Norfolk High School - Milestone Yearbook (Norfolk, NE)

Page 25 text:

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

Page 24 text:

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

Page 26 text:

THE MILESTONE. 22 they possess lies within those small bounds, home. To some most likely it recalls the meadows, the woodland of their childhood, the old barn in which could be heard the voices of happy children. Or, to others, the little cottage among the trees, the doorstep, the old kitchen where the loving mother trod, who was ever ready to soothe their achings and their pains. And I fancy some see the little orchard back of the house where they laid her frail form to rest among the apple trees and violets. Time lays his heavy hand on the old house, the surroundings of childhood, and summons from us our beloved and friends to deposit them in the earth, whence their coming. Hut never can its corroding hand efface them from our memory. And as we draw nearer to man’s common destiny it affords us great pleasure to look back upon the scenes of childhood, upon the paradise of our life. It seems as though the Creator gives all a taste of that purity which we are all striving to attain. As with Adam and Eve ere the fall in the Garden of Eden, so it is with the youth in the Eden of life. And yet those walls that enclose the place of our birth cannot contain all our home love. For who is he whose heart does not swell when he hears the name of his country? A fairer land was never kissed by a zephyr, or by an ocean bathed. The birthplace of liberty, the cradle of genius, “the land of the free and the home of the brave ” Tho only nation on the globe that observes strictly the divine rights of man: “That all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Yes, and this old world who has nurtured us from birth, and who at last shall claim this form as her own. shall receive her share. She is of tried friends the most true. In trouble, trials, sorrow and pain, is ever at our side: and yet at some time, like all who have gone on before. we will address her in those stinging words of the poet: “Goodbye, proud world, I’m going home.” Home! that place of the Christian’s longing, with the angels and archangels; the only true home, when we shall have returned unto the Father’s house as a little child, weary of the trials and vexations of the day, seeking counsel, sympathy ami repose. tgutSu Universal Laws. FANNIE NORTON. All those studies which we ••all the Natural Sciences are but the results of observations made by men who have studied out and proved certain laws which govern all things in the Natural Universe. There is not an act or movement in all the realm of nature which is not governed by a certain fixed and immutable law which has existed and must continue to exist throughout all the ages of time. Not a particle floats at random or as a unit; not a leaf grows or falls save according to rigid general principles of science. All chemical elements have their modes and measures of combination to which they steadfastly adhere. The great processes of vegetable