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“ Nor is it a matter of surprise that the pioneers of Iowa possessed the elements of character above attributed to them. In the first place, only strong and independent souls ventured to the frontier. A weaker class could not have hoped to endure the toils, the labors, the pains, and withal the loneliness of pioneer life; for the hardest and at the same time the most significant battles of the 19th century were fought with axes and plows in the winning of the West. The frontier called for men with large capacity for adaptation--men with flexible and dynamic natures. ”

“ Ahaz, kinglet of Jerusalem, consults the prophet Isaiah as to the issue of the siege. Isaiah replies: "God shall give you a sign: a girl (or woman) shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the child shall be able to refuse the evil and choose the good the land shall be delivered of both the kings, ... and the Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria." ”

“ The lives of men coming to Iowa show how that has been done in this state.
Seemingly Austin Adams had everything to attract him to the East, particularly to Boston, and when he left the Harvard Law School to come west, his friends prophesied an early return, believing him unfitted, both by taste and culture, for any settlement beyond the Atlantic states. Later in life when he analyzed the motives for his change, he said: "I wanted more liberty, a society with more variety than I had ever seen in the East." He always disliked to be in a valley, or in a small room, or to have a confined view ”

“ Twenty-five thousand people have settled on lands in Wisconsin Territory west of the Mississippi River, in what is called the ‘Iowa District,’ improved farms, erected buildings, built towns, laid out cities and made valuable improvements, but have not yet been able to secure any kind of title to their homes and farms. ”

“ To the seekers after new homes, from the old world, or from the Eastern and Middle States of the Union--be they mechanics, agriculturists, or professional men--Iowa offers many advantages. On her soil, with prudence, economy and sobriety, added to good health, no one can fail to acquire a competency, if not to amass a fortune.
We have said thus much of Iowa, because we believe it to be due to her; due to her enterprise, and due to the worthy people who have made her soil their home;--and because, although no longer one of her citizens, we love her still! ”

“ It also perpetuates the memory of a great historic act which influenced the fate of three nations and opened the way to new liberties and increased the happiness of mankind. It changed the development of our people and gave a new pathway to the march of our young republic. It is this historical significance of the monument which induced the National Congress, the Legislature of Iowa, and the patriotic people of Sioux City to combine their efforts for its erection. ”

“ Why art thou less in stature? Oh! in the name of whatever god thou dost worship, tell me art thou Ayesha?”
“I am Ayesha” she answered solemnly, “that very Ayesha to whom thou didst pledge thyself eternally.”
“She lies, she lies,” broke in Atene. “I tell thee, husband—for such with her own lips she declares thou art to me—that yonder woman who says that she parted from thee young and beautiful, less than twenty years ago, is none other than the aged priestess who for a century at least has borne rule in these halls of Hes. Let her deny it if she can.” ”

“ Accordingly, Izates abode in that country until his father's death. But the very day that Monobazus died, queen Helena sent for all the grandees, and governors of the kingdom, and for those that had the armies committed to their command; and when they were come, she made the following speech to them: "I believe you are not unacquainted that my husband was desirous Izates should succeed him in the government, and thought him worthy so to do. However, I wait your determination; for happy is he who receives a kingdom, not from a single person only, but from the willing suffrages of a great many." ”

“ This was Iowa, as it was first seen by white men, and no more enchanting land ever met the gaze of explorers. For six days the Frenchmen remained with their Indian friends, traversing the valley of the river, hunting elk, buffalo and prairie chickens, fishing and bathing in the pure waters, feasting on the choicest of the products of the fields, forests and streams. The natives exerted themselves to provide every entertainment possible for their white visitors, and urged them to prolong their stay. ”

“ Floating down the Wisconsin, they finally saw before them the broad waters of the Mississippi. It was on the 17th day of June, 1673, that Marquette and Joliet looked out on the bold bluffs of the western shore a few miles below where McGregor now stands. They were the first white men who ever saw Iowa. Pushing out into the current they beheld a wild, beautiful landscape. On the Wisconsin side was a level prairie shore stretching northward for many miles, covered with tall grass waving in the June breeze. ”

“ The fine country surrounding Western, would easily lead one to believe that the early plan was feasible, to make the school an industrial one, where deserving young men could make their way through school by devoting some of their time to agricultural work. But Western was unfortunate in two things: First, none of the railroads that were built in Iowa, ever came near the town. It seems as if a Nemesis had brooded over the place, for even the interurban now being built between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City swerves from a direct line, and misses both Western and Shueyville by about a mile. ”

“ It is right, therefore, that you should be the first to learn also of Ayesha, Hesea and Spirit of the Mountain, the priestess of that Oracle which since the time of Alexander the Great has reigned between the flaming pillars in the Sanctuary, the last holder of the sceptre of Hes or Isis upon the earth. It is right also that to you first among men I should reveal the mystic consummation of the wondrous tragedy which began at Kôr, or perchance far earlier in Egypt and elsewhere. ”

“ As the immigrant mother leads her sons and daughters into the undeveloped paths of wealth—as civilization elevates a race out of the sloughs of semi-barbarism—as national prosperity exalts a land—or as science raises the human intellect from darkness into dazzling light—thus Iowa, with rapid strides, ascends the precipitious sides of prosperity's mountain range, bearing her sons and daughters to loftier, and still loftier peaks, and revealing to their gaze still wider and richer vistas. ”

“ The character of the population settling in this beautiful country is such as is rarely found in our new territories. With very few exceptions there is not a more orderly, industrious, energetic population west of the Alleghenies than is found in this Iowa District. For intelligence they are not surpassed as a body by any equal number of citizens of any country of the world. ”

“ Isaiah treats these foreigners at least as men. Take his prophecies on Egypt or on Tyre or on Babylon—nations which were the hereditary enemies of his nation—and you find him speaking of their natural misfortunes, their social decays, their national follies and disasters, with the same pity and with the same purely moral considerations, with which he has treated his own land. When news of those far-away sorrows comes to Jerusalem, it moves this large-hearted prophet to mourning and tears. He breathes out to distant lands elegies as beautiful as he has poured upon Jerusalem. ”

“ CHARLES J. IVES of Cedar Rapids is an illustration of a class of citizens of Iowa, starting in boyhood with only an inheritance of intellect, energy and a laudable ambition to accomplish something worth living for, has attained a high position in one of the great industries of the age. ”

“ I was never tired of looking at the wine barges near Charenton; the little bathing pavilions and passenger boats in the vicinity of the Louvre; the brick-barges, hay-barges, coal-barges and Heaven knows what else plying between the city’s heart and points downstream past Issy. It gave me the impression of being one of the brightest, cleanest rivers in the world—a river on a holiday. I saw it once at Issy at what is known in Paris as the “green hour”—which is five o’clock—when the sun was going down and a deep palpable fragrance wafted from a vast manufactory of perfume filled the air. ”

“ His Advice to Ahaz in the Crisis of 734 B.C. When, in 735, Northern Israel and Damascus united and endeavored to force Judah to combine with them in a coalition against the invader, Tiglath-pileser IV, Isaiah entered upon his work as a statesman. In person he went to advise Ahaz, as the king was probably investigating the defences of Jerusalem, in view of the possibilities of an impending siege. The place of meeting was evidently south of the city, where the valley of the Tyropœon joined that of the Hinnom near the pool where, in earlier days, Adonijah had rallied his followers. ”

“ Nor must it be supposed that these islands of fertility and verdure are always small. Some of them are very extensive, and contain a considerable population. There is one called the Great Oasis, which consists of a chain of fertile tracts of about a hundred miles in length. Another, called the Oasis of Siwah, has, in modern times, a population of eight thousand souls. This last is situated not far from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea—at least not very far: perhaps two or three hundred miles—and it was a very celebrated spot in Alexander's day. ”

“ The Poles and Lithuanians settled there were soon absorbed into the rest of the population, but Ivan's victorious campaigns shortly brought in a fresh contingent of foreign neighbours, prisoners of war, or involuntary immigrants, gathered on the battlefields and in the towns and country places of Livonia. The suburb on the right bank of the Iaouza to which they were confined long preserved a certain autonomy, for it became a centre of Western culture, and a nursery for men destined to play a considerable part in the national history. ”

“ Being called upon by the frontier settlers for aid in checking the horrible outrages committed upon the citizens living on the Little Sioux River at the Spirit Lake settlements, and in Emmet County, by the Sioux Indians, by authority you invested in me, I raised, organized and armed three companies of thirty men each, which were as we proceeded increased to thirty-seven men each. ”

“ Yet they had scarce risen before Isaiah was plucking the Persian’s mantle, while Zerubbabel stretched a finger toward the river. Gliding from the royal quay, now hid in shadow, now clear in the glistening moonlight, was something black, crawling,—a huge beetle as it were upon the glancing river—a boat and their pursuers. But Isaiah was calm as the heavens above him.
“Fear nothing. We have by far the start. The gates are open. My friends are ready with the horses. Jehovah, who has saved us out of the clutch of the great Euphrates, shall He not much more save from the feebler wrath of man?” ”

“ My people, he cries—my people! children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.
Isaiah had been born into the flourishing nation while Uzziah was king. The great events of that monarch's reign were his education, the still grander hopes they prompted the passion of his virgin fancy. He must have absorbed as the very temper of his youth this national consciousness which swelled so proudly in Judah under Uzziah. ”

“ This was the first organized effort of the citizens of what was then called western Wisconsin to secure the establishment of a separate government and territory. The memorial was sent to General George W. Jones, the delegate in Congress from Wisconsin, who at once began to work for the establishment of Iowa Territory, although he lived on the east side of the Mississippi River and would remain a citizen of Wisconsin. ”

“ Religion to Ahaz was only another kind of diplomacy. He was not a fanatic, but a diplomat, who made his son to pass through the fire to Moloch, and burnt incense in the high places and on the hills, and under every green tree. He was more a political than a religious eclectic, who brought back the pattern of the Damascus altar to Jerusalem. The Temple, in which Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, became under Ahaz, and by the help of the priesthood, the shelter of various idols; in every corner of Jerusalem altars were erected to other gods. ”

“ Down here in Georgia, one of the original thirteen States which formed this great Union of this country, you have stood fast. You have stood fast while the great Northwest has been growing with a giant's growth. Iowa to-day, my friend, contains more railroads, more turnpikes, more acres of cultivated land, more people, more intelligence, more schools, more colleges—more of everything which constitutes a refined and enlightened State—than the whole State of Georgia. ”

“ In the spring of 1857 he traveled westward until he reached the then little frontier town of Sioux City where he decided to make his home. He became a partner of N. C. Hudson in the practice of law, and some years later became a partner with Craig L. Wright, and for twenty years the law firm of Joy & Wright was the leading one in Sioux City. They were attorneys for the Illinois Railway Company, the Sioux City and Pacific, the Dakota Southern, Columbus and Black Hills Railway companies and the Iowa Falls and Sioux City Railroad Land Company. ”