Ohio History Journal

428       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

wigwam dared to be raised upon its soil on account of danger

of some enemy. A little later the Algonquin, as well as the Iro-

quois, returned to this country in small tribes and grew, but there

was another enemy rising up against them, the English and the

French particularly the English.  For about twenty years

they struggled for the occupation of this territory, and the

English finally succeeded, but the Indian was determined to

hold it, and really not until after the war of 1812 was this country

held by the white men in security. Now all these people have laid

up great things for us to learn. Historically we want to collect

all the information we can and place them in this building where

they shall be of interest and usefulness to the generations that

are to come. I am sure that the trustees are all interested in this

work, and that as the years go by and new trustees come, they will

find it a pleasure to inspect what we have done and shall add

more and more to the benefit and to the honor of this State.

We are thankful for this afternoon; we are thankful that this

hour has come when the foundation of a grand building is being

laid and when the efforts that are to tell for the future in this

society can be carried on with a greater degree of success than

we have been able to do in the past. This I say again is a happy

and auspicious day and we are glad for it.

MR. RANDALL: One of the principal accomplishments of the

history of our Society has been the holding at various times

throughout the State historical celebrations, and the first of

those was held in Marietta in 1888, at the One Hundredth Anni-

versary of its settlement, at which many distinguished men of the

nation took part and spoke. One of the gentlemen here today

was an orator on that occasion. Mr. D. K. Watson will now ad-

dress you.

ADDRESS OF HON. D. K. WATSON.

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have lived long

enough to know that a man never knows when he is going to get

into trouble. Standing on this platform, together with other

gentlemen here a few moments ago, my distinguished friend, Mr.

Randall, stepped up to me and asked if I wouldn't say a few

words. I said I didn't know what to talk about and he said just

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Laying Corner Stone of the Society's Building.  429

 

give them a "straight flush." Not being familiar with that kind

of vernacular, and not knowing what that meant, thinking he ex-

pected some unusual thing of me I stepped back and asked a

friend what a straight flush was, and he said five cards of the

same kind in a sequence. Now, you all know-I don't know any

more about that than I did before, but it is so easy for a man to

get into trouble.

I allow no man here or elsewhere to surpass me in my ad-

miration of what is being accomplished here today. I believe

most profoundly and thoroughly in the erection of this build-

ing. I hope it will be beautiful. I hope that it will be enduring,

I hope it will stand the ages of time and that it will be

one of the mighty monuments of Ohio and of this great Uni-

versity of which you, Dr. Thompson, are such an honored presi-

dent.

A friend of mine some years ago returned from Egypt and

brought me as a present a scareb. Now, you all know I suppose

what a scareb is. Years and centuries and thousands of years

ago the Egyptians saw in the claw of the beetle or the bug what

he said was immortality and he said "I have been looking for this

thing and here it is. Here is immortality or the representation

of it." Not being able to preserve the bug itself he made it in

imitation of stone and cement, and it became the emblem of im-

mortality to the Egyptian who believed in that doctrine, and it

became sacred, and so the scareb became known as the sacred

bug. It was worn by the rich and powerful. The King and

Queen adopted it as their insignia of office, and when they died

it was the custom of the country to bury with them three of these

scarebs, and for years people from Germany and France and

other countries have been going over to the tombs of Egypt

where those old Kings and Queens were buried thousands of

years ago and taking them up and taking these scarebs away from

them and bringing them home, and that is one I have, and it is

4,300 years old. On the flat side of it is this inscription "As

long as I am King of Egypt, justice shall be done throughout the

land." It is worth something, Mr. Randall to you, and it is worth

something to me, to know on this bright and beautiful afternoon

in the year 1912, that twenty-three centuries before Christ was

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430       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.   born, an Egyptian King was thinking of doing justice to his people throughout the land. We are trying to do that now in this country and some other countries and I hope we may succeed. I often think what it rep- resents. I often think of the ages that have passed and I often think of the history it could write, if it could write at all, and I have learned more history from that little thing no longer than your finger nail, than from Macauley, Hume and Gibbon, not

that it said so much, but it said it in such a way and said it forty-three centuries ago. I hope that if ever this building is destroyed, if ever the waves of age and time annihilate it, there will be left the con- tents of that box, so that men who stand here thousands of years from now will read in that history something that will be of importance to them. I believe, Mr. Chairman, in a man doing something to-day that will benefit the man that lives tomorrow, and I believe in a man doing something this year that will be of some benefit to

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Laying Corner Stone of the Society's Building.  431   the man that lives next year, and if you can do something now that will be of some assistance to a man who lives a thousand years from now that man's life has not been a failure. MR. RANDALL: Ladies and gentlemen we come now to the last act of the program. Curator Mills will place the box in the corner stone and spread the first trowel of mortar. Prof. W. C. Mills then stepped forward with the box con- taining the articles to be sealed in the cornerstone. The articles were: copy of the bills of the Seventy-Ninth General Assembly, containing the items of appropriation for the erection of the building; copies of the first and twentieth annual volumes of the proceedings of the Society; circular of the list of publications of the Society, Constitution and officers; printed pamphlet of the specifications of the building; proceedings of the meetings of the Building Committee; speech of President Wright, just delivered; copies of the Columbus papers of the day, September 12, 1912, Ohio State Journal, Columbus Evening Dispatch and Columbus Citizen. Prof. Mills then placed the box in its receptacle in the cornerstone and spread the first trowel of mortar; President Wright and Secretary Randall likewise handled the trowel, when the upper stone was lowered in position and the interesting exer- cises were at an end.

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