The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1919-02-28
Sail On, Sail On
sWhatshall we say, great Admiral, say,
II we sight riaught but seas at
dawn7

II WHHtssHhil we say great Aumlr8t, say
i II we sight riaught but seas q
| dawn7
"Why, We shall say at break of day,
! Sail on, sail on and on and on"
| So spake Columbus, through tn,
deathiess lutte Of old Joaquin Miller
the Poet of the Sierras. So spale tht
great Admiral to his scowling crew
when he, sailed the unknown water!
of the trackless deep.
On, on he sailed, and then, on a sun,
NY fnofning he found new world ly
mig at his feet. So great a faitt
could not fail of reward. Had there
been no new world at all, God woulc
have created one for the immortal
Genoese. a
It has been so in all the ages. Faith
in the Justice that is to be, trust ir
the ultimate good-these are the
things that. have always won. What
ever else has failed, mans struggle
upward for the light has never failed
Delays there were, and disappoint-
ments, but there has never been de-
feat
Let us consider for momnt what
an appalling thing it would be il
faith and hope were to desert the
whole heart of mankind. What would
happen if every human being on the
face of the earth became a pessimist
It would be the same as though the
sun itself turned cold and swung into
the heavens q dead world like the
moon It would be as though we had
climbed the stairs of life and closed
the door behind us.
Men would soon cease to care to
live In that kind of world. They
would jump into the seas and end ex-
istence' in other sad ways. 1t would
not be long until the grass would grow
in the streets of silent cities; the
lions would come back to the Palaces
of Tyre.
Dreadful as it is to contemplate
such situation, it almost seems some
times as though it were about to come
true. At such times one hears on ev-
cry hand only the voices Of the proph-
cts of despair. The hope of better
day is decried. Unbelief takes the
center of the stage and mouths its
gloomy hour in sackcloth with ashes
on its head.
II is almost like that now. The
world has been upset and there are
those who say it can never be set to
rights again. They say that the end
of all things is near.
But, never were prophets more
false. The world will not only be
righted, but it will be righted glorious
ly. II will be better world than it
has ever been since God first flung it
from the hollow of His hand.
This vast unrest is nothing new. II
is an old rnalady. But It is only a
malady,, andsnet death. And it is al
so aimalady that grows less severe
each time that it recurs. Unhealthy
as the mind of the world is at this
hour, the records of history furaish
ample proof that there were times,
and many times, before when eondi-
tions were far worse and when, con-
sequently, they appeared to- be. more
hopeless.
Yet we know very we'll that the sick
ness passed. For, it is the same with
the world that it is with any individ-
ual who is one of the many who go to
make up generation. The individual
gets sick. But, when his blood is
washed out and it's distempers are re-
moved, he becomes we'll again and is
even better man than he was be-
fore.
Whoever win read history patiently
will become an impregnable optimist.
He will see that each succeeding cen
tury Of time brought man forward to
an improvement, over the state of
those who preceded him.
There was a time, for instance,
when only few men could read or
write. There was time when NOV
able type had not been invented, when
there were no printing presses. There
were no books, no ink or pens, no
mails, telegraphs or any means Of in
tercourse between far separated
friends other than runners. There
was no soap, no artificial teeth, no
| fires to cook with.
The poor man of today has COM
forts and luxuries at his hand that
King James did not dream of. The
12-year-old daughter of an American
laborer has better education than
the princesses of the realm could ever
hope to have in olden times, or even in
times that are far from olden. .,,J =.
More than all this, it is necessary
to go only a comparatively short dis
tance back into the past to find time
when the common man was slave and
worse than a slave. If his soul was
his own he did not dare say so. He
WAC knocked around like hound doc