The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-10-19
"MARCHING ON

"MARCHING ON"
Julia Ward Howe is dead, aged about ninety
years. For half a century this woman OF ex-
treme medioerity has enjoyed tactitlous tame
resulting from the times in which she nrst gam
ed the public eye. That. as aboltlonast, she
was u zeast is 10 BIZ freely admitted that she
was scarcely anything more candid history
viii hardly admit. She had sort Of genius
for the passionate expression of conventional
and sectional conviction. With her fame she
gained an authority which she learned TO use
not inexperly III the days OF her activity, aud
moi ungraclousll when the time came for her to
pose as q Grand Old Woman She accom-
piished quite deal for herself and III an lntlu-
ence which the peculiar fortunes of her life per
mitted her TO yield. She published much that is
forgotten. and gave much staid advice that was
never needed. She was remarkably vir,le and
tenacious Of life. and her passing 1t marks
another broken link with dead era will arouse
much comment, both generous and foolish.
Mrs. Howe's tame rests chiefly upon her pro-
duciion Of the 'Battlel Hymn of the Republic"
peculiar arrangement of frequently idiotc and
sometimes sacrihgous words which in the sixties,
1 took the North BY storm The poem itself was
worse than common place. Barring Il certain
4 swing inseparable from the old meter in which
ii is carried there little IN II her of sense
or symbolism. Il was published at the "pvscho-
logical moment when all the psychology in
sight was that OF people trenzied with sort OF
B religio-poltical fanaticism and looking through
1 bloodshot eyes Of hate. Ii admirably expressed
the sentiment responsible for this phenomenon,
and it has survived, invested with curious and
\ unreasoning sacredness. Many an unknown
Jingler has gone not half the distance and done
far better
Mine eyes hare seen The glory Of the
coming Of the Lord;
He ~ tranepling out the a1ntaqe
mhere the grapes of mroth are stored
lie hath loosed the fatefM lightning
Of has terrible smift s,pord:
Has truth IS marching on
hare read fiery gospel ocrit in
FURNISHED roees Of steet:
As ye deal arih my contemners, so
Nth you my grace shall deal:
Let the Hero. born Of ,eomnf4 crush
The serpent mith has heel,
Since God IS marching on"
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was
BORN across the sea,
tt 18th a glory an has bosom That trans
figures go,t and me:
As he died TO make men holy, lei as
die to make men free
Wide God as marching on.
Is there anything extant of quite equal ex-
altation Of spirit and prostitution Of intellect
In the mixed figures, in the sacrligious compar
ls0ns, do you know of anything quite as actually
Grass and devoutly serious as all this muddle OF
the Deity and the G. A. r. Yet it went 1t
y went ike wildfre. They sang it in the camps
and the march. They carried it through
4 Georgia and charged with it in the Wilderness
They died with il, in blissful ignorance of what
n al meant--if, indeed if ever could have
meant anything. With it Julia Ward Howe
sprsng into country wide fame, as the poor
/ and illIterate boys from the New England and
the Middle West farms lived with it and gave
mp their lives for it by reason of It's simple ill
and its meaningless babble of high-fown sylla-
bles. What a commentary on the times is this
I S0ng which even scholars have not had the cour.
age 10 declare otherwise than great and which
ignorant armies marched by to destruction, hold
ing it inspired
We wonder If IN the quiet years of her old age
sNIuna ward Howe ever thought with what ease
u her incoherent transport had been converted to
4 the ends Of slaughter. No doubt she was spared
tho reflection, for in all probability she, also,
q considered that in pennng the Battle Fl v1nn she
bad caught a measure of that Divinity with
whose aims and purpose her fanatcal concet
IBID 60 intimate an acquaintance.
WISE YOUNG CLERKS.
X News that Collector Loeb has smashed the ef-
1oFts OF the customs employees to exert all active
Y in6uence in the campaign for the election of