Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1896-07-04
THE DAY We CELEBRATE.



It has been suggested that the Amer
lean people should have more holidays.
that they give more time and strength
to out of door pleasures and set apart
more days for relaxation.
This may be well enough at some
seasons, but the great midsummer hoii-
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 fizz, a 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 ree6s r:c-th in Uhicli
to repIenish his eXchequer for the pro-
yiding of firecracllers and other eX-
plosives, and sometimes-and woes the
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 fer
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 it's
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 a Thanksgiving day,
a 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 principaIi-
ties and kingdoms, lilliputian empires
and protectorates, with greedy foes to
menace 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,
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 overburdened
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
of, but the American citizen is the de-
fender of our homes and tiresides. 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
adversaries in any encounter. We are
hos IL
as our army, quantity of live material
ready. on tap, as it were, to rush out
and answer the demands of the govern
nent. We have, and this is one of the
greatest sources of congratulation, a
Iublic-school system that makes it pos
siole for every child within our borders
to obtain a fair amount of education
We are raising the standard of the 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 it
floating over all of them. Every morn
ing hundreds of thousands of school
children go through with more or less
extended exercises teaching them what
patriotism is. what its uses are and what
tie rights and duties of citizen COIN
PreheT,d-
AIS NOrR Is as !eS IN lIS INFANCY.
but it has great and glorious possibiii-
ties. and some day we may hope that
every schoolbouse viii be nursery of
patriots. every teacher an apostle of
faith. of liberty and independence. and
every school board and commission
high priests. ulinistering in the divine
business of cultivatirg a love of coun-
try and a determination to make this
one better and more worthy of its high
position among the nations or the earth
We lack long distance of being ut
the top of the ladder. but many of us
are faithfully pegging along. and for
what we are and w.lar we '1nve we can
truly say: The Lord be praised."-
y. Y. Ledger.