LI THE "HOME-COMING" AT BLOOMINGTON MCLEAN COUNTY'S READINESS TO WELCOME HER CHILDREN FRENCH EX · MARQUETTE AND LA SALLE EXPLORES REMINISCENCES OF THE OLD COURT-HOUSE PLORERS IN THE ILLINOIS COUNTRY JOLIET EXPLORE THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI THE ST. LAWRENCE, THE OHIO, AND THE MISSISSIPPI TO ITS MOUTH EXTENT OF FRANCE'S POSSESSIONS IN AMERICA THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN FRANCE AND GREAT BRITAIN GEORGE R. CLARK CAPTURES KASKASKIA FROM THE BRITISH VIRGINIA CEDES TERRITORY, INCLUDING ILLINOIS, TO THE THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE ILLINOIS ORSUMMARY OF SUCCEEDING EVENTS IN THE HISTORY UNITED STATES OF ILLINOIS. TH HE McLean County (Illinois) "Home-Coming" of June 15, 1907, was an event of deep significance to all Central Illinois. On that occasion I delivered the welcoming address, as follows: "These rare days in June mark a memorable epoch in the history of this good county. The authoritative proclamation has gone forth that her house has been put in order, that the latch-string is out — all things in readiness — and that McLean County would welcome the return of all her children who have in days past gone out from her borders. "In the same joyous and generous spirit in which the welcome was extended, it has been heeded, and from near and far, from the land of flowers and of frosts, from the valley of the Osage, the Colorado, and the Platte, from the golden shores of California, and 'where rolls the Oregon' sons and daughters of this grand old county have gladly turned their footsteps homeward. "When thy heart has grown weary and thy foot has grown sore, Remember the pathway that leads to our door.' "As in the ancient days all roads led to Rome, so in this year of grace, and in this glorious month of June, all roads lead back to the old home; to the hearthstones around which cling the tender memories of childhood, and of loved ones gone to the little mounds where sleep the ashes of ancestral dead. "The 'Home-coming' to which you have been invited will leave its lasting impress upon all your hearts. The kindly words that have been spoken, the cordial grasp of the hand, the unbidden tear, the hospitality extended, have all given assurance that you are welcome. Here, for the time, let dull care and the perplexities that environ this mortal life be laid aside, let whatever would in the slightest mar the delight of this joyous occasion be wholly forgotten; so that in the distant future, to those who return and to those who stay, the recollection of these days will be one of unalloyed pleasure; and so that, when in the years to come we tell over to our children of the return to the old home, this reunion will live in our memories as one that, like the old sun-dial, 'marked only the hours which shine.' "No place so fitting for this home-coming could have been selected as this beautiful park, where the springing grass, transparent lake, and magnificent grove - 'God's first temple' seem all to join in welcoming your return. How, from a mere hamlet, a splendid city has sprung into being during the years of your absence! No longer a frontier village, off the great highway of travel, with the mail reaching it semi-weekly by stage-coach or upon horseback, as our fathers and possibly some who now hear me may have known it, it is now 'no mean city.' Its past is an inspiration; its future bright with promise. It is in very truth a delightful dwelling-place for mortals, and possibly not an unfit abidingplace for saints. Whoever has walked these streets, known kinship with this people, called this his home — wherever upon this old earth he may since have wandered - has in his better moments felt an unconquerable yearning that no distance or lapse of time could dispel, to retrace his footsteps and stand once more within the sacred precincts of his early home. Truly has it been said: 'No man can ever get wholly away from his ancestors.' Once a Bloomingtonian, and no art of the enchanter can dissolve the spell. 'Once in grace, always in grace,' whatever else may betide! Eulogy is exhausted when I say that this city is worthy to be the seat of justice of the grand old county of which it is a part. "Upon occasion such as this, the spirit of the past comes over us with its mystic power. The years roll back, and splendid farms, stately homes, magnificent churches, and the marvellous appliances of modern life are for the moment lost to view. The blooming prairie, the log cabin nestling near the border-line of grove or forest, the old water-mill, the crossroads store, the flintlock rifle, the mould-board plough, the dinner-horn, with notes sweeter than lute or harp ever knew,― are once more in visible presence. At such an hour little stretch of the imagination is needed to recall from the shadows forms long since vanished. And what time more fitting can ever come in which to speak of those who have gone before, of the early settlers of this good county? "It was from the beginning the fit abode for men and women of God's highest type- and such, indeed, were the pioneers. Their early struggles, their sacrifices, all they suffered and endured, can never be fully disclosed. But to them this was truly 'the promised land' -a land they might not only view, but possess. From New England, Ohio, the 'Keystone,' and the 'Empire' State, from the beautiful valley of the Shenandoah and the Commonwealths lying westward and to the south, came the men and the women whose early homes were near the banks of the little streams and nestled in the shades of the majestic groves. Here they suffered the hardships and endured the privations that only the frontiersman might know. Here beneath humble roofs, their children were born and reared, and here from hearts that knew no guile ascended the incense of thanksgiving and praise. The early settlers, the pioneers, the men who laid the foundations ment to the hour of adjournment, said that he would conclude when it should be His Lordship's pleasure to hear him. The immediate reply was: "The Court will hear you, sir, to-morrow; but as to the pleasure, that has long been out of the question." GREATNESS UNAPPRECIATED Gibbon has somewhere said, that one of the liveliest pleasures which the pride of man can enjoy is to reappear in a more splendid condition among those who have known him in his obscurity. A case in point is of a lawyer of prominence in one of the Western States, who soon after his appointment to a seat in the Cabinet revisited his early home. Meeting an acquaintance upon his arrival at the railway station, the visitor, with emotions akin to those described by Gibbon, ventured to inquire what his old neighbors said when they heard of his being appointed to a place in the Cabinet. The unexpected reply was: "Oh, they did n't say nothin' they just laughed!" would have more law in your pocket than you ever had in your head!" Fiercely indignant, the judge replied: "Another word, and I will commit you, sir." To which Curran fearlessly retorted: "Do, and it will be the best thing Your Lordship has committed this term!" REMITTING A FINE About every courthouse in the "Blue Grass" still linger traditions of the late Thomas F. Marshall. For him Nature did well her part. He was a genius if one ever walked this earth. Tall, erect, handsome, of commanding presence, and with intellectual endowment such as is rarely vouchsafed to man, no place seemed beyond his reach. Having in addition the prestige of family, that counted for much, and being the possessor of inherited wealth, it indeed seemed that to one man "fortune had come with both of her hands full." The successor of Clay and Crittenden as Representative for the Ashland District, a peerless orator upon the hustings, at the bar, and in the Great Hall, his life went out in sorrow and disappointment. "Of all sad words of tongue or pen The saddest are these, 'It might have been!"" His eulogy upon the gifted and lamented Menifee, the tribute of genius to genius, belongs to the realm of the loftiest eloquence, and seldom have words of deeper pathos been written than his own obituary - "Poor Tom's a-cold"by George D. Prentice. As to why that which seemed so full of promise "turned to asher upon the lip" he following will explain. Meeting his ckenridge, he said: "Bob, when you P k to the pulpit and I to the bottle, ext a good deal closer than you have scribed as "disqualification in riable habit of not paying |