The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-02-28
THE NON-IMAGINATIvE ASS.

The West Point Military Academy bill,
calling for an appropriation of S465, 795. or
STA. 247 less than the average total for the
last three years, was bitterly opposed by
Sockless Jerry Simpson, of Kansas. who
wanted to know if the item of 5000 for
the maintenance of band of music was
necessary. Kate Field wi'tily says that
there is nothing surprising in this attitude
of Mr.. Simpson; that man who repudi-
ates socks, scorns collars and has no use
for "boiled shirt" would naturally regard
the presence of good band at military
post and school as needless expense
Had Simpson been a Frenchman the
"Marseillaise" would have bored him;
had he been German, "The Watch on
the Rhine" would have been stigmatized
as beer-hall-born patriotism; had he been
an Enslishman he would have deemed
''Ye Mariners of England" Rule Brit
tania" and God Save the Queen" as ut
terly useless additions to the educational
influences that inspire and feed the spirit
of proud nationality. Jerry" Simpson is
the type political Gradgrlnd; the nom
imaginative, wooden-minded crank that
cannot comprehend that the spiritual
forces of human nature are the wheel
horses OF the chariot of battle
The non-imaginative ass would have
drafted Pericles and Demosthenes both
into the ranks of war, but Athens knew
that the playing of these great masters of
the harp of. the human heart behind the
army was bugle worth many thousand
swords and spears, even as koerners song
was worth more than his sword to Ger
many, for his songs were war drums that
stirred thousands to become soldiers even
as Thomas Paine, writing Common
Sense" for circulation in the camps of
Washington's army, was worth more to
the cause and the army than reinforce
ment of 10000 recruits. n the speech. the
song, the written word are among the
potential forces that help TO fill armies and
keep them full and so help to found.
nourish, defend and maintain states then
surely the national music of war and ma
triotism is worth maintaining at West
Point.
1t needs no argument to bring this home
10 the average healthy-minded American
citizen, but the fact that "Sockless" Jerry
Simpson can't see why our army should
have any military bands proves that he
belongs TO that class OF aborted intellects:
OF stunted, half-hipped creatures that we
call cranks. The utter lack of magma
ton; the want Of capacity to put Yourself
outside yourself in another mans Mace.
the inability to understand that spiritual
force Is the inspiration. the breeze. the
wings Of material progress in civic and
social health is the common characteristic
OF the Gradgrind class of political crauks.
These fellows have the ugly temper, the
thick skin OF rhinoceros, and, like that
gigantic horned hog, can see NOTHING IN
either hand; their pig eyes see nothing
that is not under their nose, right in front.
and. Ike the rhlnoceros. they stupidlv
charge at everything that crosses their
narrow line OF sight. Wooden-minded-
ness IS the characteristic of the crank from
the dawn of history and the first efforts at
organized human society. The wooden
minded crank speaks in the apostle who
figured out how much in dollars
aud cents the precious ointment Law
lshed on Christ's feet would have
sold for TO be given TO the poor;
and the modern type of that apostolic
crank figures today how much richer the
world would be today il there never had
been any cakes and ale; never been anv
drink but water; never been any music
but a whlstling plowboy; never been anv
poetry but Watts Hymns; never been any
statuary or monuments save milestones
and the memorial top onions that in
crease and multiply in the graveyard
never been any pictorial art outside Of