USA > Illinois > Kendall County > History of Kendall county, Illinois, from the earliest discoveries to the present time > Part 25
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431
FAREWELL REMARKS.
And the correct answer will be: "That I may have the more leisure for
DEVELOPMENT OF MIND,
in which alone is true progress and true greatness." Education is not merely a preparation for life-it is the business of life. What one has learned in school in boyhood are the intellectual tools which should make his life a continual progress in learning and practical wis- dom. Mr. Mill says : "All through life it is our most pressing interest to find out the truth about all the mat- ters we are concerned with. If we are farmers, we want to find what will truly improve our soil ; if merchants, what will truly influence the markets of our commodi- ties ; if judges or jurymen, who it was that truly did an unlawful act, or to whom a disputed right truly belongs. Every time we have to make a new resolution, or alter an old one, in any situation in life, we shall go wrong unless we know the truth about the facts on which our resolution depends."
To this agrees the Scripture : "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the honor of kings is to search out a matter." And again : " If the iron be blunt and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength ; but wisdom is profitable to direct." This is true science. It consists, as Mill again says, "in doing well what all of us, during the whole of life, are engaged in doing, for the most part badly." It is
EXACT KNOWLEDGE,
acquired by close observation, careful study and steady thought, in distinction from the shrewd surface knowl-
432
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
edge which the first settlers in a new country have time to gather. It is not our province to grind out a daily task of toil, like Samson, with closed eyes ; nor to look at the heavens and the earth as we do at a menagerie, from behind grated fences. But it is our province to know. To ask continually: What is this ? Why is this ? How is this ? to hear every fresh subject demanding of us that we gain clear ideas and true ideas about it. We shall not find perfect knowledge, but we shall find strength of character and love of truth. Prof. Faraday says : "Such a man, though he may think more humbly of his own character, will find himself at every step of his progress more sought for than before, more trusted with responsibility, and held in pre-eminence by his equals, and more highly valued by those whom he, him- self, will esteem worthy of approbation."
Again, in so far as we make honesty of character and ability of mind, instead of possession of property, the goal we aim at, we shall drain that quagmire of national corruption of which we have heard so much. There is in society a secret respect for wealth, however gotten ; a feeling that the man who is rich is more to be respected than the man who is poor, though both be equally dis- honest.
Social display and wealth to support it, is regarded as an indispensable part of first society, and it follows that the desire being accounted right, the gratification of it will not be wholly condemned. But we must remember that the desire is wrong, and that it springs from the great central error of supposing that we have the same work to do that our fathers had, viz., to gather property,
433
FAREWELL REMARKS.
and that our social standing is guaged on that scale. The error is a trap of Satan, and there will always be enough to fall into
SATAN'S TRAPS
as long as we put the value on the bait. We shall never avoid the crop as long as we supply the seed. We ought to teach this truth everywhere. It is our mission-our country's mission. There is no true reason why our ambassadors to foreign courts should need seventeen thousand dollars a year to compete in style with mon- archies whose business it has been for ages to blind their people with a show of splendor. Republics are to take care of the people's money ; monarchies spend it-there is the difference. And we ought to be true to our mis- sion.
The social influence of this country ought not to com- pel the public servant with five thousand dollars a year · to feel humiliated until he can steal five thousand dollars more to be on a level with his neighbors of ten thousand dollars. But that is what it does do, and declares it, too, so that one reason for giving large salaries is that the officials cannot otherwise live in the style required of
them ! And yet we are a Republic, and Republican simplicity is part of our inheritance from our fathers. Let us give heed to it. Every man who is released from the sod plow and the grubbing hoe is released to a nobler toil. Let him remember it. Official corruption will perish so soon as that secret approbation which is the breath of its life is taken away ; while it has breath it will live. Then for our own sakes and our country's sake let us remember that the acquisition of
434
HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY.
the truth about all things is our business in life, and obedience to the truth in all things is our rule of life.
Our fathers have done what they could, and are gone. The claims they staked are cultivated farms ; the fields they fenced with rails are enclosed with boards or living hedge ; the cabins they erected have given place to prouder residences. The slab-floored school house and log church have shrunk out of sight as two-storied acad- emies and spired temples have risen by their side. All this is right,-we have perfected our inheritance. But let us stop here, and not create new necessities out of our own pride. Our fathers have labored in vain, if what they left us not only absorbed their energies, but shall absorb ours also. And not less will they have labored in vain if our energies, released by their efforts from the stern necessity of pioneer toil, shall be given to vanity and outward glitter-leaving to ourselves but the ashes of a wasted life, and to others the poison of a pernicious example. But it is our favored lot to be the pioneers in
A WIDER LIFE ;
to lay the foundations for a noble future. Happy is the man of the observing mind, who labors for intelligence, as his forefathers labored for land, and helps to make truth and character as prominent in this generation as the claim fence and log cabin were in the generation past. The true development of mind,-this is our work; and let me add, the worship of the heart,-this is our rest. For I do desire that all who have been my readers, and whom I have helped to pass, it may be, a pleasant hour, shall not only conquer the world that now is, but win
435
CONCLUSION.
the blessed world that is to come. As the homely Scotch song has it :
" I never grasp a friendly hand, · In greeting or farewell, But thoughts of an eternal home Within my bosom swell ; A prayer to meet in heaven at last, Where all the ransomed come, And where eternal ages still Shall find us all at home."
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THE END.
BUSINESS NOTICES.
NEWARK.
JOHN A. COY-Dry goods, ready made clothing, notions, hats and caps, boots and shoes, groceries, &c. I claim to have the largest stock of goods in Kendall county.
MUNGER BROTHERS-Drugs, medicines, chemicals, paints, oils, toilet articles, perfumery, books and stationery. Special atten- tion paid to prescriptions. Our store is well known, and our stock complete and genuine.
CHARLES F. THUNEMAN-Drugs, medicines, paints, oils, perfumery, &c. Books and stationery. Also a full line of staple gro- ceries and family supplies. I keep none but first quality goods, at prices as low as the lowest.
THUNEMAN BROTHERS-Successors to F. R. Thuneman- Hardware, stoves, nails, tinware, builders' supplies and agricultural implements. We aim to keep a hardware headquarters where pur- chasers can find any article they may want in our line.
H. K. THUNEMAN-Watchmaker and jeweler. A full line of watches, clocks, jewelry and silverware. Repairing neatly done, and all work warranted.
OSMOND & WILLIAMS-Dry goods, boots and shoes, hats and caps, notions and groceries. We also make a specialty of ready made clothing.
WILBERT HOLLENBACK-Meat market and provision store.
JAMES H. WHITE-Barber and hair-dresser.
437
BUSINESS NOTICES.
SAMUEL BINGHAM-First-class boot and shoe store. Thirty- three years in Newark.
C. A. FREEMAN, M. D .- Physician and surgeon. Special atten- tion paid to surgical cases.
W. H. FRENCH, M. D .- Physician and surgeon.
J. H. FOWLER-Attorney at Law. All legal business attended to promptly.
FOWLER INSTITUTE-J. P. Ellinwood, Principal. Instruc- tion first-class.
PHOTOGRAPHIC GALLERY-R. W. Elliott, Artist. Pictures taken in fair or cloudy weather.
YORKVILLE.
F. M. HOBBS-Dealer in dry goods, clothing, groceries, boots and shoes, notions and general merchandise.
G. W. ERNST-Dealer in lumber, doors and sash at factory prices. Also hard and soft coal. Police Magistrate and Justice of the Peace.
KENDALL COUNTY RECORD-J. R. Marshall, proprietor. Established 1864. Circulation, 1512 weekly. Job printing done on short notice.
HAIGH BROTHERS-Hardware and agricultural implements. We aim to keep a general supply of everything wanted in our line, and at lowest prices.
JOHN A. GILLIAM-Attorney and Counsellor at Law.
RANDALL CASSEM-Attorney and Counsellor at Law. All business promptly attended to.
WM. LONG-Tonsorial artist. Ladies' and children's hair cut- ting, &c.
438
BUSINESS NOTICES.
PLANO.
PLANO NEWS-R. M. & Callie D. M. Springer, proprietors. An Independent newspaper, $1.50 per year. All kinds of job print- ing neatly and promptly done.
DR. F. H. LORD-Dealer in drugs and medicines.
DAVID COOK, M. D .- Physician and surgeon.
L. O. LATHROP-Dealer in hardware, tinware. stoves and crockery.
E. WINANS-Dealer in groceries, crockery and glassware.
L. F. HEMENWAY-Breeder of pure Berkshire swine.
OSWEGO.
L. N. HALL-Druggist and bookseller. Established April 20th, 1865.
D. M. HAIGHT-Dealer in dry goods, groceries, boots and shoes, clothing, hats and caps, crockery, &c. Cash paid for produce.
WM. T. PUTT-Eclectic physician. Practice established June 4th, 1874. Special attention to general practice.
MILLINGTON.
MILLINGTON ENTERPRISE-Jud. R. Marley, publisher. Job printing done at lowest prices.
S. E. FOSTER-Drugs and medicines, paints, oils, &c.
T. SERRINE-Dealer in lumber, sash, blinds, doors, pumps, drain tile, hard and soft coal.
BOUND BY
10.89
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 977.326H52 C001 HISTORY OF KENDALL COUNTY, ILLINOIS, FRO
3 0112 025388163
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