The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-05-08

When Napoleon was in Egypt and a
great battle was impending. he made 4
speech to his army and said: Soldiers,
forty centuries are looking down upon
you from the heights of those pyramids
Just so Jupiter used to sit enthroned
upon the top of Mt. Olympus and over
look the doings of the children of men,
These are rather lofty thoughts for Il
common man to contemplate, but some
time | wish that l could take flight
TO the clouds and poise myself and let
the earth roll under me, so that | could
look down upon the nations and see
what they were doing. The world mas
been getting smaller ever since | was a
boy. 1t has been shrinking, shrinking
from year to year, for it used to take
three years to go around it, but now
less than three months makes the err
cult. Still we are not content, Tor
though the land is wired pretty well, the
sea is not and vessel may be lost or Il
feet destroyed away out i'll md-oceah'
and we could not hear of it i'll week.
This little war Of ours is growing blg-
ger and spreading wider in its probablll~
ties. We thought that Cuba was to be
the battle ground for our army and
iltDHD WHITES lOI OuI navy but Inv
Philippine islands are thousands of miles
away and the Canaries not far from
Africa 1t is now war of invasion and
the end is not in sight. 1t is too late
now TO entreat for peace or arbitration.
and so we must all fall into line and
do our share. When the preachers put
on their war paint | reckon it is no
harm for the laymen and the sinners to
fight we remember that in the last
war the preachers, both north and
SOUTH were more belligerent than any
other class. They didn't do much fight
ing. but they went along and encouraged
the boys and prayed for them and nurs-
cd the sick and the wounded and show
ed their faith by their works. but some
of them were awfully mistaken about
which side the Lord was on, or what
were His great designs.
God moves in mysterious way
His wonders to perform.
Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter
And he will make it plain
The preachers are just human like
other people and subject to like passions
and prejudices. / remember that just
before Georgia seeded our Rome
preachers could hardly maintain their
Christian serenity in the pulpit or out
of it. and one OF them. an eloquent AMI
gifted man whom the whole communi-
ty respected and reverenced. took for
his text the twentieth verse of the
second chapter of Joel: II will remove
far from You the northern army and
will drive him into land barren and
desolate. with his face toward the east
sea and his hinder part toward the ut
most sea. and his stink shall come up
and his i'll SAVIOR shall come I'M. for he
hath nlagnified to do great things.
Fear not, oh land and be glad and
rejoice. Tor the Lord will do great
things"
/ tell you he made it fit our case like
prophetic prediction, and we could see
the Yankees flying from our valiant
troops and driven to their utmost bord-
erS and scattered from the Pacific ocean
70 plymouth Rock and perishing to death
all along the line for lack of provisions.
and nobody left to bury them. At the
came time Henry Ward Beecher was
breathing out threatenings and slaughter
from his Brooklyn pulpit and declaring
that the Almighty's hand was on their
side and within a few months would
wreak his vengeance upon the slave
holaer and set the bondmen free. And
the editors knew nothing ut last. | tell
you. my brethren, that preachers and
editors are just human like the rest of
Ms. and the world will never have a
fair chance to get even with them until
every man has a pulpit and newspaper
of his own.
But the war is on us and we must
fight it. Our Congressman have said
it is right and just and they ought to
know. but / was Eliminating about blood
and tears and agony-about widows and
orphans and Rachel mourning for her
children because they were not. That
good old Georgia mother i'll Israel whose
son is an officer on the Olympia in far-off
waters has ceased TO smile. For years
his letters have been her comfort For
years he has supported her from his
pay and is now educating and maintain
ing an orphan niece. and they love him
dearly. But it may be that the con-
flict has come and gone and he is even
now sleeping in the deep waters, and
they know it not Who can measure the
glory of war with a grief like theirs.
and this is only one case. There are or
will be thousands like it if this war
goes on.
But we must fight In the language
of Patrick Henry, Il repeat it, we must
fight"
Patriotism is a God-given emotion in
the human breast. True. sincere,
thoughtful love Of home and country
not that kind which is pretense and
which DIR Johnson said was the last
refuge Of Il sc0undrel. Politics and
greed and religious fanatacism are often
COMPOUNDED with il and woman is nj
ways the chief mourner both in victory
and defeat when war affIicts a country.
Nations make war in haste and repent
ut leisure. The saddest picture ever
painted was that of mother with Il
babe at her breast hunting over a bat
tlefield for the body of her husband.
The child Of misery baptized in tears"
But enough of this. I'm afraid | am
becoming IA confirmed pessimist. | will
go out in the garden and with some of
the little offspring and pick Strawberries.
These little chaps always comfort me. [
don't see what we grow IN for nohow.
for the scriptures say unless We become
as one of these little ones We shall nor