Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1898-04-15

The simple TACT IS sne uleu IOr nllll'
Life for lfel Substitution
About 3S years ago there went forth
from our northern and southern homes
hundreds of thousands Of men to do bat
tie All the poetry of war soon vanish
ed, and left them nothing bat the terri
BILE prose They waded knee deep in
mud. They slept in snow banks They
marched till their cut feet tracked the
earth They were swindled out Of their
honest ratiOns and lived on meat not fit
for a dog They had jaws fractured, and
eyes extinguished and limbs shot away.
Thousands of them cried for water as'
they lay on the field the night after the
| battle and got it not They were home
sick and received no message from their
loved ones. They died in barns, in
bushes, in bitches, the buzzards OF the
summer heat the only attendants on
their Obsequies No one but the infinite
God, who knows everything knows the
ten thousandth part Of the length and
breadth and depth and height Of anguish
Of the northern and southern battle.
fields. Why did these fathers leave
their children and 90 to the front, and
why did these young men, postponing
the marriage day start out into the
probabilities of never coming back? For
a principle they died. Life for life
Blood for blood Substitution
Principle of Self Sacrifice.
But we need not 90 so far. What is
that monument in the cemetery? 1t is
to the doctors who fell in the southern
epidemics. Why 20? We're there not
enough sick to be attended in these
northern latitudes? Oh, yes; but the
doctor puts few medical books in his
valise. and some vials of medicine, and
leaves his patients here in the hands Of
other physicians and takes the rail
train. Before he gets to the infected re
gions be passes crowded rail trains, reg
ular and extra, taking the flying and
affrighted populations. He arrives in
city over which a great horror Is
brooding. He goes from couch to
couch. feeling the pulse and studying
symptoms and prescribing day after
dav. night after night, until tel-
low physician says, doctor, you had
better 90 home and rest you look mis-.
erable. But he cannot rest while so
many are suffering On and on, until
some morning finds him in delirium
in which he talks of home, and then
rises and says he must 90 and look after
those patients. He is told to lie down,
but he fights his attendants until be
falls back. and is weaker and weaker,
and dies for people with whom be had
no kinship and far away from his own
family. and is hastily put away in a
strangers tomb, and only the fifth part
of a newspaper line tells Us Of his sac
rifce-his name just mentioned among
five. Yet be has touched the tarthest
height of sublimity III that three weeks
of humanitarian service. He goes
straight as az arrow to the bosom OF
him who said, Il was sick and ye Wis
tied me. Life for lifel Blood for
blood Substitution!
In the legal profession | see the same
principle Of self sacrifice. In 1916 Will
liam Freeman, pauperized and idiotiC
negro. was at Auburn. \. y, on trial
for murder He had slain the entire
Van Nest family. The foaming wrath
of the community could be kept off him
only by armed constables. Who would
volunteer to be his counsel: No attor
ney wanted to sacrifice his popularity
bv such an ungrateful task. All were
silent save one, a young lawyer Will
feeble voice that could hardly be- hearC
outside the bar pale and thin and awk
ward. 1t was William H. Seward, who
saw that the prisoner was idiotlc anC
irresponsible and ought to be put IN al
ASYLUM rather than put to death, th'
heroic counsel uttering these beautiiu
words:
Substitution.
Il speak now in the hearing Of peo
pie who have prejudged prisoner an'
condemned ne for pleading in his be
half. He is a convict, pauper, negro
: without intellect, sense or emotion. NJ.
child with an affectonate smile disarm
nv careworn face Of its frown wheneve
I cross nv threshold The beggar IN ID
street obliges me TO give because b
e saws God bless you as | PASS. Ny do
caresses me with fondness II | will bu
smile on him. My horse recognizes III
e when | fill bis manger What reward
S what gratitude what sympathy am
q affection can | expect here: There IN
5 prisoner sits. Look at him. Look at tn
D assemblage around You Listen to thel
I i'll SUPPRESSED censures and excited fear
G and tell me where among my neighoor
+ or my fellow men. where, even III hl
g heart. can expect to find sentiment
r Thought, not to say Of reward or O
G sclnowledgment or even Of recognition
e Gentlemen, you may think OF tins evi
d dence what you please, bring III VIVA
II verdict you can. but asseverate befor
i heaven and you that to the best of N
r knowledge and belief the prisoner
Is the bar does not at this moment kno'
e why it is that my shadow falls on 20
e instead Of his own. -
10 The gallows got its victim, but tn
: most mortem examination OF the poe
e creature showed to all the surgeons an
u TO all the world that the public wei
II wrong and William II. Seward wa
y right. and that hard. stony step
d obloquy in the Auburn courtroom VIZ
n the first step Of the stairs OF fame u
ID which he went to the top, or to With
}! one step of the top, that last denle
ID him through the treachory OF Amsrica
y politics Nothing sublimer was eve
l. seen in an American courtroom tina
y William H. Seward, without reward
! standing between the furious popula'
! and the loathsome imbecile. Substitl
n. tionl
, In the realm of the fine arts the
!, was as remarkable an instance.
If brilliant but hypercriticised painte
VI Joseph William Turner, was met by
volley of abuse from all the art galleri
Of Europe. His paintings, which ha'
since won the applause of all civiliz
ig nations, "The Fifth Plague Of Egypt
" Fishermen on Lee Shore In squal
-. ( Weather. - "Calais Pier, The ~