Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 July 1888 — Page 6

A GREAT ORATION.

Patrick Henry's Historical • Speech in Philadelphia That Secured the Signatures to the Declaration of American Independence.

tor, made his immortal address, and which carried his hearers along the path of conviction until every one stood ready to sacrifice all that the colonies might be free from the hated yoke of England. The Journal says of this famous gathering: It is the old hall of Philadelphia, on July 4, 1776. There is a silence in this hall; every face is stamped with a deep and awful responsibility! Why turns every glance to that door? Why is it so terribly still ? The committee of three who have been out all night planning a parchment are about to appear. That parchment, with the signatures of these men, written with the pen Iving on yonder table, may either make tfie world free, or stretch these necks on the gibbet yonder in potter’s field, or nail these heads to the doorposts of these halU. That was the time for solemn faces and deep silence. At last, hark! The door opens, the committee appears. Who are these men who come walking on to John Hancock's chair?

The tall man, with sharp features, the bold brow and sand-hued hair, holding the parchment, is the Virginia farmer, Thomas Jefferscfn. The stout-built man, with resolute look and sparkling eye —that is a Boston man, one John Adams. And the calm-faced man with hair dropping in thick - curls to his shoulders, the one dressed in a plain coat and such odious home-made blue stockings—that is a Philadelphia printer, one Benjamin Franklin. The three advance to the table. The parchment is laid there. Shall it be signed or not ? Then eusues a high debate; then all the faint-hearted cringe in corners, while Thomas Jefferson speaks out his few l>old words, and Jolm Adams pours out his whole soul. The soft-toned voice of Charles Carroll is heard undulating in syllables of deep music. But still there is doubt, and that pale-faced man shrinking in one corner speaks out something about axes, ' scaffolds, and a—gibbet. “Gibbet!” echoed a fierce bold tone, that startled men from their seats—and look yonder, a tall, slender form rises, dressed, although it is summer time, in a faded red cloak. Look how his white band trembles, as it stretches slowly out; how that dark eye burns, while bis words ring through the hall. It is Virginia’s fiery orator, Patrick Henry. Gibbet! They may stretch our necks on all the gibbets in the land; they may turn every rock into a scaffold, "every tree into a gallows, every home into a grave, and.yet the words of that parchment can never die.

They may pour blood upon a thousand scaffolds, and yet from every drop that dyes the ax, or drops on the sawdust of the block, a new martyr of free•dom will spring into birth! The British King may blot out the stars of God from liis sky, but he cannot blot out the words written on the parchment there. The works of God may perish; His word, never! These words will go forth to the world when our bones are dust. To the slave in bondage they will speak bope; to the mechanic in his workshop, freedom; to the coward kings these w r ords will speak, but not in tones of flattery. They will speak like the flaming syllables on Belshazzar’s wall: “The days of pride and glory are numbered! The days of judgment draw near!”

Yes, that parchment will speak to kings in language sad and terrible as the trumpet of the archangel. You have trampled on the rights of mankind long enough. At last, the voice of human woe has piferced the ear of God, and called his judgment down. You have waded on the throne through seas of blood; you have trampled on the necks of millions; you have turned the poor man’s sweat and blood into robes for your delicate forms; into crowns for your anointed brows. Now, kings! Now, purpled hangmen of the world! For you comes the day of axes, and gibbets and scaffolds; for you the wrath of man; for you the lightnings of God. Look! How the light of your palaces on fire flashes up into the midnight air! Now, purpled hangmen of the world, turn and beg for mercy! Where will you find it ? Not from God, for you have blasphemed His laws! Not from the people, for you stand baptized in their blood! Here you turn, and lo! a gibbet! There, and a scaffold stares you in the face! All around you —death— but nowhere pity! Now, executioners of the human race, kneel down; yes, kneel down on the sawdust of the scaffold; lay your purpled heads upon the block ; bless the ax as it falls —the ax sharpened for the hangman’s Beck. Such is the message of the declaration of the kings of the world. And

THE following account of the proceedings of the convention that adopted the Declaration of Independence is taken from the : Boston Journal o f 1776. It was at this session that Patrick Henrv, the fiery ora-

shall we falter now? And shall we start back appalled when our free people press the very threshold of freedom? Do you see quailing faces around you when our wives have been butchered; when the heartlistones of our land are red with the blood of little children ? What! Are there shrinking hearts or faltering voices here, w hen the very dead of our battlefields arise and call upon us to sign that parchment or be accursed ? Sign! If the next moment the gibbet’s rope is around your neck. Sign ! If the next moment this hall rings with the echo of the falling ax. Sign! By all your hopes in life or death, as husbands, fathers —as men with our names to the parchment, or be accused forever 1 Sign, net only for yourselves, but for all ages; for that parchment will be the text-book of freedom—the Bible of the rights of man forever. Sign, for the declaration will go forth to American hearts like the voice of God. And its work will not be done until throughout this wide continent not a single inch of ground owns the sway of privilege of power. Nay, do not start and whisper with surprise. It is truth. Your own hearts witness it; God proclaims it. This continent is" the property of a free people, and their property alone. God, I say, proclailns it. Look at this strange history of a band of exiles and outcasts suddenly transformed into the people. Look at this wonderful exodus of the old world into the new, where they came weak in arms, but mighty in god-like faith. Nay, look at the history of your Bunker Hill, yonr Lexington, where a band of plain farmers mocked and trampled down the panoply of British arms, and then tell me, if you can, that God has not given America to be free. It is not given to our poor human intellect to climb the skies to pierce the councils of the Almighty one. But metliinks I stand among the awful clouds which veil the brightness of Jehovah’s throne. Metliinks I see the recording angel—pale as angel is pale, weeping as an angel can weep—come trembling up to the throne, and speaking his dreadful message. Father! The old world is baptized in blood. Father! It is drenched with the blood of millions who have been executed, in slow' and grinding oppression. Father, look! With one glance of Thine eternal eye, look over Europe, Asia, Africa, and behold everywhere a terrible sight—man trodden down beneath the oppressor’s feet, nations lost in blood, murder and superstition walking hand in hand over the graves of their victims, and not a single voice to w hisper hope to man. He stands there (the angel), his hand trembling with the human guilt. But hark! The voice of Jehovah speaks out from the awful cloud : Let there be light again. Let there be a new world. Tell my people, the poor, downtrodden millions, to go out from the old world. Tell them to go out from wrong, oppression and blood. Tell them to go out from the old world to build up my altar in the new.

As God lives, my friends, I believe that to be his voice. Yes, were my soul trembling as the wing of eternity, were this hand freezing to death, were my voice choking with the last struggle, I would still, with the last gasp of that voice, implore you to remember the truth. God has given America to be free. Yes, as I sank down into the gloomy shadows of the grave, with my last gasp I would beg you to sign that parchment. In the name of the One who made you, the Savior tvlio redeemed you, in the name of the millions whose very breath is now hushed, as, in intense expectation, they look up to you for the awful words, you are free !

Many years have gone by since that hour. The speaker, his brethren, all have crumbled into dust, but the records of that hour still exist, and they tell ns that it would require an angel’s pen to picture the magic of that speaker’s look, the terrible emphasis of his voice, the prophetic-like beckoning of his hand, the magnetic flames Shooting from his eyes, that fired every heart throughout the hall. He fell exhausted in his seat, as the work was done. A wild murmur thrills through the hall. Sign ? Ha! There is no doubt now. Look! How they rush forward! Stouthearted John Hancock has scarcely time to sign his own name before the pen is grasped by another, another and another. Look how their names blaze on the parchment, Adams and Lee and Jefferson and Carroll, and now Roger Sherman, the shoemaker. And here comes good old Stephen Hopkins; yes, trembling with palsy, he totters forward, quivering from head to foot. With his shaking hand he seizes the pen and scratches his patriot name. Then comes Benjamin Franklin, the printer. And now the tall man in the red cloak advances—the man who made the fiery speech a moment ago. With the same hand that waved in fiery scorn, he writes his name—Patrick Henry. And now the parchment is signed; and now let the word go forth to the people in the streets, to the homes of America, to the camp of Washington; t 6 the palace of George, the idiot king; let the word go out to all the earth. And, old man in the steeple, now bare your arm and grasp the iron tongue, and let the bell speak out the great truth. Fifty-six farmers and mechanics have this day struck at the shackles of the world.

Don’t be afraid of getting hurt on the glorious Fourth, Our fathers got hurt to produce the great day, and their children should keep on getting hurt to keep tha day in all its pristine glory-

FOR THE LADIES.

A Budget of Breezy Gossip Relating Exclusively to the Fair Sex. —a* Accompanied bj Some Sotes on the Ever Changing Styles in Feminine Attire. [SPECIAL NEW YORK CORRESPONDENCE.] She was a buttermilk-maid at a garden party for sweet charity’s sake. She was an idealization of the rural original. There was no tan on her face, nor a fleck of barnyard dust on her toilet. She sold buttermilk at ten cents a glass as fast as she could use a ladle with her gloved hands. A few soft words and a roguish glance went with each glass without extra charge. On her head was a hat of a shape that a real milkmaid might have worn, only in this instance the leghorn material had cost five or six dollars, and a bunch of fine white ostrich plumes added as much more to the toilet. The kerchief which was brought around her shoulders and crossed over her breast suggested country simplicity, if the observer was not expert enough to know that the lace-edged article w r as worth fifty dollars at a moderate valuation. The gloves were of the daintiest silk, and she was spoiling them in doing that one afternoon’s duty with buttermilk. They were light violet in color and in perfume. It is a whim of the season to scent such gloves with the appropriate odor. The apron had been made for the occasion, of the same material as the kerchief, and, like the gloves, was being ruined by spatters of buttermilk. I reckoned that the service she was performing would cost her about fifteen dollars in perishable material, and, considering that fact, who shall say that the beverage she dispensed »was dear at a dime a glass, notwithstanding the same fluid can be bought in the streets for three cents ? Wash goods that can’t be washed are a feature of the season, especially in toilets to be worn at the summer resorts. The wealthy belle aims at a sort of simplicity that cannot be cheap. Her lawn gown for the lawn may be made of a figured fabxic quite within

A BUTTERMILKMAID.

the reach of a shop girl, but she trims it so daintily and expensively with lace that the aggregate value makes it exclusive to the richly endowed belles. Moreover, the embellishments are of such a texture that they would be ruined by the wash-tub, and so the comparatively cheap lawn is worn only until soiled, and then thrown away, while the owner thinks she is making a concession to economy by having the lace transferred to another dress of tha same kind. A beach promenader is apt to carry a muslin parasol, and this may be trimmed with crepe lisse in overlying sections, producing a soft and feathery effect. Makers of parasols have taxed their ingenuity to produce novelties, and these usually take the form of embroidered muslin, white being the popular color. It is a unique fashion for the present summer to have a set of covers for parasols made detachable, and to match the various toilets with which the sunshade is to be carried. The form has an elaborate handle, either of modeled silver or gold, or carved ivory or shell, and these exquisitely and artistically embellished handles cost almost any price that anybody feels like paying, for they are sometimes set with jewels, besides representing a great deal of skilled handiwork. A handsome handle and form, with a set of twelve assorted covers, may easily cost one hundred dollars, although half that sum will buy a tolerable outfit. If the belle desires to be further extravagant, she may have as many handles as covers, and prove that they are inseparable by painting the former in enamel of colors and designs to match the latter. It is not often that the useful is combined with the ornamental where dress novelties are concerned, but I have just seen some new parasol handles which really do serve a purpose other than providing their owners with a formidable weapon. The

knobs at the ends of these new sunshades are in the form of muzzled dogs' heads of various breeds, and upon touching a conveniently placed spring the muzzle opens and discloses a safe receptacle for any small article, such as a railway ticket, a tiny scent bottle, or even a few stray silver coins and unwieldy coppers. “Only a woman’s hair” has been the subject of many a tender poem, and Pope himself tells us that “beauty draws us with a single hair.” The Japanese have improved upon the little lame man of Twitham. They are making ropes of women’s hair—a ton of

LAWN FOR THE LAWN.

this material having been used in building a Buddhist temple at Kioto. If they had left it on the heads of pretty women and induced them to go to this temple they would have found them a greater attraction than the whole ton of ropes, without the women, could ever be. A radical change in an accepted style of coiffure is always a matter of slow growth, but there is at last a chance of the fringe going out of fashion. The number of ladies who turn their hair up from the forehead is daily increasing. The hair in front is arranged in rolls, waved or slightly curled, and the back is either plaited or turned up to meet the front part. This innovation of bare foreheads is all well enough for women with low or only moderately high brows, but the real intellectual forehead is unfeminine,no matter what may be said of it as indicative of brain inside. If the hair grows evenly and rather low, and especially if it have a natural kinkiness, it can be becomingly brushed back; but seventy in a hundred women cannot afford to take away a shading of hair from above their faces, and so the majority of us will struggle for another summer to keep our bangs crimped in spite of the straightening humidity of seashore atmosphere. Millinery grows to great dimensions under the summer sun, and hats which would be outlandish in the cities are reasonably picturesque in the country. Still, it will be seen that there is more of ornate shapeliness than usual, mere expansiveness of brim being less a feature than hitherto. I had a talk with an artist to-day about big hats. Said he: “It is a mistake to condemn them, if they be worn with artistic taste. The fundamental rule to be kept in mind in wearing a very big hat is to make that article appear as something separate from the individual. What I mean is, that when hat, hair, veil, etc., form one mingled mass, that makes the girl seem to have an enorbulk of head, and a veritable monster is produced. But if such a hat rests on a symmetrical and simple head, it looks like a separate affair and is usually becoming.” Another thing that he said was: “Why don’t you publish a good sound doctrine about the wearing of veils in summer ? Belles desirous of protecting their complexion, from tan and freckles, or aiming to conceal imperfections of that sort, often hang a veil from hair to chin. Now, that may be well enough, so far as enhancing the beauty of complexion is concerned, but the trouble is that it hides the eyes, and thus robs a face of much expression. What do I propose? Why, I would have you wear your veils harem fashion, coming up to the eyes but not

A BEACH PROMENADER.

covering them. There never was a pair of unpresentable eyes, unless marred by accident or natural defect, and so why cover them ? Let any girl try the experiment of a veil worn Turkish fashion and see if she doesn’t multiply her powers of attraction.”—Chicago Ledger. .< Alpaca is much worn again.

THE CAMPAIGN.

It Is Opened in lively Fashion in the National House of Representatives. Chairman Mills Attacks and Mr. Kellej Defends the Republican Platform. [Associated Press Report] The House was in committee of the whole on the tariff bill on Thursday, and was discussing a motion to strike from the free list alt vegetables not otherwise provided for. The motion was favored by Messrs. Brewer (Mich.), Brown (Ya.), and Farquhar (N. Y.y, who contended that the admission of vegetables duty free would enable Canadians to undersell American farmers on the border. Mr. Mills (Tex.) called attention to the fact that potatoes were specifically Provided for in another part of the bill. 'he clause, he contended was in the interest of the consuming classes, and he queried where the Republicans would be willing to reduce taxation. Mr. Brumm (Pa.) suggested that they were ready to reduce internal taxes, and Mr. Mills replied: “Yes. you want free whisky. You do not say in your platform that you want to reduce the duties on sugar and rice. The convention has overruled what you have contended for. Your party commands you to go for free whisky. We go with you to the oountry on that question. We demand a reduction on the things which enter into consumption as necessaries, and demand that taxes shall remain on whisky as they are to-day.”

Mr. J. D. Taylor, of Ohio, challenged the statement thut the Republican party was in favor of free whisky. All classes of the Republican party were in favor of abolishing internal taxes beeguso they believed it to be unwise as a system. Under the circumstances, a man who would coldly and with his judgment in his hand assert that the Republican party was in favor of free whisky might be developed, according to the Darwinian theory, four countless cycles of time, without mounting intellectually to the position of a brevet ass. . [Laughter and applause on the Republican side.] Mr. Mills said he was not astonished at the tenderness of the gentlemen on this question. It was well known that the majority of the Republican party was opposed to the extreme position which the Republicans had taken at Chicago. It was well known that the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Kelley) represented a minority, and when the convention at Chicago was lashed and scourged to take a position for free whisky no one sooner than the gentleman from Pennsylvania sent congratulations to the convention for coming to the heroic stand which he had occupied. For the first time at Chicago had the Republican party come boldly and taken the position before the American people in favor of keeping the taxes on the necessities of life, and demanding that the Treasury should be emptied by taking the tax off whisky. That was the position that party had taken before the American people, and no amount of disclaiming would convince the people that that party, if in power, would not take the tax off whisky and leave it on every article of necessity. [Applause on Democratic side.] Mr. Kelley (Pa.) denied that he was in favor of free whisky. He advocated the repeal of the war taxes Avhich Jefferson had denounced as an infernal system. Ho had demanded that the Democrats carry out their platform of 1884, which promised an abolition of the internal taxes. The gentleman from Texas (Mills) could not deny that it was the Democratic promise in 1884 to the tobacco growers, the fruit growers, and the distillers of the South that they should be relieved from national surveilanoe and supervision. He had asked that this great source of revenue be remitted to the people of the States, and under State law, to the municipalities of the State; and those governments which bore the burden of crime and vice and insanity should have whatever revenue might be justly derived from a source so fruitful of crime and misery as the whisky business. Air. Spinola (N. Y.) said a party should be judged by its acts; and it was stated in a newspaper that 81,260 extra barrels of beer had been consumed in Chicago during the sessions of the convention. [Laughter.] That was a pretty strong piece of prima facie evidence that the Republicans were in favor of free rum.

Mr. Owen (Ind.) suggested that the beer was intended for visiting Democrats, but Mr. Spinola denied that Democrats went to such places. Mr. Beed (Me.) thought that the gentleman from Texas did not mean to be belived when he said that the Republican party was for freo whisky, because the gentleman knew that there would not be enough Democrats left to make up an electoral ticket in half the States of the Union if they had confidence in his statement. [Laughter.] The gentleman knew that the position of the Republican party on this subjeot was too simple to be turned in this way; but if the Democratic party should ever commence a campaign without a false statement its own friends would not know it. What the convention had said was that after having triod every other method of reducing taxes consistent with the maintenance of the system of protection, if the Republicans had to choose between internal taxes and the protective system, they would stand by tho system of protection for American industries. The Legislature of Virginia, which was two-thirds Democratic, had adopted a resolution declaring it to be the duty of Congress to secure the repeal of the internal revenue system. Was the Democratic Legislature of Virginia in favor of free Avhisky ? No Democrat had been elected in Tennessee who was not pledged to use his best efforts to secure the repeal of internal taxes. Was the Demooratio party of Tennessee in favor of free whisky? Mr. Weaver (Iowa) criticised the internsalrevenue plank of the Chicago platform, and declared that tho issue could not be shirked and that there could bo no shuffling. “I am a Democrat,” interrupted Mr. Wise (Va.), “and I am in favor of the repeal of the tobacco tax.” [Applause on the Republican side.] Mr. Weaver—“ This bill provides for a reduction of that tax; but I say to the gentleman from Virginia that his position in favor of the repeal of the internal-revenue taxes is not the position of this bill.” Mr. Wise—“My position is the position of the National Democratic party in 1884, and the platform of 1888 indorses the platform of 1884." Mr. Cannon (Ill.) said he was willing to stand by the Chicago platform as a whole, but he was not willing to stand upon a sentence picked out here and .there and construed by the enemy. The platform demanded appropriations for the rebuilding ol the navy, for the construction of sea-coast and other defenses, for freo schools, and for the payment of pensions. It then declared for free alcohol used in tho arts, and the repeal of duty on articles not produced in this country. When all this was done, if further reduction was still needed and a choice had to be made between the protective system and the internal System, then, and then alone, the Republican party placed itself on record as favoring the further removal ol internal taxes rather than to interfere with the wages of labor and the diversity of industries pf the country. _