The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-01-26
LOYAL SCOTS MEET
TO CELEBRATE
CONTINUED from page IL

much better than can, in one Of his
poems.
What's a your jargon of your schools
Your Latin names for hours and stools
If honest nature made you foolsr
What sairs your grammars2
You'd better ta'en up spades and shoots
Or knappin hammers.
A set of dull conceited hashes,
Confuse their brains in college classes.
They gang in stirks and come out asses
Plain truth 10 speak
An syne they think to climb Parnassus.
BY dint o Greek.
Gle me a spark o. natures fire.
That's a the learning l desire
Then tho I drudge thro' dub and mire
At plough OF cart
Ny muse, tho namely in attire
May touch the heart.
1t is true indeed that human nature
is always the same. Truer still when
that nature is limited in meaning 10 ID
race. So it is that even today, though
the persona ges are long since dead, We
recognize in Burns characters, our
friends or our foes, according TO the
circumstances. and the spark Of ma
lures fires touches our hearts.
TO enter into the private life of Burns,
but I can not pass the subject without
remarking that he was the subject of
much unjust and undeserved calumny.
/ will not argue much upon the sub
ject If, after am through, there should
be any difference OF opinion let it be a
Scottish difference
suppose you know what a Scottish
difference is-if you can not 1 can
best illustrate by d little auecdote.
A gentleman was once riding through
a back road in Scotland when he saw
a man and a woman engaged in a lively
scunle-the man was pulling her by
the hair and she was leaving her trade
mark on his face with her finger nails.
On riding UP 10 them he exclaimed,
What is the matter? What are You
quarreling about" Just difference OF
opinion said the woman. ut is no
difference of opinion at a. denied the
man; Il have hauf Groom in ma pooch
and ma wife here thinks she's going to
get main Of it. And she's nght-she
amt
However much be said against Rob
ert Burns we must attribute TO him the.
qualities that exist in his poems. infus-
ing into them the breath of living pug
pose. purpose that awakes in the
reader the same sentiments and feelings
as caused their expression
And these qualities-what are they
Foremost of them all. is love for his
fellow-nan, secondly patriotism, third
~ a fearless pen in the cause of right.
fourthly, a burning contempt for
sharns in religion or social ethics. fifth
IL a vivid realization of the joys and
sorrovs of love, and lastly. a keen
sense Of pathos and humor. Burns pos
sessed all these qualities in a marked
degree, but he possessed that other
/ have already mentioned. which re-
serves for him an imperishable shrine
in the hearts and thoughts of his coun-
trymen, he had the genius of expression
in the Scottish tongue, simple and
homely in words, but eloquent and APP
pealing in their combination.
1 have not time, this evening, to give
you examples of all the qualities have
mentioned, there are others here whose
purpose is to do So "A few that show
his spirit must suffice
He had the true gift of the bucolic
poet, where others saw but bridge
or q river, a mouse or a flower, Burns
saw an art picture. or subject for
song or poem.
His patriotism was for his native
land and its beauties as well as for the
Scottish people as a race No finer
word picture exists than the following:
Poetic ardors in my bosom swell
Lone, wand ring by the hermit's cell.
The sweeping theatre OF hanging woods
The incessant roar of headlong tum-
bling floods.
Here poesy might wake her heav'n
taught Tyre
And look thro' nature with creative
fire,
Here to the wrongs of fate. half recon
ciIed,
Misfortune's nghtened steps might
wander wild,
And disappointment in these lonely
bounds
Find balm to soothe her bitter ranking
wounds,
Here heart struck grief, might heyen-
ward stretch her scan
And injured worth forget and pardon
man.
Perhaps one other illustration of his
poetic genius viii suffice. His burning
contempt for shams, called forth many
an invective against the hypocrite in
religion.
But I gaze mad at their grimaces
Their sighin', cantin', graceproud faces.
Their three mile prayers, and hauf
mile graces,
Their vaxin conscience
Whose greed, revenge, and pride dis
graces
Waur than their nonsense.
They TAX religion in their mouth,
They talk o mercy, grace and truth
For what TO gle their malice skouth,
On some pair wight,
ruth
To ruin straight
Then iIka lad his cassie I'LL
Without a thought of draught or pill.
For Eaornin' headache, strive until,
His task he lerns
To drink this toast with right good win
To Robert Burns.
THE PRESIDENT.