The Ocala banner., 1912-05-31
From the Rhine to the vclga, ev-


goon, has been the starting point OF
some wild, barbaric, over-the-sea con-
quest. The Isle of Britain was new
territory and paid the penalty for be-
ing such. Expedition after expedition
set out for its shores. Over the wa
ters to Britain came such renowned
leaders as Henghist and Horsa, Ella
and Cissa, their followers singing
wild war songs as they coursed over
the waters of the North Sea in their
sharp-prowed kee{s. 1t was useless
for the Britons to resist the invasion
of these sea-rovers, for they were
Saxons, Saxons whose blood was Of
the purest strain, unpolluted by asso-
citation with foreign tribes.
Foes are they, sang Roman poet
of the time, fierce beyond other foes
and cunning as they are fierce; the
sea is their school of war, and the
storm their friend; they are sea-
wolves that live on the pillage of the
world"
The Britons, having just emerged
from Roman authority, fled before
them "as from fire." They were fol-
lowed by their brethren FROM the con-
tinent, and England became the mec-
ca for the strongest, most powerful
and manyly race of people on the
globe.
Always the outline of Saxon history
is the same; first, personal freedom
and contentment, followed by pros
perity and an over-abundance of pop
ulation, then the wanderlust and the
conquering and settling of new
worlds. England early experienced
the first passages of Saxon history,
and soon the wanderlust in the form
of the Crusades. Richard Cour de
Lion was as much a Saxon as an En-
glishman when he led thousands
from Britain for the conquest of the
holy land. 1t was the Saxon spirit
that made the Crusades popular. 1t
was the Saxon spirit arising in the
breast of Englishmen when whole ar
mics pressed ever onward to Jerusa-
lem. 1t was the Saxon perseverance
and will power brought to light, when
to carry out their own purpose of
reaching the City of the Cross thirsty
and footsore they batttled ceaselessly
from the Bosphorus to Jordan. AL
though each day the desert sun
bleached hundreds, sometimes thou
sands of fair-skinned bodies, new
slain dead, yet these sons of Cedric
continued their fruitless struggle un-
til vast majority of their numbers
lay on the shifting sands of Asia.
Truly, the greatest blow the world
has experienced was the destruction
of so many Saxons.
The Saxon of Britain had now his
first experience of the wanderer, and
in later years this characteristic of
his being became prominent indeed.
Literary men at one time in England
wrote entirely in Latin, for they fear
ed their own language would be read
only in their island home, but their
fears were groundless, for later, such
men as "Clive in India, VOLTS on the
Plains of Abraham, Cook in Australia
and the Islands of the Pacific, were
unfurling the banner of st. George
over the untold wealth of new lands,
and spreading the worldwide empire
of the Anglo-Saxon" And in the
words of Roosevelt, "Over half the de-
scendant of their fellow countrymen
of that day now dwell in lands, which
when these Englishmen were born,
held not a single white inhabitant;
the race which, when they were in
their prime, was hemmed in between
the North and Irish seas, today holds
sway over worlds whose endless
coasts are washed by the waves of
three great oceans. And, as Webster
expresses it, Britain became that
country whose morning drum beat,
following the sun in it's course. encir-
cles the earth in one continuous
strain of the martial airs of England"
When liberty became a meaningless
word in the English language, thou
sands from their Briton birthplaces
sought homes anew in far distant
lands. To the new world, America,
they flocked, Puritan and Pilgrim
braved the hardship of a New Eng
land winter, Catholic and Protestant
drove back the native Indians with
war and bloodshed, to gain that most
blessed gift to man, personal free
dom. Their numbers were replenish-
ed from England by spirits as brave
as their OWN; by Saxons, for they
were all Saxons who laid the founda-
tions of America and Saxon blood
r0ilrc pd swift in fhoir yoinS NJ ,ou,