The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-05-31

trouble between the Chinese and the English, he was ordered by his com mander at Hong Kong to withdraw in the interest of neutrality, but while preparing to do so his small boat was carelessly fired upon from the forts by the Chinese, who were not very careful to distinguish between one foreign flag and another. Foote did not wait for orders from Washington, or resolu- tion from the senate, or even specific or ders from his absent commanding otti- Ger, but he turned the three small ves- sels which he had into the right order and began shelling the first fort that came in range, and after an hours fir ing had silenced 1t he led a storming party of two hundred and eighty-seVen men with howitzers into the fort, The three remaining forts were soon taken in the same way. The Chinese have recognized and respected the stars and stripes ever since The most friendly relations still continue between this country and China, if we except some small matters growing out of our home protective policy,
 It was his insistance of the rights of American missionaries as American cit izens in the Sandwich Islands, and on the prestige of the flag there ts com pared with the flag of Spain, that se- cured for them at least something like protection.
 It was the same love and sturdy loy- alty to the same flag that made him the desperate and invincible fighter that he was at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson It made him able In three months time to bring into existence without navy yard or even an old pattern, fleet of iron-clads the like of which the world had never seen. But the story of his life in the late war is too familiar to need rehearsing here, although it all H. lustrates we'll the worth of sturdy and patriotic Christian character in the public service of the country.
 Conditions are never twice alike, 1t is true, but there have been times within | recent months when one could wish that there had been an Admiral Foote with an American gunboat in the China sea, or in the Mediterranean or in the West Indies as In the old days, One can easily think that there would have
 
 | iety spent in aimles (not to say footless) diplomacy, and that, on the whole, there might have been far less blood spilled, and that our flag would have a higher prestige the world around than 1 it has to-day.
 The one veteran hero stands as type of them all, and though each had his own peculiar virtues and failings, the whole great company rises in the back ground of our national life, filling 1t with sacred memories and noble ideals, and making 1t rich in resources for the | life that now is, and full of hope and courage for that which Is to be. On | this Memorial day we pledge our fideli- | ty anew to the patriot fathers who 1 flag and the sacred principles which they nobly defended. We rejoice in the i privilege in these later years of stand ing with the slowly waning company of those fathers and mothers of this gen. eration, who looked as many of us | have never looked through smoke and tears to see if the flag would still float | over a united nation. We are glad that we live in such nation and such a day as this, We are glad that we l have one life; like the young Nathan 1 Hale, we regret that we have but one, and we trust that we are as willing as
 he to give it when it is needed to pro- | tect the flag made sacred by the sacri- 1 flee of so many noble lives
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