GOLDEN GATE DISTRICT FAIR ASSOCIATION.. 201 



or death or want, how earnest and yet how tolerant in religions faith 

 and duty, how gallant and respectful towards all the weaker sex, 

 how fervent in their love of country, how r they admired genuine 

 worth in public men, and despised the arts of the demagogue; in 

 short, how true and noble they were in all the relations of life. So 

 upright was their conduct that their faults seemed but the exceptions 

 to prove the general rule. Who of you does not remember the father 

 or the grandfather, with a nature and a courage so strong that he 

 dare face any foe in the most deadly strife; and yet so tender that 

 lie could not listen with dry eyes to a simple story of human suffer- 

 ing! Such were your fathers — the fathers of our country from whom 

 you learned the duties of life. And let us not forget their wives — our 

 mothers. How plain and simple their ways of life. The old farm- 

 house by the spring or well, with its long gable roof, and the neat 

 fence around it, nestled among the trees or flowers — that was the 

 sacred spot on earth to them. Everything about it, on it, or in it, 

 received their most attentive and affectionate care. Up with the sun 

 in the morning, with their own hands they prepared our frugal 

 breakfast, while we were milking the cows, chopping the wood, or 

 feeding the horses, hogs, poultry, or cattle. Each member of the 

 household had his duty to perform. There were no idle hands under 

 their control. They were firm believers in the truth of the couplet 

 that — 



" Satan finds some mischief still 

 For idle hands to do." 



And to us boys who had our ideas of fun, they seemed as if they were 

 afraid Satan did not know the difference between mere idleness and 

 a jolly good play. But when we got into trouble with some other 

 boy, or failed to get the prize at school after trying so hard ; or fell 

 out of the apple tree and sustained a severe injury ; or broke through 

 the ice while skating and narrowly escaped drowning ; or fell in love 

 with that dearest of all the girls ; then it was a great comfort to have 

 a mother to bind up our wounded limbs and give us advice in time of 

 need. How tenderly she watched us as we grew up to manhood, and 

 ventured upon the stormy pathway of life. With what gentle solici- 

 tude she slipped into our pocket the well worn testament, and bade 

 a tearful " Good-by, my son, God bless you ;" or it may have been with 

 some of us that ere we reached the noonday of youth, hardly real- 

 izing what we were doing, we bade adieu to the old homestead, to 

 seek, as we believed, a more favored land ; but alas ! we soon repented 

 of our folly, and the only consolation left was to know that the 

 prayers of a loving mother followed us wherever we went. Some of 

 us have thought this when tossed upon the wide sea with but a single 

 plank separating us from a watery grave. Many of you may have 

 thought this as you stood upon the battle field, as your comrades fell 

 around you, and your summons might then be borne by the angel of 

 death to strike you next from the number remaining. Others of us 

 have felt this unspeakable influence while delving in the mines, 

 suffering, an exile from friends, and clad in a garb that seemed to 

 cover nothing more tender than the cold rocks which surrounded us. 

 May we not all recall those days, and the mothers and fathers of our 

 youth, with profit as well as with pleasure? It was by those home 

 influences that we as a people imbibed the better part of our nature. 



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