The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-27


counted on in battle. Spain as a nationality
has refrigerated since that time. 1t has not
kept up with the procession of progress.
When nation falls to the rear. it is be-
cause its people have been stricken with in
feriority. SPANS populace is illiterate.
THE ADVANTAGE OF KEEPING COOL.
1t is a season during which all should en-
deavor to keep cool Self-control is quail
ity never out Of place. 1t gives one serenity
when there is no danger and effectiveness
and dignity in the hour Of peril. The fire.
arm which goes off half-cocked is a blum
derbuss which harms only those in the inn
mediate vicinity. The excited person may
have personal courage and purpose to be
useful, but his efforts in periods of excite
ment and possible danger are as useless as
the futterings of a hen whose head has just
been cut off. Just now the excitable per-
son can do no special injury, yet he may be
objected to on the ground that he misrep-
resents people in general He always
claims to represent public opinion and feel
ing. To listen to his absurd chatter about
war, or about any topic of public interest,
the unthinking, who cannot classify him,
may be convinced that the whole commun-
ity is of his opinion, and is ready TO quit
present duties to assemble to talk war and
to form battalions.
A very large majority of the people who
constitute the vital forces in community
have only dim recollection of the last war
in which this country was involved; conse-
quently, many who become excited will give
the inexperienced the impression that a
war with Spain would be a second war for
the Union. There has actually been talk
based upon the assumption that great
bodies of troops would be transported by
rail by men connected with that service.
Some one starts story that the President
has ordered several thousand stands of
arms to Indianapolis and those who, if
they would reason with themselves a mo-
ment, would see that it is absurd, become
excited. When it was announced that the
Spanish torpedo flotilla was on it's way to
Porto Rico, Key West goes off in excited in
coherency and people elsewhere, with gum
cotton imaginations, see the whole fleet of
United States war ships destroyed in an
hour and our coast cities at the mercy of
Admiral Brown, who knows just what tor
pedo boats can do, and found him upper
turbed and learned that the torpedo boat is
not superior to a war ship, and with vigil
lance is comparatively harmless.
1t may be said that the excited person
non do No horny, Ono oopp0t I1o e11ra a hOut
this. If he goes forth in sufficient numbers,
talking of war and its dangers, he will
have many listeners, if, like himself they
will neglect their affairs to consider the
perils of the country, thus diverting at
tention which should be devoted to bust
ness and employment. Under the impress
sion that war with Spain will require the
enlisting of large armies, men are asking
one another what will be it's effect on
business. Already the bears in the gam
bling stock markets have used the war
scare to vanquish the bulls and to send
fictitious values in stocks which do not earn
dividends tUmbling down like row of
bricks. There is no possible reason for be-
lief that a war with Spain will affect abb
tries and business will go on much the
same, unless the people lose their heads
and allow their efforts to be paralyzed by
baseless fears that such war means the
invasion of the United States, resulting in
battles like those of the late war. Besides,
the men and women OF to-day, educated
in the public schools, owe it to the COM
self-control and quiet dignity which the in
telligence and discipline of schools should
afford They should contemplate the self
control and reliance Of such men as Wash
ington, Grant, the men who never lost
their heads, and, because they did not, de-
cided events in seasons of great peril. The
quiet, self-contained captains, sergeants
and privates fought the great battles of
the late war, not the infiammable persons
who, six months before it, desired to march
to Charleston to subdue the rebellion with
men armed with broomsticks.
BY all means let us keep COOL Let us
not be swept off our feet by grapevine
bulletins or the inventions Of yellow news
papers. No Spanish gunboat will steal up
White river to shell Indianapolis in the
nighttime. No member of the National
Guard need sleep on his arms on the veran-
da for fear that his call to go to the
front will be so sudden that he will not
have time to put on his uniform and get
to the station before the departure Of the
train bearing his comrades. The Indianap-
oils City Council will have ample time to
get it's moral assistance pledged to the
President into battle array before the Span
iards arrive with Calling guns to open fire