ANNUAL MEETING AT LEXINGTON. 133 



Mr. Murray — I don't feel like getting up and critizising a man who 

 is able to get up such a paper — a man who has spent five years at 

 Washington and has associated with the great men and statesmen of 

 the day. 



President — I can appreciate the paper and I indorse everything it 

 says in regard to the Red Oaks of the Loess Hills. 



THE USE OF THE BEAUTIFUL. 



BY MRS. NELLIE 3IcyEY OF SEDALIA. 



The Hindoo dreams of Xirvana ; the American Savage, of a 

 Happy Hunting Ground away beyond the setting sun; the pagan wor- 

 shiper looks to an elysium among the gods, and the Christian turns 

 longing eyes to the promised " many mansions" across the dark waters 

 of Death. 



The idea of an eternal rest in a land of flowers and fruitage, sing- 

 ing birds and leaping waters, is taught by all religious instructors, as 

 the supreme good to be attained in the hereafter, by a deserving dis- 

 position of time and talents here ; and the charm of this mystic coun- 

 try consists largely in its fullness of beautiful things. Language is 

 taxed to its uttermost capacity for terms in which to depict the glory 

 of its indefinite loveliness ; and thus, in the breast of every member 

 of the human family is developed a sense of and a love for the beauti- 

 ful. A sterile country, barren of fruits and flowers aiid foilage — can 

 any one conceive of such a place as elysium *? 



So, in our dreams of an earthly home, we seek not alone utility, 

 but are ever striving to render our habitation a prototype of that here- 

 after, which, from infancy we have been taught to regard as '• Our 

 Father's House." 



