A VIEW OF UTOPIA.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1925, 22 August 1888, Page 3

A VIEW OF UTOPIA.

Towards the clone of an ora'ion recently delivered m Now York " Col Bob" Ingcraoll depicted tbe horrors of the civi 1 war and of slavery, the abolition of which was one of tbe outgrowths of the Bangu : nary frutdcidal contest which cost tho nations hundreds of thousands of lives and mil-ions of money. Turning from the gloomy side of the pictuie, Mr Ingersoll gave his vivid imagination full sway, anl thus took a via'on of the future : — "A. vision of the futuro ajiees. I see our country fille I wuh happy homes, with firesides of content -the foremost land o f all the earth. "I see a world where thrones have crumbled, and where the kings are dust. The aristocracy of idknesa has perished from the earth. " X see a world without a clave. Man at last is free. Nature's forces have by science been enslaved. Lightning and light, wind and wave, frost and flame, and all the secret subtle powers of earth and air are the tireless toilers for the human race. " I see a world cf peace, adorned with every art, with musio'a myriad voioes thrilled, while lips are rich with words of love aud truth ; a world In which no exile sighs, no prisoner mourns ; where work and worth go hand m band ; where the poor girl trying to win bread with the needle — the needle that has been called " the asp for the breaßt of the poor" — Is □ot driven to tbe desperate choice of orlme or death, of suicide or shame. " 1 see a world without the beggar's outetretched palm, the miset's bard horny stare, the piteous wail of want, tbe livid lips of lies, the cruel eyes of scorn. " I see a race without a disease of flash or brain — shapely and fair — the married harmony of form and function — and as I look, life lengthens, joy deepens, love canopies the earth ; aud over all, m the great dome, shines the eternal star of human hope."