The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-01-27
INDIFFERENCE OF SENTIMENT
A Controlling Force In the Affairs of HUI
manity.


,.s- mainly.
From the ST. Louis Globe-Democrat.
Men often laugh at sentiment" said
Senator Vest in a recent speech, but
sentiment controls the world" This
fact is apt to be overlooked in the null
tiplicity and the pressure of practical
and sordid manifestations. The battle
of life is so much a matter of adjust
ing stubborn facts to material uses
that we easily lose sight of the senti-
mental side of things, and come to be-
lieve that we are entirely emancipated
from the rule of fancy and emotion.
But the truth is that the influence of
sentiment remains, and we are all sub
ject to ii more or less. consciously or
unconsciously. 1t is all very well to
assert that imagination is not a safe
guide, and that the art of getting
there, as we call 1t. implies strict adj
herence to the methods of prose and
common sense. Nevertheless, sentiment
creeps into all our calculations and
stays there and when the proper oc-
casion comes II asserts its sovereign
force and has it's way in spite of prac-
teal circumstances. We are not given
over to the cold and hard philosophy
which shuts out gracious and tender
impulses, and reduces life to a monot-
onous drudgery. In every interest and
activity of society there is a lurking
leaven of sentiment that may at any
moment suddenly leaven the whole
lump and make it splendid as an illus
tration of the capacity of human ma
ture for finer feeling and better serv-
ice than is ordinarily perceptible.
The cynics who are fond of declaring
with an accent of exultation that we
are prosaic children of a disenchanted
age do not see below the surface and
do not take account of facts that clear
ly refute such a proposition. There is
an impressionable quality in the public
character that quickly responds to sem
timental appeals, as in the case of a
great misfortune that calls for SYM
pathy, or a great achievement that
calls for enthusiasm. THE people
think they hate poetry" says Emer-
son, and they are all poets and mys-
tics" If this were not true, there
would be no interest taken in ques-
tions which now command the closest
attention and have the most important
bearing upon the general welfare and
progress. We are always seeking for
practical ways of solving intervening
problems, but at the same time there
is an element of Imagination in our
motives and tendencies that is never
quite put to sleep. Even in our busl-
ness proceedings, when we fiatter our
selves that we scorn everything but
palpable realities, fancies are mingled
with our facts, and that which we re-
gard as a process of logic is frequently
nothing more than watching for a
dream. to come true. This applies in
an infinitely larger degree. for obvious
reasons, to our social institutions, our
politics and our religion. The influence
of sentiment permeates them all, and is
oftener than not the factor that deter
mines the result.
1t is to be remembered that flags and
badges, songs and war cries, have
played a significant part in history,
Men have died for a ribbon" as SEN
ator Vest says; and armies have won
battles by virtue of a piece of bunting.
Most readers will recollect the case of
the regiment that lost its colors in In
dia- There was a perilous height to be
scaled, and the colonel exclaimed:
Men of the 57th, your colors lie on
yonder height" That was all, and that
was enough. Up they went and got
them, riddled and broken by the fire
of the enemy, but radiant with pride
in the repossession. Similar instances
have happened so many times that one
cannot go amiss of them in the records
of any nation. They teach a lesson
that is being continually repeated not
always so picturesquely, but always
with the same application. 1t is by
sentiment, and not by the multiplied
ton table that deeds of heroism and
sacrifice are inspired That is what
we mean when we talk about patriot
ism, manllness and unselfish devotion
to duty. II Is not a question of figures
or of any argument. but of feeling and
of idealism. The crust OF conventional
habitudes is broken by II. and the re-
served strength of the human charac-
ter finds effective expression. Thus
the energy Is provided that brings to
pass the things that count for most I'm
the story of civilization. thus the In
fIuence OF continent rules the world