The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-02-18
SUNDAY.

Mr. Chairman: Veterans of the
Grand Army of the Republic; LauIeS
and Gentlemen;-The month OF 81
ruary is the most holy monlh IN ~
American calendar of the year Ior ~
the month of February were porn tne
three greatest of American characters.
George Washington, Abraham Lincoln
and Frances E. Wlllaru- Oeo!
washington, the patriciar, whose hliILu
and heart seemed to balance each ON
or with All the nicely and accuracy or
q chemists balance AnrahaIn IL -
coin the plebeian, whose mlnu anu
heart seemed to be fused together III
some strange cructble OF rove mo
could give to the world the America a
passion flower of liberty. Frances r.
willard, the noblest OF ner sex, VIZ IL =
mind and heart so beautifully and uel-
fcately intertwined that the f1owerlns
Of fine two gave to the world that Wnlte
dover Of American life. the sweetest
and noblest womanhood in the hlstory
of the world. Why should not the
American citizen uncap pe1ore sucn @S
these? 1+ n
History. after all, is nothing but
recital Of human biography. every
great event circles around some gredl
man or some great woman, ana THESE
great characters are reVered py an
nations. You walk through tne SCI
Ieries Of France and you will see every
whittier the picture or statue OF Ma
po1eon Bonaparte and Victor Hugo
60 through the land Of Italy and you
will see Dante, Michael Angelo' VIC
tor Emmanuel and Garibaldl enthroneu
in their temple OF fame 20 in'o re
many and you will see their greal
William and their greater FREDERICK,
Go to England and Gladstone anu
Cromwell and Wellington and Hamp-
den meet you every whittier. But We
Am orleans believe that we nave the
g. fey1 mil
that the worlds history ever knew
Therefore in our gallery of fame we
have a Washington, and JEFFERSON
and the elder Adams in our first group
over yonder is a Webster and a Clay
and a Calhoun in our second group.
And over here is our Grant and our
sherman and our Lee In our tnlro
group; but towering above them all is
that majestic figure whose memory
and birth we commemorate today
Abraham Lincoln. (Applause.)
Ta1lest Man This Side Calvary.
Abraham Lincoln is the tallest man
this side of Calvary. I except none
other. Indeed, sir, the three greatest
characters in the worlds history, one
of them two thousand years the otner
side of Christ, the great Hebrew,
Moses. In the center stands Jesus of
Nazareth, the penniless Prince of Pal
estine-and two thousand years this
side stands Abraham Lincoln; and
that is the trinity before which the
world bows today. I count it loss
that I never saw Abraham Lincoln,
and if there is man here whose hand
was ever in the palm of that kindly
old rail splitter I want to clasp hands
with you, with one whose hand was
In the hand of Abraham Lincoln, and
then place my hand in the hand of
nv boy, so that there shall be a clasp
of hands down to coming generations
that reaches back to Abraham Lin
coin.
once when my son, my splendid boy,
was ten years of age, he went with me
TO Chicago, and I took him out to that
mark that is named for the great
sailed sea called Michigan, and that
vast ocean of life we call Chicago. We
went out to Lincoln park and saw
where the American people had en-
throned the immortal soul of Lincoln
an immortal bronze. AS 1 stood in that
mark that afternoon with my little boy
bv my side, holding my hand, and I
looked into the great homely, lovely
face in bronze, with it's wilderness of
wrinkles, those hieroglyphics of char
acter, and read the embossed inScrip-
4ton on the base of the statue-that
wonderful Gettysburg speech, and I
felt my Iaddy's hand quivering in mine
as we read, and I looked at that statue,
which to my mind seemed a human
rail split out of some genealogical
tree that had not yet been catalogued,
with all the bark and splinters hang
ing on him, but sound to the core; I
Rugged my boy to my side. and I am
not ashamed to tell you that we both
sobbed like children, and thai great
statue seemed to give US a benediction
IN bronze, and I said to my son, For