The record-union., 1897-04-25
SOME RAMBLING THOUGHTS
Copyrighted by Memo.


How nice to have a flag over every
school house; it is such an ornament
says one.
What a good idea to decorate the
graves of the dead; it makes the burial
ground look so bright and pretty"
| says another.
What a homely old scarecrow Hor-
ace Greeley's statue makes; the ill
fitting clothes and the great pudgy face,
surmounted by a bald head, are a
| blotch on Greeley Square!" says a
third. And so on, and so forth, until
the heart grows weary at the large pro-
portion of people who gaze only at the
| outer aspect of flags, public ceremon-
| ials and monuments. We need more of
a national imagination, 50 as to look
| back of scenic effects and look deeper
| than the surface; then are we ready to
| be thrilled by the real things and the
real sufferings typified in waving bunt-
! ing 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 a church into an
| arena where souls have struggled to-
| gether for 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 a place
where mental conflicts, fierce and furi-
Gus, have been fought out with mental
weapons, sharpened and serviceable-
where national destinies have been
| made or marred by words, light as air
and heavy with fate.
We Americans ought to make it a
rule never to visit a monument without
| either before or after reading UP the
facts of the life portrayed before us.
We shall then quickly free ourselves
| from the nonsensical elements of hero
worship, which impart to the hero
strangely favorable circumstances and
| a condition of being with nobler pos
sibilities than ours; and arrive at the
conclusion that our heroes of the bat
tlefield or of Congress, of the pulpit or
| or commerce, are men who have been
in every way tried like we are, disap-
pointed often, cheered occasionally, de-
termined 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 impassioned
speeches will thrill the hearers: and
then the great crowds will melt away.
each individual returning to his pleas
ures or burdens, leaving the tomb to it's
motionless vigil over the dead. Seen
ically the tomb is unique. 1t will al
ways be one of the notable features of
the city, raised in forceful shape where
neither houses nor commerce can ever
hide it from view either by 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 it's
stern, square simplicity standing stur-
| Oily alone and unmoved amid the rest
lessness Of the tides before it and the