The Newtown bee., 1898-05-06

theon, a temple consecrated to all the heather gods shortly after the Apostle Paul wrote his letters to Timo- thy from the dungeon whose chill made him wish for the warm cloak left at Troas. Across the sea we stroll about the city walls that have wit. messed many & contest between liberty and despOtism, we roam through cathe- drals the music from whose chancels has heralded the birth of many centuries. We have no ancient history here. The Sons and the Daughters of the RevoIu- tion are just beginning to make us realize that we have any history at all. If the old calls for respect, the old is not in America.
 And then we have little reverence be- cause the idea is Instilled into us from our birth hat in America all are born free and equal. We are told on every hand that this is a democracy where the people rule. This is called a government of the people, for the people and by the people. We are here subject to no king we are not to be moved about as pawns. Every man in America is 8 sovereign ruler walks under his hat. There are no shackles here but the shackles of ignorance, and those it is every mans privilege to throw off. A man inherits properGv here, put no title; if he wishes to add few letters to his name, that some honor or dignity may be given, he must work for the honor as his father may have done before him. It Is hard for us to understand in this country the respect that is shown in England to 8 member of the aristocratic class by a member of the middle or lower class. It seems to us a species of fiunkyism.
 We do not have reverence for position or grade or rank, for position so swiftly changes. The poor man of to-day is the man of wealth tomorrow. The mechan- ic who to-day with muscular strength shapes the iron by the forge tomorrow may have hundred men in his employ. The crossroads lawyer who to-day stsrves with few clients of poor pay may tomorrow be his party's leader in the National House of Representatives John Wanamaker today trundles 8 wheelbarrow about & brick-Yard; to- morrow he is head of one of the biggest business enterprises in the land. George Pullman quickly rises from mechanic to build city and cali it by his name.
 Eminence is So much bubble in this country that we could not think of wor- shipping it. One man is eminent be cause he is conspicuously good, another is eminent because he is conapicuouslv bad. Goodness climbs to great heights, and meanness follows close behind. One man is eminent because he has made corner in the market and thus become rich in day. Another man is eminent because he has gotten up big political job. Mere accidents create eminence, newspapers create eminence; and neither accidents nor newspapers are solid fouu- dations for that which is to last.
 And then, too, reverence flies before the desire to analy2e everything that ex- ists in America. Here we allow no mys- teries. Here we say Nature shall keep nothing back. We take everything into our laboratories and get it down into molecules and atoms. We know the ins and outs.
 WE KEEP ASKING THE EVERLASTING
 wRY?
 Things say ro us, "1hus far shalt thou come and no farther;" but we will have no restriction like that. We do not like the sign-board reading, 'sHands offi''I The Bible was once regarded as aI peculiarly sacred thing. We take it now and question it's authorship, it's date, it's style. We take out this verse as an insertion; we partition this bo3k off as the compilation of several writers; we do many things with the Bible that for merly would have seemed very queer. You can expect little reverence to re- n ain when all these things are true.
 Amid this sweep of irreverence there are some things I wish we could save, 4nd one is our reverence for heroes. Il pity the nation that has not, as part Of l ts heritage from the past, few great names that 1t can ever reverence and l lonor. I pity the child who, with the ,ther fancies of childhood that are dissi. | oated as the years of life run on, has lost rom It's thought some noble men and women that stand as the embodiment of oftiest character. A nation without leroes is a nation doomed to death. I laye myself little respect Tor the at smpt to make Washington appear as no