The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1899-07-03
WAR AND HEROES.
A School Roy's Address on an In
tcrestin9 Subject,

fcreSttnD Subject.
The following graduating Grafton by
Hugh Wynne Longmoor was delivered
ut closing exc ,cises OF the Rockdale pub
lie school on juno p
Sages. statesmen and scholars, religion
lists, royalists and republicans, democrats,
Dagoes and Dutchmen, philanthropists.
philosophers and populists, have all had
their innings on the subject of grim Wis
aged war and l now claim the right OF a
plain, ordinary school boy to be heard
The subject peculiarly addresses Itself
to my mind owing TO recent events as
most appropriate, and particularly on ac-
count OF the wide range of thought appar-
ent in the minds of public men. There are
those who stNr ~ the flag, be II right or
wrong, those who question or deny any
and all Justification for war, and others
who have even gone to the length of en-
couraging mutlny among our volunteer
troops in the hope that war might be ter
minated thereby, Not so with the school
boy. The lessons Of history fresh in his
mind, teaching of the arts of war and
peace, and the stages OF the worlds prog
ress marked by the alternate eras of those
two conditions, convince him that no
human civilization can elevate his race
To a sphere where the war cry can be
is but the antithesis OF war and the one
without the other would be as a word or
term. "as idle as a painted ship upon a
painted ocean"
AS virtue would lose It's luster were vice
no longer extanl with which to he con-
trasted, SO peace would lose all charms
were wars no longer actualities. These
are minor arguments with n school boy,
however. Hero worship begins with him
and his highest admiration Is excited By
one who eycels In anything, be II baseball,
pugillsm inventive genius, or money max
ing; hut the acme Of heroes Is reached only
when great soldier or sailor becomes the
theme of his contemplation. That part OF
the Bible which recounts the wars OF an
cient times is the most interesting part
of the book to him. and the names Of later
military characters are easier for him TO
remember than anything in mathcnatiGs
or physics.
The school boy is essentially patriot
In the broadcast sense of the term, per-
haps partisan would better express 1t. He
nay have scraps of his own at home. but
he viii join forces with a home crowd
against that of any other place. Fills ma
tive State is beyond comparison with any
other. and his country the greatest. braYest
and dearest on the fsotstooI of the AL
mighty. To the American school hoy
Washington towers away and above all
rivals, not so much on account OF the
berry tree incident and purity OF char
acter as his masterful genius In oyercom-
ing mighty foe and planting forever the
flag of the free. Peace may have It's VIC
tories of not less renown than those OF
war, but In candor the school boy fails
In recognize them. The names OF Robert
Fulton, Benjamin Franklin, Morse ana
Edison are all familiar enough TO him and
he claims a sort OF reflected glory Tor hlm-
self by virtue of Americanisn.
But the names OF Washington. Perry and
Decatur. the heroes of the civil war, and
the magic name Of Dewey carry with them
sentiments which far outshine the bright
est galaxy known TO peace Hence the
school boy Is persuaded that the dark
pictures drawn OF distress and desolation.
cruelty and hardship as characteristics oil
war, represent truthful view, perhaps,
but only one side OF THE canvas, On the
other side appear the hopes and ambitions
of men and nations, the struggle for place
name and fame in history. and the eras
which mark the most fateful and startling
changes In the progress Of the world. Time
may teach the school boy he is wrong
but history never Will.
The debt Of humanity for its progress
seems equally poised between peace and
war and in the scale OF events revealed
TO us one has seemed to be necessary to
counterbalance the other. Even individual
life Is likened to warlike campaign In
which there are foes to meet, pitfalls and
ambuscades to avoid temptations, trials
and sorrows to be encountered and all to
end with the grave,
The MONUMENTS OF peace abound,
Based on results OF wars,
And wars sad tears and grlefs are crowned
With diadems and stars;
And many war our race must know,