The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-05-22

heroic act when the time does come. You
all remember. comrades, II is barely pos
sible some of you remember being the man,
who, when you enlisted, had a theory that
there was nothing but splendor and fight
ing and bloodshed in the war, and then had
the experience at once of learning that the
first thing you had to do was to perform
commonplace duties and perform them
well. / remember one time in my regiment
a young fellow who had come down to
fight for his country complaining that he
had been doing nothing but digging kitchen
sinks, 10 which the answer was obvious
that he was 10 go on digging kitchen sinks.
And the work of any man in the cam
paign depended upon the resolution and
effective intelligence with which he started
about doing each duty as it arose; not
that he thought sufficiently spectacular
10 do; doing the duty that came to hand.
That is exactly the lesson that all of us
need to learn in times of peace. 1t is not
merely a great thing, but an indispensable
thing that the Nations citizens should be
ready and willing TO do for Ii at time OF
need and no preference for that other quail
ity could atone for the lack for such read
mess to lay down life if the Nation calls.
But in addition TO dying for the Nation,
you have got to be willing and anxious TO
live for the Nation. or the Nation will be
badly off. If you want TO do your duty
when the time comes for you TO die the
Nation will be deprived Of valuable services
during your lives.
GOOD CITIZENSHIP.
all seriousness. 1 never see a gathering
of this kind; 1 never see a gathering under
the auspices of any of the societies which
are organized to commemorate the valor
and patriotism of the founders of this Ma
ton; never see gathering composed of
the men ready to have volunteered in time
of war or who fought in the great civil
war, or in any of the lesser contests in
which this country has been engaged, with
out feeling the anxiety to make such
gathering realize. feel, each in his or her
heart, the all-importance of doing the ordi-
nary, commonplace duties of each day as
those duties arise. Some of the effect on
the day of battle is to be found In the ag-
gregate of the individual performances of
duty during the long months that have
preceded the day of battle. and the way IN
which a ia ton will arise to a great crisis
is conditioned upon the way in which its
citizens have habituated themselves to act
in the ordinary affairs of the national life.
You cannot expect that much will be done
in the supreme hour Of peril by soldiers
who have not fitted themselves 10 meet the
need when need comes, and you cannot ex-
pect the highest type or citizenship TO be
shown in the periods when it is needed if
that citizenship has not been trained by
the faithful performance Of ordinary duty.
What we need most in this Republic is not
special genius, is not unusual briliancy
but the honest and upright adherence on
the part of the mass of the citizens and
Of their representatives TO the fundamental
laws of private and public morality which
are now what they have been during re-
corded history and we shall stand or fall
in making this Republic what 1t should be
made. l will go a little further than that
what it shall and must be made according
TO the manner in which we seriously and
resolutely set ourselves TO do the task of
citizenship. which consists of doing the
duties. private and public. which in the ag-
gregate make il up GGreat applause.1
AS soon as the President had concluded
the band struck up THE Star-spangled
Banner the audience joining in. Bene-
dictiOn was said by Bishop Saterlee and
Nearer. my God, 10 Thee was rendered
silence taps" was sounded and the serv-
ices were over.