The Van Buren press., 1912-06-08


Mr.. President Ladies' and Gentlemen:
Blot from the memory OF American
citizenship the sentiment that clus-
tiers around the historic monuments
OF our earlier history, and you take
from us and our posterity one OF the
nohlest impulses to noble deeds
Sentiment! What would this world
be without sentiment? Truly a full
fillment of Byron's dream of darkness,
when
THE bright sun was extinguished,
and the stars
Did wander darkling In the eternal
space,
Rayless, and painless, and the icy
earth
Swung blind and blackenlng in the
moonless air;
Morn came and went-and came, and
brought no day,
And men forgot their passions in their
dread
or this thor desolation; and all hearts
Were chilled into a selfish prayer foy
light"
Impossible TO conceive OF a condl-
ton more awful than world without
sentiment. Could you conceive OF
woman, devoid OF sentiment? Tn
thinkable. What would man be with
out sentiment? Man, the builder OF
empires, the weilder OF power the CHI
valric protector Of womanhood-man
without sentiment would be despot,
a criminal an outcast upon the face
OF the earth, despised and loathed by
his fellow men. A citizenship without
sentiment would be as cold and cheer
less as the icy waters OF the Atlantic
that swallowed up the unfortunate
victims OF the Titanic.
Sentiment, Why sir, Mr. President,
sentiment is one Of the moving forces
Of the universe Sentiment is the
cement that holds together the mason
ry Of our civic and social structures.
Sentiment is a part ot our nature 1t
Is a part Of our being II IL the souls
impulse,
Every child born on American soil
since the seventeenth OF June, lI75,
has drunk deep into his soul with
his mothers milk that eternal, that
everlasting, that God-giyen something
that we call sentiment.
What raised the obellsk high TO
heaven above the historic battlefield
on Bunker Hill? what leads thous.
ands every year to visit the old home
stead Of General Washington? What
| lends enchantment to those historic
grounds? Is It the beautiful, undu.
lating landscape, the grassy slopes,
! the forest trees, all high above the
surrounding country aud overlooking
the eddies ana currents Of the blue
Potomac Is II the old colonial man.
| sion in which George Washington and
the beloved Martha lived and died ?
10 II the little moulderlng mausoleum
under the hill, where rest the remains
Of the once gallant chieftain Of the
Revolution? All no! It is the patriot.
| ic sentiment Of century and quar-.
ter, crystalized into vital, living,
moving force that centers In Bunker
I'm and Mount Vernon AZ two tangible
] Ia NFll IN az. In. AT iYp IA
scenes Of the Revolution,
We worship at the shrine OF these
historic monuments because they are
cnshroudod in n mantle OF enduring
sentiment Tho patriotic spirit OF
those days long gone mas been burn.
ed into our souls.
Arkansas has no Bunker Illl She
has no Mount Vernon, But overlook,
Ing the majestic river that bears the
splendid name Of Arkansas stands
| the old statehouse at Little Rock, as
dear to the people OF Arkansas az are
Bunker I'm and Mount Vernon TO the
people Of this nation True, the old
stateh0uBe Ia ont OF date II has been
left far behind In the march OF pro.
gresG. But the old statchouso repre-.
sents our civic attachments OF fifty
| years ago, Il serves nv basis, "A
yow point from which 10 reckon our
advancement.
The old statehouso was built by our
fathers, Their money, their labor,
their love, Is In every stone OF that
old building, We, no children OF
pioneer parents, should revere tho old
building ~ we revere the memory Of
our parents, we should preserve the
old statehousc from decay and keep II
In our possession M a sacred legacy
handed down to w from our fathers
and our mothers
No matter how much we may love
the old building we who are living 20.
day do not appreciate Il M will our
children and our chlldron's children.
Time Will lend sentiment and onchant.
mont to ia beauty, Age Will Increase
Its historic value, But today II IL the
one great historic monument IN Ark
angas, It's walls have echoed the
speeches Of all the great men Of the
state, In the legislative halls the hls.
tory OF the state has been made As
u state we lived In II IN our Infancy,
We lived In Il In our youth We have
lived IN II In our manhood, II has
!