Daily capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1896-1899, 1896-06-29
,lnooLn!s orrrYseuRo sPeEch.
..S,,u,. and immortal. Though Matthew
ArrcId Mad Never HeArd OF It


..S,,r. and immortal. Though Matthcw
Arnold HAD Never HcArd Of It.
7 stood clcse by and heard that speech
a,livered. IL came upon as after the
Dopderous and elaborate rhetoric Of Ed
ward Everett like blaze Of real fire
sf,er a matchless picture Of fire. 1t
mrane, like the strophes Of old, out Of
! 1cbastened heart almost broken with
,he weight Of conquest, but still daunt'
lsss IN its American faith, and the man
who smoke the words was, for the mo-
ment transfgured for us. and his fur
,owed face and gaunt form took on
,ho light that never was ON land or
soa 40 that be became the arobetype OF
tbe people themselves, uttering better
than he knew the great prayer OF that
amer and better humanity that our IA.
,bers and we believed was to come with
liberty and equality out of storm and
stress and an unshaken confidence in
man.
But l don't think any Of MS then
knew how masterful is the speech OF
the human heart when II comes through
the furnace to these great occasions and
plants its sad sincerity by the side Of
mere scholarship and the grooved thun-
. der Of rhetoric.
We had to live on for quater Of n
century and see that brief speech burn.
| ing with unquenohable fame In our
4 schcolbooks and standing out with mod
est majesty on our nage Of recorded
history to comprehend how God "an
4 touch with living coal the lips Of
. rail splitter just as no touched the lips
4 Of tentmaker of Tarsus and lifted the
4 untutored heart Of tho shoemaker, Bun.
van, into communion with the immor.
tails.
Turn II every way You can, the Get
q tysburg speech stands unique as brief
literary and patriotic composition. 1t Ia
tho noblest condemnation into the fittest
words of all the emotions, aspirations
and sentiments that millions Of mute
people wanted at that moment to utter.
SO inwrought is that speech with the
heart Of the occasion, and so majestio-
ally does it sweep over into the time TO
come, that should think all men every.
where would discern its intrinsic quail
" "iy But that is not the case.
! remember talking with Matthew
Arnold when he was in this country
abcut Abraham Linooln-you will re-
pncmber that he said Of Lincoln that he
. bad no "distinotion"--and l called his
pitcntion to tho Gettysburg speech. I
thall never forget the imperturbable
Saturday Review stare with which he
Asked. "Ah, what is the Gettysburg
epeech?"
he had never heard Of It, believe
when he went back he asked Professor
Bryce what it was about, and when II
pas hunted up in an American school
book and shown to him he read II hasti.
y and put 1t away with oommiserating
seticence.
Suppose you ask NJ. Bourgot. who is
ooking into tho American heart by the
Fay OF the American bodice and on
pace rates, II he has read the Gettys-
urs speech. | happen to know Of my
wh knowledge that Robert Louis
'eVenson had not heard cf It when ha
j Jus exploring our continent, and Sir
spy Irlilin and Rudyard Kipling had
y luea that IL was a newspaper fake.
E lee ennent number Of The Saturday
Asflew lies open before me. and this is
lal my eye falls on:
The common American delusion
''i' there have been number Of great
llerean poets, that there is indeed
~ thing as American literature
pOusltself with unusual pomposity. .
" Is impossible for these literary
rs Oh a special cult TO understand
- 'hero may bo stimulant condi-
ou' OF national life that wake into
.u',uons activity all the higher and
es functions OF the soul prior TO the
1'efed formulation OF them into an
ana that it is in these periods Of
-en,ng and not in tho after repose
~ elaborate estheticism the most
s'on heartbeats of the race have
-o themselves heard and felt, some
u haif articulate tones, but often
O'gan blasts which have set the
~ liberty and fixed the vocabulary
~ nope and victory.
''eiofe eloquence or poetry was An art
burning soul and fetched its
nom the agonies and mysteries of
ua'utored nature.
-e' Us by oil means confer distino.
~ ueathless utteranoe by mold
"'a o'onze, II We add metal enough
49, s-i'.u''i II with the arabesque Of
la,nfe Matthew Arnolds may
NJ ~ Pilgrims aud throw the English
~ ,',,. y well turned phrase upon
'1s's'' ..' which. after ali, is but a
A., ~ ,.S'yth Of the record In 20, :
~ ne'.' 1 Andrew q. Wheeler
-, I ~, l.'ny has b,,.n formed in Gin
- 'pf Tue purDusa ~ haiins, -. -.