Their dentc
shields and broken lances indicate tn
severity of the struggle through whic
le they have passed. The legacy the
n have left us is a legacy spelled out
se letters that throb with pain and 'dri
a. with blood.
o. julius Caesar, chief among the II
I'd mortal worthless of all time won fan
lg from reluctant world. His way wf
of hedged by every conceivable difficult
es Where nature did not place insu
mountable difficulties in his path me
n combined to supplement nature.
to corrupt aristocracy, fearing his POI
lg er and increasing popularity sent hi
IS to Gaul certain that he would have
d, chance to emerge from the perils tn
IT beset him there. With sword in hal
and loyal legions at his back, he he