Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-09-15
Garibaldi.

and the fitful fever of his life had ended
years ago, and his latest ventures were
not successful, but he nevertheless re-
tanned to the last such hold ON the
popular Imagination as probably no real
hero has ever had before. To find q
parallel to the way in which he has fed
the fancy of our century one has to 60
to fable rather than to history. His
match .uust be looked for among the
Knights Of the Round Table or the
Twelve Peers of Charlemagne, rather
than among the warriors or sea-rovers,
generals or filibusters of real story.
Cortez, Pizarro, Drake, Hawkins.
Charles Nil, Give, Napoleon, Lord
Dundonald, all had the resources of
great states in some degree at their COM
mand when they made their contribu-
tions TO the history of adventure by land
and sea. Garibaldi had nothing but q
dauntie's courage, Il passionate love Of
his country, and absolute simplicity of
character. With these for his whole
equipment, he literally went forth con-
quering and 10 conquer, like the White
Horse 10 the Revelation. He found
when he reached mans estate the prog.
rass of the revolution which was to
finally transform Europe still checked
by the weariress of the great wars
which closed at Waterloo. In England
and in France Liberalism had made
some headway, and effected some solid
gains, but over the rest of the Continent
there was still but little sign of the
working of that new force the advent of
which Goethe had seen and announced
Oh the neld of Valmy. AS Lord Bea-
ccnsfield said at a still later period, in
his gaudy style, the world was still ruled
by mDnarchs and statesmen and in
somewhat Ostentatious Indifference to
the tides of popular feeling. Garibaldi's
appearance at Rome, in 1913, was part
Of the resumption of the great process
which was finally to cover the Continent
with constitutions, and bring the ma
diaval regime at last TO a close. He
was beaten there, but his defeat BY the
French was really help to his cause.
1t was for the French the first step on
the downward road which ended at
Sedan and made Italy roally free and
Independent. For an Italy created or
permitted by strong, victorious, and
eXultant France would have at best but
4 precarious and trying existence. The
tinsl overthrow in France of the
deteStable reaction in Church and State
to which the French Republic lent itself
in 1919 was in reality necessary to es-
tabliSh Italian nationality OH sure and
lasting foundation, and to this the fall
of Rome did more than its retention by
Garibaldi, Mazzini, ,and their subsequent
political experimentation could have
done.
For Garibaldi's fame his fights and
wanderings after the triumph of the
French and Austrains did everything.
They increased his hold on the popular
Imagination. His adventures in mis-
fortune proved that he hal the real
stuff of the hero in him, which success
in fight does not always do. They
spread his glory beyond Italy, and salts
fed the workingmen of every country
that he was something more than an
Italian, that he was the champion of all
who was desolate and oppressed, no
matter under what flag they were born
or in what tongue they spoke. He
showed, too, that a modern working
man could display all the qualities
which history had from time immemo-
rial reserved for the conventional gen.
tleman. Nobody ever denied that
Garibaldi was a gentleman from head
to foot. None of the medieval chroni-
clers had anything to tell of their mill
tary heroes which something in his
character or career would not parallel.
Bayard, and Du Guesclin, and Sydney
were not Drawer, or gentler, OF more
uncomplaining, or moro unselfish, or
reader to show, in the hours which try
mems souls, how to live and how to die.
The result was that when in 1859 the
supreme moment came, he was all ready
for that most marvellous of his exploits,
the overthrow of the Neapolitan mon.
archy and the annexation of the Two
Sicilies to Italy. His subsequent career
illustrated his restlessness, and his
patriotism and humanity, and also, it
must be added, his want of judgment,
but added nothing to his fame. But his
very errors served to endear him still
more to his countrymen and to the peo.
pie everywhere. He became the spoiled
child not only of the new Italian king.
dom. but of the European democracy.
Everything was forgiven to him in con.
sideration of his past services. His
follies ever had an indiscribable charm
the charm of heroism of the antique
type. the simple type which Plutarch
has painted, but the production OF which
in our time the newspapers are making
less and less possible, because its larc.
est element was its unconsciousness.
and the modern hero finds it difficult
to he unconscious.
This age certainly will not look anon
Garibaldi's like again. Indeed, tbs cir.
cumstances which produced him were
peculiar. and have wholly passed AWAY.
He was the product of conditions which
exist no longer, and was born TO over.
come enemies with whom our society
will never have to contend again. The
old King and the old priest arc gone,
and will never return. What will take
their place as hindrances to human hap
pinesS. who crn foreseep But that Italy
should have produced such a champion
to combat them as Garibaldi was one Of
the innumerable proofs her soil has af.
forded of its inexhaustible fruitfulness
The Italian race has in every age of its
history, and every stage of its greatness
or its degradation, managed to produce
great men, and just the kind of great
men the epoch seemed to call for, and
on this mysterious fertility no length OF
depth of political or social misfortune
or decay seems to have had much effect
That country which had lived so long
under the worst type of princelet and
prelate should have brought forth al
the right time the generation which
achieved Italian unity, and should have
contributed to the last tableau in the
story figure in all ways so resplenden,
and picturesque as the gallant old man
who has just gone to his rest, ia surely q
marvellous evidence of the way in which,
among races. as we'll as individuals,
blood tells.-N. Y. Evening Post.
T.