Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1901-05-30

4
with sixteen supporters body of
i've hundred well armed men. as did
his soldier-saint by Swans Marsh
stream Yet
With vain plea for mercy no stout knee
was crooked.
In the mouths Of the rifles right manly
they looked.
| How paled the May sunshine Marais
du Cygnel
on death for the strong life. IN red
grass for green.
Not in vain on the dial the shade moves
To point the great contrasts 81 right
and Of wrong;
Free homes and. free affairs. free prairie
Sing the reeds Of the swans marsh,
whose bloom Is Of blood
Who but an enthusiast would venture
TO invade Virginia with but twenty
three men, and to attack an institu-
ton made as strong as Gibraltar by
the teachings of generations, the Gus
toms of society and the investments
Of wealth? Who but one impressed
with the idea that he was immune
from the bullet and able therefore, TO
say: Not less than thirty guns
have been discharged at me, but they
only touched my hair. A man dies
when his time comes, and he who
fears is born out Of time
The enthusiasm OF Brown was en-
couraged only by epithet and execu-
ton. Men were swift to say that the
crusader was crazy. They mar ked
him as mailman and maligned him
as murderer. They cut him in
in church and snubbed him in society.
and at last led him forth to martyr
dom. But so it has been in all the
ages. Politicians and preachers pun
ish the person who dares to differ or
who fails TO follow. 1t is the fate of
prophets to be stoned. Bricks and
boycotts, eggs and epithets, swords
and scaffolds, stones and spittle have
always been the arguments of weak
ness and wickedness against advance
ment. Nothing Is so hated by evil,
as enthusiasm. Nothing is so scotfed
at BY sin as singularity. If you would
win the Stewards of Rome, do as Rome
does. If you would have the smiles
of society, stand where society stands.
II ,ou would have the care OF the
church, worship as it worships Be
one of the peas in pod, one OF the
marbles in a bag, one of the bricks in
wall and you will have the fulsome
fattery of fools for one brief day.
Dare to step out of the world S beaten
path, dare to evidence some enthusi-
asm and men will begin to call names,
make faces, hang effigies and build
scaffolds. But in so doing they blow
for you the trumpet of fame for the
future, and build a monument to your
memory for the after ages. Paul
exhorted with enthusiasm and
preached with power His was the
utter abandon that could say:
'.Neither count | my life dear unto
myself" And the only reply of the
rebuked ruler was: ''Much learning
hath made thee mad. That expo
nent of enthusiasm was rewarded by
religionists and rulers with stripes.
Imprisonment and death. But he
has the ecomiums of earth and high
honors of Heaven. Columbus was
pursued by passion. He said that
the earth was flat He proposed to
prove his theory by sailing the seas.
A scientific council called him crazy,
an ecclesiastical court condemned
him as inpious. The very children
on the streets pointed their fingers at
their heads as they passed him by and
murmured "Madman!n He was in
suited and imprisoned, and passed
through privation and poverty, but
all lands are today luminous with the
light of his life, all ages shine with
the story of his sacrifice.
Calico was an eccentric enthusiast.
He assailed authority. He spurned
sages of science and deied doctors Of
divinity He had the audaclty to ar
que against Aristotle! He had the
temerity to tell that the earth moved.
Hear him exclaim Il will indulge in
my sacred fury. The die is cast; the
book is written--to be read either
now or by posterity, care not which.
1t may well wait a century for a
reader, since God has waited six
thousand years for an observer. .
Priest and philosopher declared him
to be demented In no other way
could they explain his enthusiasm, by
no argument could they answer his
assertions. He was imprisoned by
the Inquisltion, threatened by that
tribunal with torture, and required
to recant. He died in prison without
the right Of burial in consecrated
ground, and was laid to rest without
a monument to mark the spot where