Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1932-06-09

countenance fell He was disappoint-
ed. The poet said, 81 am not the full
fillment of the prophecy. l have writ
ten some beautiful and some noble
things, but my life is not like my
verse;"
Ernest was to speak that evening to
his neighbors. He took the poet along.
1t was in the evening towards sunset.
Towards the end of his address, Err
nests face lighted up with the nobil-
ity of his thoughts. There was a glow
on his face, just as there was a glow
OF sunset on the Great Stone Face
across the valley. Suddenly the poet
exclaimed, Behold, Ernest is himself
the fulfillment of the prophecy" Sure
enough, the neighbors then realized
for the first time that there had
grown up among them a really great
man, but on account of his simplicity,
his lack of pretense, they did not
realize his greatness.
Names Great MinnesOtans.
The speaker then went on to point
out that in this story, Hawthorne
teaches profound truth. Mr.. Odland
selected two characters out of Min
nesOta history, eXemplifying the truth
of Nathaniel Hawthorne as expressed
in The Great Stone Face. The two
are William Watts Folwell, the first
president of the University of Mime
sofa, who lived to the extreme age
OF ninety-seven, and became univer-
sally loved as THE Grand Old Man
of Minnesota" Like Ernest in the
story, he lived plain, simple, demo-
cratic life, occupying the old resi-
dence which he first built after be-
coming president of the University in
1876. He delighted in being helpful
to the younger men, and his words of
cheer inspired. After he had attained
the great age of ninety, he began pre-
pairing his monumental work on the
History of Minnesota, pronounced by
many critics in America as the great
est history of any American state,
thus browning his life's work.
The second Minnesota man men,
toned was Knute Nelson who came to
America as poor immigrant boy
from Norway at the age of six. He
became famous the world over as one
of the ablest political leaders in the
two greatest foreign born American
statesmen, the other being Carl
Schultz. But however great the
hOnors heaped upon Knute Nelson, he
remained to the end the same plain,
simple, unpretentious man. Upon the
Senate at Washington, he Immediately
went to his farm on the outskirts of
Alexandria, and lived the life of the
ordinary farmer and local business
man.
The four greatest men in American
history are Benjamin Franklin, George
Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and
Abraham Lincoln, three of these ey
employing wonderfully we'll the quail
tiles so strikingly presented by Haw-
thorne in his story of The Great Stone
Face.
Benjamin Franklin, the first of the
Great Americans, achieved world re-
nown as scientist, as philosopher,
as an inventor and author. The serv
ice he rendered America at the Court
of France was largely responsible for
the Colonies winning their War Of
independence against England. All
through his life, Franklin remained
like Knute Nelson and William Watts
Folwell, plain, simple, and unassum-
ing. Nobody would have guessed he
was a great man, or that he consid
cred himself a great man.
Thomas Jefferson, though we'll born,
was a democrat in the broad sense,
who stood for the utmost simplicity
and democracy in government. When
he was to be inaugurated as the third
president of the United States, he re-
fused to permit any display in mis-
honor, any marching of brass bands.
Instead he rode into Washington on
his family horse, tied it to a hitching
post and went in and took the oath
of office.
Abraham Lincoln, however, eXem-
plifies the truth of the statement that
the truly great are those who are the
most unassuming and unpretentious.
The Saviour said to His Disciples,
Let those of you who would be the
greatest, be the servant of ALL" Lin
coin carried out this admonition of