Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1918-01-03
News From Neighboring Localities


but a fading mist; the noblest aspi.
rations. the hopes, the dreams. the
iabors, the ideals, the sacrifices Of the
|.ch1idren of men for centuries were
but an empty mockery.
Nay, nay! sir. Men could not feel
that man and his companions at
the head of a great people could SO
lust for conquest that in them existed
hearts SO debauched, so black, SO
hellish, s o bfoodthirsty, SO insanely
cruel, so utterly devoid Of any re
spect for things sacred, or pure, or
holy; that their pledged word, their
sworn oaths, the peace of men, the
love Of country, the ties of homes, the
heart of motherhood, the affection of
fathers, h strength and ned of sons,
the glory and beauty and purity of
daughters, the innocence of babes and
children, the ~helplessness of weak
lings and the aged, very life and suf-
fering;; OF the woods, or the. fields,
the spires Of lofty c%athedrals, the
seats of learning, the cities Of the
very dead, the beauties of nature OF
Of art, and all else. were to them as
ashes in a gutter. The world had yet
to learn a terrible lesson in the pos
sibilities lurking in such hearts.
But, despot, murderer, violator,
from the despoilation, the awful
wreckage of quiet, peaceful Belgium
has come her sublime, lofty heroism,
her unflinching devotion to right,
home and country, conduct of a peo-
pie, sir, that will live and shine like
a mighty light against darkest gloom
as long as history shall be written.
Ages after you, kaiser, will have per
ished from the memory and tales of
men only as men remember and tell
of Judas ~Iscariot, Herod, Nero, Bene-
dict Arnold, Writ and Weyler.
No, Wilhelm, you cannot override
a world, the days of might in con-
quest, the years of such things have
passed away. The mighty armies you
have caused to- be mustered. the
belching of thunderous guns, are but
the attendants, the funeral knell, of
such an ambition.
Monarch! you cannot stay the hand
of Almighty God; the sweeping tide
of civilization: the upward, %unceasing
march of the progress of the race.
rOi d pdSSilS LuOlIiSul, SlE, IL may
have seemed you had checked it, but
resistance to you and yours, sir, is
nursed by thousands upon thousands
of babes on their mothers breasts;
it beats in the heart throbs of mil
lions of stalwart men, it sWells in the
bosoms of hosts of devoted women:
it flows, sir, in the very life blood Of
nations bound together by a common
impulse; resistance to you, Wilhelm,
and your ilk, in the songs of birds. in
the play of children, the prayers of
mothers, the woods, the fields, the
blooming flowers, the growing crops,
the herds of cattle and sheep and
hogs and horses; in focks on the
farms, in great bins of grain. in vaults
piled with wealth, in gigantic national
and credit, it is found in
the given pennies of the children, the
knitted garmens for the men in the
front, the letters from home, in the
whirr of untold factory wheels, the
rushing trains, the lowing vessels, the
TEEN of industry, energy, in office,
shop, farm, on land and sea. 1t is IT.
resistable, sir, in it's God-given power.
You are doomed, kaiser. as assIredly
as the race lives and moves after all
to a more perfect knowledge of Je-
hovah and Truth.