Norfolk High School - Milestone Yearbook (Norfolk, NE)

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20 THE MILESTONE. subsistence that there is no longer a plate on nature’s board for anew comer, who comes to an unbidden feast? No! nature is not niggard, nor has the fertility of the soil lessened, nor has the population so increased that the land is insufficient to furnish all with an ample sustenance. Besides science has enabled us to increase the fertility of the soil. There is land in abundance to support, in plenty, fifty times the present population of the earth. It is said that the soil of England densely as we think that country populated, is capable of maintaining a population of two hundred million, while our country could support in plenty the entire population of the earth. Aristotle declared that slavery was necessary because only through the poverty of great masses of people was it possible that a few could have leisure and seek knowledge and thereby promote human advancement and intellectual and moral growth. Is this the same reason that would justify poverty in our day? No, for science and invention, steam and electricity, have increased the productive power of labor, more than one hundred fold since Aristotle’s time. If heshould revisit the earth and was informed that one man could now produce as much as a hundred could in his time would he not say. “Then poverty is no more?” In the primitive ages the superior savage captured and ate his adversary From this state man has advanced; he consumes only the things which he produces. Man began to acquire political rights, he commenced to have some voice in shaping the conditions that environed him “Economy is the poor man’s mint.” “Labor with what zeal we will, Somethin still remains undone. Somethin uncompleted still, Waits the rising of the sun.” Comforts in heaven; and we are on earth, where nothing lives but crosses, care and grief. ®[f§ Queens, Crowned and Uncrowned. L. LUIKART. It has always been a rule with every village, town, state and nation to make one person ruler. Menez, the first ruler of the people and the strongest of all the Egyptians, founded and built the nation over which he ruled. A king is supposed to be a person of great strength and ability, yet many kings have ascended the throne who were incapable of ruling a nation, but these generally have, by their subjects, been forced to abdicate Men of strong minds have need of a stronger mind to govern them. Of all kings recorded in history only those of good and strong character have had glorious reigns. The same is true of queens. England has prospered and become a strong nation as much through the aid of her queens as of her kings. Queen Elizabeth was a good ruler for England. Her reign of forty-four years was more profitable than any for years before. She has been called vain and frivolous, yet hs a queen she was strong and self-possessed. and her period was one of advancement. England has never had a better ruler than Queen Victoria. She lots strengthened the nation far more than any of the preceding rulers. She has educated and

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THE MILESTONE. 19 important consideration that can engage the human mind. It underlies all others. It will be contended that the problem of the soul and its future destiny must necessarily be of infinitely greater importance than those of this worid But it is evident that the destiny of the immortal soul is decided to a considerable degree by conditions that environ this life of the mortal body. Can it be said that a life of poverty and ignorance, of constant struggle against hunger and cold, is equally as conducive to piety as conditions that contribute to a life of comfort? Must it not be admitted that millions of those who live in Christian countries are forced, through bad economic conditions, to live lives that are low and degrading, that compel them to cultivate or ( ven understand the higher aspirations of the human mind? But we have testimony from both the materalistic and Christian schools of philosophy. One is that the economic conditions of a people correspond, with absolute exactness, to their social and intellectual conditions. For instance, we cannot imagine the human race attaining any high degree of civilization before the discovery of the art of producing fire. Before such discovery men subsisted upon fruits, nuts and raw flesh; their homes were caves in the mountains, or other crude kinds of shelter. With the discovery of fire the art of cooking began, men changed their abodes from the darkness of the dismal cave to the light of day. Architecture assumed proportion which never would have been attained without the aid of artificial heat. Its dis- covery must have marked an epoch in the history of mankind The change from bone and stone tools to bronze and later to iron, must have made an enormous change in the economic conditions, that found expression in a corresponding improvement in the social and intellectual improvement of the race. When we contrast savage with the civilized races of the present we are at once struck with the difference in their mode of living. The Indian ryot and the Egyptian fellah still plow the ground, as their ancestors did thousands of years ago, with the crotch of a tree drawn by an ox. Their intellectual conditions show little change Coming home to our own time and people, we discover a great diversity of conditions. Poverty and vice, poverty and ignorance, poverty and low degraded ideals are inseperable. I am of course speaking of the average. Once in a while a few, specially gifted with great will power, energy and perhaps genius, will raise themselves from depths to fame, but these are exceptions. The evidence is conclusive; that the existence of poverty among large masses of people is incompatible with the attainment of any high ideal of moral or intellectual elevation. It may be said that no problem concerning the welfare of the people or humanity can adequately be solved until the conditions of men are more nearly equalized Is it- true that nature is niggard; incapable of furnishing her children with means necessary for a wholesome and complete life i Has earth lost its old time fertility or has the population so pressed on

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THE MILESTONE. 21 helped the poor No matter arises that is too small for her wisest consideration. She reigns justly and well, and richly deserves the crown. What ruler has there been in all history of greater courage and steadfastness than Zenohia, queen of Palmyra? Consider what the world owes to Queen Isabella of Spain. When the king refused Columbus aid for equipping a Heet the noble queen exclaimed: I pledge my jewels to raise the money.” Let it he remembered that it is to her foresight and generosity that we owe the discovery of America. Although the queens of history have made for themselves a name lasting and respected, there are numerous other women who, though uncrowned, have the grateful love of thousands of people worth more than any crown the world has to ofFer. Wrhat queen ever charmed a mass of people as did Florence Nightingale by her rare voice and her work of humanity. Queen Victoria has done no greater work than that noble woman. Harriet Beecher Stowe, who, in the fulness of her heart, did with her pen so much toward emancipating a race. Nor does Frances Willard, so lately a benefactress in our midst, deserve less credit Although she received no earthly crown for devoting her lifetime to overcome the greatest evil of the age, we fully believe she now wears that glorious “crown of life” which the Master has promised to all who are “faithful unto death.” But of all women, cowned and uncrowned, none deserves more credit than that woman who rears noble sons and daughters. In- stances are too numerous to he noted by the world, but Bradicea, at the head of her army, did not have more to contend with than the woman who hears up under the great trials of poverty and sickness and works night and day to educate her children. No king or queen, emperor or president, is more powerful than the hard-working mother, for “ The liaud that rocks the cradle Is the hand that rules the world.” fy?Tl frfol ttgngfj “Be It Ever So Humble, There's No Place Like Home.” HERBERT SPENCER DANIEL. ‘‘ Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home. ’ ’ That song, written so many years ago by John Howard Payne, has echoed through the hearts of every home-loving people on this side of the globe. While homeless himself, a wanderer midst life’s pleasures and palaces, there was that something, the aching and longing in his breast that could only be supplied by the loving ties of home. And in after years, wandering through foreign lands, would often hear as the shades of night returned, the mothers singing their little ones to sleep by the same song which years before had sprung from his own heart. Home! What other word in any language conveys a meaning so laden with sweet and precious memories? It vibrates through one’s being and makes melody through all the weary years of life. The more humble, the more precious, the more sacred the ties; for all