NEW YORK SPEECH ON LEARNING OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION "Fellow citizens! Clouds and darkness are round about Him! His pavilion is dark waters and thick clouds of the skies! Justice and judgment are the establishment of His throne! Mercy and truth shall go before His face! Fellow citizens! God reigns, and the Government at Washington still lives!" General James A. Garfield. DESCRIPTION OF CHRIST The following epistle is said to have been taken by Napoleon from the records of Rome when he deprived that city of so many valuable manuscripts. It was written at the time and on the spot where Jesus commenced his ministry, by Publius Lentulus, Governor of Judea, to the senate of Rome, Caesar, emperor. It was the custom in those days for the governor to write home any event that transpired while he held his office. "Conscript Fathers: In these our days appeared a man named Jesus Christ, who is yet living among us, and of the Gentiles is accepted as a prophet of great truth; but his own disciples call him the son of God. He hath raised the dead and cured all manner of diseases. He is a man of stature somewhat tall and comely, with a ruddy countenance, such as the beholder may both love and fear. His hair is the color of a filbert when fully ripe, plain to his ear, whence downward it is more of orient color, curling and waving on his shoulders; in the middle of his head is a seam of long hair, after the manner of the Nazarites. His forehead is plain and delicate; the face without spot or wrinkle, beautiful with a comely red; his nose and mouth are exactly formed; his beard is the color of his hair and thick, not of any length, but forked. "In reproving, he is terrible; admonishing, courteous; in speaking, very modest and wise; in proportion of body, well-shaped. None have seen him laugh, many have seen him weep. A man for his surpassing beauty excelling the children of men.' WE SEE WITH OUR VISION IMPERFECT We see with our vision imperfect, And some that may never be near; We would find, whatever our trial, As our day, our strength shall be. DEATH Cary. We The fiat of nature is inexorable. There is no appeal for relief from the great law which dooms us to dust. flourish and fade as the leaves of the forest, and the flowers that bloom and wither in a day have no frailer hold upon life than the mightiest monarch that ever shook the earth with his footsteps. Generations of men will appear and disappear as the grass, and the multitude that throng the world today will disappear as the footsteps on the shore. Men seldom think of the great event of death until the shadow falls across their own pathway, hiding from their eyes the faces of loved ones whose living smile was the sunlight of their existence. Death is the antagonist of life, and the cold thought of the tomb is the skeleton of all feasts. We do not want to go through the dark valley, although its dark passage may lead to Paradise; we do not want to lie down in the damp grave, even with princes for bedfellows. In the beautiful drama of Ion, the hope of immortality, so eloquently uttered by the death-devoted Greek, finds deep response in every thoughtful soul. When about to yield his young existence as a sacrifice to fate, his Clemantha asks if they should meet again, to which he replies: "I have asked that dreadful question of the hills that look eternal-of the clear streams that flow forever-of the stars among whose fields of azure my raised spirit has walked in glory. All were dumb; but as I gaze upon thy living face I feel that there is something in the love that mantles through its beauty that cannot wholly perish. We shall meet again, Clemantha." George D. Prentice GOD GIVE US MEN God give us men. The time demands Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and willing hands; Men whom the lust of office does not kill; Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy; Men who possess opinions and a will; Men who have honor; men who will not lie; Men who can stand before a demagogue And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking; In public duty and in private thinking! For while the rabble with their thumb-worn creeds, Wrong rules the land, and waiting Justice sleeps! J. G. Holland. INDEX TITLES AND AUTHORS A star indicates that the selection did not take a prize, although Abou Ben Adhem. Leigh Hunt 48 Address at Gettysburg. Abraham Lincoln Afterwhile. James Whitcomb Riley. All. Anon Almost Home. E. Crayton McCants. Alone. Robert J. Burdette.. Ambition. Truman Roberts Andrews 20 41 408 173 346 America. S. F. Smith, LL.D. Ancient Toast, An. Anon. Answered Prayer. The. Margaret Holland 393 222 10 122 219 Arrow and the Song, The. Henry W. Longfellow. As Through the Land at Eve We Went. Tennyson Ask and Ye Shall Receive. Mrs. Havens... At Home. Bayard Taylor Benjamin Franklin's Toast. Anon.. Bereaved. James Whitcomb Riley Be Strong. Maltbie D. Babcock, D.D. Betty and the Bear. Anon.. Bible My Mother Gave Me, The. Anon. 140 Bochsa Plays the Star Spangled Banner. G. Fernald. Boys, The. Oliver Wendell Holmes... 398 36 Bravest Battle, The. Joaquin Miller Break! Break! Break! Alfred Tennyson. Breast Forward. Robert Browning. 229 51 46 Bringing Them up to the Mark. Selected. 384 British Tribute to Lincoln. Thomas Taylor. 306 Chambered Nautilus, The. Oliver Wendell Holmes 44 149 Charge of the Light Brigade. Alfred Tennyson.. 28 249 Children, The. Charles Dickens Choir Invisible, The. George Eliot. Church Music. Anon Closing Year, The. George D. Prentice. Columbia's Emblem. Edna D. Proctor. Columbus. Joaquin Miller... Concert, The. Anon.. 175 385 325 12 234 232 359 Creator in Creation, The. Fanny Raymond Ritter. 376 Crooked Footpath, The. Oliver Wendell Holmes. 168 Crossing the Bar. Alfred Tennyson.. 146 Cry of the Dreamer, The. John Boyle O'Reilly. Day Is Done, The. Henry W. Longfellow.. 62 Days Gone By, The. James Whitcomb Riley. 77 Days That Are No More, The. Alfred Tennyson. 55 De Massa ob de Sheepfol'. Sally Pratt McLean (?). |