The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-06-28
THE REAL LIFE
- a Soldier with His Eye On the
Enemy

the war
According TO the sages and the poets, /
life Is a diary TO be dlIed, d statue 70
be ebIseIed, d series Of pictures TO De 9
painted. a w0of to be woven. q race TO 4
be run, 4 stream to be followed from (
source TO estuary a mountain SUMMIT .
to be climbed, a sea to be sailed. 4 bat (
tie TO be fought OF all these images ]
the truest is the last Life Is a battle
real life IS a battle To attain real
life you must go forth in the spirit of
the soldier You can not be 4 good man,
a good father, brother, sister, mother
you can not be a good citizen except by
the aid Of this spirit Il came not 10 =
send peace but sword
War Is horrible but far less horrible
than certain kinds Of peace Peace IS
adorable. but IL IS not if@not now
Life IS war. As long as any wrong
exists long any crime goes TN
whipped. as long as evil fills the human
heart. life must be war. and they are
the most subtle enemies OF real life who
cry Peace. peace when there is !
no peace"
war has its horrors. but life IS full u
horrors. Hamilton Fish was shot at
Santiago, and some Of my friends say,
Horrible. But $4,000 men die each
year of drunkenness. " hich IS the
tauentabIe death2 Which IS the real
horror ByF6n's death IN the struggle
for Grecian Independence reeeenned him
from the horrors or his life sydney
Carton. IN Dickens story Of Two
Cities" sends to Us from the guIHotfns +
a message of hope and cheer, and the
is lost IN the glory OF his death Horrors +
are 4 part of life The horrors OF war
are not the worst
Life IS war and war must have its
horrors; but it has also its c0Tpensa-
tons can not hear with patience Z
Ianentati0u over our war with Spain +
To me it appears an unmixed blessing
our cause was just. our sword was |
bathed in heaven, our motives were /
righteous. Why did the north attack (
the south. seeking. as IT said, TO with ,
D62CGaD bly, from the union Nc
doubt various emotions. holy and IN (
holy, lofty ard low generous and selfish, (
Christian and un-67hristian. were 10 be-
found in the millions Of hearts engaged
in that awful struggle. But back Of all Z
and over all and through all, the great 2
and real motive, the motive which real J.
" preciDftated the conflict and worked +
out the 1nal result. was the good Old .
-Anglo-SaxOn love Of liberty and hatred
of slavery This was the real motive +
With some IL was conscious with some +
only haIf-eonscfous, wfsn others wholly ]
unconscious perhaps bur Still that was +
the real supreme motive. and 50 we (
Justly call it the war to abolish slavery &
and q holy war. So with the war +
against Spain It was also a holy war. I
Mixture OF motives there no doubt was
If all the thoughts and feelings ard i'm +
pulses which actuated u-f all the 4
thoughts and feelings which stirred the Z
hearts OF president and cabinet. of sen E
ate and house, of army and navy. Of Z
editor and orator, OF all the agents by I
whom the will of the people is aseer- I
LaLL=1 ana EAGf4EGL-lE. say all these
feelings and thoughts and impulses (
could be gathered IN 4 great erucible I
and subject 10 some sort of divine F
analysis. much that was evil and I'M Z
Christian would be fOurd. But the +
great final cause Of the war with Spain .
would be found by that test to be pure +
g0Id-wOuId be found to be not revenue
for the loss Of the Maine not love OF +
military glory, nor desire for more terri
tory not protection of our own COM +
ruerciaI futerests-bIIt hatred for tyran- +
~ 7r1e1r nv ~
oppressed race noble Christian SYM <
pathy for the starving and butchered Z
Cuban people.
The war 1 regard as a blessing. not 4
only because II was Just war. not only +
because il was. Ike the civil war a
great triumph Of the love of humanity
over the love Of ease and the love Of
money; not only because it Is TO Hberate
the Islands Of the Atlantic and Pacific
from centuries Of cruel oppression and
rnisruIe and bring to them freedom. en-
Hghteumeut and security. and all the
blessings Of good government; not
only because Of the specific
ends achieved by the army and
navy. but because Of the very process 3
by which those ends are achieved be- +
cause Of the incidents and trEumphs the .
great harvest of HeroisE1. the revelation .
OF TnagnanimIty and seIf-sacrifce, the Z
pictures and ideals which have been +
painted into our history and craven on 7
the hearts and characters Of every one T
Of Us. The war has put meaning into .
the word patriotism it has shown {
Us something Of our real wealth; like
the rising Of the sun. II drove away the
n1ists and unveiled our heroes. Dewey
and HobsOa and Clark and Philip and
Wheeler and Roosevelt the rough rid
ers the black regulars. the Twentieth
Kansas. and a certain son of Ohio and
Kansas, who took Up arms in the name
Of humanity two years before the ma
ton moved at all, and who will be
known IN history not as much as the
hero of Manila as the Lafayette of the
Cuban eauSe-COIOueK Frederick Fun /
ston.
These heroes that we can name and
hundreds Of others we can not name.
T Chance determines fame The sun rfs-
ing over the waves makes priSr1S Of
such drops as happen to be in the right
place at the right time If It Spanish /
bullet had driven half inch lower. +
Funston would have been buried in Z
Cuba in an unknown grave. and few
would ever have heard hrs name. But .
he would have been the same natchIess &
undauuted fighter notwf thstaudiug- It I
was oy chance TnaE Dewey held com {
r1and Of the eastern squadron when the .
opportunity came You and had never
heard OF him StiII. the compare lively .
unknown commodore, who auxI3usIy
paced his deck on Saturday night, Al rfI
80. 1898 the same man whose .
achievements by Sunday night had be-
come the wonder of the civilized world {
A great harvest Of heroes. known and F
unknown And we needed thenaf Virtue I
IS not taught by lectures, but by ex- I
ample.
I have many good. wise friends who T
lament what they term 4 return TO 4
rafIitarisn1- They depIore the spirit I
which the war has aroused n the /
American people They term it lust !
Of blood. Of power. Of C0nguHSF-fFre 3
spirit of the savage aroused once more
within Us It seems otherwise to me.
For more than q year now my heart I
has been Ieapfng and my nerves thrill I
frs- and tfngIfng with the story Of the f
r-.r%