The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1896-07-02
THE DAY WE CELEBRATE.

10 OUT Oh QOOr pleasures anu SCI apart
more days for relaxation.
This may be well enough at some
seasons, but the great midsummer holi-
day, the pivotal day of the republic,
The time when the bottled-up patriot
ism of the American people is expected
to be uncorked and when the noise-pro-
ducing element in the American young
ster gets at work with fzz, pop and
a bang-this holiday amply fills the
space between Decoration day and the
first part of August. The juvenile son
of Uncle Sam needs a month in which
to replenish his exchcquer for the pro-
yiding of firecrackers and other ex-
plosives, and sometimes-andw woes tho
day!-needs more than month to
patch his broken bones and get his
physical corporosity in working trim,
even though it heals by first intentions.
1t would be well never to appoint any
holiday between May and August for
this reason, and also that Independence
day might have no near neighbor to
draw attention from it. 1t should be
kept prominent and distinct, a red-let-
ter day-a day memorable above all
other days in American history, and its
significance should be impressed by
line upon line and precept upon pre-
cept on the hearts of all the citizens of
this comprehensive, resourceful land.
It ought to be thanksgiving day,
q glorifcation day, a pleasure day, a
reunion day, and to unite in its "a hours
from midnight to midnight, and even
far into the morning of the day fol-
lowing, all of the most delightful at
tributes of a holiday and good times,
good cheer. good wishes, good will and
hurrahs galore-for without it where
would we have been? We might have
been chopped up into little principali-
ties and Kingdoms, lilliputian empires
and protectorates, with greedy foes to
menace us on the right hand and on the
left, and in front and rear-adversaries
who yearned for our possessions and
envied us our prosperity, if, indeed,
we were blessed with any. We might
have been under the heel of foreign
power and forced to pay tribute, as
some nations of the world are now
forced to do; to stand helplessly by and
see taxes wrung from an ovcrburdened
people carried away to swell the Golfers
OF some insatiate tyrant. Instead of
this, we have peace, plenty and pros
perity.
We have no standing army to speak
fender of our homes and Gresides. In
almost every community there are we'll
bred citizens banded into thoroughly
equipped military companies, with
quite enough knowledge of tactics and
usages of war to make them formidable
edversaries in any encounter. We are
getting up navy on the same principle
as our army, a quantity of live material
read y, on tap, as it werc> to rush out
and answer the demands Of the govern
ment. We have, and this is one of the
greatest sources of congratulation,
public-school system thas makes il pos
si1le for every child within our borders
tn obtain a fair amount of education.
We are raising the standard Of tho pub
lie school and putting the buildings in
better shape. We are floating the Amer
lean flag over most of the American
schoolhouses, and will in time see it
floating over all Of them. Every morn
ing hundreds Of thousands Of school
children go through with moro Or less
extended exercises teaching them what
patriotism is, what it's useaa are and what
the rights and duties of q citizen COM
prehend. 80
This work is as yet in it's infancy,
but it has great and glorious possibili-
ties, and some day we may hope that
every schoolhouse will be a nursery Of
patriots, every teacher an apostle Of
faith, of liberty and independence, and
every school board and commission
high priests, ministering in the divine
business of cultivating a love of coun-
try and determination to make this
ono better and more worthy or its high
position among the nations of the earth.
We lack long distance of being at
the top of the ladder. but many of VI
are Faithfully pegging along, and for
what we are and what we have we can
truly say: 1.-THE Lord he praised."-
n. Y. Ledger.