St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1897-06-04
Some Rambling Thoughts.
copYRreHrHD BY "sEmo."

10 THE DOfS BATTLES.-l
know just how you feel when you hear
the boom-boom - boom boom-boom
of a drum on the streets. Your lively
feet, almost without your knowing it,
move backward and forward in time
with the sound and you are very glad
indeed if you can run out OF the house
to join with the marchers.
know too how excited you feel when
a good brass band strikes up a stirring
tune. 1t makes a creepy feeling come
wei the top Of your head, then a sudden
little SILVER goes down your backbone
clear to your toes, a sort of a lump
comes in your throat so that for a
moment you feel as though you could
scarcely breathe; and then off you 60,
feet hardly touching the ground, ready
to march mile after mile if you may but
stay near the music.
Another thing / know you like, and
that is to get some old soldier to tell you
war stories. If his eyes grow bright in
telling about brave little drummer boys,
about bands playing as the men march
into battle, about shrieking shells and
pinging bullets, fierce charges and burst
ing mines, you are sorry when he stops.
l know you; it is the battles you like
best of all to hear about in history and
when you have heard them you some
times get off by yourself to dream, with
your eyes open, of what you would do
with a repeating rife and a trusty
revolver against twenty foes creeping
towards you to kill you.
reckon it is quite easy to understand
why you should feel this way; for wise
men do say that children show forth in
their little lives all the different stages of
past human history. Let me tell you in
part what / mean:
When you were much smaller you used
to love fairy stories, telling of the gentle
deeds Of the funny little creatures that
were supposed to be inside flowers and
under toadstools. Just like you, ages
ago, grown up people believed in fairies
too; so it is fair to say that the world
has had a fairy.tale age.
Now that your strong little body
holds a very fierce little heart within it
that takes pleasure in struggles and
revels in stories of great generals, you
forget the harmless little fairies. So has
it been with men. Not many years ago
great and good men spent all their time
thinking about battles and training
themselves to kill just as many as posi-.
BILE Of their fellow creatures.
But gentler times have come among
men. When large numbers came to
think it over they saw that war, like
your new jacket, has two sides; one very
nice to look at and the other full oil
seams. The seamy side of war was fol
the mothers who could never see theil
killed boys again, and whose hearts fell
robbed OF the precious dear one who lost
his life because perhaps Of a silly quarre
among big people like kings and generals
These thoughtful men gradually saw
that a human life was a wonderful thing
and that to cut it short was very serious
They saw, too, how seamy a side lift
always must bear to those who are
wounded and lived for years in pain OF
manned. So, though great armies still
exist, you will find people growing more
and more anxious to avoid war, because
of the terrible side of it.
So ifyou want to have the history Of
the race completely sketched out in your
little lie. you will have to press back
your fierce temper and your desire to be
in a big army in a fight. Yet ! am going
to tell you there were fights in fairy