The wageworker., 1909-10-09

ing Governor Shallenberger, responded
to the toast Nebraska" as follows:
Mr.. Toastmaster, Members of the st.
Joseph Ad Club. and all it's guests
here assembled: Midway between
Plymouth Rock, upon which the Pill
grim Fathers landed, and the Golden
Gate, through whose portals Balboa
gazed out upon the broad bosom of
the Pacific, lies an empire greater
than the mind of mortal man can con-
ceive. Once heralded as "The Great
American Desert" it was Stunned by
all save the wandering nomads of the
plains, and the Argonauts who crawled
slowly and in fear across its bosom
towards the setting sun in chase oil
phantom gold. little reckoned that be-
meath the surface of this desert lay
potentialities that the future would
bring to light and make the output of
Golconda and Ophir seem like the
childish dreams of pennies. Thous-
ands dragged their weary way across
this seeming desert to delve in the
bowls of the mountains for the yellow
metal, little dreaming that at the very
grass roots over which they trod lay
greater stores of gold than mankind
has yet drawn from the Businesses
of the piled up monuments of Gods
architecture.
As the Israelites of old travelled
down into Egypt to secure the food
which they much needed, so now do
all the peoples of the earth turn to-
wards this modern granary of the
world for it's stores of food-the bread
and butter and eggs and meat that
grace the tables of princes and poten-
tates, and make glad the hearts of
artists and artisans. The attic geog-
raphers of a now forgotten age drew
upon their vivid imaginations. and
with fingers that knew naught but to
follow the dictates of ignorant minds,
wrote horrible stories of the Great
American Desert, and school children
of a recent generation shuddered to
think of the horrors that lurked
within it's desolate confines. Today,
wherever the story of human progress
is told, wherever the song of human
triumph is sung one word is as famil-
lar as the name of humanity's liberia
tors. and that word is the name of
the giant young state l have the honor
and the pleasure to represent here
upon this auspicious occasion-Ne-
braska,
The best brain and blood and Drawn
of this republic, Of the nations of the
earth, have been drawn upon to make
possible the mighty achievements that
are now proudly recorded upon the
pages of Nebraska's history. From
the worked-out hills of New England
came the sturdy Puritans; from the
war-racked glades of the southland
came the stately cavalier; from the
middle west came the scions of the
hardy pioneer-and surging out ovel
the billowing plains they wrested the
dessert from the grip of desolatior
and have made it to bloom and bios
som as the rose. And among those
who have wrought so well within Ne
braska are many men and womeI
from Grand Old Missouri. The las
session of the Nebraska legislature
the first democratic legislature the
state has had in generation, and 1
legislature which all honest democrat!
say was the best, and some partisan
republicans say was the worst, th'
state ever had. were several Missouri
ans. The democratic floor leader il
the senate was born in Buchanan
county and read his Coke and Black
stone in a ST. Joseph law office. Th
lower house contained more than on
native-born Missourian, and these Mis-
sourians, transplanted from the sol
of their native state to the freshe
and more vigorous soil of Nebraska
reflected credit upon the state of thei
nativity while adding fresh laurels t
those already won by the giant youn
state from whence l hail. incidental
I might remark, and not without pride
that l. too, am a native-born M1'
sourian. say not without pride
for when l selected the state in whic
should be born | selected Missouri
knowing full well that at that tim
no better state existed, and littl
dreaming that the state which I no
as proudly call home would in til
future step gaily forward to the hea
of the onward marching column
the states OF this glorious republi
Had known then what | know no
l might have selected Nebraska. Ju
to show how rapidly intelligence