SACRIFICING FOR PATRIOTISM
Look back upon Washington and upon the Savior-like
martyrs, who, for our welfare, in lonely dungeons and
prison-ships, breathed a noisome air; and when the
minions of power came around day after day and offered
them life and liberty if they would desert their
country's cause, refused and died. The great
experiment of republicanism is being tried anew. In
Greece and Italy it failed through the incapacity of
the people to enjoy liberty without abusing it.
Millions of human beings may be happy through our
wisdom, but must be miserable through our folly.
Religion, the ark of God, is here thrown open to all,
and yet is to be guarded from desecration and
sacrilege, lest we perish with a deeper perdition than
ever befell any other people.--HORACE MANN.
A LITTLE boy many years ago was marching down Fourth Avenue in New
York, his face bright with interest and his whole air that of one who
has important business on hand. A gentleman who met him was curious to
know what was in the child's mind and stopped him.
"Where are you going so fast, my little man?" he asked.
"I'm going to the Bible House," replied the boy promptly. "You see the
_Morning Star_,--that's the missionary ship, has just got in, and I paid
a penny to get that ship, and so it's part mine, and I'm going down to
hear all about it."
The gentleman who told this story was old, and the incident had
occurred in his young manhood, but he said he had never forgotten it,
for it illustrated better than anything he had ever seen the effect upon
the mind of a personal share in any enterprise.
The child who has worked in a garden is likely to watch its growth and
progress with an interest which he could not otherwise feel. In the same
way he can be made to appreciate his home better if he has daily light
tasks to do in maintaining its order and comfort; but these tasks
should, if possible, be made regular ones, and their performance should
become a habit. If they are done only now and then, they are much more
likely to be felt as a burden.
The maintenance of the ordinary home requires great labor and expense.
Without unduly distressing them, children should be made to understand
this, and that it is only fair that each member of the family should do
his part in keeping it up. In the households of the rich, such a course
is hard to manage, for servants do all the work; but in the average home
where but one servant, or none at all, is kept, a little ingenuity on
the part of the parents will accomplish it, without "nagging" or
tiresome repetition.
In one family of five children, where there was no servant, but where
the standards of the mother were high, there was naturally an enormous
amount of work to do. The eldest child was a girl of twelve, the next, a
girl of ten. Then came a boy of eight, and so on down. The older ones
were in school, but all helped cheerfully in the household work as far
as they were able.
The boy of eight, who may be called Chester, was a thoughtful little
fellow, and when he saw his mother rising at four or five o'clock every
morning to wash or iron or cook; then, all day long cutting out little
garments, running the sewing-machine, tending the teething baby, or
engaged in the never-ending task of cleaning the house, his tender heart
was deeply moved.
He was a great reader and the lady who superintended the village library
came to know him well, and often had long talks with him. From his
extensive reading, coupled with a naturally rather "old-fashioned" way
of expressing himself, his remarks were often of a nature to amuse her,
but she never laughed at him, and so was able to keep his confidence.
One morning Chester appeared with his weekly book, and as the librarian
was alone, he sat down for a little talk. His face was long, and as he
dropped into his chair, he sighed heavily.
"What is the matter, Chester?" she asked kindly.
"My mother is sick," he replied dejectedly. "She is sick in bed. My
father got the breakfast, but he isn't much good,--and we children
helped, but we ain't much good either. Not anything goes right when my
mother is sick."
"But she will soon be well. Probably she has been working too hard."
"Yes, that's it," agreed Chester wearily. "My father says so. He
tells her to let things go more, and she says she tries, but she
wants the house to look so nice,--and see how well she mends my
stockings,"--rolling up one of his knickerbockers, "and it is work,
work, work for my mother from morning to night. Oh, Miss Smith,"
concluded Chester in a tone of anguish, "the lot of woman is very hard."
Miss Smith had never had such difficulty to control herself as when she
heard this monumental sentiment from the lips of this diminutive urchin,
but she managed to utter steadily, "Still, it must be a comfort to your
mother to have so many good children to help her," to which Chester
gravely assented.
There are not many children who so fully appreciate their mother's
responsibilities; but it is well that, without complaint or whining, the
mother should, in such circumstances as those which have been described,
make her family understand that her "lot" needs all of the amelioration
that they can supply; and they will love and value their home all the
more, the more they do for it.
The same thing is true of the affairs of your town or city. If you do
nothing for it, you are likely to care nothing for it.
In Miss McCracken's interesting book, "Teaching Through Stories," she
tells of a little girl, who, from reading the story, "The Microbe Which
Comes Into Milk," became convinced of the importance of pure milk. In
this tale, emphasis is laid upon the rapidity with which milk
deteriorates, if it is left standing in the sun, and the harm which
often comes to babies in consequence.
A little later, a neighbor, who had a small baby, reported that this
child rang her bell early one morning, about ten minutes after the
milk-man had brought the baby's milk, and said anxiously, "Your
milk-bottle is standing out on the piazza in the sun. Aren't you afraid
it will spoil if you don't put it in the ice-chest?"
It is but a little way from an interest in the pure milk of an
individual baby to an interest in pure milk for all babies. This little
girl will probably grow up to see that laws are enforced for pure milk,
and for the cleanliness of cows and stables. Even though she may never
develop an enthusiasm for any other branch of politics, it is a good
thing to have one woman working hard for pure milk.
All children can be taught to see that good laws for such matters are a
part of patriotism; and that a man who does not try to help to get such
laws, even though he may shout for political candidates and hang out
flags in front of his house, is not a true patriot.
It is not often that one person can work in many different directions;
but if each one will choose some reform in which he is particularly
interested, and hammer at that until it is accomplished, he will have
done something fine for his country. He may meet with all kinds of
discouragements, but let him hold on. Again, he must be reminded that
patriotism is seldom easy.
Even after you have succeeded in getting your ordinance passed, you may
have trouble in having it enforced. Worst of all, the clever rascals on
the other side may manage to get your hard-won law repealed,--and there
is your long task all to do over again.
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty just as much now as ever. Look
across the ocean, and you see what it is costing the nations of to-day.
You think that our fathers gained it for us in the Revolution, and that,
however others may have to fight for it, it is secure for us; and all
that we have to do is to sit back and enjoy it. On the contrary, some
form of tyranny is always just around the corner, waiting to devour us.
It is not impossible that a wrong issue of this war may force us to
fight on our own soil again for it.
In any case, there are plenty of social and commercial tyrants only
waiting to lay hands on us. Sometimes it is a rich corporation,
stretching out shrewd tentacles to entrap us. Its managers may be
philanthropic and courteous, even religious, tyrants,--but despots none
the less. It may be a company of racetrack gamblers, defeated for a
while by a fearless governor, but stealing back to power as soon as his
back is turned. Different states may have different tyrants,--or an
arrogant party of socialists may "tie up" the whole country. There is
almost every minute some movement going on, calculated, if it succeeds,
to hamper or destroy our liberty. Mr. D. L. Moody once said, when he was
commenting upon this phase of our national life: "Anything that is going
to hurt this nation we ought to fight. Anything that is going to
undermine this grand republic or tear out its foundation, you and I
ought to guard against with our tears and our prayers and our efforts."
Explain this often to your children. It will strengthen their
determination to defend their country.
One of our young reformers in a public address lately pleaded for a
wider recognition among the people of the good work of honest officials.
"There are enough among us to find fault when things are not done
right," he said, "but there are few who will take the trouble to commend
the man who does well. He keeps on with his efforts, whether he gets any
praise for it or not, but he is often immensely cheered and refreshed by
an appreciative word. If his morality is not of the heroic kind, he may
fall away and cease to put forth any special effort to do his work well,
just for lack of encouragement."
He illustrated his point with the story of the small boy who was
sweeping the sidewalk when some ladies appeared to call upon his mother.
One of them asked pleasantly, "Is your mother at home?"
His rather rude reply was laden with significance.
"Do you suppose," he growled, while a slight twinkle broke through his
scowling eye, "that I would be sweeping here if she wasn't at home?"
In spite of the fact that a well-fed, well-clothed and well-educated
people, like the Germans, for instance, will bear an autocratic
government, which kindly does everything for them, but gives little
opportunity for individual initiative; it cannot be compared, in its
salutary effect upon its citizens, with one which calls forth the powers
of judgment and decision in every one, and feeds self-respect,
discouraging toadyism and caste, like a republic. An autocracy, if
wisely administered, undoubtedly means greater order and efficiency,
until the democracy has mastered its new problems and its people have
become thoroughly educated. Rough working of new machinery is almost
inevitable; and the modern democratic idea has not, even in our own
country, in the absence of the votes of half the people, been allowed
proper space for expansion, though England, France and Switzerland are
hewing at it also. A hundred years longer will show what it can do, if
demagogues do not overturn it. If our republic fails, another will arise
upon its ashes, for the noble principles upon which it was founded are
the highest yet conceived by man, and are immortal.
This truth cannot be too early or too strongly impressed upon our
children. There are enough men, like our distinguished capitalist, who
do not believe in it. Their plausible arguments may undermine the
convictions of our young people, unless we furnish them with solid
reasons for our higher belief.
As Mr. Benjamin C. R. Low has recently written in a fine poem, "America
is so new!"
We are new. We realize that we are an experiment. Whether this
experiment, the greatest the world has ever seen, is to succeed, depends
upon the kind of patriotism that is instilled into our children. They
must be thoroughly inoculated with the truth that both peace and war
make incessant, expensive and personally sacrificial demands upon every
citizen, and that these demands must be met by them, or else America is
lost.
There must be no "slackers" in this everlasting conflict.