The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1909-09-02
TAYLOR
Eloquent Bob, of Tennessee, Is
Talking in Missouri

Bob Taylor, of Tennessee, is max
ing the rounds of the Missouri cha
tauquas this year, and the following
beautiful excerpt is from lecture he
delivered in Pike county last week:
in this frantic world of dreams, all
progress begins, all civilizations are
born: In this bright-world of dreams,
the angels of happiness beckon to us
from the horizon of life. Whether il
be the child at its mothers knee or
the man of mature years, prince or
peasant, there is in every heart the
dream of a happier lot in life; but
that dream, insofar as its realization
in this world is concerned, is like the
the rainbow, ever in sight, never in
reach. The ideals of happiness that
light up the brain of man are as diff
ferent in degree of intensity as stars.
With one, the ideal of happiness is a
bag of gold. In his dreams there is
the carriage of Dives throwing the
dust from its wheels on the rags of
Lazarus. Yonder is the half starved
form of the miser, viewing his Golfers
with suspicious eyes. In another
brain the ideal Of happiness is honor,
glory, dominion over man. The two
great passions that fill the human
breast are lust for gold and hunger
for power The eyes of the church
are jaundiced with gold. Gold is the
all in all of politics, and | sometimes
think that if this republic could be
lifted up and spread out in the king
dom of heaven, the American people
would dig up the golden streets of
the new Jerusalem in three hours
and levy tax on the harps Of angels
for protection to American industry,
Wealth and power 90 hand in hand
they always will. Where wealth is
distributed, political power is always
diffused among the people; where
wealth is concentrated political power
is always centralized. I have read
that when Egypt fell, two per cent of
her people owned 81 per cent of the
wealth Of the country. When Rome
fell, 600 people owned all the wealth
of the country. When Babylon fell
one per cent of her people owned all
the wealth of the country. Are we
not rapidly following in their wake,
when in the morning Of the 10th cen
fury less than IL per cent of the
American people own or control 80
per cent of all the wealth? We are
told our safety lies in the sovereignty
of the people themselves, and this
makes the young republic in wealth
and power the Samson of the ages;
but is not Samson being shorn of his
locks? Or, to change the figure, is
not the Rip Van Wrinkle Of popular
government lost in the mountains of
concentrated wealth and centralized
power? Is he not sleeping too long
on his rights, and will he not some
day rise up from his trance to find
nothing but the skeleton of national
happiness lying at his feet? 1t then
will be too late to cry retrenchment
and reform; for what do wealth and
power care for Samson after his
locks are shorn? If could get the
ear of the young man of my country
in these modern days of graft and
corruption, would say that there is
no easy way of life, but the hardest
way of all lies in the field of politics.
Whoever enters that field leaves peace
and happiness behind. Let us not
forget that happiness is the ultimate
object of all human action. All that
is sweet and beautiful comes from
that mysterious world of the soul.
The painter paints only the shadows
of beauty on the canvas, and the
sweetest melody that falls upon the
ear is but the echo of a song. Make
your homes beautiful, for all that re-
mains to us Of Paradise lost clings
about the home; its purity, innocence
and virtue are there. There, women
shine scarcely dimmed by the fall re-
fleeing the loneliness Of Eden's first
wife and mother; the sweetness of
the wifely relation, the graciousness
of manner which once charmed angel
guests still fingers with her. John
Howard Payne touched the tenderest
chord in the human breast when he
gave to the world his song Of Home,
Sweet Home" for if Paradise ever