The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-10-21

victories of Cape st. Vincent, Cam.
perdown and the Nile, we're almost
contemporaneous with the great mutt
MES at the More and Spithead. OF
course every ship was not float
ing hell There we're then as now
happy and unhappy ships, but it is
safe to say that the sailors of that
period, not only in the British navy
but throughout the world, had more
of hardship and cruelty in their lives
than any other class of men. 1t is no
mere figure of speech to say that the
wealth and liberties of the English
speaking peoples are built upon a
foundation that is cemented with the
blood and tears of the sailor men. To
quote John Mansfield (himself a
sailor:
Our Debt to the Sailor Men.
IF it be the lot of the dead to pass
unviewed along the streets of cities
or by the country hedgerows, con-
scious of the life about them, there
is, surely, a prospective triumph for
the beaten and the broken folk whose
blood and agony have made easy, If
indirectly, the passage of later pill
grims. Could the countless sufferers,
the great despisers,' who have 50
many miseries that we, their de-
scendants, might pass gaudy and com
Portable days-could they but know
how golden a thing their misery has
purchased, the memory of the old tor
ture and the old injustice would be
soothing and gentle like a charity. In
those years there were thousands
upon thousands, of sailors, wandering
over many seas, in countless ships,
standing their watches, doing the
days work. breaking their hearts and
dying young, not because they liked
it, not because they hoped for glory,
but because much suffering had to be
endured before man could learn to in
flict less suffering on his fellows. We
sit here quietly today, in that Lon
don which, as Nelson said, exists by
victories at sea, Our great ships go
thrashing hither and yon, turbulent
and terrible, like islands of living
iron. Here are the worlds merchants,
richer than those of Tyre whose pur-
pie clothed the kings of the world,
Yet there is no merchant telling over
gold in his contingencies, no man
of-war s-man standing his watch at
sea, who does not owe his gold, or his
rights, to the men who lived wretch
ed days long ago, aboard the old
wooden battleships, under martinets.'
III order that we might live as We
do, what misery, what blood and
tears fell to the portions of those who
went before making straight the
paths! For every quiet hour here, for
every merry day at sea, what heca-
tombs were necessary. In order that
our days might be pleasant, those
thousands of long dead sailors had
to live and suffer. They passed rough
days, living hard, working hard, and
dying hard. In order that we might
live in peace at home they were
dragged, with blows and curses from
their homes. In order that We might
walk erect among men, they cringed
before tyrants and lost their man
hood at the gangway. In order that
we might live upon the luXuries Of tn.
world, brought from the East and the
West, things of great cost, wines, and
spices they were content, those
great despisers, to eat salt junk
and drink sinking water. They pass
ed, those mighty ones, in the black
ness of the cockpit, in the roaring
hell of the gun deck, that we might
hear no noise of battle. They were
well pleased to live among thieves
and infamous folk, that our CONVEX
sation might be virtuous and oul
ways right ways.
That suffering of theirs has perhaps
been rewarded by the vision of the
ease they won for us, touching us, re
joicing that evil days should have
purchased happy days, and well con
tent that misery should have brough
such treasure. Let us hope so a
any rate.
Let us remember, too, that patriot
ism, in its true form. is of the kint
they gave. 1t is not a song in tn
street, or a wreath on column, o.
a flag flying from a window, 1t is
thing very holy, and very terrible
like life itself. 1t is a burden to b
borne; a thing to labor for, and to sui
fer for, and to die for; think whicI
piVas M hapninaSs and no DlpaSan