The Topeka state journal., 1898-05-24
WHY THE BOYS ENLIST.

The past few weeks have shown the
American people the phenomena of war
as it affects the tmpressionable and en-
ergetic minds of young men.
No man knows when he gets the war
fever microbes in his system, but they
always develop along the same lines in
every individual. Aside from the high
principles that lead most men to enlist,
there is an attraction about the free
and easy camp life of the common SOL
der that appeals to those who are daily
worried with brain work as we'll as to
those accustomed to an open air life
of activity. Making war is like a huge
vacation. dangerous, but the entice-
ment of life outdoors among a crowd of
companionable men, who have prac-
tically nothing to do except on rare oc-
casions, outweighs personal peril. 1t is
not the prospect of fighting that draws
men into the volunteer army so much
as it is the opportunity to throw off
humdrum cares that eat the enthusiasm
out of the soul. Any diversion is prefer
able to walking up and down Kansas
avenue every evening, looking for
amusement" as one young man put it.
There will be adventures in the army
and all men who are healthy, like ad-
ventures. Generations of living in plas-
tered rooms with plate glass to shut out
heavens air, have not repressed the
natural man entirely, though it has
whitened his skin, weakened his nerves
and given him a lot of new diseases,
He will break out of his cage periodi-
cally, and war is an opportunity for
bottled up mankind to break out en-
massee. With all the discipline of the
drill, there is a freedom of the camp
that calls to the heart. The shell of
years cannot kill out the impulse that
makes the boy want to play in the
woods and reappears in the ''going
hunting of most men, though there is
nothing to hunt. 1t isn't the game they
expect to get that takes parties of men
away to the mountains, swamps and
forests with weapons of destruction. 1t
is the impulse of a desire for a brief
freedom from care.
Patriotism is, Of course, one of the
powerful impulses that urge young men
into the army when war breaks out,
but it is not patriotism alone.
The American, too, feels patriotism
stronger than any other human being.
Tt means more to him than to the man
of any other nationality unless, per-
haps, 1t is the French. F'renchmen do
not emigrate from their native land,
nor do Americans.
1t may be because both races are
highly imaginative, and patriotism
thrives on an imagination warmed with
enthusiasm. Homesickness is more pro-
found among Frenchmen and Ameri-
cans than others. Germans, English
men, Scotch, Irish, Swedes and other
nationalities leave their native land by
millions, with no thought of returning
to it, but Americans always expect
some day to "go back home" and
Frenchmen can never remain lifetime
away from La Belle France" Only
an American could have written
Home, Sweet Home" 1t expresses
something that the people of many Eu-
ropean countries do not feel, and this
is where patriotism is rooted and from
which it throws it's lofty branches over
1.-The land of the free and the home of
the brave
AS long as love of country and love
of adventure exist, there will be wars;
and this is one side of human nature
that the peace society seems to have
neglected to StI1dv