The National tribune., 1883-03-15
A Story With a Large-sized Moral.

ternity, Charity, and Loyalty.
A Story With a Large Sized Moral.
The narrative entitled "The Man Without
Country" which we print ON our second
page this week, first appeared nearly twenty
years ago-when the rebellion was at its
height-in The Atlantic Monthly, and its dis
tinguished author, the Rev. Edward Everett
Hale, intended it as a sort of invocation to
patriotism, for which purpose it was indeed
admirably contriyed. The incidents are, Of
course, fictitious but they are related with
such apparent concern for the truth of his
tory, and they wear, moreover, such an air
of probability that the reader can scarcely
divest himself Of the feeling that they are
taken from life. The experience Of poor
Philip Nolan might so easily have been the
experience Of q real parsonage, and his suf-
ferings would so surely have been those of
any man under the same circumstances, that
the appeal to ones sympathies is altogether
irresistible We venture to say that no sub
scriber to THE TRIBUNE can read this story
of "The Man Without Country" without
experiencing a sensation OF moisture about
the eyes and burning in the region of the
heart.
The object, as we have said, which Mr..
Hale had in view when he wrote this fasci-
mating narrative, was to stir the patriotic
impulses of the Nation and deepen the love
of country. Our own object in reprinting
it is very much the same. It is true that
the dangers which threatened the life of the
Republic at the time when this story first
appeared have long since passed away, but
others-not less formidable because they
have not taken the shape of an armed con-
fict-have risen in their place. 1t is not in
behalf Of the Republic itself, but of those
who preserved it, that we would awaken
anew that love of country that is so touch
ingly portrayed in Mr.. Hale's story. To
know and value and hold at their true
worth the blessings which the citizens of
this Republic enjoy, it is necessary some
times to consider what calamity it would
be to be suddenly deprived of them.
In moment of boyish thoughtlessness
poor Philip Nolan damned the United
States, and wished he might never hear of
it again. He lived to realize that all that
was precious in life, or that made life worth
the living, existed for him in that land upon
which he had turned his back with curse.
There are those to-day who are as thought
less as he. pensions be damned" say they,
and wish they may never hear of them
again. They are ready to draw the veil of
oblivion over the services of our ex-soldiers
and blot out the record Of their achieve
ments. Now that they no longer have need
of the soldiers valor, they would turn deaf
ear to his cry for help. The spirit which
prompted Philip Nolan to damn the United
States finds its exact counterpart in the
spirit which anlmates the editors OF the
daily press to impugn the character of our
veterans, taunt them with their poverty and
helplessness, and scoff at their demand for
aid. "The United States be damned" cried
Nolan. "The soldier be damned say they.
The soldier is played out in their opinion;
the United States was played out in Nolan's
1t is one and the same thing But what
would Nolan not have given to have been able
to recall those foolish words, and the time
may come when those who now sneer at the
soldier will be forced to seek once more his
protection. To be a "man without coun-
try" is, indeed, a sad and melancholy fate;
but country without defenders-that is
a calamity which no government could
survive.