Norfolk High School - Milestone Yearbook (Norfolk, NE)

Page 30 text:

30 THE MILESTONE. The age of Elizabeth stands out like a marble structure on a foundation of granite; the writings of Bacon, Spencer and Shakespeare and the spirit of industry and literary research, pervading the whole nation, gave to the period a lustre which is not bedimmed by the progress of four centuries. Glancing along up the succeeding steps, the names and events become more and more important. Here and there are great rents marking some struggle for popular rights, but the reforms which followed, fill those rents with lasting crystal, leaving the structure stronger than before; high upon the uppermost blocks shine the names of Bright and Davitt and Gladstone, of Newton, Tyndall, Darwin and Huxley. We read the story of the success of popular education and the wonderful development of commerce and manufactures. The names of Watt and Davy mark the time when men learned to bring the elements under control, yoking the sun to their chariots and building with the energy of ages passed. As a result of the strife of generations, the people of Britain stand high up.,n their national pyramid and scan an empire upon which, in the language of Edmund Burke, “the sun never sets. It remains for the art and wisdom and statesmanship of the present generation to carry out imperial federation and thus add the cap stone to the pyramid which shall enable it to withstand the storms of iiges to come Four centuries ag the little H et b siring the renowned Columbus, spread its sails to the gentle August breeze and glided from the rugged shores of the old world in quest of the spices of India. They found, instead, a new continent, and began the foundation of a national pyramid, which for rapidity of building and beauty of outline, is second to none the world has known The ambitious, the restless, the venturesome, the enterprising, the hardy of every nation were gradually to congregate on this new field of activity. The Mayflower landed its band of home-seekers on the rough coast of New England, the Virginia colony planted its little settlement at Jamestown, and here and there, along the coast, the work of subduing a continent was begun. Many were the privations of these pioneers of America. In the forest, thirsting for human blood, lurked myriads of savage foes, while in the

Page 29 text:

Pyramids. VALEDICTORY ORATION, CLASS OF ’90. Build today then, strong and tture, With a firm and ample haw, And ascending and secure, Hindi tomorrow find its place. This simple stanza contains the rule according to which all th» great, stable pyramids of the world are erected; shaken throughout every liber by the muscular arm of labor, they stand, in after ages, imposing monuments of the energy expended ui on them. Thus it was with those great edifices which adorn the valley of the Nile. In the time of King Menea, these regions were made to echo for years and years with the stroke of chisel and hammer, but today standing guard over the ruins of many dynasties, loom up the world renowned pyramids of Kgypt, uncovered by the shifting sands of time, fitting memoirs of ancient genius. These were builded of rock to render them stable, but today then exist pyramids, composed, not of rock, but of great events, which may be call national pyramids. Observe the towering grandeur of that nation we are proud to call our mother country. England stands without a peer among the nations of the old world, attesting the strength of her foundations by the many centuries she has existed in spite of domestic violence and foreign wars. Ink every national monument, the English pyramid was not erected in a day. It is the result of ages of work and strife and seeming failures. The foundations were laid in the old Anglo-Saxon love of liberty, in the traditions and customs brought from their wild German home. The genius of Alfred the Great did much to bind the Saxon nations into one; his work was continued by the stong but arbitrary laws of William the Conqueror, and afterwards more effectually by the common interests of a united people.

Page 31 text:

THE MILESTONE. 31 council chamber sat the English governors as a reminder of burdensome taxes and unjust rule. What was the outcome of this state of affairs? Was it the submission of an oppressed people to an unpopular sovereign? No. The stream of opposition ran rapidly and angrily, bearing toward the final plunge into the Revolutionary War. The eloquent voices of Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry, crying aloud with the energy of despair, “Give me liberty or give me death,” touched the keynote of American patriotism. The people responded with a will, establishing the declaration of independence, and announcing to the world the birth of a new nation, between the Atlantic, anti the setting sun. From the time when the patriot minute guns sounded the death knell of oppression, from the time when the father of his country was inaugurated first president of the United States, the progress of our country has been the ever increasing marvel of the civilized world. Sheltered 'neuth the undulating folds of our national banner, science ami art and peaceful industry have expanded under the genial influence of the sun of liberty. The secrets of the universe have been revealed to the inquisitive eye of science. The domain of the mind has extended wider and wider, even the realms of the stars have been explored, and thousands of revolving suns descried majestically sweeping through space, all bound by the same great universal law. Thus has the pyramid of our nation been built up, until now we stand high, and, viewing our dominions round about, behold in every part the unmistakable effects of progress. We s e a land whose surrounding waters arc patrolled by ships of the latest do.iign. whose fertile fields are traversed in every direction by the flying railway frain, and who people are among the most enlightened of the globe. Thus are manifested unto us in the history of the past and the facts of the present, the existence and growth of the great structures of the world. Notwithstanding the prominence of these national pyramids, we are building, day by day, a far different edifice, our characters; and, as some one has said, ‘’the building of our character is our own labor, it is a thing of beauty, it is u thing of shame, as we ourselves make it, holding us responsible for its substantial erection.''