The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-06-01
Noble Lessons OF War.
Il tlGntd Journal.

War will lose its essential mission if
it does not teach US patriotism. awaken
sentiment and better and broaden the
spirit of Americanism in US all.
No nobler and no greater people
have lived in human history than the
southerncrs who came, storm swept
and chastened out from the crowning
shadows Of Appomattox.
Every heroic virtue grew in the
matchless inspiration of the war.
Every noble quality fourished in the
stern and splendid discipline of these
unrelenting years. Courage, patience,
sentiment, devotion, duty, unsel6sh-
ness, and deathless patriotism flashed
like radiant stars across the gloom
and darkness of the time. Men learn
ed there to love their country better
than themselves and to pleoge this
loyalty freely with their lives. Wo-
men, raised in luxury, forgot their
selfish comforts in their solemn duties,
and the white hands of fashion swept
the looms Of labor and fastened the
bandagcs of blood with self-denying
heroism that was indeed sublime.
When triumphs came, they rejoiced
with reverent gratitude They met
disasters in their turn with dignity,
without discouragement, and when all
was over, and the last shadow wrapped
the lost cause, this people chastened
into hcroism, and disciplined into
grandeur, facing desperate conditions
without bitterness and without de-
spair, set themselves with patient
faith to duty, and wrought with dill
gence the development, that must for
ever stand as the material miracle Of
our time.
War and suffering developed great
ness for which defeat and poverty
furnished a field of glorious illustra-
tion.
But peace came, and with peace re-
sponsibility, and the stern necessity
for an industrial heroism as notable
as the prowess of our soldiery.
\ The colossal energies of battles
were consecrated anew to the making
of money, and out of the industrial
travail, glorious in itself, has been
developed the monster Of Materialism,
selfish, sinister and threatening, mag
nifying the individual and making the
State subordinate.
No people on earth could have con-
secrated for thirty years as we have
done, every faculty Of brain and heart
and hand to mere material develop
ment, without generalization and the
evidences of our retrogression in moral
qualities are patent and lamentable.
The virtues that grew in our service
of Mars, are fading in our worship Of
Mammon.
The nobility born in the service Of
our country is dying in exclusive ser
vica Tn ourselves
It may be that tie Almighty
moving in mysterious ways, His
wonders to perform, has brought this
new war to pass to rebuild and tonic
the decaying virtues Of our race.
For that war does revive the nobler
spirit of a people there can be no
doubt.
John Ruskin says that "no great
art ever yet rose on earth except
among nation Of soldiers. He holds
that the architectural triumphs of
Italy, the paintings Of Rubens or the
plays of Shakespeare would have been
impossible ':without the lofty attitude
of mind induced by the contemplation
Of stormy and heroic periods Of his
tory
He holds further that "war is the
foundation of all the high virtues and
faculties of men," and with all due
allowance for John Ruskin's 8 exuber-
ance of expression, the universal drift
of history confirms his sweeping state
ment and breaks rudely upon the
eulogists of eternal peace.
The growing consciousness during
wars that dying is not the worst Of
evils" and that honorable death is
better than ignoble life, is motive to
high endeavor and one Of the most
uplifting sentiments in the thought Of
world.
The war sentiment in nation pro-
duces conservation, efaces self, and
stabbing the stubborn ego in the
human heart brings humanity to the
ideal sattc of patriotism and of Chris
tianity.
We talk of peace and learning, of
! oe