Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-05-21
A Working Eagle
From the New York Times,

Since the smashing Of the dual monarchy the
double-headed eagle, symbolizing the union of
Austria and Hungary, roosts on the perch of
archaeoogeal ornithology, youngest brother OF
the dodo. The Austrian escutcheon, where this
perfectly appropriate image of the old double
faced policy of Vienna and Budapest so long
was rampant is to be changed to suit the al
tered and humber circumstances of German
Austria. The German-Austrian government
has brought into Parliament bill providing
that henceforth the Austrian eagle shall be con-
tent to wear but one head. 1t is encouraging
to see reform in German Austria, even if it takes
only the field of heraldry and symbolism. True,
the reformed eagle, though single-headed, re-
mains more than little singular He is to
wear crown. What does German Austria. re-
publican, socialist, or sovetsh, want of king
bird, king, or crown? However uneasy that
aquline head, the talons are to be, if more curl
ously, yet far more usefully kept busy. One
claw will hold scythe, token of agriculture,
the other hammer, token of industry. A
strange product of LArt Nouveau, of which the
home and high seat was in Vienna. If Mr.. Bar
mum keeps communication by psychotelephone
with this oblate spheroid and hears of this bird
more marvellous than the griffin, must he not be,
IN DR.. Holmes phrase, "homesck in heaven?
Looking back to Pannonia and Norcum, the
German Austrians may have some title to the
Roman eagles, but the legion eagle was reduced
to pigeon size. pole carried the eagle, not
the eagle the pole. From the aesthetic point of
view bird carrying scythe and hammer is
as anomalous as the most malicious Greek If
regular verb but Joves eagle, grasping the
thunderbolt, was highly irregular, too. In con-
sideration of the new purpose and the bourgeois
morality which this improved bird denotes it is
more than easy to forgive the curious "derange-
ment of epitaphs" evident in his attributes.
Here, as always in these cases of incongruity
and transformation, let US consult the one I'M
erring oracle, Sortes Carrollianae. And here is
the answer: Every true said the duchess.
'Flamingoes and mustard both bite And the
moral of that is: Birds of feather flock to-
gether."' Only mustard isn't Bird Alice re-
marked"
Seriously, this scythe, however dangerous
weapon in the hands of amateurs, and this ham.
mer are welcome signs so far as they 60, of an
Austrian German resolve to turn away from the
everlasting military trumpetng and trumpery
and get to honest work. Not nearly so much as
the North Germans, but still far too much, have
the Austrian Germans been obsessed by the
worship of mlitarism and dazzled by the eternal
procession of gold lace and froggngs and
stripes and buttons The most civilian of
chancellors had to wear uniform. All Ger
many is broad alley of preposterous princes
and generals and civilians, like Bismarck, in the
togs of war, 10000 unnecessary persons who in
life probably tripped over their own swords
when they had to wear them. Let us hope that
the snobbish veneration of Pickelhaube and
sword is over, in German Austria; that hence
forth the symbols of the majority of her peo-
pie, her farmers and peasants and factory work
ers. will be honored in fact as they are to be
on her escutcheon. But the crowned eagle
should shed the crown.