Norfolk High School - Milestone Yearbook (Norfolk, NE)

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THE MILESTONE. 22 things, they must revere thee, thou biue cinctured isle of England—not of today but this long while in the front of nations. Mothers of great kings, soldiers and poets. Round thee the sea flings His steel bright arm, and shields thee from guile. Again, in the great drama of the evolution of nations, France has ever been a figure, widely varied ’tis true, but always most important. Her drama has been played in many acts; her scenes shifted twixt brightest colored splendor. and deepest woe. Not constant and sublime, but gay and passionate. But her progress, though spasmodic, has ever been brilliant; she ever held high the achievements of art, and ideal development. Her history early becomes a romance; volumes must be to tell the story. Hut. true to the history of all countries, but few characters play the great acts. A war of races, a Ctesarian conquest, for years warring for place and existence, characterizes her chaotic infancy alike with that of every European power. Clovis formed a kingdom, 507, and, with the Franks he named it France. In .68, the next great act, a hero of christain war plunged his sword of conquest far and wide o'er the feudal powers next to his kingdom; Charlemagne conquered the empire, and with sword and heart, hand in hand, lie founded his dominions in civilization, in Christianization. Across a dark night of chaos, Henry of Navarre comes as a beacon light in the confusion of both religious and civil anarchy. In 1598 the Edict of Nantes reinstated Christian liberty. In lb4d Louis XIV declared “I am the state, and “thirty years” of awful and unscrupulous war characterized his most delusive an arrogant synonym, the “Golden Age. A revolution was the final crisis. The most wicked depravity reigned; a horde of petty stub's became rank in anarchy; but at orsiean hero comes to the rescue, A Napoleon ignites the great boulder of political feuds, and institutes the more pacific system of French Democracy. The cost of the French Republic of today cannot be approximated. Her millions of gravestones tell her tale of woe, and represent the cost of her present glory. Madame DeStael once said to a distinguished man. “You arc the advance guard ot the human race. You are the future of the world. lhut distinguished man was an American, and she was speaking of the American people. Ah, our national heritage! The elysium of the happy, the loyal.

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THE MILESTONE. 21 say, “What lias it cost?” Glorious institutions indeed we inherit today, but “What is the price of our heritage? From infancy to maturity the student of history traces those events which have characterized the growth of notions. The infant nation is bent and swayed in the storms of adversity till the matured tree bean the imprint of those distinct crises which have shaped its character. The price paid for the civilization of this day and and age must be deciphered on the decaying walls of many countries. No nation 1ms been literally independent, has builded by itself, builded for itself alone. All pay tribute to a motherland. Majestic England, our mother country, merits the homage of age. On her maritime isles, her feet have ever seemed planted on the solid rocks of the seas. Wealth, power, and character, most sublime and glorious crown her royal institutions. ltut recapitulate her history and estimate the cost. What have the forefathers of English ascendancy paid for the massive kingdom their children inherit ? Embryotic England, enveloping those ancient generations of wnrring races, is a period in itself where its buried powers must forever lie. Anglo-Saxon data gives us the first clear notes of true and familiar civilization. Then, in 1066, the thunderbolt of Norman invasion broke the chrysalis of Anglo-Saxon rule. The battle of Hastings, a milestone in English ascendancy, achieved the v ictory of William the First and his new era. The thirteenth century dawns; a dim light begins to shine; Magna Charta was bom. Magna Cliarta, the corner-stone to the great edifice of English liberty, to which all organized freedom to this day must pay sovereignty. Britain begins to be great. Planted as she is, guardian to the powers of the seas, her institutions grow strong, her treasury rich. But with more certainty, with the growth of the kingdom, her crises were ominous and mighty. A Cromwell led his armies in slaughter and sacrifice, until there was perpetuated a bloodstained throne with his “iron rule. A century and a half, and Wellington grasped the hydra-headed form of a most dangerous encroachment, and in the most glorious of all English victories, preserved the dignity of English dominion. Thus is outlined the greatest events of the world's civil development. What has it all cost? Let the institutions that crown England with imperial wealth and majesty repy, England, while men pay reverence to mighty

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THE MILESTONE. 23 the free! The little hand of wearied mariners who stepped to a new l orn land o’er the century washed rock of an eastern shore is now a people of sixty-five millions. The little nucleus of thirteen colonies is now a brotherhood of forty-two states. True to history our forefathers fought a war for possession, whose foe was symbolized by the tomahawk, ami yell of savagery. But we were not our own. An iron rule held us beneath its sway. But, 1776, an old bellman rang out our independence. The inspiration was caught up by the l ople, and, through the most heroic war ever fought for God and country, they sustained their most righteous cause. In 1788 a constitution was adopted, cementing a brotherhood, the United States. But allied with our young institutions, and sanctioned by the government, were the elements of domestic strife. Slavery grew rank in the republic. In 1863, a proclamation was issued. Emancipation was its message, and its fulfillment forever stigmatized before the world, the curse of servitude; and in the American nation was instituted the most illustrious example of the universal liberties of man. Now, America is a great home, a fireside. Her people are the most magnanimous of the human universe. Education, music, art. culture are inmost virtues of the heart. We still are a nation of progression. But whence ooraeth this heritage? What has it all cost? The famed Pericles in Athenian supremacy, standing over the remains of his fellow men said, “The whole world is the sepulchreof illustrious men. Illustrious men. how fresh the memories of their names, where lives purchased an inheritance whose blessing shall live and reign forever. Tomorrow I see a procession; it goes toward yonder marble stones; 'tis our fathers, our mother.!, our brothers and sisters; they carry flowers in their hands; they stop and sing; we hear the notes of fife and drum; they strew their flowers o’er the graves; ah, soldiers are buried there! To them—heroes of our heritage—let the living forever pay their choicest benedictions. Our Warrens and McPhersons are buried there. There are thousands more with resting places unknown. No sculptured marble gives them names, but to them all We pay most hallowed tribute. “We’ll deck their tombs with flowers, The rarest ever seen, And with oar tears as showers, We’ll keep them fresh and green.’ But a new roll of national service has dawned full upon tis. The valor