Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1899-03-30
The Passing Of sectionalism

re and "money barons," that the
ed sought to enslave the West and tia
IT. they were without mercy or goo
IS will. The audiences cheered an
IL cheered again as If believing tn
CD words Of the speaker. Many did be
es lieve and considered that the Atlantic
re states had for their citizens men ant
ID women Of different clay from tina
I'd in the citizens of the plains.
u Less than decade ago the writel
TO listened to a band playing on the
10 plaza by the beach at Galveston.
81 After the strains OF "Dixie" had set
l. all feet a-dancing and Maryland,
'e My Maryland" had reused the tender
a ness Of three thousand hearts, two
h northern men went to the leader of
u the musicians.
/ ave are from the north, said one,
u land would like to hear something OF
+ our own favorites. Will you please
9 ask your band to play Marching
= Through Georgia."
e Really, sir, )" stammered the band
$ MASTER" really, | would like to
oblige you-and for myself would
0 not care-but there are some OF the
band would not like to play those
, tunes and some here would not like
to listen. You will have to excuse
me-"
lie waved his baton and there came
the beautiful southern melody, "Way
Down on the Suawanee River"
That Is one side Of the picture.
Within the past year there was an
other gala occasion in Galveston and
the people of Texas were there by the
thousand On the plaza the band
played and alternated Dixie"
with "John Browns Body" and
Marching Through Georgia" with
my Maryland" while the crowds
cheered and cheered again, showing
no Partially in their applause.
Last Januarya New Yorker address
ed banquet Of two hundred Kansans
at capital Of this State. He was the
only man in the room wearing dress
suit and he had about him the marks
OF culture and wealth. He spoke Of
the men of Wall street as being OF the
same clay as those of the Kansas
plains, he told Of their charities and
their benevoences. He said they
were brothers with the men who
guided the pillow and rounded up the
herds-and then he spoke Of Helen
Gould and her work for the soldier
boys in their journeying to war.
"God bless hertz he exclaimed and
two hundred young men Of the plains,
with moist eyes and sincere approval
Of his sentiments, made the hall echo
to their hearty cheers.
The sectionalism of the old DAYS
has wonderfully melted away in the
past few months. Beneath the warm
ing fires of patriotism, kindled anew
when the Maine went down in the
harbor Of Havana and kept alight by
every bulletin from the front at San '
tiago and Manila, it has been calcned
into a brotherly love that is uniting '
this nation more closely than it has a
ever been before. The regiments s
from Alabama and those from Mime a
sofa are side by side in front of p"
Manila; the flag that wave over them a
both is as dear to one as to the other, II
The sentiment Of the home folks is 81
me same for the boys, whether it be d
oy the palmetto or the pine. The A
Whole nation honors Joe Wheeler Of D
he south and Dewey Of the north g
like; Hobson Of Alabama and Roose- VI
'elt OF New York are heroes from ot
'cean to ocean.
The war has done much to drive ~
way sectionalism but it is not en-. a
lrely responsible. The nation has VI
cen coming to maturity rapidly in y, %
he past decade. The West has been III
aiming in liberality as it gained in u =,
'ealth. The South has been feeling ~
he impulse Of prosperity and has " '"
18th the oncoming Of the younger ="
eneration forgotten the old prejudice Is, -
nd the rancor Of the days before and '"
tier the War Of the Rebellion ."
Uncle Sam has no reason to com. "
lain OF the fealty Of any Of his chill
rem now. They are all loyal to him
nd his magnificent country Tho,