Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1913-12-25


dissillusionment for the sea lies Spain"
We can get all the eXaltation which came to
Abou Hassan when the amable deception of
Haroun-alRaschid played upon him, without
any of the III effects which we may presume came
to him wheT- MS dream of power dispelled itself
The day and the scene invites US TO enjoyment,
and to contribute to the enjoyment of others. For
this one day at least, Of the year the golden age
is myth 1t is here with u.s. and we must ut-
lie it while stays This is the hour when lffes
wireless teegraphy carries greetings of good will
between all the individuals and all the peoples of
of the earth To every of the world
stretches forth the glad hand and salutes with
a May you live long and prosper"
The old prophets conceived the sublime thought
that the Creator set the heavenly bodies in their
places to mark for man the progress of time The
early leaders of the human race who watched the
stars in their courses, and from their movements
worked ont the division of the days and years,
left blessing behind them for all time to come.
For if to believe the records of the rocks
and clays the first who lifted their faces to
the skies in profound and with germs of
thought stirring in their brains had little if any
more conception of time and Of the moving planets
than the brutes that shared with these primitive
savages the the huts which were all
the houses they had 1t took long ages to learn
that the sun is fixed body regards our earth,
to divide the globe into degrees and the day into
"A hours The seasons came and went and savage
man had conception OF why beyond the suns
declension below his zenith and the return OF the
Merry orb to a place high above his head. Then
from the crude supersttions of astroogy men of
high civilization worked out our year and set the
day that as this live, marks the beginning
of new circle of the four seasons.
The crudest savage needed no prophet with a
message from the skies to teach him that if he
desired to prolong his life he must work He
the man of all generations who knew best
that in the sweat of his face he must "eat
bread if he ate at all. Stored-up wealth there
was none. Each generation began practically
where the last did, with no inheritance to profit
by. Nor was there spark of charity to minister
to the needs of age or sickness. The child born
with low vitality met its fate early in its career
The man who met with an accident sufficient to in
capacitate him for the chase or for war was left
to perish miserably where he fell When age
dimmed the eye made the hand neryeless the
useless one was not permitted to be a burden
society. AS the wounded deer is left the aged
wolf is abandoned, was the wounded
the toothess woman. Percentage other relation
ship counted nothing.
AS civilization climbed the path of progress to
higher levels toll became constant more
pressing. The savage has few needs and there
fore much, leisure He needs no weekly day Of
rest With increasing needs to meet man had to
bend his back more necessarily and to strain mus
Gle, tendon and ligament Life had more enjoy
ment at the cost of longer hours of toll that made
rest seem very sweet. Then arose the leader of
men. the reformer. the teacher philosopher or
prophet who ordained that as there were times
and seasons there should be days of rest. If We
to the world around we would find many
Sabbaths The follower of Mohammed takes his
rest on Friday, the Hebrew on Saturday the Chris
tian Sunday. And the man of advanced ideas
who gave his Sabbath a leader and a
benefactor In very deed.
The who stands in the Escorial in Spain
and looks on the sepulchers of kings reaching
back 500 years, has span about long as the
history America. he
to Granada he is face to face with the times OF
the Moors, whose invasion of the peninsula was
centuries before Columbus born. AS he looks
some paved road or some aqueduct he is car
ried back to the Scpios to Hannibal and back to
his forefathers who moved about here; and so
we go back to Carthage which was a great city
before Rome founded and Carthage takes
over the sea to Asia where Moses people and
Philistines came into combat. And we go
back to Egypt and its pyramids to the Pharaohs
and Jacob and his children and back to Abra-
ham and the nomad chiefs who fed their focks in
the fat plains of central Asia as long before the
Christian it is from the year 1911 In these
lands, among these races of men, grandfathers
and greatgrandfathers count for little. One meets
men whose ancestors took part in the expulsion OF
the Moors, with others whose ancestors resisted
them when they first invaded SPAIN and still
others whose forbears were in the armies of the
Scipios or of Hannibal. The mind loves to dwell
on the memory of these far-away days and to
dream of the way of life of men and women who
died so long ago, and TO whom we owe our being
and our civilization The oldest title lands in the
Pacific states do not go back far There are
titles in Spain that date back centuries Castles
mere are owned by families who come down di
rectly or collaterally for ages. To these gen
efatlon is as snort as year to US in our brand
new civilization. 1t is all impressive but after
dreaming of such things the mind Inevitably re-
Verts to our own generation to our own time
~~~~~~~~~~-~~~o~o-o-o~~o .