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Show II I Osawatomie, Kansas, Celebrates I j Fifty-Fourth Anniversary I ' of Historic Battle. I ROOSBmT WILL DEDICATE I ' BATTLEFIELD AS PARK I I Five Survivors of the Famous I i Battle at Campfire Held I on the Spot. I OSAWATOMIE, Kan.. Aug. 30. This I was Jolin Brown day at the Osawatomie I celebration. Tomorrow will bo Theodore I Roosevelt day. and all signs Indicate that I It will prove the most notable In the town's history. S Today marked the ilfty-fourth anni- II versary of the battle of Osawatomie. To- I morrow the ex-prcsldent will dcdlcato the " 1 battlefield as a stale park. The town tonight was overcrowded f with visitors and twenty special trains 1 were due to arrive by morning. Gover- nor Stubbs and the leaders who today I attended the Republican council at To- I ' peka will come In I he morning. I i Today's programme was made up of drills, bund concerts and speeches. Con- gressmau V. A. Calderhead, in a spirited I address, urged that the people of Kansas provide a monument of John Brown, lo be placed In the hall of fame at Washlng- ton. "to offset that of Lee," II ' 4 Soul Marching On." ( The burst of applause that greeted tills sentiment made it plain that "John ' Brown's spli-lt" Is still marching on. I Congressman Calderhead also urged that the state erect a granite wall around I the twenty-two acres comprising the fa-i fa-i mous bailie ground and place In Us oen-1 oen-1 ter a permanent ilagpole. from which the I i stars and stripes shall fly at all times. i There was a eamptlre tonight In the I heart of the field, where the memorable struggle took place over a half-century ago. Here five survivors of that event, i lent historic interest by recounting the i stirring times which the day commemorated. commemo-rated. Colonel Roosevelt's train is scheduled to reach Osawatomie from the west at 0:30 tomorrow morning, when will begin I another strenuous day for the cx-presl- I dent. This will Include a visit to John I Brown's old cabin, a review of the state I troops encamped here, a luncheon, and I in the afternoon his dedicatory address. I Colonel Roosevelt Is scheduled to begin I his address at l':30 o'clock. Ho is to I start at 4 o'clock for Lawrence, where I he will remain over night at the home I of Governor Stubbs as the lattcr's guest, j No Longer G-ory Field. The battlefield, for half a century a peaceful pasture where cattle grazed, was trampled today to the hardness of pavement by loyal Kansans, who filled the maze of new pine benches under the trees and heard the speakors toll of the state's glory and praise Its first hero. i So much enthusiasm for John Brown I has been awakened that a movement for a statue of the western abolitionist in m the hall of fame at Washington was started by resolution at the morning j; session. J "From Boulevards o'erlooklng both Ny- ' anz'as J The statucd bronze shall glitter in the sun, With rugged lettering: 'John Brown of ' Kansas; ; He dared begin; lie lost, but, losing. I won." " This was the last stanza of a poem, "John Brown," by Eugene Ware, recited re-cited this morning. The prophetic inscription in-scription probably will be placed on the . base of the statue which It Is now proposed pro-posed shall "glitter" In the hall of fame, j It was here at Osawatomie that the ; incipient conditions which precipitated the civil war began, t was here that John Brown, come out from the east. q settled and built his cabin, organized his forces and began his fight for freedom. free-dom. That Kansas, suicc that tlmo when she struggled with herself as to which side she should take In the fight which almost rent the union, always had been a turbulent state, unmistakable in her views andiready to take her share of the ' responsibility in any national question, was the principal point emphasized by , Joseph G. Waters of Topeka, the speaker of the day. Mr. Waters even went so far as to say that It was Mr. Roosevelt's serious handicap that he was not born in Kansas. Summing up the career of John Brown, Mr. Waters said: "Measured by the little standards of men, he may have been insane, but In the avenging purposes of heaven he was the chosen Instrument to right a great wrong. With the torch of liberty held in his implacable and unrelenting hand, he was God's own Incendiary to purge the land with fire- John Brown sleeps shadowed by a groat rock at North Elba. His grave Is a shrine. Misunderstood, reviled and despised, he lived a life apart from man. beyond their touch, possessed of one purpose, and died a martyr for Its fulfillment." A drill by the troops of the Kansas national na-tional guard opened today's programme. |
