The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-07-04
BY CAROLINE rIcKNoR.

Copyright. 1897. by Caroline Ticknor).
Yes. we women are getting to be
real patriotic up at the Corners, and I
do believe that there's nothing that'll
wake town up like a spirit of genuine
patriotism among its inhabitants.
You see, there never was much pa
triotism in the town until about a year
age, when Mrs Maria c. Bright went
up to the city for a fortnight and got
interested in the Society for Revolu-
tionary Research. She came right
home and went to work to organize a
branch OF that society in her own place
and shes made a great success Of il.
OF course, when I say there never
was much patriotism among our
women, I don't mean that We didn't
take an interest in the elections and
the school committee. and home mis-
sions, and the temperance question
and in all those things which crdi-
narily COME under the head of being
philosophical What I mean is that
we hadn't appreciated before what the
advantages were of being Just per-
meated with real deep and far-reach-
ing patriotism.
Mrs. Bright called together all the
women in the town who had any an
cestors who fought in 1776 and went
right to work TO start the society. She
said that there was nothing like hav-
ing such a society in a place to bind
people together and to unite them in
their aims and interests, and every
body agreed with her except those that
couldn't find any ancestors that had
fought They went around saying that
a real patriotic society ought to in
clude everybody who wanted TO be
patriotic now, as well as those whose
folks used to be interested in the well
fare OF the country long ago. Mrs
Bright said that that was perfectly alb
surd, for what would be the use of
having society at all if everybody
could belong.
Well. having our spirit of patriotism
once awakened we were all just as en-
thusiastic as we could be. We gave u.
our Shakespeare society and our
French class and went right to study
ing the history of revolutionary times
As Mrs. Bright said, it was better to
give up other things if necessary, than
10 continue to be so ignorant about
what was OF so much Importance; she
said that we were all too apt to be con-
tented with a meager knowledge Of
what was going on about us today and
we all pledged ourselves not to waste
our time in reading the daily Daoers
until we had familiarized ourselves
WIN lllt NOlhlHeS OF the continental
Congress and the Stamp Act"
There is nothing truer than the saw
ing. "A little leaven leavens the whole
lump, Tor that is just what our So
ciety seemed to do. 1t wasn't long be-
fore every man. woman and child in
our town began TO feel the influence
of the patriotic sentiment we had
awakened.
Mr.. Graves, the head master at the
hlCh school n
The Sons of Liberty" and a prize was
offered by one of the selectmen for the
two hest compositions on Benjamin
Franklin.
The Dorcas society got up a costume
party and everybody went in revolu-
tionary dress. and a number of young
people We're so interested in the idea
that they went TO all the trouble of
taking lessons to learn TO dance the
minuet for this occasion, although they
We're Obliged TO get an expensive
teacher down from the city to show
them how to do it. All the members
Of ,the Society for Revolutionary Re
search" had free tickets to this enter
tainment, and it was a great satisfac-
ton to Us to see how the good work
we had started was progressing. The
members of the Dorcas society were
going to give the proceeds of the revo-
lutionary party to the Armenians, but
owing 10 the expense of the costumes
there were no proceeds, and they
would have been rather in debt for
wigs If il had not been for the kindness
of the man who let's the wigs, who said
that he wouldn't charge but half price
for them on account of his wifes he
ing in our patriotic society. This is
another example to show how the
spirit Of patriotism extendeds even to
Vers practical considerations.
We found that there was an old tum-
bic down house some little distance
from the village where George Wash
ingtOn had once stopped over night,
and though 1t was nearly dropping to
pieces, we made UP our minds to pre-
serve it. 1t really seemed quite provi-
Dental that such an opportunity should
present itself just as we were ready to
take hold of some patriotic work
Mrs. Bright called a meeting, and
said that as the old house was in such
bad condition, and had stood vacant
for such a long time, we could probably
get possession of it without much