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MIAMI RAISES—UPSHAW PRAISES “OLD GLORY”
The Editor of The Golden Age is Suddenly Drafted Into the Duel Role of Presenting and Receiving the Flag..
0 be right confidential, the editor
of this paper has many times been
accused of perpetrating yari-col
ored “stunts” in the “hot-air” line,
at Whigham, Ga., for instance, just
for the sake of drawing a crowd,
he spoke “agin licker” and “fur
licker” on the same occasion, suf
fering himself unmercifully “skin-
«
ned” by Judge S. A. Roddenbery for the good
of his country. But that unusual experience,
with all the other various and sundry talk fests
in which he had engaged!, quite equaled in un
usualness what Miami, Fla., put up to him last
week. In that rare and radiant town —white
queen of the Southern coast —a beautiful new
public school building has just been erected
at a cost of nearly a hundred thousand dollars,
containing one of the most superb auditoriums
which any public school in the South can boast.
Over this great school Prof. W. B. Owens pre
sides —a man with genial smile and golden
heart. Fitting their name to the new building,
“The Patriotic Sons of America” presented the
nation’s flag to the school. Washington’s birth
day was the day for raising the flag. Smiling
and singing, several hundred school children
stood around the flag-pole —children whom Ja
cob Riis describes as “the tomorrow of the re
public.” Miami citizens and Northern visit
ors thronged the campus. But the appointed
orator did not come. Prof. Eric Hall, an old
Georgia friend who is the honored county su
perintendent of education, came rushing to
The Golden Age editor and said: “You must
make the speech.” No time to falter or fail.
Into the office the perturbed Georgian hurried.
The thought flashed over a Sahara of ideas that
the speech must have a poetic “cracker” to it.
Couldn’t think of a thing. “Write it on the
spot,” came the impulse. It was written.
“Ready!” said the notifying committee at the
door, and The Miami Morning Herald told the
story as follows:
Several hundred persons witnessed the rais
ing of the flag yesterday afternoon at the new
school house, and took part in the ceremonies
attendant thereon. As the speaker of the oc
casion did not arrive, Mr. Will D. Upshaw,
evangelist and lecturer, was requested to make
the address of presentation, as well as the
speech of acceptance.
The ceremonies began with that inspiring
song, “America,” sung by the school children,
and the older persons who were present. Hon.
Frank H. Wharton then made a short and elo
quent speech of introduction, stating that as
the orator who had been selected to address
the audience had been unable to attend, Mr.
Upshaw had been prevailed upon to make the
twofold speech of acceptance, as well as the
speech of presentation.
Mr. Upshaw, though totally unprepared for
the task, made one of the best addresses he has
ever made here, and spoke in his most eloquent
vein, charming and holding his audience at all
times. In beginning his speech Mr. Upshaw
said:
“Brother Floridians and Fellow Americans:
“At the last moment I was drafted into the
duties of this patriotic hour, but inasmuch as
I come from stock that did not have to be con
scripted into service, I volunteered, as any loyal
American citizen should, to answer the call of a
patriotic duty; but, after all, why should it
not be fitting for a ‘Georgia Goober Grabler’
to be allowed to present and receive the flag of
our country, in behalf of the Patriotic Sons of
America, and my Florida cracker brothers and
sisters, teachers and pupils of your splendid
public school. ’ ’
The speaker said that it was a matter of
course that the flag would be accepted'; that he
and the others present were like the bashful
country lad who was about to be married. When
the preached asked if he would take the wo
man to be his lawful wedded wife, he replied
stammeringly, “Yes, sir-re, that’s what I came
for.”
The Golden Age for March 7, 1912.
A Beautiful Flag.
“First of all, we accept this flag because it
is a beautiful flag, ’ ’ shouted the speaker in sten
torian tones, and then burst into an elegant
eulogy of the beauties of the stars and stripes.
Continuing, he told of the return, on one oc
casion, to his native shores, of Colonel John
C. Breckenridge, the gallant Kentuckian who,
with heart sore and mind weary, because of the
wasted Southern land, and the rivers of blood
that had been shed in a fratercidal strife, saw
a ship at sea flying the stars and stripes. With
tears in his eyes he said: “Men, whatever the
past has held, I declare to you that it is the most
beautiful flag that floats beneath the stars.”
“Indeed, it should be a beautiful flag, to be
fit to wave over Miami’s new school building,”
the speaker declared —the most beautiful he
had seen in all this empire of fruits and flow
ers —yea, more beautiful than flag or building
are the bright faced boys and girls of Miami,
over whom its rippling glory waves. “It is a
protecting flag,” he cried, throwing his hands
out toward the flag, and added that we rejoice
to accept because it is the emblem of our coun
try 4 s greatness, and wraps its radiant folds
around every American citizen. In the Occi
dent or the Orient, on land or sea, there is not
a nation in the world that would dare molest
that trusting form, which claims its protection.
Here the speaker hesitated, and said with a
mixture of a smiling face and a fiery eye, that
it is in the text and must be said or there*would
be a spontaneous combustion; that no patriotic
man before him could gainsay the proposition,
that if the flag stands for the protection of
the boys and girls in the temple of learning
over which it waves, then it should not wave
over any institution that can only thrive on
the downfall of these boys and the broken
hearts of the girls. He said that it makes his
heart ache and his blood boil to look at the
meadow of youthful faces before him, their
eyes shining like drops of dew in the morning
sunlight, and then remember that the saloons
which that flag protects must live —if they live
at all —on the destruction of the children be
fore him, and on the misery of the homes
from which they come. He prayed that God
would help the men of the land to be brave and
bring about the dream of California’s grand
old patriot, Erwin S. Chapman—“when the
stars and stripes we love so well will be a stain
less flag.”
A Flag of Union.
“We rejoice again,” the speaker said, “be
cause the flag we have raised today is the flag
of a re-united country.” He said that it is a
significant fact for our Northern brethren who
were present at the school grounds, to see the
flag of our common country raised to the
breeze by Judge Paul G. Phillips, an old Con
federate hero —grizzled, grand and gray—who
lifted Florida’s flag of concession in the dread
ful war of the sixties, in which brother shed
the blood of brother, and father fought against
son. “We are Americans all, thank God!” he
cried.
“The sons of the South fought side by side
with the sons of the north on the storm-swept
fields of El Caney and Santiago; side by side
with Theodore Roosevelt and ‘fighting Joe
Wheeler,’ and helped the brothers of the one
time North to bury in the trenches around San
tiago the bickerings and bitterness of an un
happy past, as it had never been buried be
fore.”
The speaker closed with the following im
promptu poem, which he dashed off after reach
ing the grounds, and accepting the invitation
to speak:
The Flag.
“The flag! the flag!
It’s just a rag,”
The craven stupid cries,
“With stripes it’s soiled —
With stars it’s spoiled—
The dreamer for it dies!”
“0 Banner Free
I cling to thee! ’ ’
The Patriot shouts above!
‘ ‘ The Stars! They Shine!
The Stripes sublime
Call for my deathless love!”
‘ ‘ 0, Emblem high,
For thee we’d die!
(Hear it, foe and knave) —
For thee we’ll live!
Our all we give—
-0 Flag of the Free and Brave! ’ ’
4* 4* 4* .
IN MEMORIAM.
Dr. Henry Wise Tribble, B. A., D. D., President
Columbia College, Lake City, Florida,
Died February 6, 1912.
Only the omniscience of our Heavenly Fath
er can fully understand what we, as a Faculty,
feel in the loss of our beloved President and
colleague, Dr. H. W. Tribble.
We, the Faculty, feel that his character and
life richly merit some permanent testimonial
and have therefore unanimously adopted the
following resolutions:
First —That in his very sudden and tragic
death we have received a terrible blow, and sus
tained a great loss, and yet we know that our
loss, bitter though it be, is his real gain.
Second —His sympathetic interest in young
men and women, his broad knowledge of hu
man nature, and his ability to stimulate enthu
siasm in the search for truth make his depar
ture a great loss to Columbia College.
Third—ln his death, Lake City, has lost a
representative citizen; Florida, a successful ed
ucator; the Baptists, a great denominational
leader; and the South, an able exponent of
truth.
Fourth —That we extend to his devoted wife
and to each of his loving children, our deepest
sympathy, and commend them to our Heavenly
Father who alone, can comfort them in this
time of greatest sorrow.
Fisth —That these resolutions be incorporat
ed in the Faculty Record, that they be publish
ed in the Florida Witness, The Golden Age, the
Religious Herald, the Western Recorder, the
Baptist and Reflector, the Richmond College
Messenger and the local papers and that copies
be sent to the members of the bereaved family.
J. F. WOOD, Chairman,
T. E. COCHRAN,
MISS RHODA NUNNALY,
Committee of the Faculty.
MEN AND RELIGION PRIZES.
Fifty dollars is offered as a prize for the
best two hundred and fifty word article
upon the significance of the Christian Con
servation Congress of the Men and Reli
gion Movement, which meets in New York
City, April 19-24. Information about the
Congress may be had of the Literary De
partment of the Men and Religion For
ward Movement, 124 East 28th Street,
New York City, where all articles must be
received by April 1.
There are no other conditions than this.
Anybody may compete: newspaper men,
clergymen, laymen, women, young or old,
American or foreigner.
The writers may publish the competing
articles before sending them in, if they so
desire. The successful contribution will
be widely issued by the Movement, with
the writer’s name attached.
Three other prizes of twenty-five dollars,
fifteen dollars, and ten dollars are also of
fered for the three best epigrams upon the
meaning of the Men and Religion Forward
Movement.