The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1913-01-31
THE GOSPEL OF
ROBERT BURNS"

hard drinker he may have been, but
the fact remains that he wrote the songs
of the English-speaking race, and there is
no church, no school of today in which
they are not echoed and sung The songs
of Scotland and England when Robert
Burns was born were reeking with hth
and indecency and Robert Burns left them
pure. He wrote much that was subject TO
criticism, but he really ennobled love. And
Robert Burns gave to the newer demo
crazy its Marseiaise. The French Mar
seillaise was a song of conquest. The
Scotch Marseillaise was one of humanity
and of love- Burns was weak and sim
worn, but his life was a tragedy. He was
a man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief No one really understands him who
has not, himself, struggled with hopeless
ness and with the direct penury. In his
songs are to be found beauty and wit and
gayety and cheer, but beneath, and in the
midst of it all is the great heart-sOb of
humanity. Many of us fail to understand
him merely because we know nothing OF
the helpless poverty and heartless snob-
berry of the Scotland and England of his
day, and, for that matter, of England and
and of Scotland even of this day 1t was
snobbery which drove Burns to the ale
house. He was feted in Edinburgh, but
he was looked down upon as a peasant. He
sat at the ldDlo WITH some DlTkle Cd Il IL
lord-with some man without BRAIN with
out heart, and without. conscience, and
his clerical host would exhibit him as a
prize peasant, and would fawn upon the
lord. He was exhibited at receptions, and
went home at night to his cold garnet,
hungry and alone. In the aristocracy of
Edinburgh of his time there was no sym
| pathy. He could not sing to such. He
wanted love, not praise-friendiness, not
patronage. 1t was at the alehouse that
| men were eQual-it was at the Masonic
meetings that men met upon the level and
parted upon the square, and it was there
that Burns was himself. Yes, sometimes
Burns was a roysterer, but it was snob-
berry which made him such. He died in
penury, but it was snobbery that broke his
heart He was killed by class conscious.
| ness and class hatred. but in his simple
way he taught the gospel of the Great
! Prophet of Men who prayed that his King
| dom might come on Earth, as well as in
| Heaven.
| Some years ago had a lawsuit in Berk.
shire, England. IT was the suit of a poor
| cottager against the lord of the manor. |
| had eight witnesses. They were peasants.
They were old men. Every one of them
was pauper. They had not been drunk
ards or spendthrifts. They were lovable
men. They were better men than ]. But
| they had no chance. They had been born
into class and into a surrounding where
there was no opportunity and no hope
They had been born in a land where there
was dominant aristocracy which preserv-
ed game, but deSpiSed human lives and hui
man souls. Even today a fourth of tbs
| land Of both England and Scotland are
game preserves and deer parks and the
| pheasant and the partridge are of more
! value than human lives and human souls
hoe coli If ha ynhr l.
is nowhere so much at home as when he
is abroad and we all know how he was
driven from the Highlands that the deer
might stalk and the sheep might Craze
where once he lived. We know, today
how the poor of England have been driven
from the land so that fifteen percent are
now paupers in the great cities.
NO SALE FOR POETRY.
In Burns day there was no sale for
poetry. In order that it might be publish
! ed one had to obtain the patronage of the
! great He only got one hundred dollars
for his first edition, which since his death
has brought to the publishers hundreds
of thousands. He and his relatives and
associates saw before them nothing but
years and years of toll which would in.
evitably lead to the poor-house Have you
ever seen the real motive and the human
personal tragedy of the Ode to the Noun
tain Daisy and the Ode to the Mouse? You
have been touched by their tenderness and
by their beautiful sympathy. Have you
ever thought that Burns sympathized be-
cause he, himself, suffered, and he, him
self feared? To him the daisy growing in
beauty upon the roadside and amidst the
clay and stubble of the field was but
symbol OF the thousands of the poor who,
though often possessed of genius and
worth and god-like courage, were unrec.
ognized and unknown; who briefly reared
their heads and preached their gospel of
love and beauty, and fought their fight,
only to be cut off by the rude plough-share
OF penury and of fate. To him the little
homeless mouse was but a symbol of the
homeless poor, and the crushing of it's nest
and the scattering of it's hard-earned stores
on the verge of winter, when it was too
late to retrive the loss, only reminder
of the perjury which was likely to fall up
on him and his in spite of all of his sing.