SookxZS-Qii- Oass Author Title Imprint tty-a/jsw-* «^o The Indian Corn By Ex-Gov. Richard J. Oglesby The Indian Corn Presented to ^J j//i^ /^^ ^^f ^ \* i' • £981 Richard J. Oglesby 1893 ;^Jg ^y.w\W ^y,Jkf^ The Indian Corn Impromptu Speech of Ex-Gov. Richard J. Oglesby Made at the Fellowship Club at Chicago, September 9th, 1894, o" the occasion of the Harvest Home Festival 3 5* <^ D L| 3 I c^^^ ^ ,^ 4fcac nrr^ yy^ ^^ FOREWORD /VT a meeting of the Fellow- -ir\. ship Club of Chicago, September 9th, 1894, the late Richard J. Oglesby, former Governor of Illinois, was a guest. He was called upon by the Toastmaster, Franklin H. Head, to respond to the toast, "What I know about Farm- ing." Governor Oglesby sat at the speakers' table between the famous actor, Joseph Jeffer- son, and the well-known au- thor, A. Conan Doyle, with whom he was in earnest con- versation. The Governor arose slowly and was seemingly wait- ing for an inspiration. He looked deliberately upon the harvest decorations of the room [9] * im€Mi& Af. ■Of- ^«^ <^ Jb THE corn! the corn! the corn ! that in its first be- ginning and in its growth has furnished aptest illustration of the tragic announcement of the chiefest hope of man. If he die he shall surely live again. Planted in the friendly but sombre bosom of mother earth, it dies. Yea, it dies the sec- ond death, surrendering up each trace of form and earthly shape until the outward tide is stopped by the reacting vi- tal germ which, breaking all the bonds and cerements of its sad decline, comes bounding, laughing into life and light, the fittest of all the symbols that make certain promise of the fate of man. And so it died, and then it lived again. In] ¥ t^'rn^.. '^r<^ar% Jl -^-^w^ -^'cM "And so my people died. By some unknown, uncertain and unfriendly fate, I found myself making my first journey into life from conditions as lowly as those surrounding that awaken- ing, dying, living infant germ. It was in those days when I, a simple boy, had wandered from Indiana to Springfield, that I there met the father of this good man — Joseph Jefferson — whose kind and gentle words to me were as water to a thirsty soul — as the shadow of a rock to a weary man. I loved his father then ; I love the son now. Two full generations have been taught by his gentleness, and smiles and tears have quickly answered to the command of his artistic mind. Long may he live to make us laugh and cry, [12] w r^i ^cwm- \^li(r g^ and cry and laugh by turns, as he may choose to move us. I "But now again my mind turns to the glorious corn. See it — look on its ripening, wav- ing field. See how it wears a crown, prouder than monarch ever wore; sometimes jauntily, and sometimes, after the storm, the dignified survivors of the tempest seem to view a field of slaughter and to pity a fal- len foe. And see the pendent caskets of the corn filled with the wine of life, and see the silken fringes that set a form for fashion and for art. "And now the evening comes, and something of a time to rest and listen. The scud- ding clouds conceal the half and then reveal the whole of the A moon-lit beauty of the night; [13] and then the gentle winds make heavenly harmonies on a thou- sand thousand harps that hang D upon the borders and the edges and the middle of the field of ripening corn, until my very heart seems to beat responsive to the rising and the falling of the long, melodious refrain. The melancholy clouds some- times make shadows on the field and hide its aureate wealth; and now they move, and slowly into sight there comes the gold- en glow of promise for an indus- trious land. "Glorious corn that, more than all the sisters of the field, wears tropic garments. Nor on the shore of Nilus nor of Ind does nature dress her forms more splendidly. My God ! to live again that time, when for [14] ^2ui Cjr CSk. g^^t^ ^^ me half the world was good, the other half unknown. "And now again the corn ! that in its kernel holds the strength that shall (in the body of the man refreshed) subdue the forest and compel response from every stubborn field ; or, shining in the eye of beauty, make blossoms of her cheeks and jewels of her lips, and thus make for man the greatest in- spiration to well doing, the hope of companionship of that sacred, warm and well-embod- ied soul, a woman. "Aye, the corn, the roya corn, within whose yellow heart there is of health and strength for all the nations! The corn triumphant! That with the aid of man hath made victorious procession across the [IS] ^-^Mfi^ ^^jan> ^t ^& tufted plain and laid foundation for the social excellence that is and is to be. This glorious plant, transmuted by the alche- my of God, sustains the warrior in battle, the poet in song, and strengthens everywhere the thousand arms that work the purposes of life. Oh! that I had the voice of song or skill to translate into tones the har- monies, the symphonies, and oratorios that roll across my soul when, standing, sometimes by day and sometimes by night, upon the borders of this verdant sea, I note a world of promise; and then before one-half the year is gone I view its full fru- ition and see its heaped gold await the end of man. "Majestic, fruitful, wondrous plant! Thou greatest among [16] jfe ^2wm^ civ, f^'^^^ the manifestations of the dom and the love of God { may be seen in all the or upon the hillsides, or in valleys." WIS- ^I» ^2w^^ ;^>, ^'^n^ IN the beauty of his diction and the power of his elo- quence, Governor Oglesby, when fully aroused, had few equals. It is said that at the time the speech was made, so great was the impression pro- duced that many of the audi- ence rose to their feet and remained standing until it was finished. Charles G. Dawes. Chicago, Illinois, November i, 1905 "xi/" ^^ ..X ^d^ .^^ i RICHARD J. OGLESBY'S . toast to Indian corn on receiving a beautiful cut glass punch bowl and twenty-four glasses from his staff at Camp Lincoln, August, i "yj ^/fftr<^/^^ vik.