Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1896-09-17
LIVE QUESTIONS.
Series of Articles Contributed by
Advanced Thinkers.
ROBERT BURNS.

The universal welcome to his poems
justifies Tolstoi's statement that the
books truly appreciated by the people
nre those written not for the people by
people "who stand above them," but
those which are born of the people.
The renewed expression of enthusiasm
for Burns which is called out by the
centennial is not an artificial effect pro-
duced by the calendar makers We man
ufactured some enthusiasm when the
centennial Of Humboldt's birth came.
But the memory Of Burns is fresh at
every fireside. 1t connects indeed with
30 or 40 poems, and hardly any more.
But these are enough
For very young admirers of his gen
ius who exult in its success it is as
well to say that this is no case of spon-
taneous generation, where everything
is born from nothing or where we are
told so. One Of Burns early biographers,
speaking with care, says that William
Burns, the poets father, was certainly
the best man he had ever known. He is
the Cotter of the famous Saturday
Night" He was well educated man
himself, and he took care that his son,
whose ability he discovered very early,
should be well educated Robert Burns
himself did not fling away such oppor-
tunities. Studious, careful and industri-
Gus at school, he made the best of what
schools had to give and was in every
instance favorite of his teachers, who
seem in every instance to have known
what treasure they had in hand.
1t is worth while also to say that
while Burns had very loyal contempt
for wealth as wealth and knew as well
rs any of us that wealth as wealth is
simply vulgar he had a right and steady
respect for work. He knew that work is
the triumph of mind over matter, and
he was willing to enjoy the results and
the methods of that triumph. He would
work in the field as no other man of the
family or the party could work, and he
was never above his work This is no
instance of the dainty "son of toll"
who is unwilling to harden his hands or
to brown his face by taking his fair
share of the unpleasant duties of hu-
man life.
Government Aid to Literary Men.
The English government of that time
hoe ~
the noblest poet of the time it could
find no gift but the office of an excise
man. But it should be remembered that,
at that time at least, no one supposed
that governments were formed to pro-
vide for poets or that the provision for
poets was one of their duties We live
in state of high civilization, as we
think, but even with US if you have
man like Hawthorne or Howells you
have to make him consul. If you have
4 lady who writes poetry you have to
make her a postmaster 1t is fair to the
wretched ministry of the time to say
that Burns himself asked for the office
Of exciseman, and it is moro than prob
able that the selection of the office was
made by himself.
And he died in his thirty y-seventh
year, so youngl And we should have
had SO many moro treasures from that
warm heart and ready pen, that sympa-
thetic friend of everybody who desired
friend, if
If
If he had been able to resist the temp.
tations of liquor
Let it be remembered, then, that men
Of his gift, men who have this exquisite
Gber of brain and sympathy of heart a1e
the special prey of this special devil.
And let it be remembered that "taste
not, touch not, handle not, seems not
TO have been known, even by pure and
temperate men in Scotland, in their eff
fort to suppress drunkenness. Such men,
if they counseled poor Burns, only
counseled moderation. F"
AS if there could be moderation in
playing with firel
1t would seem that no man, woman
or child, not the father who loved him
nor the mother who bore him, no one
probably but his poor wife, ever begged
him or even asked him to give up whis-
ky, wine and all intoxicating liquor.
What would this page of literature be
today had Robert Burns been taught in
his childhood of the dangers to which
80, 81 - -
be had the ready sale of social
glass" been prohibited by law? What
would it be had he lived in social or
der where gentlemen hate and despise
drunkenness and those who tempt men
to drunkenness? What would it be had
not all Scotland combined to defeat his
prayer when he asked the good God that
he might not be led into temptation?
| EDWARD f. Hale