St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-07-05
PETER EXPOUNDER.
The American Fourth of July and the
Jewish Feast of the Passover
Compared.
The Contrast Favors the Latter, When the
Methods of Celebration are
Considered.
A Grand Object Lesson in Patriotism
Degenerattngintoa Hideous.
Noisy Revcl.
What Shall be Done to Bring Back the
Holiday to its Proper
Place.


Passover unto the Lord thy God, for in the
month of Ahib the Lord thy God brought
Mee forth out of Egypt by night.-Deuteron-
Ony xvi, l.
Dearly Beloved: The text this morning
Is the beginning of the description of the
nearest approximation to the Fourth OF
July that the children of Israel INDUCED
In. Like our national holiday 1t
was the anniversary of their
delive,ance from servile allegiance
to a power they hated. 1t was more unan-
imously celebrated though, even than ours.
Tine Jews had no street cars to swear at
when the drivers and conductors struck.
They had no newspapers to show them daily
the path of righteouneSs by holding up to
the scorn Of the multitude the misdeeds OF
evil-doers. But without street cars or
newspapers everybody could and did lay
off when Independence day came, and take
holiday.
The purpose of the passover was some
what similar to that of the glorious Fourth.
It was an object lesson in patriotism when
the old records would be searched for the
deeds of the fathers, and the wonderful de-
liverance from the house of bondage would
be brought to remembrance. And so was
the Fourth of July in the old times in our
own land to a greater exent than now.
THERE WAS A PICNIC,
lin which perhaps we may see faint relics of
the feast of unleavened bread at which the
whole village assembled and consumed I'M
utterable quantities of lemonade and ginger
bread. The ''Star Spangled Banner" would
be sung by the choir, everybody joining in
the chorus, a young lady arrayed in vest
ments of white and red and blue would
read the Declaration of Independence from
''When in the course of human events"
down to ''our lives, our fortunes and our
sacred honors," not forgetting the
John Hancock, and all the rest of the in
trepid signers of that valuable document
the reading provoking much applause, and
characterized in the next number of the
weekly Bugle as showing great proficiency
in the elements of elocution." Then the
chairman of the school directors, or per-
haps the principal of the high school, would
make historical speech, after which the
pastor of the church would address
the children upon the moral lessons
of Fourth of July. And then in the
evening such households as boosted of
grandfathers would be the center of attrac-
ton for all their neighbors, who would
gather to hear the old men tell the dear old
cheStnutS of revolutionary times, perhaps
shouldering their crutches to show how bat
ties were won. There was
CONSIDERABLE SMELL OF POWDER
too. The boys had been saving up their
pennies for weeks ahead and the girls, too,
earning them by feeding the chickens or
driving the cows, so that most of them
would have at least two packs, with which
they would make a great racket in the
morning and succeed in having their fingers
done uD in arnica before night
Now, how is it? What does Fourth of
July mean in Minnesota to-day? Who of
my hearers yesterday read or heard the
Declaration of Independence? How many
of you can tell how many signatures it
bears? How many of you gave thought
to the blessings of the national liberty you
enjoy, or to the benefits you inherit from
the sacrifices made by your revolutionary
fathers? l fear that a categorical answer
to these questions would cause us to blush
for the degeneracy of modern patriotic
sentiment.
We make a horrible racket, we burn up
millions of property with our fire-crackers
and Roman candles, we get pretty drunk,
q good many of us, but nothing is farther
from us than a deepening of the desire to
be of service TO our country or to improve
the advantages of citizenship in this glor-
ious republic.
We can imagine what sort of commotion
would have been caused in Old Jerusalem if
any of the modern methods had been at
tempted in the celebration of the feast
of the passover. Suppose. for instance.
that when the passover week came the chill
dren of the tribe of Levi had started out
in the early morning and made just such a
racket on the streets of Jerusalem as saluted
our ears in st. Paul yesterday morning.
Suppose one of them with that proclivity
for diminutive deviltry which probably char
acteriZed the youth of ancient Jerusalem as
those of the present day-suppose one of
them had exploded cannon cracker under
the feet of the high priest as he was going
to the festival, don't you think there would
have been stirring times in Jeru-
salem that day? Or suppose
that Shamhuth. the Izrahite, had
O'Clock and salute his wife, Keturah, with
'HuTah! old woman. Been, hic, cele-
bratin' tn passover, and, hic, ate too much
unleavened bread. Help me pull off my
boots" He would have been pulled up be-
fore the elders at the city gate next day for
sure.
NO, INDEPENDENCE DAY
among the Jews was solemn and awful
occasion, and fulfilled the design of a me-
mortal day for which it was instituted. The
moral lessons to be drawn from these
reflections are so patent that
need not more than indicate them. Our
Fourths of July have too much powder and
too little patriotism. There is too much
powder and beer and too little reflection.
The result of it is swelled heads, ampu-
tated arms and singed bodies rather than a
deeper veneration for the fatherland. Now
it's a hot day, and L know you
want to go home, so l will
not detain you any longer with this. Be
for you go, however, l will mention that
the church has procured a new contribution
box. 1t has lidwhich is padlocked down.
with slit in it for your deposits, so that
hereafter you will not be able to take out
more than you put in on pretense of max
ing change. The deacons will now take up
the collection. PETER EXPoUNDER.