In these meagre Biographical Notes we have done but partial justice to
Officer McWatters. Our readers were duly assured that no attempt would
be made by us to write a fitting biography of the man; and we have
only, in a hasty way, and in a manner wholly unsatisfactory to
ourselves, alluded to certain incidents in our subject's life, which
serve to stamp him as a man far above the average of even good souls,
in his active, practical benevolence. But it is often in little things
that the generous soul demonstrates itself most eloquently--in the
usually unremarked, quiet acts of a man; and, in our judgment, a letter
from Officer McWatters, which, in our search of the public journals for
most of the material of these Notes, we found in the Evening Mail of
October 23, 1869, bespeaks for him as much respect from the good and
charitably inclined as anything he ever did.
We judge from the opening sentence of the letter, that some "good
enough" fellow, "S. W. H. C.," soft of heart, perhaps, but limited in
judgment, had found fault, through the columns of the Mail, with the
poor organ-grinders' "plying their vocation" on the public streets. Of
course there was nobody in all the great metropolis to come to their
defence, except some man like Officer McWatters. And so he came, it
seems, seasonably. The letter shows not only the tender, generous
spirit of the man, but his ripe good judgment and comprehensive view of
things as well, and is worthy of preservation here in these pages,
along with the masterly efforts of his pen, which, in "Knots Untied,"
have not only given us,--his present readers,--the liveliest
gratification by the mysteries they unfold in a lucid style, but have
made one of the best possible records of certain phases of now current
life, for the information of the future historian.
The old Romans (as well as other peoples) had their secret police
service; and how interesting it would be to us, in these far off
centuries, to read of their deeds in the empire, or during the kingdom
of Rome. History, for the most part, is made up of the deeds of great
conquerors, etc. We know too little of the domestic and "hidden life"
of the past. But the future historian of these times will have all the
_materiel_ his ambition can desire for weaving the thread of his story.
And what a _resumé_ of crimes and outrages of all kinds will that of
the 19th century be for the historian of the 40th century to make!
The letter to which we refer above, regarding the organ-grinders, will
be found appended hereto, together with some other matters of interest
regarding Officer McWatters, which we have collected in our examination
of the public journals. We place them in connection with these
biographical notes, as in some respects presenting our subject in a
more graphic manner than we are able in this hurried writing, to make
him known to the great reading public of his adopted country.
The concluding paragraph of the letter referred to regarding the
organ-grinders, as will be seen by reference to it, is, "Until the
country has reached out her helping hand to all to whom she owes
assistance as a right, it is in bad taste to find fault with the mode
in which the disabled soldier tries to earn a living for his family."
In these words, so just and wise, is embraced more than the casual
reader will be apt to perceive. They are, in our opinion, very
remarkable, and involve a great principle, one which Officer McWatters,
as a student of social science, as we have remarked him, must clearly
understand.
"To all to whom she owes assistance as a right," are words eloquent
with the great truth of social statesmanship which they suggest; which
is, that a country, a government, should recognize the right of its
subjects (or component parts, to speak more decently, for there is a
hateful sound in that word "subjects") to life; and the great moral
duty of all these parts to assist each other; a duty which is clear and
imperative in the nature of things (but we cannot here go into the
subtleties of the matter, and show why); a duty, however, which can
never be fitly performed till some nation or people are so organized,
politically and socially, that each shall receive all he merits
therein; till the labor forces, the creators, the only really worthy,
are honored and protected; and not, as now, when the chief villains and
the worthless tyrants live upon the fat of the land, enjoy all the
honors, and are shielded by the laws in robbing from and exploiting
upon the poor, the laboring classes.
Healthful and buoyant of spirit, Officer McWatters doubtless has many
years of active life yet to enjoy. The record of his past is abundant
assurance that his future will be just, generous, brave in good deeds,
sternly and patiently laborious, and benevolent to all mankind; and
when he ceases to be, when the organized atoms which make what we call
the man, and are discriminated by us from all other organized atoms as
"McWatters," shall have been resolved into their original conditions,
and his individuality is lost forever in the ceaseless processes of
continuing creation, his good deeds shall live on still, and make for
him a place in the reverence of those who honor good works far above
that of most men; above that of all the talkers, the self-elected
teachers, who heed not their own doctrines, however noble these be. One
such man as Officer McWatters is worth more than an army of
self-proclaimed saints, who do nothing but prattle about virtue, and
preach, to use their own figure of speech, but live not out in their
lives, nor exemplify in their deaths, "Christ and Him crucified;" but
who think more of Christ _on_ the Cross, in the "triumph of faith,"
than of the nobler Christ-come-down-from-the-Cross, and still battling,
with untiring spirit, against the wrongs which men do to one another.
With this hasty sketch, and the appendices which we may see fit
to make (as before indicated), we leave Officer George S.
McWatters,--the kind of heart, the merciful, the dutiful, the
intelligent and honest man; the patriot of the true type; the
practical and great philanthropist,--in the hands of our readers,
trusting that some able biographer will yet write his history, in
a style and with a particularity commensurate with Officer
McWatters' nobility of character and multifold great good works
in the cause of humanity.
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