The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1914-07-31
A TRIBUTE TO GEORGIA
JUDGE NAT HARRIS PAINTS A
BEAUTIFUL WORD PICTURE.
In Speech At Lawrenceville He Pays
Tribute to the State That Should
BE Preserved as Classic.

TRIBUTE 10 the Sttftc AHN1 OhOuNu
BE Preserved as Classic.
In an address delivered by Judge
Nat E. Harris at Lawrenceville few
days ago he paid a beautiful tribute
to Georgia, which should be preserv.
ed as a classic. The News-Herald
quotes it as follows.
Many of you have seen the con-
gressional library at Washington. II
cost six million dollars, and at the
time it was completed was said to be
the most splendid specimen of mod
ern architecture found in the world
lit is an epitome of all the prog
ress and splendor of the time. have
sometimes thought that that building
in striking sense typfiies the temple
of this commonwealth, in which we
have temple whose halls are built
of men, and whose decorations are
the priceless offerings of infinite HUI
man souls.
Look over our great state. All
through its wide domain the sunlight
falls in an ever-changing panorama
of indescribable beauty. 1t glances
from the old red hills where the
white cotton bolls glisten and the
rustling corn makes music to the
farmers ears; from the great mount
ain tops where Yonah and Tray lose
their heads in the clouds; from the
towering sky-scrapers and vast public
buildings of the central portion of
the state; from the fertile plain of
the wiregrass region, whose white
sands are washed by the waters of
the Atlantic; from the cataracts and
waterfalls, where the spindles sing
and the shuttles fly; from the empo-
RUINS of its merchant princes and the
white walls and columns of it's happy
homes, where piety and honest devo-
ton to law and order reign supreme;
where wealth accumulates and all
the glory and virtue of the past are
held in hallowed remembrance.
ooh, beautiful, noble common
wealth. Oh, mighty people. Oh,
great state; crowned with historic
memories, and blazing all over with
glories of a splendid past, and the
prophecies of a mightier future.
Temple of our commonwealth,
built from the wrecks and desolation
of the never-to- be-forgotten past.
Standing in the face of the twentieth
century, with spires and pinnacles of
celestial beauty, among the abound
ing plenty of a physical domain I'M
equaled in the annals of time.
eff the columns of love are CHS
eled in due proportion throughout
thy temples bounds-if the crystal
arches of Truth and Virtue are kept
bright and shaped with fitting SYM
metry-if the brush of benevolence
paints the pictures of the walls, and
the images of Faith and Hope sur
round their pedestals, while every
lily's lip and every polished freize
and cleaning wreath and chastened
column is crowned by pure religious
hands, then, indeed, the great white
light of God Almighty's sun above
shall shine with softened splendor
through ali the chambers, and break
in countless rainbows upon Bonded
heads in prayer.
But if the work be foul within,
and all the columns of the temple
rough, and all the crystal pendants
dark with dust and cobwebs, and the
grimed arches and disigured cor
nices fiecked with broken bowers and
crumbled tre1lis work-if in sin and
| foul rebellion and hot treason to the
truth and discord and dissensions
shall mildew the canvass on the walls
and crack the precious frescoes of
| the dome, then, indeed, the great
white light of Gods bright sun above
shall fall on broken ruin and show
the desolation and decay of the bro
ken arches and battered columns in
our peoples sacred halls.
Here, my countrymen, is your
task-it is yours to guard the tenn
pies furniture in our mighty peo-
pies home, and keep it pure and
bright and matchless as your faith
ers have transmitted it to you