# Armistice Day

Our American Holidays
ARMISTICE DAY
* OUR AMERICAN HOLIDAYS
* Edited by Robert Haven Schauffler
* ARBOR DAY (April)
* ARMISTICE DAY (November 11)
* CHRISTMAS (December 25)
* EASTER (March or April)
* FLAG DAY (June 14)
* INDEPENDENCE DAY (July 4)
* LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY (February 12)
* MEMORIAL DAY (May 30)
* MOTHER'S DAY (Second Sunday in May)
* THANKSGIVING (Last Thursday in November)
* WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY (February 22)
Our American Holidays
ARMISTICE DAY
AN ANTHOLOGY OF THE BEST PROSE AND VERSE ON PATRIOTISM, THE GREAT WAR, THE ARMISTICE,—ITS HISTORY, OBSERVANCE, SPIRIT AND SIGNIFICANCE; VICTORY, THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER AND HIS BROTHERS, AND PEACE. WITH FICTION, DRAMA, PAGEANTRY AND PROGRAMS FOR ARMISTICE DAY OBSERVANCE.
COMPILED AND EDITED BY
A. P. Sanford
AND
Robert Haven Schauffler
NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
1927
Copyright, 1927, By DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, Inc.
PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY Quinn & Boden Company, Inc.
BOOK MANUFACTURERS RAHWAY NEW JERSEY
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The editors wish to acknowledge with sincere gratitude the generous help given them in the preparation of this volume by Miss Mary Emogene Hazeltine of the University of Wisconsin Library School (author of "Anniversaries and Holidays"); by Franklin Hopper, Chief of Circulation, New York Public Library; Miss Eugenia Krauss, Librarian of the Epiphany Branch, New York Public Library, and her staff; Mr. Edmund W. Miller, Librarian of the Free Public Library, Jersey City, N. J.; and by the many Boy Scout and American Legion officials, librarians and school teachers who have contributed suggestions and material.
For their kind permission to reprint copyrighted selections grateful acknowledgment is due to:
Allyn & Bacon: From "Soldiers of Freedom" by Woodrow Wilson, from "Hill's American Patriotism," and from "President Wilson's Proclamation."
Atlantic Monthly: "Flanders Poppies," by Ian Colvin.
The Bobbs-Merrill Company: "A Monument for the Soldiers," by James Whitcomb Riley, from "Green Fields and Running Brooks." Copyright, 1892-1919. Used by special permission of the publishers.
The Christian Century: "November 11th as a Day of Prayer."
The Committee on Peace and Service of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting: "The Christ of the Andes," by Anna P. Hannum. Used by permission.
Doubleday, Page & Company: "Peace" from "Wit ​and Wisdom of Woodrow Wilson," by Woodrow Wilson, and "Self-Sacrifice" by Woodrow Wilson.
E. P. Dutton & Company: "Aftermath" and "The Armistice—Every One Sang" by permission, from "Picture-Show" by Seigfired Sasson. Copyright by E. P. Dutton & Company.
Eldridge Entertainment House, Inc., Franklin, Ohio: "Armistice Day: Lest We Forget," by Alma Lundman.
Harper & Brothers: "The Call," by O. W. Firkins.
Henry Holt and Company: "The Day of Glory" by Dorothy Canfield, from "The Day of Glory."
Houghton Mifflin Company: "For Thee They Died" by John Drinkwater; "The Look in Their Eyes" and "The White Comrade," by Robert Haven Schauffler; "Rheims Cathedral," by Grace Hazard Conkling, from "Afternoons in April." Reprinted by permission of, and by arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company.
The Independent: "The Last Shot" and "The Signing of the Armistice"; "The Fruits of Victory," by William Howard Taft. Used by permission.
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.: "Victory Bells" and "The Nightingales of Flanders." Reprinted from "Wilderness Songs" by Grace Hazard Conkling, by permission of and special arrangement with Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., authorized publishers.
Little, Brown and Company: "The Unseen Host" from "The Unseen Host and Other War Plays" by Percival Wilde.
The Macmillan Company: "At Gallipoli" by John Masefield; "Sew the Flags Together" by Vachel Lindsay; "To My Country," by Marguerite Wilkinson. Used by permission.
March Brothers: From "Lest We Forget," published in book form by March Brothers, Lebanon, Ohio, at 40 cents.
​McClelland and Stewart Limited: "After Battle," "The Fallen" and "To the Canadian Mothers—1914-1918," from "The Collected Poems of Duncan Campbell Scott." Used by permission of author and publishers.
Humphrey Milford: "When There is Peace" and "Clean Hands," by Austin Dobson. Used by permission of Humphrey Milford, publisher, and Mr. A. T. A. Dobson, acting for the Trustees.
The New York Evening Post: "These Ten Years Since We Went to War." Reprinted by permission.
The New York Herald Tribune: "Armistice Day," an editorial; "Lest We Forget: Armistice Day, 1926," by Curtis Wheeler. Reprinted by permission.
The New York Sun: "What Americans Believe In," by Charles W. Eliot. Reprinted by permission.
The New York Times: "Armistice," by Charles Buxton Going; "Armistice Day," an editorial; from "Interview with Dr. Nicholas Butler"; "Letter by an American Officer"; "The Unknown Soldier Honored by England," by Sir Philip Gibbs.
The North American Review: "The Call," by O. W. Firkins.
The Outlook: "How America Finished," by Gregory Mason; "Hymn for the Victorious Dead," by Hermann Hagedorn; "Patriotism," by Lyman Abbott; and "Peace," by Harold Trowbridge Pulsifer.
The Penn Publishing Company: "America Goes in Singing." Used by permission of and arrangement with The Penn Publishing Company, Philadelphia, Pa., publishers of "Patriotic Pieces from the Great War."
Punch: "Paris Again" and "V. A. D." Reprinted by permission of the "Proprietors of Punch."
Rand McNally & Company: "Comrades in a ​Common Cause," by Bishop Brent; "President Wilson's War Message."
Charles Scribner's Sons: "I Have a Rendezvous With Death" and "From Letters and Diary," by Alan Seeger; "The Image," by E. H. Sothern. Copyright, 1919, by Charles Scribner's Sons; "To Italy" and "To Peace, With Victory," by Corinne Roosevelt Robinson; "The Land" and "The Young Dead," by Maxwell Struthers Burt; "Aes Triplex," by Robert Louis Stevenson; "Green Hill Far Away," by John Galsworthy, from "Tatterdemalion." Copyright, 1920, by Charles Scribner's Sons. By permission of the publishers.
The Viking Press: "Saecla Ferarum," from "Tutankhamen," by William Ellery Leonard. New York: The Viking Press. Copyright, 1924, by B. W. Huebsch, Inc.; "May Night" and "To the Dead Doughboys," from "The Lynching Bee," by William Ellery Leonard. New York: The Viking Press. Copyright, 1920, by B. W. Huebsch, Inc.
ARMISTICE DAY
INTRODUCTION
A young orderly burst into the Mars hospital ward and a tingling hush of premonition leaped from bed to bed down the long double row of wounded officers.
"The Colonel has received the following dispatch: 'At 11 A.M., to-day, firing will cease on all fronts. This is official!'"
Even after the door had slammed, the incredible hush continued. In common with all the dwellers on earth we were living through the most significant, the most poignant, the most stupendous moment of our lives.
Between these covers has been brought together the best poetry and prose which could be found, dealing with this day of exultant glory, its history, spirit and significance,—and with those allied subjects, the War and the victory which preceded the Armistice, the heroes who gave their all to win it, and the resultant peace with its cloud of attendant problems.
It is hoped that this volume may serve to clarify, emphasize and perpetuate that truer, larger spirit of the day which has been succinctly expressed in these two letters:
As the years pass, our personal recollections of the war period,—of the sacrifices, of the enthusiasms, and of the ideals of those days,—inevitably become less vivid. It is of prime importance for the future peace of the world that the present generation shall be kept alive to the spirit which marked our participation in the World War and the hopes that burned so high on the day when the successful outcome of the struggle was assured. Annually, on November 11, the lesson of that day should be retaught in our schools.
I want to suggest that one of the most important pieces of constructive teaching which we should strive to accomplish in this connection is the reconciliation, in the minds of our pupils, of the ideals of patriotism and international good-will. Even young children can be brought to sense in simple form the conflict between competition on the one hand and coöperation on the other. These two opposite ideals of conduct should be presented not merely as symbolizing the age-old antithesis of selfishness and altruism. From the point of view of national welfare itself, it should be made clear that the united effort of the group works to the benefit of its individual members much more effectively than any competitive struggle.
At 11 o'clock on the morning of November 11, 1918, an entire world, weary, worn and bent under the disaster of the World War, knelt in thanks to God. The ​guns ceased booming. A new note was in the air. A new hope was in every heart, a hope and a prayer that the fighting of nation against nation, of people against people, had ended for all time. We want to go back in spirit to that grand moment. We want to recall the purpose common to every one at that moment to do each his or her share to make impossible, ever again, such a disaster.
Armistice Day has not been officially designated as a national holiday. But in the following twenty-four States it is a legal holiday: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and Hawaii.
In one other state an act of the legislature provides that the Governor shall issue annually a proclamation calling for the proper observance of Armistice Day. The American Legion is seeking the enactment of similar laws in the remaining States. The 60th Congress passed a resolution requiring the President to issue a proclamation calling upon officials to display the Flag on all government buildings on each Armistice Day, and inviting the people of the United States to observe the Day in schools, churches and other suitable places with appropriate ceremonies ​expressive of their gratitude for peace and their desire for the continuance of friendly relations with all other peoples.
In our celebration of this great holiday let us keep faith with the living and with the dead by reconsecrating our lives to that brotherhood of mankind and to the coming of those United States of the World which alone can give man, "the fighting animal," an enduring peace.
R. H. S.
September, 1927.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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