Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-12-23

dent of American history and no American
can fail to accord to the forefathers nearly
everything which their descendants claim
for them The Homeric epic. the immortal
poem CT Virgil, and the Niebelung Lied,
have interested and inspired all the ages.
but the simple story of the pilgrim fathers
leaving their comfortable homes. abandon
ing their property, and risking their lives
crossing an inhos9itable ocean and settling
in an inhospitable wilderness, simply for
the privilege of worshiping God according
10 the dictates of their consciences. and
enjoying the priceless benefits of civil and
religious liberty. far and away is nober
higher and more impressive education than
All the deeds of the warriors and all the
conquerors in the epics and the histories of
the past
we draw the line between the pilgrim
and the Puritan. The pilgrims learned
valuable lessons during their eleven wears
In Holland. Dutch hospitality, the open
doors of the Dutch University, the benef-
cence of universal education and the bene-
hts OF religious tolerance made upon them
an fndelible impression. The forty fam
lilies who. in the cabin of the Mayflower
signed the immortal charter first in the
history OF our race of the equality of all
men before the law, did more for liberty
for the upbuildinS of these United States
than the twenty thousand Puritans who
came after them. The pilgrims burned no
witches. banished no human being for
conscience sake. but lived their godly lives
at peace even with the Indians. They well
coined and protected all who would come to
them and share their fortunes
The Lawyers Excluded.
But the Puritan forefatners, imbued
with the spirit of the Old Testament, were
very different persons. For seventy years
they would not permit a lawyer in their
colonies, which, perhaps, was not an I'M
mixed evil, but the clergy wanted to make
ana execute the laws. They created a theo-
cratic government. We find many of their
pecullarities in our own time. They were
the progenitCrs of the political leader
whom we sometimes designate as the
boss. They believed in liberty. but only
Tor those who agreed with them. They
believed in free speech, but only for those
who preached from their texts. They
treated summarily the mugwumps of their
day. They hogged them and bored their
ears The mugwumpS We're the Quakers,
whom they punished, and the Hutchin-
sons, whom they expelled. The leader of
Independent thought and independent ac-
ton in the church, which was then the
political PARTY, was Roger Williams. He
found that there was no place for in
dependent politician in the Puritan theoc-
racy, and so he set up, upon Narragan-
sett bay, republic of absolute tolerance
in religion and freedom of thought and
expression. Old Cotton Mather. the i'm
FERROUS leader or boss, denounced the WILL
Jams settlement the home of every
thing that was vicious, revolutionary and
criminal in religion and politics. Ammu
| nluOn was scarce ana GEAR, ana so they
passed laws furnishing any who wasted IL
by UNNECESSARY fusiIladeS. except the gun
was directed against wolves or Indians
there was close season for shooting
Indians.
Talent State Builders.
''Sterhen A. Douglass once said that New
England was a great place to emigrate
from. The rowing popularity of the Puri-
tan and his descendants has been the sal
walton of the United States. They have
gone into our new territories and with their
inherited talent as state builders they have
erected commonw ealths which now form,
from the west and the northwest, and the
Pacific slope. the strength. the glory and
the hone of our country. Though always
outnumbered, they have impressed their
individuality upon The institutions of all
these states; they have carried everywhere
the church and the school house; religion
and universal education have been their
methods of solving popular discomfort and
promoting popular prosperity and happi-
ness. They have believed and demonstrated
the truth of their faith, that home is
not territorial and ancestral, but is the
spo: where the man has worked out his
own problems in life. and in working them
out, has promoted the best interests Of the
family, of the community, of the state, and
of the country.
plymouth Rock is row only a portable
stone, inclosed in the park in the old viii
lage for the reverence of every one. but
u
we cannot find Plymouth Rock hens and
Plymouth Rock pants.
Mission of Peace
For the twentieth century the mission of
the United States is peace-peace that il
may capture the markets of the world;
peace that it may find the places where
its surplus products, not only of food, but
of labor, can meet with a profitable re-
turn.
president Mckinley has struck the key
note Of this expanding policy of our coun-
try and recognized that mission has
changed from internal development purely
to external commerce. in the note which
he has sounded so loudly and so clearly for
peace.
Thus the twentieth century will reverse
the nineteenth, the eighteenth, the seven
teenth and the sixteenth. and the United
States will enter hopefully upon its larger
mission"
Remarkable Age.
Assistant Secretary Davis followed Mr.
DepeH. He said, in part:
This age in which we live is indeed a re-
markable one. 1t is an iconoclastic age.
Things that have long been accepted as
established truths are being doubted by our
so-called modern thinkers. Some people to-
day regard as legends the story of ST. Paul
with severed head; of Alexander the Great
weeping because there were no more worlds
of st. Helena dreaming of faded gories
Sc me doubt whether Nero was a monster
or Richard III bad man. The children of
the Fiber. wolf-nIrtured, at best re-
garded as allegorical; William Tell has
been relocated to the realms of myths and
MaZeppa, dear to every youthful heart, is
said to have never taken the ride which he |
imposed as truth on Charles XII, after the |
fight at Putowa; that he Was not even a |
Cossack of the Don, but that he was born
in Poland and died in Turkey.
These and countless other hitherto we'll
settled truths are often questioned but no |
one dares to question the fact that the pill |
grims did land on Plymouth Rock and
planted the germs of that development |
which we today are enjoying And that |
Miles Standsh, John Alden and Priscilla |
the beautiful Puritan maiden, did live and |
flourish among those founders of the re-
public. All honor to the pilgrims. |
When Danger Comes.
LAS heirs CT a splendid heritage we |
should love our homes and our country. Ii |
is only when people lose their patriotism |
and become stupid and careless from too |
much revelry in luxury, peace and pros |
perity that they are in danger. This has |