The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1897-04-29
MEANING MONUMENTS.
Some Rambling Thoughts.

Some Rambling Thoughts.
BY "NEMO."
(Copyrighted.)
elbow nice to have flag over every
school-house it Is such an ornament -
says one.
"What good idea to decorate the
graves of the dead it makes the burial
ground look SO bright and pretty !' says
another.
"What homely old scare-crow Hor-
ace Greely's statue makes; the lll-fit-
ting clothes and the great pudgy face,
surmounted by a bald head are blotch
on Greedy Square !" says third. And
SO on, and so forth, until the heart
grows weary at the large proportion OF
people who gaze only at the outer as
pect of flags, public ceremonials, and
monuments. We need more of ma
of scenic effects and look deeper than
the surface then are we ready to be
thrilled by the real things and the real
sufferings typifed in waying bunting
or silent bronze.
Imagination blessedly broadens and
deepens life without it the past be-
comes almost silent to us. With it, the
great are our companions and great
deeds our native atmosphere. This
inner sense of appreciation transforms
the plain contents of church into an
arena where souls have struggled to-
gether tor an eternal destiny. BY this
power the least memory of the city of
Washington is that OF rooms and build
ings the greatest, that of place where
mental conflicts, fierce and furious,
have been fought out with mental
weapons, sharpened and serviceable,-
where national destinies haye been
made or marred by words, light as air
and heavy with fate.
We Americans ought to make it
rule never to visit monument without
either before or after reading up the
facts of the life portrayed before us.
We shall then quickly free ourselves
from the nonsenslcal elements of hero
worship, which impart to the hero
strangely favorable circumstances and a
condition of being with nobler possibili-
ties than ours and arrive at the con-
clusion that our heroes of the battle
field or of Congress, OF the pulpit or of
commerce are men who have been in
every way tried like we are, dlsappoint-
ed often, cheered occasionally, deter.
mined ever. This sane view of them
will be the best view for gaining most
of good from their careers.
Take as an example the celebration
in New York this week. General Grants
tomb is practically complete these
days will witness its dedication and
transference to the care of the city of
New York. Thousands of soldiery and
hundreds of thousands of citizens will
be gathered near it for a few hours
martial music and impassloned speeches
will thrill the hearers; and then the
great crowds will melt away, each in
dlvidual returning to his pleasures or
burdens, leaving the tomb to its mo
tionless vigil over the dead. Scent
cally the tomb is unique. It will al
ways be one of the notable features OF
the city, raised in forceful shape where
neither houses nor commerce can ever
hide 1t from view either bv water or
by land and unnumbered living and
those yet to live will come to it to gaze
and pass on. Some will see in it less
of grandeur than is possessed by the
mausoleum of Hadrian in Rome, after
which it seems undoubtedly to have
been modelled others will admire its
stern, square simplicity standing stur-
dlly alone and unmoved amid the rest
letsness of the tides before it and the
turmoil of the city behind it; the few
will think of Grant as real person
and see in his tomb the sp;rit~pf the
man who endured hard duties quietly,
met disappointments quietly. enjoyed
trlumphs quietly. It seems to me
that all this pageantry and pride Is the
very last thing Grant himself would
have approved 1.-THE thought OF being
idly stared at by sight seers would haye
dlsquieted him.
The encouragement he gives to us or
dlnary individuals is great at every
point. He was not brilliant man but
he was a forcefui, persistent one, who
| lust tried to do right and it unsuccess-
full lust tried again. The thing that
seemed duty to him he would follow
through thick and thin with the re