The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-01-28
ROBERT BURNS.

The 154th birth anniversary OF
week. In every land men have paused
to think of this "Scotchman, to sing
his praises and quote his word. The
editor of The st. Paul Dispatch, fired
by the inspiration of Burns remark
able achievements has written the
following splendid tribute:
In all literature there is no other
character like the Scottish plowman
who. without rank or station, without
the adornments Of culture or the ad-
Vantages of education, passed beyond
all the achievements of the elect by
his sheer manliness and humanity.
To this unlettered rustic. tutored by
a strange and mystic simplicity of
life. it was given to effect the resur-
rection Of the real man in the litera-
ture of the modern era and
the way for that spiritual democracy
which Wordsworth conceived as the
final heritage Of an aspiring race.
Before Burns there had been men
who loved mankind, and who had
given verbal expression to their love.
But to this humble singer was it Civ
en- to first unite a passionate humani-
ty and a deathless art, proving the
double truth that art is nothing if
1t be not human, and that love is moth
ing till it is informed with a con-
quering and ~pervading beauty.
It is significant that the whole mod
ern movement for a deeper and broad
er human fellowship has had it's birth
and growth since Burns died, and yet
a century after him there Is no word
no song that gives SO perfect an ut
teranCe to the hopes Of man today as
the song he sang over 100 years ago
This primal quality of his sympathy
and sentiment has set him apart from
all epOChs and eras and made him the
possession of all men and Of all times
No poet eve wrought with such
simple and UNMARRIED facts. He found
his inspiration in the common paths
of life, and built his glory on the clod
that every foot has pressed, because
his seeing eye found "naught com
mon on the earth" and his living
heart caught wonder from the simple
routine Of the common day. On his
lips the eternal themes again were
new says Watson of him, and it is
this that has given him the world fol
empire.
Wherever man has toiled and suf-
fered and hoped and dreamed, the
lark-like song of Burns has fallen in
NCAACAAOklOI ~ A0ASC Ia . AAOPS "
ward the stars.
1t has been no easy thing for any
nNa to cringe since Burns once sang
A Mans a Man for a. That.
Carlyle has spoken of the wonder
ment Of all when Burns went. up tc
Edinburgh and moved among the
great and high without hint OF
rustic awkwardneSs, as though he had
been born to shine amidst the social
ranks. 1t was natures splendid lesson
to the world that gentlemen are born
not made.
His inherent majesty of simple man
illness passed into his word to shame
a world Of s~ycophants; his bitter ha
tired OF cant n hypocrisy enfran-
chtSed thousands with a new and Vita
contempt for the pretentions of tyran-
meal institutions; his passionate love
for his fellow man made his poetry
the password among those who plotted
for the freedom of the individual, and
his clear, 1.-THE singing, born of JOY
and faith, was waited over lands anC
seas to win the world from WEAKNESS
of futile doing and uninspired doubt.
And SO, after all these years, he re.
mains to nan still a real and abiding
presence of uplifting power, and IN
known millions of men scattered about
the cosmopolitan world take to their
! hearts this darling of old Scotland
and in his song grow blithe and youne
again, easing their human hurts with
| the soothing kindness of his pleas fol
mercy and justice, and filing theil
| souls with higher and holier visions
Of beauty as they brood yer the i'm
mortal loneliness of Alton Water
1 Highland Mary and John Anderson