The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1917-10-26
IA, FLORIDA, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2o, 1917
PATRIOTIC DEM0NSTRATI0NIN IN
0CALA A BRILLIANT AFFAIR


a temporary confinement in old Fort
Marion, was carried to Fort Moultrie.
in Charleston harbor, where he soon
died and is now buried.
In visiting, a few days ago, the
casemate of old Fort Marion, in which
he was confined while there, we we're
informed by the custodian of the fort
that the u. S. government has erected
to his memory monument on which
he is lauded as a patriot.
1t is not my intention to eulogize
Oceola, he no doubt had his faults,
but we may at least praise his I'M
doubted valor, his love of freedom and
his love of home and native land.
We are today engaged in a war
against the imperial German govern
ment, which has repeatedly wronged
our citizens; and like Oceola, we
fight for liberty and the safety of our
homeland
We are all proud OF the magnificent
contribution which Marion county has
made in men for service at the front.
Let us, who are left behind, to our
soldier boys, our country and our
selves. be true by doing our part in
providing our government with all the
funds necessary to properly equip and
maintain our splenid men. They are
government that we are called upon
to support" This much for ourselves,
our own.
Let us also purchase liberty bonds
so literally that our nation may con-
tinue to help, as it has already helped
to some extent, our allies, who are
today fighting and dying on our first
line of defense, the trench lines of
Europe.
I thank God that we are today the
richest nation on the face Of the
earth. With wealth comes responsible
ity, and believe that we have been
raised up in the providence of God,
to save liberty and democracy for the
world and to act the part of the good
Samaritan to the sorely stricken peo-
pies of the earth. Let us not "put the
dollar above the men," but make our
dollars serve our country and human
ity.
He was warmly applauded.
Mr. j. ]. Gerig, president of the city
council, in the absence OF Mayor
Chace, represented the city and he
likewise placed fagot on the liberty
fire-one of unusual historical inter-
est as it came from the tree in Indiana
under which Gen. Lew Wallace wrote
his famous story ben Hur" AS he
laid on his fagot Mr. Gerig said:
Ny Friends:-
1t becomes my privilege as we'll as
pleasure, in the absence of your Ma
yor, to act in his stead in the exer-
cises of the hour, and | am reimnd-
ed that in all the ages, and in all the
countries of the world, men have
gathered around their camp-fires to
defend human liberty and human
right; so we are gathered here from
almost every state in the Union to
pledge once again our loyalty and our
devotion to our glorious country, and
its cause of noble freedom; the spirit
Of courage and of unity of which this
camp fire is an emblem.
/ hold in my hand a small bit of
wood taken from an historic tree
known as the ben Hur Beech" un-
der which Gen. Lew Wallace sat when
writing the major portion of his cell
ebrated work, ben Hur" In adding
this to your camp fire, / am confident
that it will perform its function Of
both light and heat in due proportion
to its size, and in like manner, I am
assured that you, as a very small unit
in this great country Of ours, will do
your duty, and do It well.
You will, OF course recall the char
lot race in the book referred to, con-
ceived under spreading branches of
the tree of which that fagot was a
part, and of how Ben Hur reached
the goal first; just so, my fellow citis
zens at this time, acting as your rep
resentative I pledge you unfaltering
allegiance and support to that states
man and scholar, Woodrow Wilson.
who occupies place in your hearts
and minds coordinate with the
thoughts of the great and only George
Washington, knowing full we'll that
you will uphold his hands in this
struggle for the freedom of the world
and that when the goal shall have
been reached, your ship Of state under
n a