The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-03-18
BY WILLIAM r EILTs-

BY WILLIAM Il EI1LIS.
I1 HY do nations die9 We now
"H have written records OF
AHVN civilization extending back
A 81 seven thousand years. Yet
- not a single nation that
fiourished at the beginning
of the Christian era, only two thous-
and years ago, is in existence today. if
we except the Monaghan peoples OF
the Far East. Some of the great pow
ers that exercised dominion over all,
or large part of the known world,
have passed so completely out of the
knowledge of mankind that their exis-
tence was denied, until the spade turn
ed up the records within recent dec
AIDES. Such for example were the
Utilities, whom we now know to have
been a powerful and ruling nation in
the region that is now known as Syria,
northern Asia Minor and Armenia.
A long roll may be called of the
great nations that have had their day
of power and glory, and then have
ceased to be-Babylon, Assyria, Chal-
dea, Persia, Media, Parthia, Phoeni-
cha, Scythia, Syria, Greece, Rome,
Egypt. To consider the reasons for
the decline of these powers is pro-
f1table exercise in patriotism. For 1t
naturally raises the question, Is our
nation also to go the way of the en-
pires of old? What elements of de-
cay are there to be found in our ma
tional life? Certainly, as this is
government by the people, the cause
of possible decay must be looked for IN
the moral and intellectual character
of the citizens themselves.
A King Who Forgot Himself.
In those olden days, the king was
all and the people were naught His
tory is largely a record of great rul-
ers. The great progress that civllfza-
ton has made since then has been In
the direction Of Democracy, or the
vi, IF 7nI
king then did the entire citizenship
now do. 1t is beyond the power of any
one man to debauch any of the West
ern nations. But the least of the c1t1-
zens may help his country on TO TINS
fate. A modern nation IS no stronger
than the character of its people.
So as we study today about King
Benhadad, and the disaster his drunk
enness helped bring upon Syria, we
are to remember that in this western
world there are as many kings as
there are citizens. OF Syria itself II
may be worth while to recall, that it
was, in the time of Elijah, Ahab, ana
Jehoshaphat, one of the great nations
of Asia. 1t extended to the north,
northeast and northwest OF Palestine.
Its capital was Damascus. that won
derful old city, perhaps tho Oldest IN
all the world that still lives as a great
city. The country seems to nave been
made I'D of petty municipalities, over
which Benhadad was at this time the
ruler We still speak of a section OF
Asia along the Eastern shore of the
Mediterranean as Syria. but there is,
strictly. no such place as Syria, al
though all the present resid ents of the
Holy Land call themselves Syrlans-
The nation is no more. A turkish
Vail at Damascus governs most OF THIS
region.
Renhadad had come up against Is
rael. with his thirty-two kings. He laid
siege to Samaria, the city that Is now
Int a hill of ruins and a small village
He despised his foe-which is always
a tactical blunder, and, flushed Win
vine made arrogant demands and
boasts Ahab was goaded to resist
ance. quoting, as an apt reply to Ben
hadad's vauntings, the saying, Let
not him that girdeth on his armor
boast himself as he that putteth IL
off" A good motto, that, to have sun
dav School scholars commit TO mem
ory. The message from Ahab came TO
Renhadad while he was carousing IN
the pavilion, or mat shed which they
still erect in the East for special func-
tjons Benhadad had forgotten him
salf and that he had a kings business
on hand. His task needed a clear
head. instead of which he gave 1t a
muddled one. His orders We're hasty
and boastful and inconslderate so
The Syrians suffered a rout, and the
king himself barely escaped with MS
life.
A Victorious Nation.
The story of Benhadad is interpo-
lated here by the Lesson Committee
out of its place, in order that 1t may
be used as temperance lesson alohS
the line indicated by the caption, De
feat Through Drunkenness" For even
the most careful and tolerant thinkers
agree that the liquor question is one
of the problems and menaces OF our
nationai life There is a growing dis
Lon q
from the standpoint, "What shall We
do with drink" and more to regard It
from the standpoint, What VIII drink
do with us?" 1t is obvious that no
nation nowadays can be victorious
whose people are IN Inc pO"eA u eii0
liquor habit.
PnbIic sentiment on the subject has
grown by leaps and bounds Tenn
nerance opinion used to be lightly re-
parded Even yet it Is despised by
tbose who form their opinions in clubs
and saloons, and in the company OF
few congenial spirits about town,
rather than from knowledge OF what
the great mass of housekeeping peO-
ME are thinking and saying. In the
Berlin geological Gardens last summer
7 saw a dog in the same cage with TWO
1oabv lions 1t was the common yelloW
dog but it bulIied those cubs IN way
that elected the sympathy OF the py-
standers [ was not concerned, Tor
one of these fine days the young lions
%3Io7,1d AWAKEN to a realization that
thev are lions, and that their tyran-
nous tormentor is only a yelloM o olS
scores viii be paid with vengeance.
The little incident seemed to me a
,1arabie of conditions in this country
With respect to the liquor power; For
decades it has admittedly dominated
80 r1o1i+ics The public it has treated
witb contempt and contumely. But
now the public is awakening to the
g1orfous realization that it is the lion,
and that the ancient bully is, after all,
only a yellow dog. And the WorIu
some spectacle of seeing the cur