Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1921-11-30
sour Own Alf Taylor" .

49,. SSI OWh SA1k 49,
The only introduction given Gov
ernor A. A. Taylor by Commissioner
BASS was: 81 have. the honor to pre-
|sent to you our own Alf Taylor"
The applause lasted several minutes.
|Heis what.I call a fine looking speci-
men of humanity, bald head, laugh
ing eyes, heavy set jaws and a wide
mouth covered with smiles. will not
attempt to give his speech in full, but
Win give you the milk in the cocoa
nut.
He asked: "Is Johnny Bass in the
|house?" He was. Johnny was an
nounced as one of the governors best
friends in the state. looked for one
of the boy scouts to come forward,
but when he came upon the rostrum
he was grizzled veteran of 80 years.
The governor then called up a fel-
low from Texas, and the fddling trio
came forward. The governor took up
his fiddle and led the orchestra, with
Johnny Bass, aged 80, playing the
piano. The crowd went wild when
the fiddlers started the program with
Dixie, and the rebel yell was sound
ed through the tabernacle. Then fol-
lowed Arkansas Traveller" could
hardly keep my feet. Then the chap
lain general asked the, audience to
sing 81 am Bound for the Promised
Land" and the entire crowd, old and
young joined in the singing, the har-
mony being perfect. Then I felt more
like saying "Amen."
The governor then launched into
his speech, which is in part as fol-
lows:
"The honor falls to me to welcome
on on behalf of Tennessee, the surviv-
ing soldiers of the Confederate arm
ies, to this their annual reunion, and
TO thank those in charge for having
selected as the place of reunion, our
great industrial city Of Chattanooga.
Ishave heard it said all my life, that
ssthere is nothing in name; rose
BY any other name would smell as
sweet" it els a proverb hoary with
age, las old as the Prince of Poets, but
this proverb fails utterly when ap-
!piied to "Dixie." / have thought Of
ten that the "Rebel yell" and "Dix-'
ie' were synonymous terms. The
song of, Dixie inspired the boys to
give the rebel yell on the battlefelds;
The stiiienanie h sh sss
strings of historic memory and awak-
ems into life and action an epic
more thrilling than the Illiad of Ho-
mer, an epic of men as knightly as
Henry of Navarro; of women as
beautiful of Helen of ancient Troy;
and as heroic of Joan of Arc; a new
epic of battles as celebrated as Mar
athon or Thermopylae; of soldiers as
illustrious as Miltiades or Leonidas;
of statesmes as renowned as Pericles
or orators as brilliant and as power
full as Demosthenes; of poets as
sweet, as melodious and as passion
ate as Sappho or Alcaus; as weird
and as tragic as Euriphiides. The
name of "Dixie" calls into being a
new epic of success and failure; hope
and despair; Of victory and defeat;
of prosperity and adversely; of love
and hate; of poetry, song and ro-
nance; of valor and patience, and
dauntless courage in the face, of over
whelming cataclysm.
" repeat again." said the govern
or 'that through such vicissitudes no
people in all history of the race have
ever passed and risen so quickly from
such depths of disaster to such res
toration of blighted, and now ruined
fortunes. yield to no one in my love
for "Dixie," because yield to none
in my love for this great republic,
once divided and therefore weak;
this foundation for the unity of the
sections was laid in the Spanish
American war, when the first blood
shed in the cause of humanity was
the blood of son of "Dixie." The
reconciliation became universal and
complete when Mckinley ordered
head-stones at the expense of .e fed
eral government to be placed at the
graves of the Confederate dead, as
signing as a reason that men who
were willing to die for what they be-
Ilieved TO he right were American