The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-12-17


and destroy the impulse to free action,
we should be another China in thou-
| sand years: for there is no vital force in
| Christianity which will save it from the
corruption it has suffered in countries
where this has happened
An Enquiry Into American Patriotic
Degrneracy. as Illustrated in the
Case of the Hon. John Hay.
1t i. both painful and pathetic that we
must axe as the illustration of tend
ency 10 Standardization. which nearly
all men have marked among certain in
diriduals of native extraction, one who in
early life was exposed TO the noble and
patriotic influence which radiated from
the glorious personalis. of Abraham Lin
coin. Who would expect the barefooted,
freckled farm boy who did chores and read
law in the little country law Office of that
great man TO develop into an aristocrat,
or the nearest possible approach to one,
and, from being the most breezy of Ameri-
can dialect writer's; breathing the very
spirit of the Western prairie and cross
roads grocery; to blossom into red. RED
British rose and more of royalist than
the Queen?
We select Mr.. Hay for purposes of ex-
ample and comparison, not because he
differs essentially from others OF cur re-
Gently evolved Anglophile class. but be-
cause, on account of his former associa-
ton with the Martyr President one of
whose secretaries and biographers he
was. his case appears the more unusual
and startling. II a man brought up from
boyhood in such company can lose and
forget the robust Americanism that must
have been inculcated in his youth, what
may not be expected of others, less for
tunate, who never have had set before
them any but the standards and models
of a soiled and decadent Old World So
ciety?
1t must be admitted that there was a
period in the public career of our subject
which viii never be lost to sight as its i
chief Tedeeming feature. This was during
the years when the impressions Of the |
West, with its simple and rough life on
farm and river were yet fresh, and when
the lawyers boy had grown into the pri-
rate secretary. the newspaper writer. and |
the bard of Pike County. We can hardly
recognize in the severe and exclusive |
British statesman Of the century's end, |
the brilliant native songbird who burst |
upon the public of It's third quarter like a !
gorgeous Occidental sunfower! Those |
were the golden hours of Mr.. Hays life
and Intellectual activity. Nothing then
was more noticeable than the thrilling
pioneer sort, which has made the great
West what il is, and which everywhere
projected from his charming lyrics His
range was wide and his selection of
themes apparently erratic sometimes, but
everything he wrote waited to his vast
audience the refreshing aroma of the
honest American barnyard, and the Mis-
sissippi steamboats, texas" deck.
The courtly diplomat who now would
shudder at an expression coarser than a
to be permitted to renew u.s.
surances Of the most distinguished con-
once upon time couched his
burning thoughts In much more vigorous
In his able state papers.
which are works of art OF their kind, we
look in vain for that djreciness and IN
meaning of which his beauti-
ful poem, Sergeant Tiliman Joy" is so
redolent. II is the story of civil war
veteran whose life has been saved in bat
lie by faithful and attached colored
brother the latter being with the former
-r,.s ,bar 4
vigilance committee has passed resolu-
ions authorizing the absence of the negro
rom the locality. An engrossed copy of
he protocol is served upon the ex-ser-
,eant, who thus addresses the ENJOYS
bringing 1t:
You can resoloot ill tho COWS come home;
But, Ct anyone techcs the boy.
He'll rastlc his hash in hell tonight
Or my names rot Tilman JOY"
How much more contcnted and safe the
ountry would feel today If there were
vidences that any OF that old ginger of
;ehenna still lurked in the blood of the
low super polished Piker. A very little
hange in the stapZa above quoted would
reduce paraphrase well adapted 70 the
urposes OF an answer to Great Britain
I that power were to say that we must
OF build an inter-oceanic canal unless it
e one controlled by her! Alas, courts
nd sight OF teweled orders. of Stars and
'artcrs. and all the pomp and circum-
tances OF royal functions and princely
have substituted for that clear
alive note, a plaintive wall of nostalgia
xcited by the rerest thought of dear
tudent. stenographer, and historian is v