The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1896-07-01
DEARTH OF MODERN NATIONAL HoL-
DAYS.
val--A Dangerous Tendency-stimuIus
to Forces of True NatiOnalism-A Study
of Ideals.
[copyright, 1893, by tho Author.l


NA HERE shall we discover
WMWN any analogue of the Ameri-
WV can Fourth of July? No
where. 1t is unique in history.
Among the earliest landmarks of
civil growth in peoples, after they have
emerged from the status of first cousin
age to the apes, is the institution of
some sort of holiday. Even so called saw
age and barbarian tribes have had their
appointed times for the celebration of
legendary event or parsonage, when they
reveled In the elysium of drunkenness
or paid less bibulous tribute to mem
DRY or superstition. So the festival, as
one of the many phases of hero worship
or divinity worship (and the two have al
ways tended to blend into one), must
be reckoned with as the uniform fact
which binds together the earliest dawn
and the full noontide of civilization.
1t is curious to note, however, that
these days of jubilee have not been, ex-
cept in a few cases, national or pa
triotic in a strict sense. They have for
the most part had their origin in the
worship of the gods, and been closely
identified with religious rite. This is
true of ancient and modern times alike,
of the Egyptians and Babylonians,
whose civilization began at least 5000
years ago, and of the modern Christian
nations. Even among the Greeks and
Romans, where the idea of the state, as
the organized expression of the civic
spirit, touched closely that of the nine
tenth century, one can quote only n
few exceptions. Yet there are some
which had scintilla of the Fourth of
July sentiment even where the reli-
gious ghost lurked in the background to
play second fiddle Among these may
be cited the feast Of the Passover, that
celebrated the final stroke of release
which parted the Hebrews from Egyp-
tian bondage; the great national festi-
walls Of the Greeks the Olympic, Pyth-
ian, Nemean and Isthmian, which had
great political and social significance,
and the Roman celebration of Romulus
and the founding of the city, known as
the Quirinalia.
Strange to say, there has been as great
a poverty of distinctiyely patriotic holt
days i'll modern as i'll ancient times. We
cannot dignity by this title the birth
days of kings, emperors and queens
These represent but little, and nations
shed them as snakes shed their wornout
skins when death jerks the string and
the puppets are changed. If England had
ordained national holiday perpetnating
the memory of that meeting of the
barons at Runnymede which wrested
Magma Charta from King John, or
had honored in similar fashion the es-
tablishment of William of Orange on
the throne; if Holland had celebrated
her independence won from the tyranny
of Spain by an annual day of rejoicing;
if the French republic had so named the
anniversary of the fall Of the Bastille,
that lurid dawn of her emancipation
then we should have had partial par
allel to our own patriotic festival. But
it was not to be, for the reason perhaps
that none of these or Of any other quot
able events so amply embodies the civic
embodiment of the spirit of liberty.
That spirit assumed form instinct
with the forces Of life and growth yet
harnessed fast with all the restraints of
law and order 1t was the veritable
birth of great nation full grown, like
Minerva from the scull of Joye, burning
with the spirit of youth, yet panoplied
with the wisdom of the ages.
There has been tendency of latter
years to underrate the Fourth of July,
to satirize its SO called buncombe and
al ri tD 10 10 lnn
is the fizzle and splutter of fireworks to
amuse the children. This feeling has
grown dangerously since the civil war.
1t has been tacitly assumed that the
great CONFUSION of the early sixties was
almost second revolution, burying the
old one as landslide will sometimes
submerge ancient landmarks. There is
more than one loud mouthed patriot to-
day in and out of the national bear gar
den at Washington who dates every
thing from 1861. "Decoration" day
means far more to him than Independ-
ence day, and Lincoln's birth was far
more significant fact than that of the
great virginian.
Without belittling the colossal events
which changed the course Of our his
tory in so many ways, without lessen
ing one jot or little of reverence before
that image which shines 50 benignly as
ruler amid that turmoil there is q
lesson to be learned from the faraway
event which our country needs as much
as it did half q century since-perhaps
needs the enforcement even more, since
the open f1oodgate of immigration has
poured ON us o volume OF anarchical
sentiment, rampant in demonstrating
patriotism as a symptom, not OF health,
but of disease. The centrifugal powers
Of gathering force from the develop
ments of finance and industrialism,
operating differently in the various sec
lions Of q vast country, feed collision
and discomfort among the members of the
body polite. 1t is the story Of Assop's
fable, the controversy OF the brain,
and the heart, and the stomach, and the
arms, and the legs Local big headed
ness caterwauls discordantly by sun
light as well as by moonlight. So, too
in another way there Is the microbe OF a
dry rot in the great increase OF the class
which apes foreign ideals and manner
isms and bushes at things American,
homespun virtues as well as defects,
class powerful by wealth and culture.
Even the recent Venezuelan efferyes-
cenco comes to little more than the bub-
bling of gas when we study the things
which entered into it, however impor-
tant it may prove in its consequences,
A stimulus to the forces OF true ma
tionalism is wanted more for the sake
Of our home interests than OF our for
eign relations AS q beginning OF this
there can be nothing better than a
greater and more judicious celebration