Perth Amboy evening news., 1920-12-06
THE HASKIN LETTER
TIME AND PATRICK HENRY.


wAsHINGTON, ID. c., Dec. S-A
timely act was the elevation OF the
name and picture of Patrick Henry
me other day to a place in n
American Hall OF Fame.
patrick Henry stood for the right
~ n man to walk the earth free; to
saw and write what he pleased; TO
cat and drink n he pleased; to
hear arms and defend himself.
He held that a mans person and
his home were his OWL and that ne
should not be arrested nor his home
nor his belongings searched or
seized without a warrant.
He held that a man should pay
no unjust tribute to any power, gov
erumental or otherwise, and that IT
was the part of manhood to hght
any attempt to levy such tribute.
COVE me liberty or give me
death" meant something to Patrick
Henry. The sentence has so long
been parroted by schoolboys and
parodied by humorists, it has so lit
tie in 1t of the spirit in which we
now live hat to US it Is dead YER
biage. Il sounds empty n rhetor-
zeal and even a little absurd. But
to Patrick Henry it was a literal
and passionate statement OF the way
he felt. When he said it, we learn
from an old chronicle, the chords OF
his neck swelled and stood out ike
ropes. his face flushed, his eyes
burned, and the crash of his voice
shook the room. The men who had
nesitated to risk what seemed a
hopeless war were shamed and ST.
lent. The men who felt as he did
were lifted to their feet by a wave
of feeling. The resolutions that
meant war with England were car
ried without a dissenting voice.
An Age of Orators.
That was an age of orators-an
age that needed orators. Newspa-
pers do the work now. They form
our principles and make our wars
and u peaces. But in o days
did not amount to
much. The words of men like Pat
| rick Henry, spoken In small gath
erings of intelligent. critical man,
| scattered by word of mouth. by let
ter to some extent by print. were
the real medium of thought and
feeling. A man like Patrick Henry
who could speak with emotional ef-
feet and yet with precision and sin
! cerity was the real mouthpiece of
Colonial America. He took the
| place alike of journalism and of lit
erature in hat pioneering, fighting,
freedom-loving land of three mill
lion Anglo-Saxons.
The land in which we live is more
like it than it is like China. We
are dominated, not by spoken
words, but by printed ones. In fact
we are overwhelmed by them.
Thought and instinct alike are
drowned in the turgid flood of shall
low printed prattle for which our
minds are little more than conduits.
No longer ear a sincere man voice
what thousands feel because they
feel only what they are told to
feel. The orator among us has de-
generated into the a~fter-dinner
speaker, spewing platitudes and old
jokes, boring US. putting us to sleep.
He is no more kin to Patrick Henry
than a parrot Is to an eagle.
Patrick Henry had to wait about
n hundred years for the approval OF
the best people as represented by
this niche which the college profes-
sors and other worthless have given
him In their Hall of Fame. During
most of his life Patrick was viewed
with alarm by the best people re-
garded a radical. a ~loafer, and DEM
agogue. He had not affinities with
universities having gone to schoo
only a few years and he expressed
his opinion of erudition by making
it his motto to study men"
Patrick was born poo and did nc
good in school. He wore old and
dirty clothes. He tried store-keep'
ing twice, and farming once. tended
bar in a tavern for a while. and
made a complete but undismaye(
failure in all these capacities. HI
taen decided to become a lawyer
and after six weeks Of study wen
up for a bar examination. He con
WINGED the examiners that he know
nothing about law, bu. was n MOS
unusual fellow. and they generousl,
gave him license to practice on til,
strength of his promises that III
would learn a little about his pro
fession first.
An Unpromising Boy.
Patrick did not spend any grea
amount of time in court, just as III
had spent little time in the store
and saloons he was supposed to b.
conducting. Patrick spent most o
his time out in the woods huntin,
and fishing. That was his passion
He would for weeks at a time, car
rying his provisions on his back
roaming wherever he pleased Gov
ering all his dirtiness with a leathe
hunting shirt" as the fnicky JEFF
ferson relates. Even when he wen
to court he walked carrying his gu
and hunting the way, and often h
confronted judge and jury in dirt
buckskin clothes. Later when h
became a continental figure he say
fit to dress the part. covered hi
bald head with a wig, wore a blac.
suit a white necktie and a cloak @
red velvet. (Picture him if yo
CAM But he was always ready I
throw off these trappings. pick up
rifle and take to the woods wher
he felt more comfortable.
1t is related by many who kne,
Henry hat in court his n wa
, always beautifully grave and for
NAL, but hat a faint ironical smil
, always played about his lips.
/ That sarcastic smile with whic