The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-07-07
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WYE ARE AS capricious and vola-
wv tile as the French. Two years
ago this Fourth of July we
were mad with joy over Santiago.
This week we have forgotten that
Santiago's victory ever happened to
make our national holiday more glcri-
Gus. The name of Roosevelt continues
to arouse enthusiasm for political pur-
poses only, but most of us who have
not thoroughly understood the subject
fanCied that he wasn't much of gov
ernor; that he was playing to the GAL
leries and that it was time we had a
new hero, anyway.
If we devote q little time to study
ing the matter, we shall discover that
Teddy is the stuff they make real
heroes of and that if we only don't en-
dow him with all the qualities which
the gods of Olympus We're supposed to
possess-qualities, by the way, which
Teddy would object to marking as his
own-and expect him to live up to
these visionary plans and specifica-
tiOns of ours, he will probably turn
out to be the most satisfactory live
time. Fortunately for his prospects
and our vanity he doesn't intend to be
spoiled, and, then too he has sensi-
BILE wife, which goes long way in his
favor and will help us from suffering
considerable modification.
Last September we acted like a ma
tion of daft people over Dewey. The
things we We're willing to do for him
would have turned the head of a mar
bic statue on a PEDESTAL Perhaps it
turned his little. More likely it made
the simple e-nearted, kind old sailor be-
lieve we meant il all. He didn't realize
that the splendid, glittering pedestal
we had built for him out OF our S"-
thusiasm and admiration was rather
like the arcn we also built for him
and whose beauty was only on the
surface for the parade day, and that
afterward we should be content to see
it swiftly crumble, its ruin hastened
by the vandalism of the mob.
The rapid disintegratlon of that
magnificent arch, with its noble pill
Jared avenues, with it's lovely statues
and white splendor of height, was most
enthusiasm which eliminated in the
disgraceful revulsion of feeling toward
our hero when he gave his house away
to the wife he adored. To be sure, she
is the type of what a herOs wife
should not be, but that was no excuse
for the hasty change of sentiment. He
was our only really great hero. He was
greater than circumstance, greater
| than chance, which sometimes makes
heroes, but we were just as willing to
pull him down from his proud eminence
as we were to hoist him thereon.
Dewey was a manly, unassuming,
| modest parsonage. He would have been
| more than satisfied with far less adu-
lation than We lavished upon him, but
| once his, it was only natural that he
| should think we meant 1t.
How horrid it was. just for all the
world like hateful, spitcful cat, which
| scratches fiercely after scarcely leav-
ing off purring. Why shouldn't that
| frank sailorher believe that the paO.
pie would applaud him for anything
| he might do? What a pity that VIC
We're in such haste to drag him down
| to the chariot wheels of our vanity
and self-righteousness of judgment.
The only recipe for preserving q hero
| in this country is to put him into q
| tomb. Otherwise, if he is a naval hero
| he should be kept out at sea and never
under any circumstances, be permitted
| to come ashore.
| To have a hero within close range
Is to lose him. He must be far enough
| away that his human frailties are in
| visible. His virtues, his victories, will
be enhanced by the distance. A pedes.
tai is invariably a slippery perch, and
for a human being to cling to it is tc
attempt an almost impossible task
particularly when all the world, like
a multitude of rabbits, is burrowing a.
its base.
China is a long way off and few o.
us have near and dear ones din that
far heather country, where those o.
our own race have probably suffered
death in its most horrible form. We
read the dispatches and shudder a lit
tie IS we say, How perfectly terri
ble!" and then straightaway I'VE try
to forget it all and think of sOmethins
pleasant like golf or a summer trip
For us 1t Is not true that the butch
cry is taking place, for we refuse t
think of it or see it in imagination
Yet because we shut our eyes to tn
awful spectacle does not prove it's non
existence. This system, recommends,
by the tenets of a certain faith, tina
we must not eXpend sympathy on tn,
sufferings of others since suffering doe
not really exist is a sort of eXcus
for selfishness. We are much NOR
comfortable when we do not allow ou
eyes to rest upon sorrowful scenes o
our ears to hear the Wailing of grief
The method surely does not add to tn
happiness OF the world, in that If w
allow ourselves to weep for others wo
we thus increase the sum total O
misery by our tears. Perhaps, too, ou
grief can give neither solace nor sat
isfaction to the afflicted. 1t is true n
sigh of ours can aid the white victim
of fanaticism i'm China, so why max
ourselves wretched? The theor
sounds all right but to cut off tn
well springs of natural sympathy I
to destroy much of the subtle under
currents of life that make 1t wort
living.
We who are endowed with lgrea
capacity for both Joy and sorro,