The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1914-01-29

| 1dIIIl, Uut SWC 1IIlu IllIu az Vic 0kO VI
eleven faifly well educated, lover of
books and great reader, Like his
father he believed in education), kept
improving himself. About seventeen
his genius began to assert itself. He
longed for companionship away from
his solitary and self contained en-
vironments with desire to take place
among men in the busy world and at
nineteen he had entered intb it with all
its pleasures and gaities. The hard
labor and sorrow at this period of his
life was in great measure the cause
Of that depression Of spirits which so
often afflicted him through his whole
life. He grew up to manhood, strong
and robust (even Handsomely the eye
alone denoting the poetical tempera-
nlent, dignified with plainness and
simplicity of manner which received
part of its effect perhaps from ones
knowledge Of his extraordinary tai
ents.
"In conversation he was powerful.
His conception and expressions were
vigorous and on all subjects were as
remote as possible from common
place. Byron ranks him as the very
first in his art and the world agrees
as to his character and genius.
There is no need of anyone now
a-days to say what Burns was or was
rot. This he has told himself hun
bred times in immortal language.
With proud consciousness he glorified
in the virtues which God had bestow-
ed upon him and owned in prostration
of spirit that the light which led him
astray was not always the light from
Heaven. None but the most narrow
minded bigots, think Of his errors and
frailties but with sympathy and in
diligence. None but the blindest en-
thusiasts can deny their existence.
"a peasant poet, he had lived
among q peasant people, and his
poems were adapted to their lives
and doing, every one Of them. Ro-
nance there is none in them, for there
was none in Murns. How high he
might have scared and what poems he
might have written had he kept his
brain clear and his life sweet. His
genius suffered from his irregular
life, he made many resolutions Of
amendment, but seemed powerless to
do so, he succeeded as poet, but in
everything else failure had logged
his footsteps. Burns has indited many
songs that slip into the heart just Ike
light, filling its chambers sweetly,
sometimes when he sings it is like lis
tening to a blackbird or laverock
in the sky, they sing in the fulness Of
their Joy as nature teaches them and
so did he, wholly unskilled in the art
of music, he had the rare art Of adapt
| ing words successfully to notes with
rich variety of passion, playfulness,
and power as no song writer perhaps,
but himself, has ever displayed, unit
| ing verse with melody. Who can read
unmoved his lines on his "Highland
Mary" filled with pathos and despair
or his "Cotter's Saturday Night"
without feeling they had the touch of
master hand. Had Highland Mary
lived (the sweetest and tenderest ro-
nance Of his life) perhaps Burns life
would have been directed in another
channel In the monument erected to
him near his old home are deposited
the two volumes Of the little pocket
Bible which Burns gave to Mary when
they pledged their faith to one an
other with hands clasped across the
book. A verse of scripture is written
inside each cover by the poets hands,
and within is lock of Mary's golden
hair.
/, ".Great in his strength, great in his
weaknesses he struggled to overcome
the bad with good but proved incap-
able of triumph with his surroundings.
The great world has always judged
him leniently, knowing the story Of
his early life and the temptations that
surrounded the peasants of Scotland
at that time.
GAS the shadows of evening were
drawing to close he suffered on his
death-bed the greatest remorse at the
thought of leaving his wife and fam
| ily destitute, but generous and ad-
hiring public placed them in compar-
alive comfort, and had he lived, would
have seen his family rise to some dis
tinction. 1t is said (but not authenti-
cated) that the beautiful words of
The Land O. Leaf were composed by
him in farewell to his wife, Jean.
"Cut off at the early age of SO years
he died on the 21st Il July, 1896. A
member Of the Dumfres shire Volun-
teer Corps, he was buried with Mill
4 tary honors, while the great bells of
/ the city churches tolled, he was laid to
rest in st. Michael's churchyard, Dunn
fries.
"With men Of upright feeling we
are not required to plead for Burns.
In plying admiration he lives en-
shrined in all our hearts; nor will his
works, even as they pass from our
memory. The Scotland he loved SO
well and took such pride in honoring
4 could scarcely have been the Scotland
she is had he not been. And as the
|Bard himself has written:
i Then gently scan your brother
i man,
4 Still gentler sister woman;
i That they may gang a little wrang:
4 To step aside is human"
Program.
!, Presidents Remarks and Toast OF
i "The Immortal Memory"
Il An Address Of Welcome to the Visit
i ing and Honorary Members DR.. A.
q J. Mcdaniel.
! IL 81 ~ n n