Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-04-25
HE WROTE "THE4 MAN WITHOUT
A COUNTRY"

!. Chicago Inter Ocean. Edward Ever
EFT Hale celebrated on Sunday his
eighty-fifth birthday, with the good
wishes of a Cost of personal friends
and of the whole American people.
From serene old age he looks back
upon a life prolonged far beyond the
usual span and filled with useful ac-
tlvities.
In his length of days Edward Ever
EFT Hale has played many parts, and
all Of them creditably. He likes best
to think, perhaps. If we may Judge
from what he talked about to the
Washington newspapers when they
sent to take note of his birthday of
the idea which he sent forth to the
world out Of which grew his Kings
Daughters and the Christian Endeavor
and similar societies for organized So
cial service.
But to have impressed that idea up
on the public consciousness and to
have made it effective for good is not
Edward Everett Hale's greatest
achievement, nor would it have sufficed
to make his name immortal In the
memories of man. The blow ne struck
that made his fame more enduring
than bronze and loftier than kingly
pyramids was given when he wrote,
THE Man Without Country
Conceived in the great battle sum-
mer of 1868, when the nations life
hung trembling in the balance-writ
ten as a table for the times to show
men what tneir country meant and
should be to them by picturing the life
and death of man without a country
it became one of those products of
genius which justify belief in divine
inspiration and tale for all times and
all peoples worthy of the name be-
cause they have country Of their
own.
To quote from SO familiar a book,
which should be read not only by ey.
ler1 child but by every American at
least once a year, may seem superfiu.
ous Yet because many Of us forget
sometimes what our country is and
how we belong to her and should stand
| toward her, the paragraph is here
transcribed in which the lesson Of the
whole tale Is condensed and its Vita
| thought embodied:
t"And for your country, boy and for
that flag, never dream a dream but OF
serving her as she bids you, though
the service carry you through thou.
sand bells. No matter what happens
to you, no matter who fatters you or
who abuses you, never look at another
flag, never let night pass but you
pray God to bless that flag. Remem-
Der, boy, that behind all these men
you have to do with, behind officers,
and government, and people even
there is the country herself, your coun.
| try, and that you belong to her as you
belong to your own mother. Stand by
her boy, as you would stand by your
mother, ii those devils there had got
hold Of her today"
Here is the immortal thought, the in.
evitabIe word. that make the name and
fame of it's speaker to endure SO long
as men are men. The poet of ancient
Rome in the height Of her glory
thought himself bold when he prophe
sled that his fame would endure sc
long as the pontiff climbs the Cap
itoline hill! beside the silent virgin
For more than fifteen centuries no pom
tiff has sc climbed and yet the fame
of the poet endures, for he sang that
which all men who have country
hear gladly.
And so will endure the fame OF the
venerable American, most poet an6
most prophet wnen he knew it not
4 who wrote 1.-THE Man Without a Coun
try, and so stamped upon the human
mind universal clear conception Of
what every mans country is to him
and what he should be to her.