The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-01-26

will be respected a hundred years after
l am dead" This had been proved
truer than Burns had thought. Few
individuals have possessed more in
teresting personal character than
Burns, lowly BIRTH rustic boyhood,
educational struggle, his eternal pro-
pensity" to fall in love with every
pretty woman, his prayers and revels,
his piety and impiety, intense patriot
ism hatred Of sham and hypocrisy,
love of nature, poverty, failures, sue
cess in the highest realms OF poetry,
his tragic death-all going to make him
and his history something thrilling.
Burns was no more "heaven-born"
or "heaven-wrought" than other dis
tinguished men. His success was by
hard, persevering, determined labor.
AS Longfellow wrote:
The heights by great men reached and
kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.
HIS MIND ON POETRY.
Burns may have had natural gift
of poetic genius, but it would not have
distinguished him if he had not dill
gently cultivated it. 1t is true his
was on his poetry. He himself says
his mind was always on his songs. Mr..
Russell pleaded guilty to being a hero
worshipper in regard to Burns. Better
to worship goodness than a heather.
A hero implies goodness and Worship
in part, at least--implies imitation. If
Burns can be initiated in his lofty
ideals of patriotism and duty and his
weaknesses can be avoided, the world
will be better for such a course. The
speaker did not eXonerate the poets
great wrong. but he declined to per-
nit those failings to mar his reverence
for poetic genius. He did not discard
the pearl because of it's shell.
Burns Scots wha hae wi Wallace
bled," Wee cow'rin tim'rous beastie,"
his old gray mare, Meg" his hatred
of religious hypocrisy could be imi-
tated and perpetuated to the credit of
the imitator and to the deserving mes
ory of Burns, the Scottish tongue and
the Scottish nationality. Mr.. Russell
| asked cooperation in commemorating
the immortal Burns. at first a nations
poet, now a worlds poet; once ad-
mired and reviled, now one at whom
no man dare cast a stone.
His death was piteous, a flower droop-
| ing while in bloom, a sun setting in
midday, a leaf falling in mid-sum-
mer. But "the stars will grow cold"
and the hills and seas will be obliter-
ated and dry before his memory will
| be eclipsed.
The stars shall fade away, the sun
himself
Grow dim with age, and nature sink in
| years,
| But thou shalt flourish in immortal
| youth,
| Unhurt amid the war of elements,
| The wreck of matter and the crush of
| worlds.
| CAPTAIN MOIR'S RESPONSE.
Captain James Moir. ex-chief of the
| Caledonians the wit of the Scots. and
as Chief Macmillan would have it, the
next mayor, responded to the toast
scotland, the Land Of Our Birth"
| Cartain Moir ignored the introduction
| of Chief Macmillan and got immedi-
| ately into a sober consideration of his
topic with no attempt at the wit and
| humor which have made him locally
| famous as an after-dinner orator.
What he did not say about Aberdeen,
| Bonnie Dundee, Glasgow, Edinburg,
| Salisbury Craigs and the CLANS and
| other things of Scotia and what he did
| not say in their favor would not re-
| luire as much space in the repeating
| as would be required for what he did
| say in those particulars. When he
| told of Aberdeen, his own native place,
he was at his best and inspired not
only the Aberdeenites present but
those who hailed from other localities
| and who were of Clans other than that
of the speaker.
John Knox was described as the
| greatest man Scotland had ever pro-
! duced. Roman stOicism, said Captain
| MOir, paled alongside the heroism of
| the Scottish covenanter. OF Burns, the
| speaker alleged that if he had never
written anything but a Mans a man
| for a That" he would have been i'm
mortalized. Thomas Carlyle, the in
| tellectual giant Of the nineteenth CEN
! tury," was another Scotsman especial
! ly eulogized by Captain Moir. He
| paused frequently enough to facetious-
! ly remark upon the fighting and cat
! tle-stealing nroclivities of the race, and
TO remind his hearers that they We're
not always good but had smack of
the rantin' rovin' spirit in them.
John q. McAskie, in treating the
| toast Scottish Literature" began by
securing the passage of a motion that
| Captain Moir be fined IS for talking
too much, talking so Well as to steal
much of Mr.. Askie's speech and thun-
der. In literature Scotland had been
moro celebrated, he said by her now
elists and poets than by the so-called
Heavier" writer's. Her bards, without
any disraragement intended, were
clearly superior to those of Ireland
and Wales, on whom much deserving
praise has been reflected.
MIR. LITTLE ON AMERICA.
Richard Little editor of the Scrdn-
| tonian, responded to the toast "Ameri-
| ca. the Land of Our Adoption" Why
| America was chosen, he remarked, was
! because no other nation under heaven
was so thoroughly imhued with the
| spirit uf "a mans man for a that
as the United states. Scotsmcn fought
| many years for freedom in Scotland
and secured it; a similar spirit had
procured the same end in the United
States. The similarity attracted Scots
| men to the newer country. Great op-
portunities Were offered here for ad-
Vancing in the business and profession
al wCrl'- but the freedom and oppor-
tunity that could not be utilized by a
| Scotsman in Scotland could not be
utilized by him here.
1t was 12C o'clock when Rev. John
! p. Moffatt began his response to the
toast The Scottish Pulpit" The Tri-
| bunes report closed at that hour. The
| three other toasts, mentioned in the
| introduction to this article, followed