Discourse 1898-07-09 [D-3177]

Document Transcript

Page 1

HEARD THE BRITISH GUNS.

The people of Sugar House ward cele-
brated the national day of Independ-
ence
yesterday, July 4, with a great
parade, the reading of the Declaration
of Independence
and other exercises.
Among the speakers were the vener-
able President of the Church, Wilford
Woodruff. During the course of his re-
marks he mentioned that when he was
about seven years old and living with
his family in the state of Connecticut,
a British fleet bombarded the coast.
One day his father placed him on the
top of a barn where he could distinctly
hear the boom of the cannon of the
bombarding fleet. At the time, for-
eign opinion of the United States navy
was that it was about worthless, but
this did not prevent it from obtaining
some of the most brilliant achieve-
ments of naval warfare. That was a
lesson to the world then—a lesson that
has been repeated at Manila and Santi-
ago
, never again to be forgotten.