The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1897-06-03
ABOUT BATTLES.
GOOD WORDS 10 SMALL BOYS.
LARGE BOYS AND MEN MAY
READ.
Some Rambling Thoughts.
BY "NEMO."
(Copyrighted.)

| (Copyrighted)
To THE BOYS ABOUT BATTLES Il
know just how you feel when you
hear the boom-boom-boo
boom OF drum on the streets.
Your lively feet, almost without your
knowing it, move backward or 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.
l know too how excited you feel
when good brass band strikes up a
stirring tune. 1t makes creepy feeling
come over the top OF your head, then a
sudden little shiver goes down your
backbone clear to your toes, 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 go,
feet hardly touching the ground, ready
to march mile after mile if you may
but stay near the music.
Another thing I 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
shrieklng shells and ping-ing bullets,
| fierce charges and bursting minies, you
are sorry when he stops. know you
1t is the battles you like the best OF all
to hear about in history and when you
have heard them you sometimes get
off by yourself to dream, with your
eyes open, of what you would do with
repeating rifle and a trusty revolver
against twenty toes creeping towards
you to kill you.
reckon it is quite easy to under
stand why you should feel this way;
for wise men do say that children show
forth in their little lives all the differ
ent 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 crea-
lures that were supposed to be inside
flowers and under toad-stools. Just
like you, ages ago, grown up people
believed in fairies too; SO that it is
fair to, say that the world has had
falry-tale age.
Now that your strong little body
holds 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 ages
ago great and good men spent all their
time thinking about battles and train
ing themselves to kill as many as pes
sible 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
OF seams. The seamy side of war was
for the mothers who could never see
their killed boys again, and whose
hearts felt robbed of the precious, dear
one who lost his lite because perhaps
OF silly quarrel among big people like
kings and generals. These thoughtful
men gradually saw that human life
was wonderful thing and that to cut
it short was very serious. They saw
too how seamy side life always must
bear to those who were wounded and
lived for years in pain or manned. So,
though great armies still exist, you will
find people growing more and more
anxious to avoid war because of the ter
rible side OF it.
So if you want to have the history OF
the race completely sketched out In
your little life, you will have to press
back your fierce temper and your desire
to be in big army in a fight. Yet l
am going to tell you there were fights
| in fairy times and there are fights now.
People fight now with their heads in
stead of their arms, and you, if you ex-
pect to win the full power of manli-
ness, must prepare to fight too. Wise
men say that all the struggles of the
mast have helped to make men deter
mined. and that if some form of fight
ing we're not continued on the earth,