Norwich bulletin., 1918-06-08
Views of the Vigilantes
THE ACCEPTABLE GATE
By. Abbie Farwell Brown of The, Vigilantes

I .
 e-~ of The, Vigilantes '-
 Millions entered by that hospitable Gate which America left open to- the strangers from all lands. Millions of the poor, the friendless, the war weary, to whom America offered prosperity, friendship and peace. They Serbians, Greeks, French, Russians,
 Italians, Armenians, Poles-a hum dred races and more jostled over the threshold. We welcomed them all-
 too readily, some thought, fearing for our "unguarded gates" as one poet called them. Many had not, as an- other poet accused, sufficient faith in
 the misealled scum of the earth" Many of these became citizens, and in turn helped to order the affairs of the great government which had opened it's doors to them. Some re- mained aliens. But all profited by our laws and opportunities. rt n There scame War! The worst war which the world has ever known. A war o1 Right against Wrong; and presently America was in it. But first thousands of our friends went back through the Hospitable Gate. Serb ians,. Greeks, Russians, French, Ital- ians-hew many more?-returned to the countries they had never re- l nounced, to fight for the freedom of small nations against 8 tyrant foe who threatened the very existence of | liberty. i Out of our Hospitable Gate they
 went, back, to the ends of the earth; carrying. to the desperately fighting | lands the news of what American de-
 mocracy means. They bore living witness of the American Idea to the l struggling small natiena In the 1 spreading the gospel of American l brotherhood and hope. In the trenches of Belgium; in the hideous German prisons where Russian, Pol l ish, French Italian, English prisoners are huddled. there is secret talk of 1 what America does for her friends; of her strength, power and generosity It will not be forgotten. Echoes will be whispered when their poor lips are dumb. Serbian exiles talk it over ir 1 their flight. Armenian refugees live
 upon the hope of it: The man whc
 once blaeked boots in New York gos- sips, secretly about it in the mountains of Greece. The Chicago exWaitei
 whispers it in dissatisfied Hungary l The former Philadelphia fruit .nner' chant tells of it in the streets oi 1 Rome. The one -tirne rag picker oi Boston signs for it in the disorderly
 streets of Moscow. They haveS known They can tell Everywhere the news lis spreading; even in muzzled Aus; tria. In Germany itself, sealed to the | Truth from outside, there are scared whispered rurnors.
 For Germans and Austrians wen, home too, to fight against their. late neighbors. To fight at last agains America the hostess who had vel ] comed them kindly That was tragic :, but it was not dishonest. (The dis. honesty is in that invisible army" O. sneaks and spies who remained in oul midst, undeclared, to stab theil | adopted country in the intimacy of { !, judas -friendship!)
 Yes; even through Germany seep the news of democracy, that wen back through the Gate, once so hos pitable to all! Those devoted, mis guided soldiers, sacrificed by the hun
 dred thousand to Prussian ambition echo it in their broken-hearted diaries I Those quieted Revelutionists. watch
 ing the starved children and desperat women in the empty Austrian market places, will remember 1t. Tn
 wounded Hungarians will whisper i in the Red Cross Hospitals. Nay, tn naughty Prussian officers will meet II at last in the steely eyes of our youn, ! American heroes. They will recogniz
 it in their defeat. 1T For out of the. Hospitable Gate ha
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