Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-07-09

.T\HERE is always the touch of ro-
nance in any thought of Poland.
1t is the appealing, pathetic ro-
nance. Poland, like Scotland, is a
vanished land of romance. But Scot
land is sturdy, vital, masculine; more
over. she has dominated to such an
extent the country which annexed her
that conquest is turned into conquer
ing. Poland is gentle, sad, feminine;
and Poland has been eXtinguished by
those who made the partition. Yet,
while Scotland, forever free, will never
again be independent. Poland, depend
ent and downcast for more than a
century has now its possible oppor-
tunity to become free.
The world has been absorbed in the
pathos of Belgium. It ha fixed its re-
solve that Belgium shall again be Bel
gium. an independent kingdom, worthy
of its knightly king, Albert. To this
end the world has contributed millions
of dollars. This dual city community
has sent half a million in actual money
and in foodstuffs. Yet Poland has the
same right to be free, If it has endured
century of wrongs, and If it would be
difficult to find the rightful Stanislaus
to the throne. And to the end that
Poland may be free, and that there
should continue to be Poles who can
re-esta ablish the kingdom, our country
is but beginning to contribute, and the
Twin Cities community has contributed
very little.
And certainly here is opportunity,
even If we are capable but of contem-
porary help, to feed Poland as we are
feeding Belgium. THE Polish relief
commission" reads as though it should
be dated IRA" But it is here, it is
organized in branch in st. Paul. And
to-day it makes its appeal. If not
answered in such abundance as we are
-a,~if, fAs al Ha
answer yet should be given. And those
to whom appeal can be made in the
name of history, and romance, and in
the name of art. in the names of
Chopin and Paderewski and Nine.
Modjeska, should especially heed this
appeal.
Paderewski is in this country. may
come to these cities in order to secure
American recognition and relief for
Polish sufferers And, tragedy out of
this war, Paderewski has not only lost
his fortune, invested in a great estate
in Poland, where his aim was to give
employment to a great number of his
countrymen, in order that these might
serve as a little nucleus of Poland, but
he has lost the magic whereby he
made this fortune. Paderewslki, whose
very name brings back the most ex-
alted memories, when Chopin and
Liszt and Schubert spoke as it is not
mere pride in generation to say they
had never before spoken, when the
| divine language of rhapsodies and
nocturnes and serenades was caught
by human ears magicked into under
anding-Paderewsk has lost his
magic. Broken in fortune, he is broken
in genius. He may never again touch
piano. And If he does it will be but
to evoke the ghost of former glories.
War kills more than the body.
Poland has contributed to the life
and the inspiration of America, more
than Kosciusko or Paderewski. 1t has
been and is the harbor of many
refugees from political and from social
wrongs.
One of the interesting colonies es-
[ ia blished in this free land by those
escaping from oppression-there will
| be more-was that at Anaheim, in
Southern California, a sort of Brook
Farm community, where certain dis
| tinguished and to be distinguished
Poles united their fortunes in banish-
| ment. SienkiewicZ came hither, the
| Polish novelist whose stories have in
all truth made us forget the beloved
and absurd "Thaddeus of Warsaw
| once dear to our romantic hearts, the
Sienkiewicz who the other day, accept
| ing the contributions which Americans
had sent to Poland, and remembering
| the days of his exile, declared that
sands of unfortunates from starvation,
but the task of America is not yet
accomplished. With, Gods help she
will in a few years become the con-
science of the world.
The community in which Sienlkiewicz
took so important a part included the
more distinguished Helena Modjeska,
who fed from the intrigues of the
atrical circles in Warsaw, and, happily
| for America. found life in the Califor-
MIA colony so far from the dream it
had seemed in Poland that she turned
to the American stage, and became,
she the Pole. with ever the lingering
accent, its most exquisite exponent of
the English drama And the colony
included also the young lad, Ralph
Modjeska. who had urged upon his
mother this migration because he had
been reading of the Centennial Ex-
position, but above all of the possi-
bilities of the Panama canal. In 1876