The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1910-06-28

! all competitors and are IN the tore
front, in every thing which produces
enjoyment and inspires ambition, We
should not forget that many of oul
! blessings were Graded in the ole
world. The martyred graves, dotted
ali along the past, as so many mile
stones, are but the monuments which
remind us TO the civil and religious
liberties which have been won, after
many centuries. Few of us can now
conceive that there was a time, moi
many generations back, when a Pro-
tesant was not allowed to read his
Bible or pray in his own home; when
the poor peasants of France were
sent out, as so many slaves, to beat
around the ponds at midnight, lest
the frogs disturb the rest of my Lord
and Lady of the Chateau. Even in
our own New England days, forgetful
Of their past history and painful ex-
periences, men were not allowed to
vote, who did not belong to the es-
tablished Puritan church. The
shackles, not only Of chattel, but men
tai slavery, have been broken and we
are living in, and breathing the
healthy ozone of a modern, enlight-
ened atmosphere.
If the people are not supreme,
they alone are to blame. There is
not an officer from president to con-
stable who is not amenable to their
sovereign will and wishes. "No
Goddess of reason now sits enthron-
ed on cathedral altars;;" our demo-
cratic government would never dare
to close it's church doors, convert it's
sacred temples into work shops, or
carve on the tombs of the dead, that
death is the end of all things" as
did France, barely more than. gen
Grafton ago. No Madame Pompadou"s
or DuBarrys would risk their nefa-
rious arts and brazen governmental
schemes among US. Ladies of pride
and spirit need have any fear of mar
rying a ruler like Henry VIII who
beheaded or divorced four, of his six
wives. Such is the picture, in few
words, ladies and gentlemen, which
greets the eye of the twentieth cen
tury a1umnus as he goes forth to do
battle for his God, his country and
himself. That he will receive many
scars, no one denies, but there never
was a time when the rewards Of we'll
directed efforts were greater, or the
praise of genuine manhood, more
sincere and unstinted. Then noblesse
oblige. We are now passing through
the crucial period which is to deter
mine the lasting veal or woe of this
nation. A period which calls for the
best and bravest to resist the evils
and temptations which always follow
in the wake of great prosperity and
vapid Injuries.
It is with nations, as with indiVi-
duals, when climbing the ladder, rung
by rung, from poverty and oppres-
sion, to ease and wealth, there is lit
tie danger of going astray. It is when
the topmost round is reached that we
"scorn the base degrees by which we
did ascend" and topple headlong into
the charnel house below. The time
for the Catos to thunder and strike, is
when vicious laws are being enacted
which foster trusts, millionaries and
ragbarons, that absorb the ill-gotten
gains of pillaged labor. When one
man is worth a million, while thou
sands around him, are eking out a
ritiful existence. And a man who is
without a crumb that does not fall
from the rich mans table is general
ly without a decent and unpurchasa-
BILE vote. We are at the parting of the
ways, where our leaders and edu-
Gated men, must hold the rudder true,
lest the old ship of state, with its
precious cargo, go down beneath the
waves, forever. During the most
fourishing period of the Roman En-
pire, the people were forgetting their
Gods children their parents, hus-
bands their wives, and the Chris
tians were smeared with pitch, and
set on fire, in order to light up the
gardens for the revelries of brutal
emperors. AS we all know she reel
ed and staggered in her drunken
frenzy, and finally fell into heap of
ruins.
The 6nife of public sentiment
should be whetted frequently and
diligently, that it may safely dissect
out the diseased tissues, and keep
tho ho6v no1jtic string vigorous and