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Show i .mirntew MWWAi TRUTH. DEDICATION OF ELKS' HOME. The June number of .the Elks Antler contains a verbatim report of the address of Meade D. Detweiler, delivered on the occasion of the dedication of the Elks National Home on May 21 at. Bedford City, Va. It is a masterpiece of English and Truth takes pleasure in reproducing it as follows: Recent investigation amongst the d memorials of the land of the Nile have developed hieroglyphi-ca- l inscriptions believed to indicate that, at the period so remote as to antedate even the time of the Hebrew patriarchs, members of the priestly class had dedicated a special home of refuge for the aged of their order. Thus from the slumbrous land of the annals Pharaohs from the mist-claof a long, past civilization, incomplete, tis true, yet wondrous in its vital influence on many following twilight centuries, I exhume an incident which four thousand years and more had been bured from human ken, to be for my text and illustrative mile-ston-e occasion. this upon That text is we will not call It recharity; for charity in its strictive sense of the present day is too narrow a term; in the broader expansion given it by St. Paul it more strictly approximates our ideal but we will call it humanity that humanity that Locke extolled in crisp and pungent English as the disposition to . relieve all sentient beings in distress; to treat all creatures with kindness and tenderness. Far back as the scroll of history is unrolled two diverse antagonistic purposes appear as natural actuating forces aggression and protection. Barbarism fostered chiefly the first. With the dawn of light, with the influx of higher educational life, began the development of the second. Huon a darkmanity long wave-tosse- d twin its like angel of ling sea, (but never life HOPE, entirely banished from mortal view), inciting mens minds ' to compass better things than r war and bloodshed, was the of protection. It whispered respect yourself, and yet not self alone. Nurture your family, yet these are not the only objects of your love and ruth; guard your country, yet turn the helping hand to those of alien blood and foreign tongue. "Man learned the lesson slowly. There were painful heights to conquer; yawning chasms to oerleap, ere he could attain the clear light of day. Barriers of prejudice and superstition must be surmounted; the memories born of eras, of crime and outrage, of cruelty and perfidy must be effaced. Yet, no age, however dark; no generation, however sordid; no clan, hown ever by the insolence oi some bright afforded but hoary abuses, of humanity. ppostles of the gospel Innumerable were its manifestations. Its forms of development and activity were as various as the ever changing hues of a roseate sunset. Humanitys sympathetic plaint for the oppressed, the crushed and bleeding victims of the tyrants hand flamed up, crudely, tis true, but forcibly, in the fiery eloquence of Peter the Hermit. It guided the Vaudois evangelists in their wanderings across the trackless Alps and crowned. the Monks of St. Bernard in their vigils amid eternal snows with a halo more radiant than the scintillating beams of the Northern Aurora. How grandly humanitys code breathed forth from the knightly hero bleeding to a cruel death on the field of Zutphen, when, glancing at the moaning soldier at his side, he said: Give him the cup of water, his need is greater than mine. The impulse given to humanity's protective aid to all within the cycle of its operation' has glided down the ages with accelerating force, till now , sand-burie- d oft-use- d avant-coureu- after many a rebuff and many a bitter season of doubt, it stands forth the dominant force of a brighter, civilization and a more blessed age than any of which sage or philosopher had eer dared to hope in their noblest moments of thought or poet dream in wildest flights of fancy. Despite the croakings of pessimism the world has advanced, slowly, may be, yet surely to higher planes, until now not isolated individuals but mighty millions hold the creed that lifes greatest good, times noblest mission is to bear balm to others of humanitys brotherhood. We have met here today to celebrate and to consecrate another deonward velopment of humanitys march. Yet, how different the worlds activities now; how much wider the sweep of the beneficent in thought and action from that far away time of the worlds earlier ages, when motives similar in conception, but narrower in the scope and design, animated breasts and inspired the deeds recited in the priestly depositaries of the worlds lore along the banks of Egypts mystic river. They, probably, had not yet learned the lesson, or at most conned it imperfectly, that our brother is he who needs our aid the - wide world over. Confining their treasured knowledge and accumulated mysteries of science to their own ranks, they, in. all likelihood, had little sympathy with the toiling millions that labored and died beneath the lashes of exacting taskmasters. In the broad light of a more effulgent civilization than Egypt ever saw, of a revelation of Deity unspeakably more benign than its cruel religious code, we have assembled in the very heart of an empire of a people so .vast, so rich, so powerful, that the barbaric splendors and panoplied armies of hundred-gate- d Thebes pale into inWe have assembled not significance. of arms and the roll of amid the. din sharp scythed chariots of war, but blessed with all the boundless power that plenty, peace, inexhaustible resources and world-wid-e commerce can . - bestow on man. And where, my friends, in all this broad land of every land the pride 11 this gathering than where we now clasp hands and exchange fraternal greetings? What is wanting in our own personal happiness? What accessory of situation, agreeable surroundings, or blessed memories are lacking? Where could the first home of the B. P. O. Elks be more wisely located than in one of the garden spots of the Old Dominion? I shall enter upon no encomium on Virginia. She needs none. No words of panegyric from my feeble tongue could add to the fame of the state that cradles in its embrace Mt. Vernon and Monticello. Nor could I give grander luster to the pure diadems of glories that cluster around the names of Madison and Monroe, of the Lees and Patrick Henry, of the Harrisons and the Randolphs. But why enumerate? Virginias beadroll of fame, bright as the stars, is almost innumerable. Here then, where so many thronging memories of worth spring up around us, no aids of location are lacking to heighten the pleasures of the scene. Do you wish a salubrious, health giving climate? The world does not possess its peer. Do you seek the blended beauties and grandeurs of nature? Behold them spreading before you and sweeping in majestic curves in the circling arms of yonder mountains. Here is health for the enervated; quiet for the restless spirit; all the varied panoramic effects of nature to charm and soothe the eye too long distracted amid bustling marts or the brain benumbed by the incessant whirl of lifes recurring duties. We are here on this auspicious my brothers, ladies and gento tlemen, to dedicate forevermore This this humanity capacious building. event witnesses the inauguration of a system whereby the B. P. O. Elks pledges itself that no worthy member of the order shall ever be destitute of a Home while life lasts. After battling long in the fevered turmoil, the may chilling blasts of adversity breathe on him as they have breathed on thousands before him. The friends of his youth may have passed away; his loved ones may have descended to the silent tomb. With coy and fickle fortune fled and hearthstone shat oc-casio- n, . rock-founde- selves knew. Indeed, in the thirty-fiv- e years of our existence as an organization, so wonderful has been its growth so remarkable its adaptability to each new exigency, each unforseen demand of the hour which has arisen, that, in awe and thankfulness, we must recognize a more than mortal agency and exclaim What hath God wrought! Hitherto we have never needed a special effort along the line of beneficence nor a concentration of the associated powers of the membership. Individual and isolated cases of tem- porary reverses or an unkindly trend of fortune in the case of any of our brothers have been efficiently met by the local organizations. But now that more than a generation has rolled away, it can be reasonably expected that adverse fate has left some of our number stranded on lifes tempestuous shoals. To fail in lifes supremest efforts is not ignoble; but for those who have weathered the crest of the wave to desert the brother who has been baffled and beaten by the swirling surge would be the height of ignominy. For these this haven of rest is this day dedicated. But dedicated is a feeble word. In. humanitys name we consecrate, we hallow It. With no dissenting voice, the Elks of the United States have decreed that every aged brother wearied with the march of life should be placed in a position where he might receive, not relief doled out with grudging hand, not a pittance labelled with the title of alms, not the charity that vaunts its gifts for purbut a lifeposes of long home which brother bestows upon brother in using aright the heritage of one common Father. To your speaker, in association with a number of our honored brothers, was entrusted the duty of fully grasping and properly executing that which, our supreme legislative body had ordered. It behooves not to enlarge here on the tireless investigation of proffered sites from the Atlantic to the Pacific; to narrate the time and toil given to what we can emphatically proclaim as a labor of love; yet I feel that I would be recreant to the duty due my associates were I not to extend my tribute of commendation to the efficiency, the energy, the zeal of those whom the Grand Lodge of Elk-dorespect-destroyin- g self-glorificatio- n, brow-beate- -- tered, the future may indeed look dismal, counted by human probabilities; but the loyal pledge of brotherhood d stands as a beacon amid the raging storm assuring him that no earthly calamity will assail which can deprive him of a home the immutability of which depends not on the evanescent wealth of a single individual or lodge, but upon the banded resources of a mighty host whose gonfalons of victorious achievement have kept pace with the expansive unfurling of the Stars and Stripes. This day is cllmateric for our brotherhood. Our conceptions for this Institution are as broad and unique in their, scope as is the order itself which has called them into being. It has long since passed into a truism that the founders of Elkdomi built much more wisely than they them- THE 8CENIO LINE TO Glenwood Springs, Aspen, Leadville, Pneblo, Colorado Springs, Denver, Omaha, Kansas City, St. Louis, Chicago, ", ' and all points east 7- - Connecting at Ogden Union Depot with all Southern Pacific and Oregon Short Uno Train. . Tbs only Transcontinental Lino passing directly through Salt Lake City. m honored with the execution of 3 SPLENDIDLY EQUIPPED FAST TRAINS DAILY Vl BETWEEN OGDEN AND DENVER Three Sapanta sad Dletlnet 8eetle Bootee. 3 Through Pullman and Ordinary Sleeping Cars to Denver, Omaha, Kansas City, St. Louis and Chicago without change. Free reclining chair cars. Personally Conducted Excursions. Dining Cars, service a la Carte on all through' trains. I A For rates, folders, free Illustrated booklets, eto.( Inquire ef jew nearest ticket agent, specifying the Bio Grande route, or nlflreee L A. BENTON, G. Ai P. D. 1 SALT LAKE CITS' this high mission in behalf of humanity. The approbation 'of the order they so worthily served is their deserved, need and with that bestowed they will feel that they have a rich reward. One and all we have done our duty. We believe that it has been done. intelligently, conscientiously, imparti-alyOf a score and more of sites the one where we are now assembled was selected. It was fitted up as it now is. The .task delegated by ' the . Grand Lodge to its Grand Exalted Ruler and its designated committee, after three years of patient labor on their part, has been completed. Brothers, the Behold and result is before you. for yourselves. Judge |