Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-01-06

truest tributes eloquent because sinnle
spontaneous. naive, informally and unextin-
su'shaoly genuine as the Maid was? II the
date of her birth ever does become a holiday
and the event is quite conceivable-men
and women in all the realms OF freedor, will
NOT need to be instructed as TO its meaning
Th"y know it now, even those unacuuainted
WIN a.! but the barest outlines Of her story
a TO that tale its external incidents
"A although of secondary jnlport ,o tho
spiritual universally of its message. conn
pose biography unparalleled. Louis Kos
suth pointed out that Joan OF Arc was the
only person OF either sex who ever COM
manded the military forces of "A nation at the
age Of seventeen.
C!eaNlns TO this line Of thought the record
of her captancy Of defeated armies foI,ouipe
the authorization OF her positio. bv tine
spneless Charles VII her superb triumpbs
at Orleans and PaLay are simply unmatch
aole accomplishments. Her failures at Paris
anu Complegne are directly attributable to
inc sinister intr!gues and Indifference OF the
French Armagnac party. whose cause she so
unselfishly espoused. Her absolute skill In
humanity in a grossly brutal age is attcs, cd
oE her sworn statement that she never killed
man. is unshadowed by those bitter circum-
stances.
nf HER menta. acumen unsupported by
~ the smallest educational advantases- ror
she was illiterate--the valid official record .
OF Tie great trial Of 1881 and of the process
OF rehabilitation instituted by the church
give wonder-wahing evidence. Her replies r,
her accusers after she had been peridlous1v
so!d by her captors. the Burgundiaus +o bsr
H"'o"S Toes the English, are stin ,naryeIs
OF peiSp!cacity and touching mental honesty.
NopieSt or ali is the supreme Nalor OF her
revocation Of all that she mad denied con-
cernlng her belief in her celesta, mentors
Many things declared the girl. "did la
1.-THE preacherl say that | have never dana
II ! We're 10 say that God has NOT so.,t ma
should be damned. 1t is true that God b,s
seH. me. Ny voices have since to,d ~, .I,,,,
by confess!ng / committed a great ,vicl,oa
"cSS' Wh'h ! ought never have done. All
'Na' sara uttered through fear OF the
"Fe' from that point her courage never
failed The death pyre al Rouen had no
spiritual leITOIs lOf hei,
r. CANNOT be said that the cxbaus,i,o
l. Investigations Of the visions and ,.o,
which she declared inspiHcd her to rndarta,-N
me dehNerance of France have thrown ,n',r,
nght on one of the most extraordnar,, aI,a. e'
ters IN history. The church has ca,o,ip1
her' Mark Twain, in his rhapsodIc Irih'-e.
attempts no. solution of the myster,. t'outs,
tralscehdehtal aspects appealed nov.ar, its
10 the erudite Andrew Lang ouintIuIiS
the free thinker, admits that the o,,inIt
as TO her "sunranormal" faculties is "a,, ucnce '
as for any facts in her history" Us 5000
Even that serene repository os .,s
Ahatole France, shifted the problem .ao','
Paris neuroogist, who talks pretentio,,sIoI 10
'unilateral hysteria," and then AYERS tboi .o oi
became the open door by which the dv;n.
OF "hat Joan deemed the divlne--sntan5
INTO her life 1t strengthened her fai,I aea
coilsecIated her mission but IN her inteIps'.
and her VIII Joan remains perfectly hoaItL,.
and normal Nervous pathology can ,harnS
fore east but feeble light on Joan's naturo
II can reveal only one part of her sniri, :,
TNHE key word is the last, II il the snirit
l. OF the Maid which no shadow of dub,s,v
can sury. 1t Will ring as deathless over
tone In the reverberations OF mans most In
genious machines Of material power as they
thunoer In her memory over New York Bay
and the Delaware.