The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1920-09-23

ing race" He got this phrase from an American
friend. The American being shown around the
Abbey by the DEAN exclaimed;
"Can any sacred building in the British en-
pires compare with Westminster Abbey7 Is 1t not
the unique and priceless treasure of the English
speaking racer" And using this explanation as
text the dean says:
at was not made in the tone of rhetorical com
pliment, but with the intense conviction of one
who had quite suddenly been awakened to full
sense of the significance of this great inheritance
from our common AngO-Saxon ancestry. 1t is the
same story IL you take round friends or visitors
who have just come from Canada, or Australia.
or New Zealand, or South Africa, and who nave
never before been in the mother country. One
feels overwhelmed and Inundated in the pres
ence of their delighted enthusiasm, their rever-
for the historic associations of the building.
their appreciation Of its antiquity, their emotion
at the sight of places and things of which they
have so often heard. Familiar 1t is to some OF
u.s. to them the abbey is the heart shrine OF the
worldwide empire. The thought Of it is inter
twined with the most sacred feelings and deep
est affections OF brothers and sisters scattered
the whole world"
Westminster Abbey has been called 'the his
tory of the English race set in stone" In sense
it is the symbol of English monarchy; for Harold.
the last Saxon king crowned here; so was
William the COnquerOr, in 1885, was ever since
every English king. Yet, the Times says of the
abbey:
cit is history of a dynasty of a kingdom
that speaks here. 1t is the history OF race In
every branch of human activity. told generation
after generation by the hands that, through good
days and through evil. carried and handed down
the torch
Deeply these great repositories of the great
dead must move all educated men, the story they
have to tell is short and confined to that embodied
here That is .all-embracing. unbrOken. widening
down from Hastings to the great war, from the
Saxon Witan and the Kings council to the parIia-
ments of the empire and not less truly If less d.
rectly. to the congress of the United States"
There is a lot of legend about the beginnings
of Westminster Abbey. The first church is said
to have been built about 616 by King Sebert Of
Essex Edward the COnfessor in 1O49-65 built
church the present site and gave it its present
name. Henry III in the thirteenth century began
the reconstruction which carried by. his
successors. The towers were not built until TIP
90 The Abbey disendOwed during the Ref
ormation. but was restored by Queen Mary Its
present organization dean and II canon dates
from Elizabeth. The practice of Interring the
great began under Richard II.
Lord Macaulay, who himself lies in westmin-
ster Abbey. of it: mo other spot in the en-
pire contains within such narrow space so many
Industrious citizens" His statement undoubtctIIy
true and the list Of the great is all the more In
teresting for the that Westminster is no
YaIhaIla established by ordinance and decree And
It is certainly interesting cOleciion-Ceeil VII
liers Blake. Monk, Clarendon. Argyll. OTlnond the
two Pitts. Fox. Canning. PaimerstOB. Gladstone
Chaucer. SpeDser. Dryden Beaumont. Ben JON
son, Prior. Gay. DR.. Johnson Browning. Tennvson
Dfckens-and 50 on, theOIogiaHs actors musi-
clans artists and scientists.