Year: 1877




lant and lie awake nights and watcl
his chances in order to get an opportun'


ity TO tell a little truth once a week
and yet this has nothing to do with the
Turkish war.


Why, then, repeat, are we assembled
here 20 dayS To rejeice that we are q
free people, endowed with the inalien,
able rights Of life, liberty, and the pur.
suit Of happiness at long range. To
rejoice that the precious boon and heri-
tage of freedom is ours, bequeathed us
by the fathers who. fought, bled, and
died, that | and mine and you and yours
might breath the air of freedom. And
we rejoice to-day, and we are proud
and happy and glad, glad that our
fathers died for us instead of compel
ling us to die for them. They were
great, grand men. In fact, they were,
many of them, great-grandfathers.


1t is sweet to die Tor ones country. 1t
seems to me that |, too, would gladly,
oh, how gladly, add my name to the
great and good, and die for my country
of old age. would die sooner If 1t
was thought necessary, but haven't
got time. am too busy. But If any
sacrifices are needed next centennial,
they may call on me, and l will either
come or send hand.


Our fathers died for us. They died
willingly and gladly. But If they could
come back to-day and see what kind of
crowd they died for, quarreling over
the Presidents policy, wrangling over
the currency, and some of them trying
to pay a dollars worth of debt with
ninety cents worth of money, talking
politics twenty three hours a day, and
praying so that their knees get rusty,
drowned out by rain, devoured by
grasshoppers, they would, If they had
it to do over again, live nine thousand
years, and only die then when they
had to-


And yet ours Is glorious country.
A wonderful, magnificent country. 1t
is marvellous. AS high-school girl
would say, it is "nice." Look abroad
over our land, turn the pages of history,
and see what the mighty genius Of
progress has wrought. But one short
century ago, the cornerstone of this
mighty fabric was laid, amid the thun-
der Of cannon and the rattle of musketry,
canOpied by the smoke of battle and ce-
mented with blood. A little band of
struggling, needy patriots, half clad,
poorly fed, with only few dollars in
the national treasury. To-day the sun Of
one hundred and one years breaks upon
the land-wherever 1t isn't storming-
and where do we stand2 A billion dol
lars in debt.


Our fathers died, but they had no
railroads. If they had they might have
died with less expense and trouble be-
fore they got to the war. Our fathers
never knew the ecstatic pleasure OF
leaning out of car window and getting
a red-hot cinder as big as pea in the
eye before they could look at a tree.
They had no telegraph, and never knew
what a convenience it was to pay forty
cents to send message fifty miles, and
then have the dispatch come tagging
day or two after the man died of old age.
They had no kerosene lamps, and they
never knew what it was to light
kitchen fire and make balloon ascen-
sion out of the same. They had no
United States signal service, and never
had forty-two rainy days in month,
with a tornado every wash-day. Their
wants were few and simple. They
didn't need great deal of weather,
and what they had was regulated by
the ground hog, and that reliable
weather bureau never made a mistake.


These men have passed away. In
their simple habits, their sterling hon
esty, their grand patriotism, their un-
selfish devotion to principle, they passed
from life to eternal fame. The men Of
'76 are gone. do not know where,
but they have gone somewhere; l do
not see any Of them here. If there are
any present they will please rise, for
am willing to be corrected when / am
wrong.


The Fourth of July was invented by
aman whose name Is dear to all Ameri-
can hearts-George Washington. BY
an ingenious arrangement the Fourth
of July was so contrived by the inventor
that it would always fall on rainy
day. 1t has missed it only once in the
past twelve hundred years, and on that
once 1t hailed all day. The Fourth of
July was not the only invention of this
great and good man. He invented
name that will fit two-thirds of the
boys of every generation in America. A
grateful people never forget the fact,
and Washington when at the zenith of
his power was nominated by acclama-
ton for the capital of the United States.
Washington was once discovered pray
ing at Valley Forge and from the great
stress laid upon the incident by all his
torians, it is judged that it was the
only time that anybody caught him
praying. He was brave, good man,
but he dressed too much like member
of baseball club to be elected Presi-
dentin these days.


Turkish Fable.


Here is Turkish fable: Abdullah