For
centuries the suprenest praise possible to bestow
upon any land has been, "A land flowing with
milk and honey."
Were
some modern Moses to send out spies in this out
generation, in search of a promised land, and were
these spies
to traverse this out land, in the fall of the year,
when the harvests are ripe, what possible phrase
could those spies
invent which would briefly and more fittingly express
its richness and fatness, its home-making and nation-
making
qualities?
For
the purpose of this toast and this occasion let
us consider as "this land of ours" the
twelve states lying in the Mississippi
and Missoouri rivers, and of which states our own
Nebraska is by not means the least in importance.
"A
land flowing with milk and honey".
A
land fertile and fruitful, a land abounding in running
waters, sweet and wholesome, a land having a heathful
climate
has been the supreme disire of all people, of all
nations since time had a beginning. To possess
such a
goodly land, to enjoy it as a heritage and to transmit
it to posterity, mankind, in all ages, have labored
and endured,
have suffered toil and privation, have fought, bled
and died.
Where,
let me ask, in this wide, wide world, can you find
a valley of like area so furtile and fruitful and
of such producing
capacity? Where a climate more heathful and
invigorating? Where a land whose waters, sweet
and wholesome,
are more abundant and unfailing?
And
where, let me aks, can you find a rural population
of 16,000,000 souls having so small a percentage
of illiteracy, so
small a pecentage of poverty, so small a percentage
of wrethedness, so small a percentage of vice and
crime?
Where
can you find a people among whom you would prefer
to make your home, to have for your neighbors and
friends, among whom to do your life work and to
enjoy the fruits of your labor? A people whose
character, whose
enterprise, whose public spirit, whose customs,
whose habits, whose form of government, whose traditions,
whose religious beliefs, together with the goodly
land which they inhabit, you would rather leave
as a
heritage
to your children and your children's children?
This
land of ours.
The
heart of a continent.
The
bread basket of the world.
The
desire of all the earth.
A
land to be enjoyed and by us transmitted as a heritage
to our children and our children's children.
A
land flowing with milk and honey.
S.
C. Bassett
A
Dream-Land Complete
Dreaming,
I pictured a wonderful valley,
A
home-making valley few known would compare.
When
lo! from the bluffs overlooking Wood River
I
saw my dream-picture, my valley lies there.
Miles
long, east and west, stretch this wonderful valley;
Broad
fields of alfalfa, of corn and of wheat;
'Mid
orchards and groves the homes of its people--
The
vale of Wood River--a dream-land complete.
Nebraska,
our mother, we love and adore thee;
Within
thy fair borders our lot has been cast;
When
done with life's labors and trials and pleasures,
Contented
we'll rest in thy bosom at last.
Gibbon,
Nebraska, 1913
S.
C. Bassett