The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1919-06-06

greed for power shall tarnish or
remove, the proud escutcheon of his
forefathers; and that our free gov
eminent of the people by the people
and for the people shall not perish
from the earth.
/ invite you on this occasion to
make a speech for yourselves, COM
pairing whatever l say with your own
experiences, quickly weighing every
suggestion on the triune scale of the
past, present and future, adopting
and fostering what proves of weight,
and throwing to the scrap heap what
us found wanting.
My personal knowledge of America
began about May 30th, 1869. i ar
rived in Mankato. the then railroad
terminal, about six o'clock on a
Saturday afternoon. We rode that
night in lumber wagon with the
kind old Civil war veteran William
Lewis, to his log house by the woods
in Cambria. We arrived there safely
before midnight, so did not break the
Sabbath by travelling thereon. We
were early at the horeb church next
morning, and what do you think We
saw. To our utter amaZement We
found the head deacon and his assis-
tant, sweeping the church, in cloud
of dust, "all on a Sunday morning
AS boy, / had read of heather lands
but never dreamed that | would
come to one. Now. l see hundreds of
automobiles raising clouds of dust
every Sabbath day, and pay no at
tention TO it. Put that circumstance
on the weighing machine.
The very next day, went to school
in District No. IL at Cambria, then
called Butterunt Valley, and | heard
IIthe teacher, George Gilley, read a
chapter from the Bible at the open
ling, of the school. What else hap
pensd that day, do not remember
do not know. All that remains of
that distant day is the sound of the
clear voice of that humble pioneer
schoolmaster in the little Cambria
school house, reverberating over the
weary lengths of fifty years, BLESS
ed are the pure in heart for they
shall see God" Another item to be
tested.
In those days the curriculum of
this little school was confined mostly
to the three R's-Reading. Riting
and Rithmatic, SO | failed to get
posted on the history of the United
States. | was not fortunate enough
to get a course at the big schools at
Mankato, but went direct from the
district School to College, and at
College they took for granted that
the preparatory schools had taught
United State History, so l missed il
there, too. You now see why | hest
tated to accept the invitation to
come to you today, for the history of
our great country is a great store
house of ammunition on an occasion
like this. Having accepted the invi-
tation, / was in duty bound to pre-
pare some sort of an address. went
about it studying United States his
tory, by myself, without a teacher,
and that is studying at disadvant-
l>age, as you all know. Thus exploring,
one is liable to draw all sorts of
wrong conclusions, and to commit all
sorts of error; but your testing ma
.chine is at hand, and the scrap heap
close by.
l first tried to find out who dis
covered America, and found written
that Madoc, son of Owen Gwynedd.
sailed for America from Wales in
the year ITO, that there existed a
tribe called Madoc Indians, and that
Ithe Spaniards speak of one peculiar
tribe of Indians having some sort of
laws, religious rites and faint trace
OF Christianity. But they became lost
in the natives.
History relates that in the year
1000 the Scandinavians by way of
ireland and Greenland visited the
Gulf of Narragansett, Rhode Island
and Massachusetts, and called the
territory Vineland; that they named
| Newfoundland, Helluland, and cary
ed the number in the party on a
rock near Dighton, Massachusetts
l.But their adventures failed, and thew
felther starved to death or were killed
by the native barbarians.
In 1892 Columbus and his partv
reached the island San Salvador. In
1893 he visited the West Indies again
| In 1893 on a third trip Columbus
frst saw the coast of South America
near venezuela. From that part he
went to Santo Domingo in the island
81 HAITI. There was an uprising of
the inhabitants. Columbus was ar
rested, placed in irons, uniustlv
treated and sent back to Spain. In
15O2 he again reached San Domingo
cut was forbidden to enter the harbor.
He sailed along the coast of Central
America and attempted a settlement
Ills dlsheartened companions insisted
upon his abandoning the ENTERPRISE
In 1914, with complication of men
yal and bodily ailments, he returned
to Spain and vainly pleaded with tho
KING for recognition. and died two
years later. Up to 1913, seven wears
i1ter the death of Columbus. no
European has explored the interior
or either North or South America
They had merely touched the shores
me first exploration of what is now
the United States did not take place
until twenty-five years after tbe
death OF Columbus, and half a century
passed after the first voyage of CO.
iumDus before the Spaniards estab.
lshed any settlement in this coun-
try. Finally, they had a few colonies
IN the South, in Arizona and New
Mexico and at st. Augustine, Florida
{ me French occupied the Mississipni
I valley, and the English, Dutch and
SWedpS tha Atlantic .o...,