The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1899-07-07
Present-Day Thonghts.

va NhN , OsAi INV hlii'diiic0 VIGIL tilt
small boy with fireworks will celebrate
the Declaration Of independence
measuring the success Of the present
occasion and the greatness of the past
event by the noise ne succeeds in max
ing. We who are grown up know very
well that blazonry Of bunting and the
noise Of cannon are not any sure signs
Of patriotism; but we cannot deny
these things to the young nor can we
question their value in keeping alive
interest in the past for the young need
objective things-they need, as it were,
to have a picture before them i'm order
to understand a lesson.
We older ones, in hundreds Of places,
will listen to oratory, some good, some
bad. We shall doubtless find our
speakers taking new texts, suggested
by the remarkable events in our own
history during the past year; and if the
result Of the celebration is TO make each
Of US feel that ii is an important thing
to be an American, and that our future
As a nation carries with it new respOn-
sibilitles, the result Of gathering our
selves together will be good
Let us, however, while we rejoice
over the national life that is ours, give
more than a few thoughts to distracted
France, now rent asunder by warning
factions and momentarily in doubt as
to what its future form Of government
shall be. We can well afford sympa-
thy, for France is knit to Us by many
close ties Of mutual service, and we
may well indulge in anxiety, for the
men Of France in past times have
voiced many noble human aspirations.
Beyond all question, the government
Of France is largely failure for there
is neither to the citizen of France nor
to the onlooker from abroad any prom
Use of permanency about the govern
ment rs it is now constituted. Success
ful administration Of business affairs,
education, the arts and sciences of hui
man life-all those things that make a
nation great nations-depend for their
power upon the stability Of govern
ment. Nogreat forward steps are like
~ in any direction, when a man goes
to rest at night uncertain as to whether
he will wake up in the present century |
or open his eyes upon repetition OF |
the bloodshed of a hundred years ago.
France teaches us that there is eX-
IRENE danger in men trying to run
government for personal glory and adj
vantage or merely for the defeat Of an
Men who are called to the |
of affairs occupy in the |
truest sense positions of trust-to /
which trust they are utterly false when /
they think more of personal pleasure,
personal profit and personal triumph,
than they do of national welfare.
Frances mark Of popularity during
the past five wears Of continuous tur-
mOil has been the absence of any great,
broad line Of policy for national Affairs
The officials of the army have tried to
score points against the civilian power
The Socialists have had designs upon
both. The labOring men have chung to
the army and mistrusted the civilian
power and each and all Of these have
and scrambled, fought and
torn at each other, like lot Of captured
crabs in float, needless Of the fact that
unless they escape they would ali
utterly perish.
These sweeping assertions are per
'ectly safe ones 10 make, even though
here exist i'm France at the present
line certain number of unsellish,
noble men who would give up their
ives rather than see human hopes as
expressed by popular government dash
ID to the ground The unselfsh ones
ire not numerous enough nor DO they
occupy places Of power sufficient to
'olor the policy Of France in the pres
mt day. During the Dark Ages good
men existed aud shone like points Of
light in an inky setting, but they sim
ply were known TO be light without
iaving any power to impart it. Thus
II all ages aud in all countries our only
way of Judging is by finding the pre-
'ailiug tendency. lola, the author
'icquart, the military martyr; Gohier,
he daring journalist, are men whose
character and unselfshness aud cour
we might make any nation proud
But their voices and their pleadings
ire like the faint twitterings Of birds in
he midst Of a bowling gale, and only
90 late will their prophesying be found
rue.
Unless a volcanic change takes place
he middle Of the next century will see
france reduced in the presence Of its
tronger neighb0rs to condition a.
weak and as helpless as that Of Spain;
or just as its politics are needless and
Is politicians self seekers, 50 in It's So
.ial life there is lack of fellowship
,etween the different classes. In its
moral life As well there is exhibited the
lainfuI spectacle Of a nation morally