The Newtown bee., 1900-04-20

the time it was disbs nded it never found, either in the British Isles or on the con- tinent, an enemy that could stand the onset.
 In 1775 little company of Massachu- setts farmers, fearless in the cause of right, single-hsnded to fight the whole British empire and actually open ed the War of the Revolution. They did not scare bit and the professional Eng lish soldiers were glad to run for their lives and seek safety behind their ships.
 No wonder Patrick Henry, with elo- quence that has never yet been equalled, could arouse the world as he told the thrilling story of his brethren already in the field.
 Never was more devoted or wiser band of patriots than that which com posed the congress of '76. They were environed with difficulty which would have utterly discouraged men of weaker head or fainter hearts; they were with out any power but to recommend; they had an exhausted army to recruit amid 8 discouraged people, and powerful .and triumphant foe and all this not merely without money, but also without credit i; for the bills which they had formerly is- sued had greatly depreciated, and were daily depreciating; yet amidst all these discouragements, they pursued their course of patriotic exertion, hopeful and undismayed.
 How the one central 1gure-around which revolves the dial of events accom- panyiHg that period grows brighter as we recede from it. Washington showed how we'll he deserved the confidence re- posed in him. by making every exertion to increase his army. His troops were unfed amid fatigue; unshod, while their bleeding feet were forced rapidly over the sharp projections of frozen ground |; and they endured the keen wintry air al- most without clothes or tents. In such 8 situation the wonder is not that many died and many deserted, but that enough remained to keep up the show of opposi- I tion. In this distressing situation Wash l ington manifested to his troops all the f1rmness of the commander, while he showed all the tenderness of the father. He visited the sick, paid every attention l in his power to the wants of the army, praised their constancY represented their ! sufferings to congress, and encouraged their despairing minds by holding out the prospect of 8 better future; while the se- rene and benignant countenance with which he carried his aching heart made them believe that their beloved commsn- der was himself animated with the pros poets which be portrayed to them. An old man went down to Harper'a Ferry in 1859, to correct what he thought a grievous wrong. He raised his single arm to strike the letters from the limbs of his dusky brethren. He def1ed great state and great nation. He could not see how printing wrong in law book could change it into right. They took the old man prisoner, wounded, bleeding, dying. They hurried on his tris lest he should die before they had frightened him by the pomp and circumstance of glorious war. Then made grand mili- tary show, they hung him on the gallows, they buried his body in tbe ground, and published far and wide that John Brown was dead. A universal shout of death fioated on the breezo. "Let the madmar die," came fom every hamlet in the land
 Even Pity shut her eyes and left him to his fate. But far above the tumult and the strife rang fierce and proud tbe spir. it voice they could not kill. Solitary alone, he still defied the power of man and all that all could do. He sought nt mercy; he shed no tears. Fearless, grin and grand. he stood upon his manhood
 face to face he met them all, and 1ef
 that field of conflict hero evermore
 They could not reach his soul, they orly
 set 1t free.
 ! Some years later, in that very place
 when the earth trembled beneath tn,
 tramp of armed men, and death shotl falling thick and fast from hundred angry cannon, from five thousand voice
 rang nut the fearful cry, "John Brown' , body lies amou'derin9 in tse grave, bu
 his soul goes marching on.''
 sl And once more we hear the question . Can the arm of man ever harm the hu ) man soul?
 , The ten years' debate on the subject Q