Norfolk High School - Milestone Yearbook (Norfolk, NE)

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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

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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

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THE MILESTONE. a:t and animal life proceed after the same forms and steps from age to age. The germ in the tiny seed, which is dropped in the soil and nourished by the moisture that falls from tlie sky or rises from the earth, soon bursts tin walls of its prison cell, and obeying the law which commands it to seek the light, pushes aside and overturns lumps of earth many times its own size and weight. The bee follows by instinct only natural laws when it builds its cells iu hexagonal form and in its store of honey has brought together chemical elements that blend in a harmony of sweetness. The stone beds of the world are formed and modified in certain ways which are the same now as they were countless ages ago. Even the weather has its own methods. Day and night succeed each other every twenty-four hours; the seasons never change their order. Kepler’s laws relating to the shape and orbits of tin planets, and Newton’s laws of motion wherein he contends that a body set in motion will continue to move forever iu a straight line unless another force is applied, and that the planets lose none of their original velocity but move with the same speed which they received at the beginning, are as operative today as they have ever been. The planets rush round one sun encircled by their moons, on tin4 same orbits in the same times and with the same causes of acceleration and retardation as of old. Even comets, erratic as may seem their orbits and periods of appearance, are governed by the same fixed law which regulates the movement of all the solar systems. That very law which molds a tear And bids it trickle from its source, That law holds the earth a sphere And guides the planets in their course.” So beyond our own solar system, in the ten thousand other systems, in which our fixed stars are central blazing suns, it is still the same law law everywhere. The contemplation of those laws which govern every atom of the universe must bring to the mind thoughts of their infinite author. “The laws of nature are the thoughts of God,” and we. the creatures of God’s wisdom and bounty, should learn from those laws to more deeply reverence Him who has numbered the very hairs of our head and Who, though infinite, market!) even the sparrow’s fall. The World’s Ingratitude to Living Genius. CHARLES A. MADSEN. All that mankind knows of invention and discovery, all that civilization boasts of science and philosophy: all that we enjoy of music, poetry and art, and all that we know of political economy, we owe to Genius to Genius, that God given power that lifts a man out of his narrowed sphere and makes him the brightest star in the constellation of God’s cieation. Time, place and action may with pains lie wrought, Bnt Genius must 1m horn, and can never 1m taught.” So it was with Socrates. The genius, which graced him at his birth, made him one of the most intellectual lights of the world’s history. The intellectual characteristics of Socrates, through