El Nuevo mexicano., 1919-01-09

"A great captain has this day Ia
len in Israel.
1t is not for those Of the preseh
TO arroBate to themselves a definl
ton Of the place in history which l
to be assigned to one who bulke,
largely for so many years as the po
litical leader Of a nation in its striy
ing toward higher ideals Of civil
righteousness and who came in hi
latter days to be the embodiment b
a patriotism as all peryasive as .
was unselfish.
The wizardry Of words, is no mat
ter how deft nands, cannot at this
supreme moment, lay plumb and true
an appreciation Of this wonderful
life. In those starlit eras Of the
world, where ages after, sages and
philosophers can look with long TO
cused vision upon the men and
events which have gone before, is
proper due to be paid, is proper pro
portion to be awarded to the out
standing super-men.
The p~riyates in the phalanges OF
Macedonia did not know Alexander;
the poets and common folk who dai-
ly filled the Appian way did not
know Julius Caesar; the immortal
Hildebrand was counted a tyrant
and an intrigant in Rome in his CEN
fury; how much and how little of
greatness. made the man Napoleon,
it is yet foo soon to finally appraise;
the Revolutionary Fathers failed
dismally to understand the Father Of
His County; not until this day has
all America found the true worth
Of that mystic mingling of star and
clod.s Abraham Lincoln nor the
Greatest of All the Sons Of Men
counld humanity appreciate until
hundreds of years had made the doe
trines He taught the moving force
which led the nations of the world
to exemplify the truth Of b~rotherly
love, the great command to care for
ones neighbor and go forth in this
decade for the first time in the
worlds history to succor the weak
and undo the proud and the naughty.
1t happens not oftener than twice
in a century that the world is hushed
and sim when the hand of death is
laid upon 1t. The quiet falling into
the endless sleep on Sycamore Hill
has for its due and allotted time
brought into bold relief one Of the
worlds great characters, has TEN
porarily and utterly obscured those
creatures of the moment and of op-
portunity who seek to arrogate to
themselves a Fictitious greatness.
AS far as we of this generation
may feebly measure Theodore Roose-
welt, our tape and gauge must be to
stop and consider whether between
the two suns there lives today a
man whose death would come
home to every American with such Q
sense Of personal bereavement, with
such a compelling realization of sol
emnity, as has come the death OF this
man,
The United States is not rich in
graves. Here is no Westminster Abb
hey where are c~ongregated the
bones OF the illustrous dead whose
achievements IN centuries upon cen
turtles have piled mountain high the
glory Of the greatness of a nation.
In Virginia we have the shrine cfl
Mount Vernon where a world still
prilgrimages to pay its tribute to a
cdlntry's father. In Illinois we have
The holy place where lie the memo
ries of the liberatOr and almost saint
who gave a nation freedom and uni
ty.
In Ohio is a magnificent Mauso-
which preserves in material sub
stance the recollection of a kindly
and beneficent statesman whose
after all Is only shperimposed
upon the two little graves In Cant
tom which added SO much tender
ness and compassion to a worlds re-
gret.
Is 1t impossible to reconcile in this 4
moment Of universal grief, the belief
that to these historic graves there is
10 be added in imperiahabie mourn
ing the shrine where is to lie the
self OF the great spirit Just {
gone and that with 1t in the hearts
his countrymen will be a niche re-
served for that lonely heroic mound |
Flanders fields where peoples ,
grow? i
The United States will never for
yet Theodore Roosevelt. The death
his best beloved SON fighting in
he young manhood Of his life in the f,
1attle fields OF the air, for the pre- J
jervation Of those principles for ;
which his father fought, none the !
ess a soldier, In the graying days, Z,
md for which the father too no less J
aid down his life, will inevitably J
serve to unite In history's Kindness 4
he places where they rest.
And so united. let all the millions {
If Americans who knew and loved
he father, be glad that II has come
d pass so soon that the heroic faith !
sr and the heroic son. each With All
yoId star somewhere in Boundless /
space, may join their spirits through &
,ut the ages on Immortality, a reun-lt
On at their greatest moment, both3f
With their work well done, an occa-
lion when the morninE stars might {
lot feel themselves paying too high 4
tribute we're they again TO take I,
ID the song which they sang togeth- /
n at the dawn OF that Christian .
utilization which both Theodore 7
ROOSEVELT and Quentin Roosevelt =
ought and died to safely and per-
nanently preserve aud restore. Q