The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1913-12-26

OIILIN I1EI%D
build their air castles without any fear of any
dissfllusfonment, for over the sea lies Spain.
We can get all the eXaltation which came to
Abou Hassan when the amable deception Of
Haroun- al Raschid played upon him, without
any of the i'll effects which may presume came
to him when his dream Of power dispelled ITSELF
The day and the scene invites to enjoyment,
and to contribute to the enjoyment of others. For
this day at least Of the year the golden age
is no myth 1t is here with u.s. and must uti-
lie it while it stays. This is the hour when lifes
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
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 out the division Of the days and years
left blessing behind them for all time to come
For if we are to believe the records of the rocks
and clays the first who lifted their faces to
the skies in profound awe and with germs OF
thought stirring in their brains had little if any
conception of time and of the moving planets
than the brutes that shared with these primitive
savages the caves or the huts which were all
the houses they had. 1t took long ages to learn
that the sun is fixed body regards earth
to divide the globe into degrees and the day into
n 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
fiery orb to a place high above his head. Then
from the crude superstitons of astrology OF
high civilization worked out year and set the
day that, as this now live, marks the beginning
OF circle Of the four seasons.
The crudest sa rage needed no prophet with
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 lin the sweat of his face he 'eat
bread il he ate at all. Stored-up wealth there
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 it's fate early in its career
The man who met with accident sufficient to in
capacitate him for the chase or for war was left
to perish miserably where he fell When age
dmmed the eye made the hand nerveless the
useless one was not permitted to be a burden on
society. AS the wounded deer is left as the aged
wolf is abandoned, so was the wounded man or
the toothless woman. Parentage or other relation
ship counted nothing
AS civilization climbed the path OF progress to
higher levels toll became more 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 had to
bend his back more necessarily and to strain mus
cle tendon and ligament" Life had more enjoy
nent 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 there were times
and seasons there should be days of rest. II we
were to run the world around would find many
Sabbaths. The follower OF Mohammed takes his
rest on Friday. the Hebrew on Saturday the Chris
tian on Sunday. And the of advanced ideas
who gave man his Sabbath was a leader and
benefactor in very deed
The who stands in the Escoriaf in Spain
and looks the sepulcheTs of kings reaching
back 800 years, has span about as long as the
most ancient history OF America. When he goes
to Granada he is face to face with the times OF
the MoOTs, whose invasion of the peninsula was
centuries before Columbus vas born. AS he looks
on some paved road or some aQueduct he Is car
ried back to the Scipios. 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 was founded and Carthage takes
us over the to Asia where Moses people and
some Phllistnes came into combat And 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 era 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
here owned by families who come down di-
recty or collaterally for ages To these gen
Grafton is as short as a year TO US in our brand
new civilization. 1t rs all impressive, but after
dreaming OF such things the mind inevitably re-
Verts to our own generation, to our own time